Chapter 78
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Human Roly-Poly (Gore Warning)
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"Water of Life... Actually using it myself makes the effects hit so much harder."
No sooner had I finished speaking than Evelyn's gaze stabbed into me like a blade.
"Can you believe this guy...? Everyone else spends their whole lives groveling just for a single drop of Water of Life, and here you are washing your face with three drops and complaining you're full. Lucas Argent."
"Haha. Isn't this what they mean by giving someone an illness and then the cure?"
"...Want me to beat you a few more times?"
After escaping the Ashen Hand's hideout and bringing Evelyn back to my annex...
Truth be told, back then, I wasn't so much walking as I was "still alive and somehow moving."
With something huge coming up, there was no way I could proceed in this state.
So, trying to lighten the mood—or really, because I wasn't thinking at all—I opened my mouth.
"Hehe! Truth is, I'm a lolicon. Flat chests and petite figures really get me going!"
"M-Master...?"
"......"
"...Piel, Princess Aira. Step aside."
Thwack!
Thwack thwack thwack!
Crunch! Crunch!
Looking back now, all I did was prove once again, with my own body, just how stupid a human could be.
The result was simple.
I got beaten.
Worse than before.
Practically half-dead.
No, "half-dead" is too generous. Right on the verge of dough was more accurate.
Even so, after beating one person into this state, it seemed Evelyn felt a twinge of guilt.
Whether it was because I looked on the brink of death or just too pathetic, I don't know.
Either way, that's how she ended up giving me enough Water of Life to at least wash my face with, like you see now.
"Say something pointless like that one more time, and I'll really kill you. Got it?"
"Uh... so next time, should I compliment you? Or insult you?"
"Just shut up about my body forever. Lucas Argent."
Ah, this wasn't a negotiation. It was an order.
I nodded quietly.
And thanks to the Water of Life, now that I was standing here perfectly fine, I finally realized it.
I had survived. And I was truly ready for the "next phase."
"By the way... you called me here for that 'anesthetic spell' again, right? Like last time?"
I nodded without hesitation at Evelyn's question.
"Yes."
In this medieval world, "anesthesia" meant burning herbs or downing booze at best.
It dulled pain at most—nothing like fully blocking consciousness or controlling nerve responses.
That's why I needed it.
Reliable, complete, controllable anesthesia.
And among my acquaintances, only Evelyn could cast such a spell in this world.
But.
After hearing my explanation, Piel tilted her head.
Her face was so innocently puzzled it was like question marks were floating above her.
"Anesthesia? Master, isn't that the thing that puts patients to sleep so they don't feel pain during surgery?"
"Right."
"But... why do you need it here and now? Is someone hurt that badly?!"
Her fox tail twitched nervously.
A reaction that screamed she truly knew nothing.
I absentmindedly stroked Piel's head.
But at the end of that touch lingered a strange, hard-to-explain emotion.
I was wondering how long this girl's innocence would hold up against the sight she was about to face.
In contrast.
"Lord Lucas."
A quiet voice.
It was Aira.
"Yes, Aira."
"I've been keeping my senses open since a moment ago."
Flaw Awakening.
The elf princess who could never use mana her whole life, but whose physical abilities developed abnormally.
Ever since the surgery on the Alain family head, Aira's senses had transcended human limits—not just her body, but everything.
The disruption in blood flow.
The skipped beat in the pulse.
The brief gap when the heart missed an electrical signal.
To her now, these weren't mere "feelings." They were confirmed facts.
And that sense unhesitatingly directed itself behind my back.
More precisely, at the box still sitting on the bed.
The black-sealed box about half the size of their bodies.
Pointing to it, Aira said,
"I can feel it. Inside there..."
A brief silence.
"The 'heartbeat' of a living being."
The air froze in an instant.
"Heart... beat?"
Piel's eyes widened.
"You mean there's something alive in there?"
This was the moment everyone realized this wasn't just some simple "treatment."
"B-But! Isn't it too small for anything to fit inside?"
