Chapter 17
Health (2)
This was her final hope—her last desperate struggle.
That was Selena’s resolve when she arrived at her private laboratory.
Her laboratory was equipped with everything one might find in a Magic Tower’s research facility.
It was evidence of just how desperately she had struggled to find some way to heal her body.
Her health had deteriorated so severely that she could barely enter the laboratory anymore, but today was different.
“Mary. You only need to do exactly what I tell you. Understood?”
“Yes! I’ll do my best!”
“It isn’t anything diffi—cough! Cough! Cough!”
When a violent cough suddenly burst from her throat, Selena hurriedly covered her mouth with a handkerchief.
Mary flinched and rushed toward her, but Selena raised a hand to stop her.
“Haa…”
Once the fit had passed, Selena slowly lowered the handkerchief from her lips.
A pool of black, dead blood had gathered in it.
Usually, the handkerchief merely became damp.
But for enough blood to collect into a puddle meant—
If not today, then tomorrow.
She did not have much time left.
Selena clenched the handkerchief tightly.
The blood pooled inside slowly spread through the cloth.
Then she looked at the worried Mary and nodded.
With her body in this condition, Mary would have to serve as her hands and feet.
“We don’t have time, so let’s begin immediately. First, bring me that extractor over there.”
“Yes!”
“Next, connect the extractor to the charger, and…”
Selena continued giving Mary one instruction after another.
Mary fumbled at first, perhaps because of the urgency, but she made no mistakes.
Though not quite on Selena’s level, Mary was rather intelligent herself.
Considering that she had been born a commoner, her ability was quite remarkable.
Perhaps I should consider sending Mary to the Academy.
Before long, Mary had finished preparing everything exactly as Selena instructed.
All that remained was to extract the essence from the mature mandrakes.
After the extraction, they would need to dilute and refine it with various medicinal herbs so that the human body could withstand it.
“Next, you need to—cough! Cough! Kgh!”
Just as they were approaching the final stage, Selena erupted into another coughing fit.
She did not even have time to raise the handkerchief to her mouth before black blood poured from her lips.
“Y-Your Ladyship!”
“Kgh… H-Hurry…”
“B-But…!”
“Hurry… Do it…! Cough!”
“Y-Yes!”
She was struggling to breathe from the coughing and the blood filling her throat.
Selena forced herself to endure it and continued giving instructions.
She had come too far to give up now.
She desperately clung to her vision as darkness began creeping into its edges.
“Y-Your Ladyship! Th-There’s a problem!”
“What… cough! What problem?”
“Th-That thing…!”
As if matters were not bad enough, something had gone wrong with the mandrake.
Selena struggled to steady her ragged breathing and looked toward it.
Just as Mary had said, the mandrake that had been unconscious moments earlier was beginning to twitch.
It was waking up.
That was extremely troublesome.
I was in too much of a hurry to bring the flowerpot…!
A mandrake had to remain unconscious during extraction to prevent an accident.
If the extraction began while it was conscious, its scream could even destroy the extractor.
Normally, one would use magic to silence it or plant it in a flowerpot to keep it calm.
But Selena’s body had deteriorated so badly that she could no longer use magic.
And in her haste, she had forgotten to bring a flowerpot.
It was truly a moment of crisis.
Fortunately, only one of the mandrakes was waking up.
As Selena wondered what to do, a brilliant idea suddenly came to her.
He said it would quiet down if you hit it, didn’t he?
It was the method Grylls had taught her.
He had said that after punching the mandrake, it had quickly gone silent.
It was rather barbaric and had not been scientifically proven, but this was an emergency.
“Mary! Cough! Beat it until it stops moving!”
“What? You want me to hit it?”
“Yes! Hit it! If punching it is too difficult, grab the stem and smash it against the floor! Cough! Cough!”
Her breathing had somewhat steadied, but blood sprayed from her lips whenever she spoke.
Mary stared back and forth between Selena and the mature mandrake in bewilderment.
She looked unsure of what she should do, but ultimately decided to obey Selena’s command.
