Health (2)
This was her final glimmer of hope, her last desperate struggle.
Such was the resolve Selena held in her heart upon arriving at her private laboratory. Equipped with everything one could ever ask for, her personal haven was in no way inferior to the grand laboratories of the Magic Tower. In truth, every specialized tool and alchemical retort stood as a physical testament to how desperately she had clawed and fought to heal her own failing body. Though her precipitously declining health had made it nearly impossible to step foot inside in recent months, today was different.
“Mary. All you have to do is exactly what I tell you. Understand?”
“Yes, My Lady! I’ll do my very best!”
“It’s nothing complicated... Cough! Cough! Hack!”
Before Selena could finish her sentence, a violent spasm tore through her chest, and she hurriedly clamped a handkerchief over her mouth. Startled out of her wits, Mary lunged forward to support her, but Selena raised a trembling hand to hold her back.
“*Phoo...*”
Only after the excruciating fit subsided did Selena pull the cloth from her lips. Gazing down, she saw a puddle of necrotic, pitch-black blood pooled in the center of the linen. Until recently, her coughing fits had merely speckled or dampened the cloth. For blood to pool like this...
It was either today or tomorrow at best, then.
There was scarcely any time left in this life. Selena squeezed the handkerchief tight, her knuckles whitening as the dark fluid soaked through the weave and stained her pale skin. She glanced at Mary, whose doe-like eyes brimmed with unshed tears, and gave a determined nod. In her current withered state, Mary would have to act as her surrogate limbs.
“We don’t have much time, so let’s begin immediately. First, bring over that extractor.”
“Yes, My Lady!”
“Next, connect the extractor to the mana charger, and...”
Selena issued a rapid succession of precise commands. Though Mary flustered in her panic at first, she did not commit a single error. While she might not possess Selena’s peerless genius, the young maid was remarkably sharp in her own right. For a girl of commoner birth to operate complex magitech with such dexterity was nothing short of extraordinary.
Once this is over, I should seriously consider sponsoring Mary’s enrollment into the Academy, Selena mused quietly.
Before long, Mary completed the preparations down to the finest detail. All that remained was to extract the pure essence from the Adult Mandrake Roots, then temper that concentrated life force with various balancing herbs so that a fragile human vessel could endure it.
“Next, we must... Hack! Cough! Gahk!”
“M-My Lady!”
Just as they reached the critical final phase, Selena retched violently. There wasn't even time to bring a handkerchief to her mouth before a thick torrent of dark gore erupted from her lips, splattering across the pristine workstation.
“*Khh... ghk...* Q-Quickly... the... the extraction...!”
“B-But My Lady...!”
“Do it... right now...! Cough!”
“Y-Yes! Right away!”
Asphyxiation clawed at her throat from the hemorrhaging and relentless coughing. Selena grit her teeth and endured the agonizing torment to force her instructions through. Having clawed her way to the precipice of salvation, she refused to surrender. As encroaching darkness began eating away at the fringes of her vision, she tenaciously anchored her slipping consciousness.
“M-My Lady! Th-There’s a problem!”
“What... cough... what is it?”
“Th-That thing...!”
To make matters worse, something had gone awry with the mandrakes. Fighting to steady her ragged, shallow breaths, Selena shifted her gaze toward the apparatus. Just as Mary warned, the crimson root that had been knocked out cold was squirming and wriggling in its restraints. It had regained consciousness—a massive headache in the making.
I was in such a rush that I forgot to prepare a potting container...!
Mandrakes had to be thoroughly knocked unconscious during extraction to prevent catastrophic accidents. If their life essence was drained while awake, their ear-piercing death shrieks would shatter the delicate glass tubes and tear the extractor to scrap metal. Mages typically cast specialized silencing wards or buried them deep in enchanted soil to keep them quiet. Yet Selena’s body was far too ruined to circulate a single scrap of spellcraft, and in her frantic haste, she hadn't secured a pot.
It was a moment of sheer peril. The only saving grace was that only one of the roots had stirred. As Selena racked her failing mind for an alchemical solution, a wildly unorthodox idea flashed across her thoughts.
Didn't he say beating them keeps them quiet?
It was the absurd advice Grylls had casually mentioned in the Gallery—that pummeling the mandrake with his bare fists had shut it up instantly. It sounded completely barbaric and devoid of any scientific logic, but this was a dire emergency.
“Mary! Cough! Beat it half to death!”
“What? Beat it?!”
