119
Chapter 119
Countless viruses were detected in the Fox.
There were many different types.
There were curses, stigmas... all sorts of things.
Perhaps a virus was.
Curses, diseases, plagues, and so on.
It seemed to be a comprehensive term for harmful effects.
Anyway, I decided to remove the detected viruses right now.
All of them, except for the Doll Tribe Virus.
"Hueeek?! A snake popped out of Gom-jjang's eye again! It's scary!"
"Gom-gom, gom-gom-gom."
Stay still.
I'm going to treat you just like I did the Princess Doll.
The Mechanical Tentacle that sprang from the Button slowly approached the Fox's eye.
The Fox stared at the Mechanical Tentacle with a terrified expression, gulped, and asked.
"Are you seriously going to stick that in my eye too...?"
"Gom."
"...Will it hurt?"
Will it hurt, she asked?
Since it was going to pierce her eye, there was a high chance it would be extremely painful.
Of course, I didn't know for sure either.
Because the Princess Doll was the only one I had used it on.
The Princess Doll hadn't shown much of a reaction.
Even when this was stuck in her eye, she maintained a stoic expression.
It was natural, since she was from the Doll Tribe and wouldn't feel pain like I did.
"Gom-gom-gom."
It might sting a little.
I said that for now to reassure the Fox.
Because if I told her it would hurt a lot, she would probably run away.
But surely it wouldn't fail to pierce her eyeball just because the Fox had a high status, right?
Contrary to that worry,
Thwack-!
It went in very easily.
At the same time, the Fox let out a scream.
"Hueeeeek!!!"
"Kku-ooh... He really stabbed it into her eye...."
"The treatment method is quite drastic."
"It looks like it hurts a lot, yong...."
"Oooong...."
"Baby Fox, are you okay?!"
The Fox's scream didn't last long.
Stopping her flailing arms, the Fox soon scratched her head.
"Hue? I screamed because I thought it would hurt, but it doesn't."
"Yong?"
So she didn't scream out of pain.
Fortunately, it seemed she couldn't feel any pain.
[Removing viruses.......]
Glug, glug.
The Mechanical Tentacle started injecting some sort of liquid into the Fox.
Was it because there were so many different types of viruses?
The treatment method was different from when it treated the Princess Doll.
It hadn't injected that kind of liquid into the Princess Doll.
[Removing viruses.......]
It also seemed to take much longer.
***
While I was in the middle of treating the Fox.
"Bear Baby."
"Gom?"
"Could you perhaps tell me what kind of viruses Baby Fox is infected with?"
Ailee asked me this question.
In response, I listed all the detected viruses from beginning to end.
At that, everyone's eyes widened in shock.
They all wore expressions of sheer disbelief.
"Baby Fox has that many curses placed on her? Are you serious?"
"The Curse of Frequent Urination... What a truly terrible curse. There was a reason why the Star Fox urinated so frequently."
"Yoooong... How has she been perfectly fine until now with all those curses, yong...?"
"Kku-ooh? She hasn't been perfectly fine."
Just as Jjokkomi said, she hadn't been perfectly fine all this time.
The Fox peed strangely often, sometimes seemed to show signs of depression and anxiety when left alone, and her level of restlessness was much worse compared to the others.
Realizing that all those actions were due to the curses, everyone looked at the Fox with eyes full of sympathy.
Amidst the focused gazes of pity.
The Fox looked at me with a bright expression.
"Hueee. I had that many viruses? Huhehe, I'm amazing!"
She was indeed amazing.
Because she had survived with so many curses dangling on her.
Now, the way I looked at the Fox had changed.
I wondered if perhaps she was trying hard to act cheerful.
Just looking at the curses discovered today, her life must have been a continuous string of suffering.
Thanks to her strong body and soul, she might have been able to endure the physical and mental pain to some extent, but it would be impossible to withstand all those curses completely.
"Ooong, ooooong, ooong?"
Tosuni asked me a question.
She asked if the Fox being stupid was also because of a curse.
I shook my head.
Because I didn't think that was due to a curse.
The Curse of Stupidity hadn't been detected.
Of course, I couldn't be entirely sure.
I couldn't rule out the possibility that the Fox had some sort of intelligence-lowering curse.
There were likely still curses at a level my Vaccine couldn't detect yet.
"Hmm......."
Miss Vampire silently stared at the Fox's forehead for a moment.
It was the spot where the star pattern was engraved.
I asked her what was wrong.
"Gom-gom?"
"You clearly said the Star Fox also had the Stigma of Curse Multiplication, right?"
"Gom-gom."
I nodded my head.
The reason the Fox had so many curses must be because of that stigma.
I didn't know why the Fox had such a stigma.
"Stigmas do not occur naturally. A stigma is only engraved when there is clear malice from someone."
"Gom?"
"In other words, it means someone secretly engraved a stigma onto the Star Fox."
"Gom...?"