Grab!
“Hm?”
The moment Mary seized the mature mandrake by its stem, it quietly opened its eyes.
The creature had fine hairs growing around its chin like a beard.
Thud! Smack! Slam!
“Kuegh?! Kuek! Kueeegh!”
It had no choice but to close its eyes again.
Mary had grabbed it by the stem and repeatedly smashed it against the floor.
It screamed during the process, but not loudly enough to cause confusion or disorientation.
“I-It worked!”
“Then let’s begin the extraction… cough! Start extracting it.”
“Yes!”
Following Selena’s instructions, Mary began extracting the mandrake essence.
As the process started, the mature mandrakes inserted into the extractor gradually shriveled.
Drip. Drip.
Golden liquid fell one drop at a time into the glass bottle connected to the machine.
As Selena watched the liquid, hope began to rise within her.
Just looking at the brilliantly glowing essence already made her feel healthier.
“Cough! Cough!”
“Your Ladyship, here’s a handkerchief…”
“No. I’m fine now.”
Of course, that feeling was merely wishful thinking.
After coughing, Selena looked down at her clothes.
They were now drenched in dark-red blood.
Every time she coughed, what seemed like an entire bowlful of blood poured from her mouth.
Drip—drip—
As time passed, nearly all the essence had been extracted from the mature mandrakes.
Their bodies had shrunk until they were barely the size of a baby’s palm.
Even their formerly crimson color had turned pure white.
Every last trace of essence had been extracted from them, leaving them completely devoid of vitality.
“I think it’s almost finished. What should I do next?”
“All that remains is… cough! Cough! Hup…!”
Selena’s eyes widened.
She could endure the coughing itself.
The problem was the suffocation that came afterward.
She tried desperately to control her breathing, but nothing worked.
Her vision began to black out, and pain washed over her as though even her brain had stopped functioning.
No. I can’t…!
Even Mary’s frantic cries sounded like distant echoes as Selena’s consciousness began to fade.
Barely holding on, Selena reached out.
Her hand stretched toward the essence they had only just finished extracting.
She gestured for Mary to give it to her immediately.
Drinking the essence without refining it was practically suicide.
But with her life hanging by a thread, Selena was in no position to be selective.
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
Realizing what Selena wanted, Mary poured the essence directly into her mouth.
Selena felt the blazing energy of the essence flow down her throat.
Could something so hot truly heal her?
It was hope flaring back to life like a dying ember.
She could not give up.
I-I need to circulate my mana…
Even as her consciousness faded, she forcibly attempted to circulate her mana.
However, there was no way her mana circuits, which had long since become completely blocked, would respond.
It was bitter and unfair, but Selena refused to give up.
The final thread of her survival instinct continued to drive her onward.
Then, just before her consciousness was severed completely, she heard—
Thump!
The vivid beating of her heart.
***
“Your Ladyship! Lady Selena! Wake up! Your Ladyship!”
Mary shook Selena’s shoulders as she lay collapsed on the floor, trying to determine whether she was conscious.
Selena had originally been sitting in her wheelchair, but she had lost consciousness and fallen.
Had Mary not been there, Selena might have struck her head and suffered a serious injury.
But Selena showed no sign of waking, leaving Mary with no choice but to panic.
I-I need to call someone first!
Standing around in panic would accomplish nothing.
As a precaution, Mary turned Selena’s head to the side.
If she vomited blood again, it might flow backward into her airway.
Mary then rose to her feet and was about to run out of the laboratory when—
Crack!
A strange noise pierced her ears.
Mary froze.
The sound had not come from the laboratory equipment.
It had come from Selena.
Mary turned toward her with an anxious expression.
Crack! Crack!
“Wh-What…?”
Mary was utterly bewildered.
A bizarre phenomenon was unfolding before her eyes.
Selena’s skin was as white as snow.
However, it was an unhealthy whiteness.
Her mana circuits had become so thoroughly blocked that even her blood could no longer circulate properly.