“Yes! Hit it! If you can’t punch it, grab its stem and slam it against the floor! Cough! Cough!”
Though her asphyxiation loosened slightly, dark flecks of blood sprayed from her mouth with every word. Mary threw bewildered, darting glances between her mistress and the writhing root. Utter incomprehension was written across the maid's face, but she chose unquestioning obedience.
Mary lunged forward and gripped the mandrake's leafy foliage with all her might.
“Mnh?”
The moment Mary seized the Adult Mandrake Root, the sentient tuber—sporting a comical, beard-like fringe beneath its chin—slowly opened its squinting eyes.
THWACK! WHAM! CRUNCH!
“*Gwaaark?! Kwek! Kweeeehk!*”
And it was instantly forced to shut them right back up. Holding it tightly by the stem, Mary thrashed it against the stone floor like a wet rag. While a muffled, pathetic squawk managed to escape its maw, it was far too smothered to unleash a fatal sonic disruption.
“I-I did it! It’s down!”
“Then... cough... begin the extraction immediately.”
“Yes!”
Mary followed Selena’s guidance and initiated the extraction procedure. As the magical contraption hummed to life, the Adult Mandrake Roots secured inside the chamber began to wither and deflate.
Drip. Drip.
Drop by precious drop, a glowing golden liquid trickled down into the glass beaker fastened to the lower valve. Beholding that brilliant radiance, a spark of anticipation flared within Selena's chest. Just watching that resplendent, divine essence pool drop by drop made her feel healthier already.
“Cough! Cough!”
“My Lady, here is a clean handkerchief...”
“No. It’s fine now.”
Of course, feelings were merely an illusion of hope. Selena dragged her sleeve across her lips and stared down at herself. Her dress was thoroughly saturated in crimson and congealed black gore. With every spasm, blood gushed from her throat as though tipped from a basin.
Drip... drip.
As the minutes crawled by, the extraction drew to its conclusion. The once-plump, vibrant roots had shriveled down to the size of an infant’s palm, their fiery crimson skin bleached into a lifeless, ashen husk. Every single ounce of miraculous vitality had been drained from their forms, leaving them completely dead.
“I think it’s finished! What should we do next?”
“All that remains is... cough! Hack! Heuu-gh...!”
Selena’s eyes blew wide. She had weathered the coughing fits, but the suffocating spasm that struck in their wake was unlike anything she had ever endured. She tried desperately to draw air into her lungs, but her windpipe slammed shut as if clamped by iron vices. Darkness encroached upon her vision, accompanied by a crushing agony that felt as though her brain had ceased all function.
Ah. No...! Not now...!
Mary’s frantic screams warped into muffled underwater echoes as Selena's consciousness began to unravel. Clinging to the world by a fraying thread of willpower, Selena stretched a trembling hand forward toward the freshly extracted golden fluid, frantically gesturing for it.
Gulping down unrefined mandrake essence without tempering herbs was tantamount to suicide. Yet with her life hanging in the balance, Selena was in no position to pick her poison.
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
Understanding the desperate gesture, Mary seized the vial and tipped the undiluted elixir straight down Selena's throat. A searing, molten deluge tore through her gullet and surged into her core. Could this burning fire truly heal her shattered body? It was a reckless gamble, an ember of hope rekindled in the dark. She could not give up now.
I have to... circulate my mana...!
Even as the abyss threatened to swallow her whole, Selena desperately attempted Mana Awakening & Circulation. Yet there was no way her meridians, severed and hopelessly petrified by the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, would simply answer her call. Frustration and bitter indignation surged, but she refused to yield. The primordial instinct of survival drove her soul to push past the limits of mortal endurance.
And then, just before the black veil claimed her, she felt it.
Thump!
A powerful, resonant heartbeat echoing in her chest.
“My Lady! Lady Selena! Please open your eyes! My Lady!”
Mary frantically shook Selena’s limp shoulders where she lay collapsed upon the floor, desperately searching for a pulse. Selena had been seated in her wheelchair, but had lost consciousness and tumbled out. Had Mary not rushed forward to break her fall, she might have struck her head against the stone flagging and suffered a fatal wound. Seeing no sign of life from her mistress, terror completely consumed the young maid.
F-First, I have to call for help!
Pacing in panic and tears would accomplish nothing. As a safety precaution, Mary carefully turned Selena’s head to the side; if another wave of blood surged from her stomach, it could enter her windpipe and suffocate her on the spot. But just as Mary pushed herself up to sprint out the laboratory door—
CRACK!
