Chapter 722 - What the doctor said

All of us stare at Savant, who stares back. His eyes turn toward Vega resting against my chest, then at the rowdy bunch of kids. At least the dagger stays quiet, shut tight like it’s scared of this man. I notice it hasn’t trashtalked me either. Smart thing, I was fully ready to throw it into the water to let it rust or rot or whatever.

“Yo,” I greet Savant.

“Hello,” he answers while entering the house and walking straight into the living room, which already starts looking crowded. “Can you heal me? I think I got infected as well,” he says, directing his words toward Lily.

Without even moving from her spot, Lily furrows her brow a little. I feel the faint movement of her mana brushing against Savant. Then she says simply, “Done.”

Everyone in the room goes silent, so quiet that Lily shifts, clearly uncomfortable. “W-what? I already removed it twelve times, and I changed the formula so I can do it across a wider area. With a proper [Sacrifice], I could probably channel it through a smaller street block at once.”

“I see,” I nod, then look at Savant. “Is that normal?”

“Nothing about how she heals is normal,” he says. “Aside from that, while you two were busy with whatever this is, I have been examining the barrier and this place. I absorbed a part of the virus in multiple stages, a part of the barrier for examination, and checked a few locations. I think I have more or less pieced things together.”

“It’s the barrier, right?” I ask.

Savant opens his mouth, then closes it again.

“Your eyes prove themselves useful at times,” he says. “Yes, but not exactly. I suspect the illness originally came from somewhere around here, but later, when the barrier was created, it was modified to allow the illness to mutate.”

“To make it more deadly?” I ask and watch the small human girl pass by him to grab some food from the table. While she does, I notice her slipping a few extra bits away, hiding them in what looks like dozens of pockets stitched all over her clothes.

“That is something our healer should be able to answer soon,” Savant says.

At that, we all turn to Lily again. She gestures for the human girl to come closer, then offers her another piece of fruit. The girl snatches it fast, silent as a shadow.

Lily says, “I have some suspicions, but I’m not sure yet. I think people would survive even without healing, and the coma would stop after a while. Many of the low-level ones would die of hunger or thirst, but not directly from the illness itself.”

“But even if the coma ended, the illness wouldn’t disappear completely, right?” Savant asks. When the little thief walks past him again, he stops her by putting out his hand and saying, “Give it back.”

She freezes, staring up at him with big eyes, but Savant doesn’t move an inch. The girl digs into her many pockets, pulling out mana stones, crystals, and bits of metal, which she gives back to him. Savant takes them, then turns to Lily again.

“I don’t know,” Lily answers his question.

I look at him. “What do you think?”

“I think someone grew the original virus in a lab for whatever reason. Then the Magistra noticed it and, instead of dealing with it, decided to use it. She and the others releases it, built the barrier, made changes to let the virus develop further using what they found in the lab. The goal is likely to make it seem as though the virus was cleansed, when in fact they only intend to make it dormant and undetectable to the few healers this planet has. Then they would remove the barrier, let people leave, and infect others with the new strain. We were probably invited here so no one would suspect them, and so they can develop it further.”

“How cowardly!” the noble demon boy interrupts, “Magistra Elaren is known to hate demons, but this pathetic attempt? She should have just challenged and killed as many by herself as she could!”

My minion’s rival shakes her head, “Even in this kingdom, people don’t like her much. If she went around killing thousands of demons without a reason, one of the Absolute’s enforcers would notice and deal with her.”

I tap the head of the minion in my lap, “Minion, who are the Absolute’s Enforcers?”

“I have no idea, master.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter then. You can always let your minions deal with these kinds of things. But minion, try to pick up a little, at least while you are still weak.”

“I will do so!”

“You!” a strong voice interrupts, stopping all conversation. It is my minion’s rival, pointing a finger at me. “You are nothing like what she told us about.”

“Am I not?” I ask with a tilted head.

The girl, who seems to be a noble like this demon boy but is trying to hide it, shakes her head vehemently. “Firstly, she said you are the most handsome person we will ever see. That is not true. Even this man, who just arrived, is better looking.”

Catching a stray comment, Savant lifts his eyes from his hand, the same one he was already drawing on with mana-conductive paint. His long black hair flows down from his head, and his clear green eyes look at her curiously. The demon girl even blushes slightly at that.

But she doesn’t stop. “All these nice things you did for Vega, she told us about them. Handsome, strong, caring, just like a demon prince from the stories. I really wanted to see what you would look like. Meanwhile, you are just like her.”

“Fight me to the death! I won’t let such an insult to my master pass!” Vega shouts, and I hold her in my arms, covering her mouth, causing her to mumble something into the palm of my hand.

Turning to my minion’s rival, I shrug. “Don’t think I don’t take things seriously, Teeka. I do. I just see no reason to stay somber and serious all the time. I had enough of that before the tutorial. I like to enjoy small things in my life as they come. Things like bullying my cute minion.” As I say that, I keep Vega’s mouth covered but use my other hand to tap on her tiny pointy horns.