"And this is just my personal thought, but... I wonder if perhaps one of those Star Tribe bastards engraved the stigma. Beings capable of engraving a high-ranking stigma like the Stigma of Curse Multiplication are rare, and since you mentioned she initially had the Curse of the Star, there's a possibility the Star Tribe bastards engraved the Stigma of Curse Multiplication along with it when they cast the Curse of the Star. If this guess is correct, they probably placed the curses and the stigma on the Star Fox when she was just born."
The conjecture put forth by Miss Vampire.
Everyone who heard that was engulfed in shock.
The Princess Doll, having received Ailee's interpretation, also made a shocked expression a moment later.
"...Ooong, ooooong? Oooooooong?"
Even if they are a tribe that discriminates against mutants, would they really go that far?
Those were the words Tosuni said.
"Princess Tosuni. Do not try to understand the Star Tribe using the common sense of your Moon Tribe. Neither you nor the current Queen have ever met the Star Tribe, so you wouldn't know, but they are a ruthless tribe without blood or tears."
Even if the Fox was a mutant, she was undeniably of the same kin.
The Star Tribe strictly forbids harming their own kind and values their tribe's face, so they don't openly banish mutants; instead, they subject them to unbearable discrimination. Given they are that kind of bastards, there's a high chance they secretly engraved a harmful stigma on the mutant as soon as she was born.
─Miss Vampire added.
"Hue......."
For reference.
The Curse of the Star is said to be a curse that restricts the power of the stars.
To be precise, I heard it was a curse implanted because they were displeased with mutants fully utilizing the power of the Star Tribe. I was told the Star Tribe places the Curse of the Star on mutants without exception.
Although I had never actually met them,
The more I heard about them through stories and the more I learned, the more I disliked the tribe.
Because they were a tribe that had done such terrible things to our Fox.
***
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
.
.
.
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
.
.
.
[Internal Organ Necrosis caused by the virus will no longer occur. However, internal organs that have already undergone necrosis cannot be treated.]
.
.
.
.
.
.
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
[......Curse removal complete.]
After a long time.
I finally cured the Fox's viruses.
Except for the Doll Tribe Virus that I intentionally didn't remove, there were no viruses that failed to be removed.
One notification popped up in the middle.
Internal organ necrosis that had already progressed could not be treated.
Because of this, I tried to use the Recovery Module and Repair Module on the Fox once.
However, it said she was an invalid target for use.
There was no problem, though.
I just had to feed her Tosuni's Healing Cotton.
If it were the Fox before the viruses were cured, she might have rejected consuming the cotton from Tosuni's body by mouth instead of applying it to her body, treating it as a carnivorous act.
However, that shouldn't be the case now that the viruses were removed.
I hadn't asked her yet, but it didn't seem like the Fox had been eating a vegetarian diet because she wanted to all this time.
There was a high chance that she had been forced to stick to a vegetarian diet against her will due to things like the Curse of Meat Indigestion and the Curse of Taste Corruption (which makes meat taste rotten).
In other words, I suspected she had been forced to be a vegan because of her constitution changing due to the curses.
There was no need to ask her.
Because if I just handed her some delicious meat, she would take Action on her own.
I immediately cooked the monster carcass I had brought from the 1st Floor Food Storage using the Food Printer.
Then I handed that meat dish to the Fox along with the healing cotton taken from Tosuni's body.
The Fox blankly stared at the handed cotton and meat.
Then she gulped and said.
"Hue? Strangely enough, the meat looks delicious... It's making my mouth water."
"Gom-gom."
"But I still can't eat it. I'm sure it'll taste weird if I eat it...."
"Gom-gom-gom, gom-gom-gom, gom-gom-gom-gom."
It'll be different now.
I told you earlier, the curses are gone.
Of course, if you plan to stick to a vegetarian diet even though the curses are gone, that's fine too.
If you don't want to eat it, don't.
"No! This is meat that Gom-jjang cooked just for me, so I can't throw it away! I'll muster up my courage and try it...!"
The Fox made a resolute expression.
Even when I told her she didn't have to force herself to eat it, she shook her head and insisted she would eat it no matter what.
"Waaaaaah-!!!"
With her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
The Fox opened her mouth wide.
"Chomp!"
She took a big bite out of the meat.
And after chewing the meat she had shoved into her mouth, she suddenly stopped her Action.
"Hue...?"
The Fox's eyes grew extremely wide.
Her face looked as if she had received a massive shock.
What the, why is she suddenly not moving?
Is she broken?
"Hueeee!?"
The Fox began to chew and eat the meat ravenously again.
"It's delicious, it's delicious! This is really delicious! I've never eaten anything this delicious before!!!"
Exclaiming in continuous awe with a surprised expression.
"I'm a Meok-jjang now too!"
Soon, the Fox burst into tears.
Crying, and smiling.
Smiling, and crying again.
She chewed on the meat while endlessly pouring out tears with a face full of deep emotion.
[Star Fox lv.35]
┗Pw.350
┗Rnk.Unique
[Domain: Star]
┗Grade - Legendary
[.......]
[Updating information.]
[Star Fox lv.50]
┗Pw.500
┗Rnk.Unique (Limit Breakthrough available upon reaching lv.60)
[Domain: Star]
┗Grade - Legendary