A sharp, brittle splintering sound echoed in Mary’s ears, freezing her where she stood. It hadn't come from any glass vial or arcane tool on the tables. It had originated directly from Selena. Mary whipped her head around, her eyes wide with dread.
Crack! Creak!
“Wh... what?”
Mary stood rooted in bewildered astonishment. An uncanny, miraculous spectacle was taking place before her very eyes.
Selena’s skin had always been as white as snow—but in a ghastly, sickening way. Her mana pathways were so completely choked that her blood could barely circulate, leaving her with the pallor of a frozen corpse. But now, that diseased outer layer of skin was peeling away like parchment, revealing new flesh blossoming underneath. It wasn't an unnatural, sickly white, but a soft, porcelain glow that had simply never been exposed to the sun. Most astounding of all was the faint, rosy blush of blood vessels faintly visible beneath the surface—unmistakable proof that the icy blockages in her body had dissolved, allowing mana and blood to circulate unimpeded.
Snap! Pop!
The transformation didn't stop with her skin. Her underlying skeletal structure and sinews underwent a violent, audible metamorphosis. Due to the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, Selena had possessed a frail body incapable of even mild physical exertion. But now that her internal energies had achieved harmonious balance, the paradigm shifted completely. Her immense mana was reconstructing a physical vessel grand enough to contain it.
In the martial continent of the Central Plains, this divine phenomenon was known as Physical Rebirth.
Under ordinary circumstances, such an ascension demanded not only vast oceans of internal energy but also profound spiritual enlightenment. Yet Selena had suffered under the crucible of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians for eighteen years. She had never lacked raw power; her energy had merely run rampant without balance, while her peerless intellectual genius effortlessly surpassed any barrier of enlightenment.
Crackle! Pop!
The emaciated, sickly silhouette vanished without a trace, replaced by the full, breathtaking curves of a mature woman. Her moonlit silver hair shed in clumps before instantly growing out again, stabilizing at its original length with a luster so dazzling it seemed woven from starlight. And finally, her face—already naturally lovely, her features had been sculpted by the Physical Rebirth into an ethereal, bewitching perfection.
Though countless profound changes had altered her from the marrow out, Selena’s new condition could be summarized in a single word: she had attained an overwhelmingly healthy body.
“Mmm...”
As the agonizing yet wondrous Physical Rebirth subsided, Selena fluttered her eyelashes open. Hearing the faint groan, Mary snapped out of her stupor and fell to her knees.
“My Lady! My Lady! Are you awake?!”
“...Mary?”
“Yes! It’s me, Mary!”
“What in the world just happened... Huh?”
Selena began to push herself up on instinct, only for her eyes to go round as saucers. Lying on the floor, her own body was naturally the first thing in her line of sight—and what caught her attention immediately was her chest. Looking down, it was impossible to miss.
Was my chest always this big?
Selena cupped her bosom with both hands, tilting her head in confusion. Her body had always been pitifully frail, possessing what she had long believed was zero feminine appeal. Yet now, bountiful mounds of soft flesh filled her palms and vision. In terms of sheer volume, it was enough to make any highborn lady weep with envy.
It’s not just my chest. My arms...
As if hypnotized, Selena inspected her limbs. They were no longer the brittle, skeletal twigs of an invalid, but firm, shapely arms cushioned with healthy muscle and tone. Even the tone of her skin was entirely different—a vibrant, glowing alabaster infused with the subtle warmth of living blood.
“...”
“My Lady? Can you hear me...?”
Leap!
Just as Mary spoke with cautious tenderness, Selena sprang straight to her feet. She didn't merely stand up—she vaulted upright in a single, fluid motion. Mary’s jaw dropped in disbelief at the sight of her bedridden mistress standing entirely on her own two legs.
“My Lady! You must not push yourself—!”
Patter! Patter!
Mary’s frantic warning was swallowed whole once more. Standing proudly on her own feet, Selena suddenly broke into an outright sprint. She didn't even bother with a cautious first step; skipping the walking phase entirely, she charged forward at full tilt. And she was barefoot. Mary felt her heart drop into her stomach.
“My Lady! Where are you going?! My Lady!”
Mary’s desperate cries receded into the distance, but Selena paid them no mind. She simply ran, ran, and ran. Startled gasps and dropped trays echoed as servants throughout the estate shrank back in utter disbelief, but Selena didn't care. She kept her momentum, flying through the halls.
I can run. I can actually run!
