The Hero's Blood (4)

I wondered if a message like this would have popped up if this world were a game.

Thanks to my lady’s tear-jerking act of self-sacrifice, I now stood staring at the hidden piece known as the Hero's Blood, lost in thought.

The First Hero, as I mentioned before, was a character only ever referenced in the setting of Saint and Hero. A legendary figure who appeared like a comet alongside the Saint during humanity’s darkest hour a thousand years ago, when the Demon King’s invasion had left the world in ruins. He pushed back the demon armies, ultimately slew the Demon King, and saved the world.

He was also the founder of the Libertan Empire, where Stella Academy now stood. After the war, he supposedly married the Saint and established the empire.

Then, one day, both he and the Saint suddenly vanished without a trace. Before disappearing, he had gathered all the treasures he’d collected over the years and taken them with him. As a result, the only officially recognized treasure remaining in the world today is the Holy Sword.

However, there was one more treasure that existed unofficially. And that was precisely this Hero's Blood.

According to the lore, it was an item with a rather ridiculous backstory: a dragon, beaten by the hero and consumed by grief, had collected the blood the hero shed, stored it in a bottle, and kept it as a reminder so it would never forget its resentment.

The warehouse that served as the dungeon entrance would collapse in an accident once the tutorial period ended, making this a hidden item that could only be obtained during the very early tutorial phase.

The item’s effect was simple.

Upon consumption, the character’s maximum HP would decrease while recovery power increased.

I was particularly focused on that recovery power increase. It meant the character’s natural HP regeneration speed would rise dramatically, and the amount of HP restored by potions or healing spells would increase significantly.

That was how it worked in the game, but now that the game had become reality, I hoped it might help me recover more quickly from the damage inflicted by the Trial of the World.

The only problem was…

“This looks like it’s going to taste awful.”

Yes. The Hero's Blood looked disgusting at first glance, so I was hesitating to drink it.

You’re wondering if I’m not worried about the maximum HP decrease?

Come on, think about it.

This was blood the hero shed a thousand years ago, bottled up and preserved.

Is this even hygienic?

Still, I had confidence in one thing.

If this stuff really is toxic, there’s a high chance it won’t affect me.

The reason for that confidence was the Trial of the World itself.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠never thought the Trial of the World would have any upside. They say nothing is purely bad, but still.

That’s right. The debuff known as the Trial of the World had blinded me and continued to torment me with excruciating pain. Through my time with my lady and my research into this condition, I had discovered that the Trial of the World wasn’t purely a disadvantage.

If I were to explain its effect in game terms, it placed a permanent debuff on the body and sealed all mana. The crucial point was that this debuff took priority over any other debuff effects.

Thanks to that, I had reached a state of complete immunity to all poisons and debuffs except for the Trial of the World itself.

…Well, it wasn’t something I learned on purpose. I just happened to discover it because I ended up ingesting poison quite often while traveling with my lady.

Her siblings sent poison almost once a week, after all.

It was actually nice that they provided free poison ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to build up her resistance. No wonder I never got sick no matter how much spoiled food I ate while living as a beggar. I had simply assumed human digestive systems were more impressive than I thought.

And the mana seal wasn’t purely a downside either.

The mana seal literally fixed my normal mana at zero. At first glance, having no mana would seem like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing but disadvantages, but…

That’s not entirely true.

The important thing was that it set mana to exactly zero.

In the world of Saint and Hero, every living being possessed mana. Even the most talentless dullard would still hold a faint amount of mana. In such a world, having perfectly zero mana was an abnormal phenomenon.

The advantage of maintaining that state was complete immunity to magical influences.

From a magical perspective, I was treated as an inanimate object, which meant I could freely pass through barriers and various security spells. It was easiest to think of it as being in a ghost-like state.

It was also thanks to this that I had been able to bypass the mana authentication on my lady’s room. Of course, if the door was physically locked, I couldn’t enter, but I had already made a copy of her room key, so nothing could actually stop me.