But now, that skin was slowly peeling away, and new skin was growing beneath it.
It was no longer deathly pale.
Instead, it was fair and luminous, as though it had simply never been exposed to sunlight.
Most remarkable of all were the blood vessels slowly becoming visible beneath her skin.
It was proof that Selena’s previously blocked mana circuits had begun circulating again.
Crack! Pop!
And it was not only her skin.
Selena’s bones and muscles were also visibly changing.
Her body had been afflicted by the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, leaving her incapable of even ordinary exercise.
But now, the energy inside her—in other words, her mana—had begun to harmonize, changing everything.
The immense mana was reconstructing a vessel capable of containing its power.
In the language of the Central Plains, this phenomenon was known as Reforging the Bones and Cleansing the Marrow.
Normally, such a transformation could occur only when vast mana was accompanied by profound enlightenment.
However, Selena’s body had suffered from the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
The mana itself had always been abundant. It had merely failed to achieve harmony, while her talent supplied the enlightenment she needed.
Crack! Pop!
Every trace of her sickly appearance vanished, and the curves of a mature woman became pronounced.
Her snow-white hair repeatedly fell out and regrew, but before long, it stabilized at its original length.
The pure white strands shone like moonlight, enhancing her beauty even further.
The final change was her face.
She had already been beautiful, but after undergoing Reforging the Bones and Cleansing the Marrow, her beauty blossomed to an entirely different level.
Although many aspects of her body had changed, Selena’s condition could be summed up in a single word.
She had obtained a far more “healthy” body than before.
“Mm…”
As the brief yet seemingly endless transformation came to an end, Selena regained consciousness.
When Mary heard Selena groan, she snapped out of her daze and urgently asked,
“Your Ladyship! Your Ladyship! Are you awake?!”
“…Mary?”
“Yes! It’s me, Mary!”
“What in the world happened… Huh?”
Selena unconsciously sat up, only for her eyes to widen.
Since she had been lying down, the first thing she could inspect was her own body.
And the first thing that caught her attention was her chest.
It was naturally the first part she saw when she lowered her head, making it impossible to overlook.
Were my breasts always this large?
Selena tilted her head while touching her chest.
Her body had once been pitifully frail.
She had believed it possessed none of the charms of a woman.
But now, soft mounds of flesh filled her vision and rested beneath her hands.
In terms of size alone, they were large enough to inspire envy in others.
It isn’t only my chest. My arms, too…
As though entranced, Selena examined her arms.
They were no longer skeletal but properly filled out like those of an ordinary person.
Even her skin was no longer deathly pale. It was white with a distinctly healthy glow.
The faint outline of blood vessels could be seen beneath it, giving her complexion genuine color.
“…”
“Your Ladyship? Could you say something…?”
Spring!
Mary had just spoken carefully when Selena suddenly leapt to her feet.
Mary was startled at first, but then stared in shock when she realized Selena had stood up on her own.
“Your Ladyship! You shouldn’t overexert your—!”
Tap-tap!
Mary could not finish her sentence.
Selena, standing firmly on both legs, had suddenly begun to run.
She did not walk.
She ran.
She had skipped learning to walk and started with sprinting instead.
And she was barefoot.
Mary felt as though her heart had dropped into her stomach.
“Your Ladyship! Where are you going?! Your Ladyship!”
Selena paid no attention to Mary’s frantic cries behind her.
She simply ran.
She ran and ran and kept running.
From time to time, she heard startled exclamations from the mansion’s servants.
Selena ignored them.
She merely continued running.
I can run. I can actually run!
She did not stop.
Even when she occasionally stumbled, she continued onward.
When had she last run like this?
She could not even remember.
No.
Perhaps she could not remember because she had never run before.
Even walking had once been difficult for her, yet now she could run without strain.
Feeling as though she had gained the entire world, Selena dashed out of the mansion.
Her expression, stiffened from years of illness, remained rigid, but the corners of her lips had visibly risen.
“S-Selena?! Y-You…!”
“Dear! Where are you going?!”