She refused to slow her pace, not even when she took an awkward turn. When was the last time she had sprinted like this? She had no memory of it. No—perhaps she couldn't remember because she had never run a single day in her life. Walking from her bed to her desk had once been an agonizing chore that left her bedridden for days, yet now she was tearing through the ducal corridors without breaking a sweat.
Feeling as though the entire world had been laid at her feet, Selena burst straight out the front doors and into the sunlit courtyard. Her habitually stern, expressionless face remained rigid from years of stoicism, but the corners of her lips were hitched up in an unmistakable, radiant grin.
“S-Selena?! Y-You...!”
“D-Daughter! Where are you going?!”
Returning from their duties, the Duke and Duchess Theodore froze in their tracks upon entering the courtyard, their eyes nearly popping from their sockets. And it was only natural—their terminally ill daughter, who had spent the last five months on death's door, was galloping through the estate like a wild stallion. Worse yet, her gown was completely drenched in dried, blackened blood. To any onlooker, she looked like a blood-soaked lunatic who had escaped an asylum.
“*Phew!*”
Oblivious to the commotion she had sparked, Selena came to a halt in the courtyard and regulated her breath. Even after that mad sprint, she felt not the slightest hint of exhaustion. Only the rhythmic, steady pounding of her heart resonated within her chest.
I’m not coughing either.
The chronic, suffocating cough that had shadowed her entire life was entirely gone. Her body felt pristine, devoid of a single ache or irregularity—so pristine, in fact, that it felt completely alien.
The mana circulation is so clean.
Not merely clean, but astonishingly swift. Where there had once been jagged walls of ice blocking her circuits, a harmonious river of mana now flowed effortlessly through every meridian in her flesh.
Nothing hurts. Not a single place.
A true miracle had occurred. What other word could possibly describe this? Selena closed her eyes and raised her face toward the warm sun.
Thank you, Mr. Grylls.
The man who had bestowed upon her a new life and an impossible miracle. A noble soul who, without ever having met her face-to-face, had generously extended a helping hand across worlds. What kind of person was he? A deep curiosity took root in her heart, and her stiff facial muscles relaxed into a genuine, blissful smile.
“Selena!”
“My child! Are you all right?!”
“My Lady!”
Just as Selena was drinking in the euphoria of rebirth, her parents and Mary rushed toward her, their voices thick with frantic panic. Selena opened her eyes and turned around. The family she loved more than her own life was looking back at her with looks of pure dread.
“Yes. I’m completely fine n—GWAHK!”
SPLURT!
Mid-sentence, Selena bent over at the waist. A massive geyser of pitch-black, dead blood erupted from her mouth, splashing over the manicured grass. It wasn't just a bowl's worth—she spewed at least two full basins of foul fluid in a single breath.
“Gag! Gwohk!”
Thud! Splat!
It wasn't merely blood either; dense, solid lumps of charcoal-colored matter dropped heavily to the ground. They were the accumulated toxins and diseased tissue that had been purged from her meridians during the Physical Rebirth. Her previous physical condition had been so profoundly rotted that the impurities had coalesced into solid masses.
“Ah, heavens...”
“D-Darling! Pull yourself together!”
“...”
To her completely uninformed family, the scene was horrific beyond description. Selena’s mother fainted on the spot, while her father barely managed to catch his wife before she collapsed. Even Mary turned green, fighting back her own stomach.
“Cough. Hack. Ugh.”
Selena’s brow twitched. The stench of decayed blood and purged toxins pouring from her throat was downright repulsive. She wanted to wrinkle her nose in disgust, but her unpracticed facial muscles still didn't obey smoothly.
I need to wash up immediately.
Now she could bathe entirely on her own, without needing Mary to lift her into the tub. A small swell of excitement rose in her chest. But first, clearing up this horrifying misunderstanding took priority. Selena stepped toward her catatonic family and spoke in a calm, gentle tone. Unfortunately, with gore smeared across her lips and her trademark stoic expression firmly in place, the sight was nothing short of a horror film.
“Mother. Please don't worry. I am completely health—BLUUUURGH!”
Maintaining a completely blank, impassive expression, Selena vomited another stream of black gore onto the lawn. Watching their daughter casually spew dead blood with a poker face drove her family straight into absolute hysterics once again.
“Aaaah...!”
“H-Hold on, dear! You can’t die on me too!”
There was still a very long way to go.
Meanwhile, around that very same time on the Gallery...
Looks like I can drink some damgeumju for the first time in a while.
Another peaceful day in the Gallery.