Chapter 81
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: This Surgery Too, Perfectly
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Lucas Argent.
A man who had cured countless injuries deemed impossible through his unparalleled medical skills.
This time would be no different.
By any means necessary, he would restore the demon girl's lost limbs to their proper form.
Princess Evelyn had already witnessed such scenes multiple times.
Situations medically inexplicable. Conditions defying all common sense.
Yet, time and again, he saved the patient.
Having observed this repeatedly, she had no reason now to doubt his surgeries themselves.
Thus, Evelyn resolved not to be surprised or question Lucas any longer when it came to repairing Levi's body.
She already placed complete trust in his medical prowess.
But.
That trust extended only to his 'medicine'.
The issue lay before that.
Demonkin.
Humanity's greatest enemy since time immemorial.
Records from every era described their total extermination as humanity's ultimate aspiration—a being forever unforgiven.
Even in modern times, that perception had changed little.
Fairy tales featuring demonkin always ended the same way.
The demon falls, the hero triumphs, and the world is saved.
Demonkin were eternally 'the evil to overcome' and 'the existence to eradicate'.
Yet.
"I'm not asking you to trust this demon child."
Those words snapped Evelyn from her thoughts.
Lifting her gaze, she faced not the man's usual sly, carefree expression.
It was the same gaze he fixed on the patient atop the operating table.
The face of a lead surgeon, stripped of all superfluous emotion.
"Trust me, the one who will heal her."
At that single statement, Evelyn's heart quivered faintly.
Until now, as the empire's princess, she had killed her own emotions for the sake of revolution and order.
To remain unshaken.
To never hesitate.
That frozen heart was now stirring, ever so slightly.
Evelyn offered no verbal reply to my final question.
But perhaps her actions spoke in place of words.
As she raised her staff once more, the mana at its tip shimmered faintly, and Levi's breathing on the bed gradually evened out.
The sign of stable anesthesia.
"...I'll take that as your agreement to assist, Princess."
I bowed briefly in greeting, then turned my eyes back to the operating table.
Now came the real work.
First, the right arm.
The infection and necrotic tissue had already been cleared.
I dripped a tiny amount of the Water of Life onto the center of the severed stump.
Drop.
The reaction was immediate.
Rather than tissues sprouting wildly, they began forming the basic structure as if they'd been waiting for this moment.
The foundation of bone.
The soft tissues enveloping it.
The blood vessels threading along in pursuit.
Just as expected.
But—
"Master, the form alignment is fluctuating!"
Piel's voice rang out instantly.
The Shield of Alignment enveloped the growing arm, detecting minute distortions within.
"Checking."
I didn't pause my hands.
Right then.
"Neural response rising. Pulse intervals speeding up too."
Aira reported softly, eyes closed in focus.
"If this continues, the nerves will grow first."
That one sentence clarified everything.
At this rate, nerves would precede the bone's formation.
That meant failure, both functionally and structurally.
"Regeneration speed's too high."
I made my call succinctly.
"Piel, shrink the Shield of Alignment's range by 10 percent. Maintain only the blood vessel flow and reduce central pressure."
"Yes!"
As the shield's pressure adjusted minutely, the tissues' growth direction realigned.
Without missing the opening, I picked up the scalpel.
Trimming the excess at the bone framework's end to the necessary extent.
Not quite carving away, more like 'correcting the shape'.
"Aira."
"Yes."
"Neural response?"
"Stable now. Not connected yet."
Good.
I dripped another drop of the Water of Life, spacing it out this time.
This regeneration didn't run rampant.
The bone grew along the pre-set axis, and the vessels stayed within their frame.
And the nerves—still waiting.
"...Like this."
I took a breath and murmured.
"Regeneration isn't about brute force. It's about preserving sequence and form."
This wasn't magic.
It was surgery.
And once this arm was done, I'd repeat the process three more times.
1 hour and 2 minutes elapsed.
The bone's basic framework was complete.
Fine-tuning length and angle based on the grown bone, leaving space for joint formation, then temporarily halting further regeneration.
"Alignment stabilized."
With Piel's report, the shield's pressure dropped another notch.
Blood vessels settled naturally along the frame, maintaining ideal flow without bleeding.
3 hours and 27 minutes elapsed.
Muscle layers and tendon structures organized.
Suppressing excessive muscle fiber proliferation, guiding regeneration only in the proper directions.
"No neural response yet."
I nodded at Aira's words.