Selena’s parents, who had just returned, recoiled in shock upon seeing her.
It was an understandable reaction.
Their daughter, who had been unable to leave her bed, was now running around like a wild horse.
To make matters worse, her clothes were covered in dried blood.
To put it bluntly, she looked like a madwoman.
“Haa!”
Ignoring them, Selena stopped in the mansion courtyard and steadied her breathing.
Despite running so much, she did not feel tired at all.
The only thing she could clearly hear was the beating of her heart.
I’m not coughing, either.
Even the cough that had plagued her for her entire life had completely disappeared.
She could not feel anything wrong with her body.
The absence of pain felt so unfamiliar that it was almost uncomfortable.
My mana is circulating perfectly as well.
More than perfectly.
It was moving incredibly quickly.
In the past, it had always felt as though everything inside her was completely blocked.
Now, the mana that had achieved harmony flowed through every corner of her body.
Nothing hurts.
A miracle had occurred.
What else could she possibly call it?
Selena closed her eyes and raised her face toward the clear sky.
Thank you, Mr. Grylls.
He was the person who had given her both a miracle and a new life.
A benefactor who had willingly helped her despite never having met her face-to-face.
What kind of person was he?
She found herself growing increasingly curious about him.
Her facial muscles relaxed naturally, and a happy smile appeared on her face.
“Selena!”
“Dear! Are you all right?!”
“Your Ladyship!”
Just as Selena was savoring the new life she had obtained, her parents and Mary called out urgently from behind her.
Hearing their voices, Selena opened her eyes and turned around.
The family she loved more than anyone was staring at her with worry.
“Yes. I’m perfectly fine now—bleargh!”
Splash!
Selena abruptly lowered her head in the middle of speaking.
Something poured from her mouth.
It was black, dead blood.
And it was not merely one bowlful.
She vomited enough to fill at least two bowls.
“Urgh! Kuegh!”
Thud! Plop!
Blood was not the only thing she expelled.
Black, congealed lumps also fell from her mouth.
They were impurities that had not yet been discharged during Reforging the Bones and Cleansing the Marrow.
Her previous physical condition had been so terrible that the accumulated waste had clumped together into solid masses.
“Ah…”
“D-Darling! Pull yourself together!”
To her family, who knew nothing of what had happened, the sight was beyond horrifying.
Selena’s mother fainted, and her father barely managed to catch and support her.
Even Mary, the last one still standing, turned deathly pale at the grotesque sight.
“Cough. Cough. Ugh.”
Selena’s brow twitched.
The stench from the rotten blood and impurities pouring out of her mouth was unbearable.
She wanted to grimace, but her facial muscles still did not move very well.
I need a bath.
Now, she could bathe without Mary’s assistance.
The thought alone filled Selena with anticipation.
But first, she needed to clear up her family’s misunderstanding.
Selena approached her confused family and spoke quietly.
With the blood still smeared around her mouth and her usual expressionless face, she looked rather terrifying.
“Mother. Don’t worry. I’m healthy now—bleargh!”
Selena vomited black blood with a perfectly blank expression.
At the bizarre sight, her family recoiled in horror once again.
“Ahhh…”
“P-Pull yourself together! You cannot leave me as well!”
She still had a long way to go.
***
Meanwhile, in the gallery—
Title: Grylls, thanks.
Passing Dwarf
(Photo of mature mandrakes being steeped in alcohol)
Looks like I’ll finally get to drink some infused liquor again.
└ Wild Grylls: You insane dwarf bastard! You turned something that expensive into alcohol?
└ Passing Dwarf: Is there a problem?
└ Wild Grylls: I told you that thing was insanely expensive! And you used it to make liquor?
└ Passing Dwarf: It’s mine. You mad?
└ Wild Grylls: From now on, sharpen your knives with gold, you damn bastard.
└ He told him to sharpen his knives with gold, lololol.
└ Can’t blame him for getting pissed, hahahahaha.
└ Come on, you can’t resist infused liquor, lololol.
The gallery was peaceful once again.