Piel stepped past Aira toward the black box.
She hugged it with extreme caution.
Once.
She gave it the slightest shake.
"And it's super light? Plus... no sound from inside."
"True."
This time, Evelyn tilted her head.
"It's not big enough for a person. Even an animal would have made a noise if you lifted it like that..."
Aira nodded silently.
She'd only sensed "presence" so far—nothing about its shape.
Only I, who knew what was inside, let out a small sigh.
Soon, I carefully took the box from Piel's hands and placed it back on the bed.
Without jolting it.
Without shaking it.
Only then, sitting beside it, did I speak.
"You're right. This box is definitely too small for a 'person.' But conditionally, it's possible."
"Conditionally?"
"If it doesn't maintain its form."
At those words, Evelyn's expression furrowed slightly.
She'd noticed I was talking about a person like an object.
I didn't stand up.
Instead, still seated, I folded my legs up to my chest.
Knees to chest, arms wrapping around my shins.
The smallest, most inefficient posture a human could take.
"In this position."
I looked down at myself and said,
"The volume shrinks quite a bit."
But Aira still shook her head.
"Even so... the box is much smaller. No matter how compressed—"
"Exactly!"
Piel chimed in.
"Even folding the legs, your feet would block the front. To close the lid, surely..."
"Right."
I cut her off.
And continued very matter-of-factly.
"That's why that part isn't needed."
Silence.
"......What?"
A suffocating hush fell, like everyone had stopped breathing.
I looked back at the box.
"Remove everything unnecessary except the face and torso. Eliminate the excess volume."
The limbs attached just to maintain human shape.
The appendages existing only for movement.
Once all that was gone, only the bare minimum for sustaining life remained.
"That way, it'd be a tight fit, but it could go in this small box."
With that, I turned to look at the three of them.
Their faces had all drained white.
No screams. No fleeing.
Just faces that had understood.
Only after confirming their reactions did I stand.
I approached the black box and began peeling off the talismans sealing every seam.
One by one.
Deliberately.
"Now for the important part."
Each talisman that fell made the room's air sink heavier, like layers of wet blankets.
Every inhale felt like dampness flooding my lungs.
My throat tightened gradually.
"You might puke. Might want to look away."
I reached for the final talisman.
Right before the paper-thin seal peeled away, I turned my head.
"But please don't run. If even one of you bails, the failure rate for this surgery skyrockets."
The moment I finished speaking, the box's lid shifted on its own, like an ancient coffin unsealing.
No creak—just an eerily smooth sound.
Slide.
Then clunk—the lid hit the floor.
Finally, the contents were revealed.
"De... demon?"
"B-But... the limbs!"
What lay in the box was neither human, elf, nor beastkin.
Dull, deathly purple skin.
Blood-red horns peeking through jet-black hair.
A race unmistakably classified as "evil" in this world.
A demon.
But what froze the three of them wasn't the race.
Thick bandages bound its eyes tight, and a leather gag covered its mouth.
Its jaw hung unnaturally open, drool dangling like threads, crusted below the chin.
Unable to see. Unable to speak.
And it looked like a young girl, about Piel's age... but its condition was, in a word, horrific.
Where limbs should have been were only bandages covering the stumps of flesh and bone.
Sloppily wrapped, as if in haste, with brownish bloodstains visible through the gaps.
The box floor was coated in a thin film of congealed blood and fluids, the body propped up against it like a roly-poly doll.
Unable to adjust its own position, the grotesque balance only stood out more.
It felt like staring at a corpse still clinging to breath.
But calling it "alive" was generous—this was just a "meat puppet" drawing air.
Evelyn's pupils visibly trembled.
As if rejecting the scene before her as reality.
Aira clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut.
Her nails might as well have been digging into her palms.
And Piel—
"Urk... bleeegh!"
She staggered back a step, then another, before bowing over.
She gulped down retches a few times, but finally clamped her hands over her mouth and bolted to the bucket in the corner.
Splat—the sound of vomit splattering echoed through the room.