Nerves weren't needed at this stage.
Only once bone and muscle were in place could they find their positions.
6 hours and 12 minutes elapsed.
Joint surfaces shaped.
Aligning the axes from shoulder to elbow, elbow to wrist into one seamless whole.
No room for even the slightest misalignment.
A single deviation here would render it a 'useless arm', no matter how perfect the regeneration.
"Angles within normal range."
Piel's shield corrected the form once more.
And 15 hours and 21 minutes elapsed.
The final phase.
Neural induction.
I dripped a single drop of the Water of Life onto the centerline of the completed structure.
No rampage this time.
The nerves extended cautiously along the pre-made pathways, settling precisely without tangling with vessels.
Aira slowly opened her eyes.
"Neural connection... complete. No anomalies."
I halted my hands for the last time.
"...Done."
A long breath escaped me.
Finally, Levi's right arm was restored—form and function both fully normal.
"......We did it."
With those words, strength drained from my legs.
Thud.
Knees hit the floor first, and I collapsed fully.
"M-Master?!"
"Lord Lucas!"
"Lucas Argent, rest now! You're pushing too far!"
All three rushed over at once.
In my life as a surgeon, I'd led countless marathon operations, but this was truly unprecedented.
Not reattaching severed parts or repairing damage.
Building structures from scratch, piece by piece, to completion.
If this were a modern OR, this scene alone would upend the medical world.
Only now did the reality sink in.
One right arm.
Just a quarter of the task done.
With the tension I'd forcibly held snapping free, my body reacted first.
Sitting on the floor, I looked up at the three of them.
And smiled.
"I'm not the only one overexerting... right?"
"Th-That's..."
"Urgh..."
Piel and Aira trailed off.
Then Evelyn stepped forward.
"Sounds good in theory."
She narrowed her eyes and continued.
"But you're different."
"...?"
"Piel, Aira, and I have all transcended ordinary human limits, but you? Step off that table, and you're just a regular guy with weak stamina."
Spot on.
Piel with a hero's physique.
Aira with superhuman senses.
Evelyn, a 5th-circle mage.
Compared to them, I was the weakest in this OR.
And simultaneously, bearing the heaviest burden.
"Besides, look."
Evelyn pointed at my face.
"Dark circles like crazy under your eyes. Hands starting to tremble too."
True enough.
Major surgeries are divided into phases.
Stopping here might be the rational choice.
But I slowly shook my head.
"We can't stop now."
"...Lucas?"
"Starting over later would take just as long as today."
Still on the floor, I gazed at the operating table.
The completed right arm.
Its structure and sensations lingered in my fingertips.
"But now it's different."
I spoke with conviction.
"I've got the form, sequence, reactions all down pat."
I caught my breath and added.
"The left arm next... I can finish way faster than this."
"......"
"The other two legs too... half the time we spent here will suffice!"
At those words, the air in the OR grew taut once more.
This wasn't reckless stubbornness. It was a judgment only the lead surgeon could make.
"Lose this sensation now, and we'll never achieve this level of precision again."
I slowly raised my head.
"So—help me just a bit longer."
Silence.
Then.
"...Haa."
Evelyn let out a long sigh.
"You really... have a talent for driving people insane."
Grumbling as it was, she raised her staff again.
"Fine. But promise me. Once this surgery's fully done, you rest. No exceptions."
After a pause, Evelyn added.
"And give proper compensation to these two who stuck by their stubborn master's side till the end."
"C-Compensation...?"
"W-We don't need anything like that..."
Piel and Aira instinctively bowed their heads.
Captives turned slaves had no habit of demanding wages for labor.
But the fox tail twitched subtly, and the elf ears perked up unwittingly.
She knew it well.
Rewards were the surest fuel to motivate people.
"That was the plan from the start."
At my words—
"!!"
"...!"
Their expressions shifted in unison.
I steadied my breath and continued.
"Alright. Let's keep going."
I pointed to the small vial on the table.
"For stamina recovery. One drop of Water of Life each, and you'll feel better than now, at least."
The three exchanged glances, then nodded wordlessly.
Exactly 49 hours, 43 minutes, and 21 seconds later.
The final incision ended, the last regeneration stabilized, and all neural connections verified.
After the long silence, I set down the scalpel.
"...It's over."
With those words, the tension coiled through the OR finally unraveled.
All limbs.
Form, function, sensation—all normal.
Levi's body had at last returned to a 'complete state'.