Anyway.

Considering all these factors, the maximum HP decrease debuff attached to the Hero's Blood would most likely be completely ineffective on me.

“If only I could ignore this gross feeling…”

Ugh, seriously. The thought of drinking someone else’s blood was incredibly repulsive. How on earth did vampires manage to drink this stuff? If it had at least clotted into blood pudding, I might have been able to force it down, but even after a thousand years, the Hero's Blood was still sloshing around like it was fresh.

Whatever. Screw it.

“I am Gladia! There is nothing I haven’t eaten while living as a beggar!”

Down the hatch!

Gulp.

I felt the metallic liquid slide down my throat. At the same time, the overwhelming taste of iron filled my mouth.

Disgusting…!

They say good medicine tastes bitter, but this was on another level. I definitely didn’t want to experience this flavor again.

Just as that thought crossed my mind—

A neutral voice I had never heard before rang in my ears.

No, wait.

Is this even coming through my hearing?

It felt less like sound entering my ears and more like it was resonating directly inside my skull. But my confusion didn’t last long.

Thump!

“Guh!”

Blood burst from my mouth. At the same time, an excruciating pain tore through my entire body. It felt as if hammers were smashing my insides apart. My knees buckled on their own, and my body slipped out of my control, beginning to tremble violently.

“Urgh! Kgh!”

I knew it was spoiled!

I never should have eaten something past its expiration date… Damn it, wasn’t poison supposed to have no effect on me?!

The fact that my trusted poison immunity had been breached was shocking enough, but there was more.

Like two powers locked in a struggle for dominance, the Sword Saint trait and the Trial of the World kept activating and deactivating in rapid succession. My vision flickered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠between light and darkness like a light switch being flipped on and off, making me even more disoriented.

What the hell is wrong with these two?!

I had no idea what was happening. The only thing I could sense was that the Hero's Blood was changing something inside my body…!

After what felt like an eternity of agony, the pain finally began to subside. Only then was I able to force myself back to my feet. The flickering vision that had been glitching like a broken screen had returned to complete darkness.

But—

“This is incredible…?”

My body felt impossibly light. The constant pain that had followed me like a shadow from the Trial of the World had vanished without a trace. And that wasn’t all.

I lightly jumped in place.

Whoosh!

My body shot upward in an instant, soaring well over two meters—higher than my own height—before falling back down. It wasn’t quite as impressive as when I activated Sword Saint, but to achieve this level of physical ability without any mana enhancement was on a completely different level from before.

At this rate, I might be able to fight even without activating Sword Saint.

It wasn’t just my physical abilities that had improved. I focused my senses.

Everything around me feels so vividly clear.

The precision was on an entirely different scale from my previous Mind's Eye. I could even make out the contours of my lady’s face as she lay on the floor staring up at me in utter shock… Wait, what?

“My lady…?”

When exactly had she woken up?

And why does she look like that?

Her lips were trembling as if she had witnessed something impossible, and her eyes were wide with shock. I didn’t know when she had woken up, but her expression was far from normal. Her gaze was fixed on my body and refused to move away. The emotion I sensed in that stare was… fear?

“D-Dia… are you okay…?”

“…Pardon?”

Her body was still trembling from incomplete recovery, and she crawled toward me almost like she was dragging herself across the floor. Seeing her like that, I quickly moved to her side and supported her.

“My lady, what are you doing? You’ll get your clothes dirty!”

“Who cares about my clothes right now?!”

“Then what exactly is important right now?”

“You! Do you even realize what condition you’re in?! You coughed up that much blood!”

“Ah.”

Only then did I realize how I must look. I had been vomiting blood earlier, so my maid uniform was probably soaked in it. On top of that, I had been rolling around on the floor, so I certainly didn’t look normal.

My lady frantically ran her hands over my body.

“A-are you really okay? Dia, you’re not dying, right? Say something! If I lose you, I…”

How am I supposed to explain this?

My lady’s yandere side just went into full meltdown!