Chapter 93
Chapter 93
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: Treatment (3)
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1.
The promised three days had passed.
Yebin met privately with Amelia, her eyes hollow and weary.
She had agonized day and night, searching for some workaround, but in the end, she had concluded there was no other way.
Delaying Siwoo's surgery any longer would be difficult, and before proceeding with the procedure, she needed the approval of his guardian—and presumed lover—Amelia.
"...So, overall, his condition is looking very good."
Before broaching the crucial matter, Yebin rattled off Siwoo's recent test results in detail.
But Amelia's vacant gaze pierced right through her.
To be precise, her eyes were unfocused, staring off into space.
"Baroness...?"
"Ah, sorry. What did you say?"
"Oh, let me repeat it."
Yebin parroted her earlier words like a parrot, feeling a twinge of puzzlement.
Amelia had always listened intently to even the smallest details about Siwoo.
She never pestered Yebin with questions to avoid adding pressure, but the moment it seemed like Yebin might say something, Amelia would come hurrying over from afar.
It was almost adorably endearing, if such a word could be used for a baroness.
And yet, here she was, lost in thought during a progress report right before Siwoo's final surgery.
Had something bad happened?
Yebin unconsciously tilted her head.
But it wasn't something she could pry into, and more than that, the weight of what she had to say next chased away any stray thoughts.
"I see. You've worked so hard, Smyrna. I won't forget your efforts, and I'll make sure you're rewarded properly."
"Y-yes, ma'am! Saving lives is rewarding enough for me. But... about Siwoo’s final procedure going forward..."
Yebin glanced cautiously at Amelia.
Her clear sky-blue eyes urged her to go on.
"I'm listening properly this time."
"Ah, yes... well..."
Amelia wasn't pressuring her at all, but Yebin still felt her words drying up.
She squeezed her eyes shut and explained step by step.
"For a perfect recovery, it's not enough just to regenerate the brain. We need a separate treatment as well."
"Yes, you explained that before."
Yebin stammered on at Amelia's response, as if asking why she needed to repeat it.
"What we're trying to do... is essentially reversing entropy, right? Like restoring a burned piece of paper to its original state... Um, but to do that, we need a kind of ritual..."
"What kind of ritual?"
"I've never attempted repairs this detailed before, but based on my research, it..."
"Relax and just say it plainly."
How was she supposed to relax and say this plainly?
Amelia could respond so calmly only because she had no idea what was coming.
"We need a 'template' for the restoration."
"And?"
Just as piecing together a complex puzzle requires its frame, they needed information on Siwoo's original state.
"What I'm getting at is the method for gathering that template.
It breaks down into two options. The first is... awakening his consciousness in his current state and using a spell called 'Memory Regression'."
"It fuses with the subject's mental image to observe what kind of life they've lived, what memories they've accumulated, and then reconstructs everything based on that.
Of course, it means peeking into every memory without leaving any out, so there's a risk of invading privacy."
".........."
Reading all his memories without permission.
It felt unsettling.
"But this method has a problem."
"What is it?"
"It blurs the boundary between the caster's and subject's consciousness. In this process, the subject's mana circuits become a huge interference...
So, we have to remove all the mana circuits before attempting Memory Regression."
"That means..."
Siwoo would never be able to use magic again?
The first thought that flashed through Amelia's mind upon hearing it was utterly selfish and petty:
'He won't be able to use dimensional magic to escape on his own anymore, will he?'
"Ugh..."
Suddenly realizing her own ugliness, Amelia shook her head in stunned dismay.
She felt ashamed.
Of Siwoo.
Of herself.
"No."
Amelia rejected it firmly.
Even if his achievements weren't on some grand scale, this wasn't something to proceed with without his consent.
"What's the second method?"
As Amelia shook off her hesitation and asked, Yebin hesitated even more than before.
She glanced at Amelia's face, then cautiously spoke.
Truth be told, Yebin herself wasn't entirely sure if this method was truly right.
Morally speaking, putting everything else aside.
"Sexual intercourse."
"........?"
"The reason for intercourse is twofold. First, to stimulate sexual desire—one of the most instinctual physiological functions—and activate the dormant limbic system. If this process flows naturally, it should also greatly alleviate the emotional numbness expected as a side effect after recovery."
Yebin rattled off her explanation in a rush.
She was scared to look at Amelia's expression.
It couldn't be helped; this was about sleeping with her man, after all.
To avoid any misunderstanding of being some floozy stealing another woman's guy with flimsy excuses, Yebin preemptively declared her own chastity and innocence.
"But... I actually have no experience with that sort of thing..."
"...Neither do I."
"Ah... okay..."
".........."
They still hadn't had a physical relationship?
Yebin felt the situation grow even more complicated than expected, but amid the suffocating awkwardness, Amelia spoke first.