My grand-minion faces me for a bit, and I calmly return her gaze until she looks away while mumbling, “My name is Tykka.”

“Tykka, I think he’s cool! He has multiple hearts, just like the Hornless Demon!” the noble boy calls out, standing up with a swift movement. “Cool for a human, of course,” he adds with a bright smile.

“You, sit back down,” I say.

As quickly as he stood, he plops back on his butt. I let go of my hand from Vega’s mouth. “Vega, you said the girl with the dagger is your first minion, healer, cook, and something else, right?”

“Liira also deals with finances, so we don’t get scammed. Tykka and Tami have no idea how much things are worth and pay ten times more than they should, and Mini would steal any money she got,” Vega says happily. “Liira is also good at talking to people without insulting them, so they don’t want to fight us all the time. She’s really good at coming up with excuses and acting innocent. She also cleans the house sometimes because the others are lazy, and…”

“Okay, okay, what a poor girl,” I say, gesturing at the blonde half-demon with the dagger. “Are you okay with that? I can tell Vega to stop.”

"It's okay. I owe her my life." This is the first time I hear Liira speak, and her voice sounds more mature and responsible than all the others combined.

“If you say so. But Vega is dum… silly sometimes, so she doesn’t notice some things. If it gets too much, or if you want something, tell her directly. She’s a good girl in the end. Also, I heard you’re a healer. Is that true?”

“I can heal a little, yes.”

“Good. Lily can show you a trick or two while we work on my plan. Can you?” I turn to Lily.

“No problem at all,” the tiny bulldozer smiles. “But Nat, a plan?”

“Yup,” I say simply, “In the end it’s obvious, and the fact that Alfalfa Fennel-Tart Velveeta Corndog Del Muffin en Lint Asphalt Valhalla Macarena is still outside proves I’m right.”

“I have never in my life heard a name butchered so much. You know it’s Albaris Fen’Thane Vel Corin Del Vassel en Lys Aster Valcour Miradine,” Savant says from the side, clearly trying to pick a fight.

I ignore it and I lean back in my chair, petting Vega on top of her head like she is some evil lair master’s cat, and explain to the kids gathered, “The lab belongs to Magistra, and someone destroyed it before the virus was ready. So she and the two Champions made a barrier that she modified to slowly finish the work, or maybe that was always the plan. Maybe the Champions are gullible, or maybe they’re in on it. Next, she sent in some of her spy ops, made the beyond quest, but every one of those people is an acceptable sacrifice to her, so she can distance herself from this. That’s why she also abandoned that six-legged rat. She couldn’t find a better healer to cooperate with, so Lily, being one of the best healers in Beyond right now, is here so Magistra can observe her final work and modify the virus further.”

“That’s a lot of assumptions,” Savant says without even lifting his eyes from his hand as he keeps painting inscriptions.

“I could be wrong on a thing or two, but that should be the gist of it.”

“Before you do anything rash, we can spend a few more days trying to confirm that theory,” he says.

“Sure,” I answer back to his obvious surprise. “Let’s be patient, right?”

I stand up and set my minion back on the floor before moving onto the bench next to Savant and putting my arm around his shoulders. “Savi, we’re buds, right? Old rivals, friends even! Just remember all the memories we’ve built together and all the times we tried to kill each other.”

“Stop touching me. What do you want?”

“Come on, Savi, I know you’ve got some mana hiding, a lot of it even. Honestly, a scary amount. You’re sitting there pretending like you’re out of it, but I can smell it. It’s got that faint tingle, like ozone.”

“You can’t smell mana,” Savant says.

“Oh, yes, I can. It’s a gift. Or maybe a curse. Either way, you reek of it. Don’t even try to hide it. I just need a little bit of mana, that’s it, I swear.”

“I’m not hiding anything. I’m empty.”

“Empty? Ha! That’s exactly what someone with too much mana would say. I know you have some. Really, just a little bit, Savi. Just a drop... or all of it would work better.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous and suffering from severe mana deficiency, that’s what the doctor said, right?” I turn to Lily.

Taken aback, she quickly regains her composure and nods a few times.

I turn back to the man. “Don’t make me start sniffing around like a truffle pig, because I will. And it won’t be dignified for either of us.”

“How can you sense it?” Savant drops the drawing and looks at me after pushing my hand away.

I let the golden circles of my Mana Wavelength Iris glow in the dimly lit room. “I have good eyes. I can see the Sword of Aeons and where it’s absorbed into your body. And even though you’re trying to hide it, I can see the amount of mana you’ve stored in there. Did you naturally generate it over a long time and store it, or did you come up with a way to absorb others' mana and keep it there?”

For a long moment, he seems to think before ignoring my question entirely and asking, “What do you want it for?”

"It’s simple, really. We’ll break the barrier and make a show so big that the Absolute shows up to check it out, hoping for a good fight. Trust me, Savi, I know demons. That asshole will come running."

***

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