"I'll cooperate on that front."
Amelia was well-versed in how male-female physical relations worked and what resolve and mindset they required—from texts, at least.
Even after hearing about it from the twins, her situation with Siwoo remained ambiguous, but she had that much resolve.
"N-no... No, I didn't finish explaining...
I have to be the one doing the intercourse."
"Pardon...?"
"I... have to have sex with Siwoo for the healing. Because the mana fluctuations at the moment of erection and ejaculation contain fragments of various information.
In the connection where emotions, instincts, the stigma, and the male organ align at that instant, we trace and reconstruct the neural framework matching his original mental state..."
Yebin's explanations, which sounded like nothing but excuses, dragged on for a full ten minutes, but Amelia's brain had already tuned out half of it.
To save him, she had to let him be intimate with another woman?
By her common sense up to now, it wasn't something to fuss over.
She'd never seen him as a target for physical relations anyway, and she'd even questioned why spiritual and physical love needed to be linked.
Wasn't it just a physical act for reproduction?
Especially since it was to save his life—so why did it hit her like this?
"I'm sorry..."
Yebin bowed her head apologetically, feeling unnecessarily guilty.
"No helping... it, I suppose..."
Why did she feel this way? Was this really her emotion?
Questioning herself, Amelia asked one more thing.
"How long will it take?"
"At least three times... I think."
Feeling the floor soften beneath her feet, Amelia nodded.
"Proceed."
"Yes. Then... I have preparations to make, so I'll start after dinner."
"Alright."
Yebin hurried back to her room with strangely quick steps, leaving Amelia standing there blankly.
2.
"Haa... I said it..."
Her body went limp all at once.
After agonizing for three days over how to broach it, finally getting the words out brought relief—and profound exhaustion.
Was she angry?
Aside from that passionate first meeting, the Merrygold baroness rarely showed much expression, making it hard to read her reaction.
It wasn't fear of repercussions, though.
She already knew Amelia wasn't a bad person.
Contrary to her master's warnings about Gehenna's nasty nobles, Yebin had been treated like an honored guest here.
"But is this really right...?"
Yebin flopped onto her bed and twirled her hair.
No matter that it was for treatment, having sex with a man.
And one who clearly had a woman already!
"It's like a trashy drama..."
It reminded her of the weekend serials she'd devoured during exam prep.
All sorts of melodramas: half-siblings, kimchi slaps, the heroine with a terminal illness, surrogacy...
She'd watched with thrilled "oh my"s back then, but facing it herself was nothing but awkward.
Was that why they said comedy from afar, tragedy up close?
"Aghhh..."
This was strictly part of medical treatment, a life-saving act.
She'd told herself that over and over, but Yebin had spent more of her life as an ordinary human than as a witch.
Naturally, she harbored the sweet-bitter fantasies about a first experience that any maiden would have.
Someday, meeting a guy she liked, flirting, dating, confessing, and around day 300, a passionate night in a nice hotel.
She hadn't fleshed it out much, stuck in a remote place without a suitable partner, but something vaguely like that.
From what she'd heard, Shin Siwoo didn't seem like a bad guy, and he was pretty handsome, but they'd never even talked once, had they?
Doubts crept in: was this really necessary?
"Ugh, I'm trash."
Yebin steeled her resolve.
Her master, the previous Smyrna, had killed twelve citizens for research, it was said.
She always said:
Medicine's progress has always come with sacrifice.
The mega-pharma companies of today conduct legal experiments on dozens of times more subjects (inefficient as they are).
Then use the results to save tens or hundreds of times more lives.
And indeed, the previous Smyrna had roamed war-torn southern Africa, saving thousands.
Of course, she knew it was just rationalization—that her master's life-saving was part of research too.
No matter the good intentions, ignoring others' will and turning their dignity into a means was wrong.
The results of her master's radical experiments lingered in the stigma Yebin had inherited, and she carried that debt of conscience.
The vow to save and help many people.
So seeing herself now, whining about her first time and trying to back out—it was disappointing.
"Get it together."
She'd thought she'd sorted her thoughts over the past three days, but her mind cluttered again; Yebin cleared it out cleanly.
"Anyway, I need to prepare..."
Yebin glanced around restlessly, muttering to herself.
Living alone was pretty boring.
Masturbation sessions that could last hours were her main pastime.
As an XHub subscriber, she'd download videos via the nearby gas station's Wi-Fi for side dishes.
So she had no real fear or dread of sex itself.
Not gonna die, no pregnancy worries, feels good—what's the issue?
But she'd never tried insertion masturbation, so before going all-in with Siwoo, she needed prep work.
The unnecessary pain from the first breach might disrupt her focus...
Yebin looked at her two long, slender fingers.
"Will these do...?"
Yebin quietly opened the bathroom door and stepped inside.