By Zephyria “Don’t you remember?”
When the question came back, Leonardo tilted his head with a puzzled look. He stared blankly, wondering what had happened, and Hugo, after meeting his eyes, turned his head without saying anything.
“…First of all, let’s talk about that later, so. Can we assume that there are no problems with the nervous system or heart function?”
The fact that he asked if he didn’t remember meant that there was definitely something going on. Leonardo stared at Hugo with a dumbfounded look, as he didn’t answer and promised to talk about it later on his own. However, as he said, there was still a lot to talk about, and he didn’t press the issue, feeling that he had subtly avoided answering.
However, he couldn’t stop the suspicion from rising. In Leonardo’s mind, he saw himself strangling himself amidst the erupting debris of an exploding volcano.
‘Could it be… was I about to go berserk again?’
Leonardo recalled his hazy memories with a chilling face, wondering if that was why the Legion Commander and the medical officer had avoided answering. But for some reason, there were no scenes he could remember, as if the film had been cut off. It was like a blank sheet of paper, as if someone had intentionally cut out his memories.
Just as he bit his lip out of anxiety, Hugo’s arm suddenly came and gently wrapped around his lower back. When his large hand gripped his left forearm and lightly rubbed it, Leonardo glanced down at his arm and turned his eyes to Hugo next to him.
He didn’t know what it meant, but he could feel the intention to reassure him in the caressing touch. For some reason, it felt like he could hear Hugo’s voice whispering, “It’s okay,” in his ear.
The medical officer, who had been watching the two of them, cleared his throat and flipped through a couple of pages of the report. Then, after reading about three lines, he clicked his tongue and carefully answered Hugo’s earlier question, as if it were a bit tricky.
“Just because the nerve response is good doesn’t mean we can be sure there’s no problem with the body. We need to conduct some follow-up tests and observe the progress for at least two weeks, and we need to check the elimination of toxicity and the viscosity of the blood through blood tests to give you a proper answer.”
The moment he heard the word ‘blood test,’ Leonardo’s shoulders tensed up. Hugo, who felt it all through his fingertips, asked the officer again.
“Is there a test method that can replace blood collection? I’d prefer something simple if possible.”
“Well… we can do some tests on the nervous system just by checking the pupillary response or the ability to follow instructions… but it’s a bit difficult to simplify the tests related to the heart.”
“……”
“Now that consciousness has returned and the body is just starting to metabolize, this is the best time to judge the degree of recovery of heart function. But if the viscosity of the blood is high, the heart will work harder than usual to ensure smooth blood circulation, and then we may not be able to detect misdiagnosis or problems that need to be caught early. There is also a risk of leading to other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.”
He said it in a roundabout way, but in short, blood collection was inevitable.
Hugo, having heard the answer, glanced down at Leonardo. Seeing that his expression was noticeably stiff, it was clear that he had a reluctance to the test method.
‘He’s probably not afraid of seeing blood.’
It wasn’t a thought that could be applied to someone who had been a soldier, and who had been in a fierce battle with the core just a while ago. He also considered the possibility that he might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder such as trypanophobia, but that was also not rational given the previous premise.
As he developed his thoughts, Hugo suddenly recalled Leonardo’s appearance when he had strongly resisted when Magic Power was being extracted from him at the Central Branch Hospital. He remembered that he had similar questions at that time, and Leonardo’s reaction at that time, as if he was afraid of something, made him reconsider the connection between Magic Power extraction and blood collection.
‘…Anyway, he doesn’t seem like he’ll agree easily.’
When Hugo and Leonardo were silent at the same time, the medical officer judged that his intentions had been fully conveyed and turned another page of the report he was holding. Then, this time, he turned his gaze to Leonardo and asked him directly.
“Blaine, do you happen to know a plant called ‘Mendelias’?”
Leonardo, who had been staring at the floor with a serious face, widened his eyes when he heard a familiar name.
“Mendelias?”
“Have you consumed that plant or food containing the plant’s ingredients in the last ten days? It’s a plant that mainly grows near animal carcasses or tombs, and the smell is so foul that it smells rotten, so you probably wouldn’t have eaten it without knowing.”
At the medical officer’s question, one of Hugo’s eyebrows also went up. He knew almost everything that had gone into Leonardo’s mouth in the last ten days. There was no such plant among them, and it didn’t seem like he would have deliberately put an unsanitary plant growing near a tomb in his mouth.
But Leonardo, on the contrary, looked a little nervous.
Of course, he couldn’t not know. That plant was the one Nero had forced him to eat.
“…I do, why?”
Leonardo asked back, looking at the officer’s expression with a subtle gaze. Then Hugo turned to him at the unexpected answer. The officer, confirming that his thoughts were correct, smiled with satisfaction and said.
“I knew it. The ingredients of that plant are quite strong, so it seems like you had a shock along with symptoms of nerve paralysis. With the resistance bacteria of Mendelias entering the already weakened body, the antibodies in the body couldn’t handle it.”
The medical officer said that during the surgery, a reaction appeared in Leonardo’s blood as if the ingredient and Dregalianif’s ingredient had collided.
He explained that the way Mendelias is used as an Antidote Herb is to suppress the existing toxicity with a stronger ingredient to prevent the poison from spreading and acting in the body. So, although it is secretly known as a panacea, the side effects are also very severe, so it is not used in the open.
Leonardo was also well aware of that fact. However, it was the first time he had heard that the ingredients were so strong that he could get a shock, so he grumbled inwardly at Nero, who had fed him the wrong thing, saying that he almost went to hell.
However, the medical officer’s final opinion that followed presented a completely different direction from his thoughts.
“Still, you can say that you’re alive and well now thanks to consuming Mendelias. If it hadn’t been for that, the poison would have already spread throughout your body, and even if you had been treated, the chances of survival would have been slim, and there would have been no way to save your left arm except to amputate it altogether.”
The officer smiled brightly while talking about the gruesome story, saying that it would attract a lot of attention if reported to academia.
Leonardo widened his eyes at the unexpected conclusion and stared blankly at the officer. Then, he clenched and unclenched his fist in his left hand for no reason. It was because he wanted to check if it was moving properly.
‘Thanks to that plant?’
He recalled the scene of him resisting not to eat it at the time, while chewing on the officer’s words. Nero and he had a physical fight at that time, and they were both exhausted, but if he hadn’t fed him even like that, something really bad could have happened.
As he looked back on the past, the last scene he had seen before losing consciousness gradually became clearer in his mind.
‘Nero.’
Along with that, the guy disguised as a Council member who didn’t listen to him even when he told him to leave and came to find him until the end flickered in his memory.
^
The medical officer and the medical team members all left after completing a simple examination and prescribing medication. It was because Leonardo, who had not been awake for long, showed signs of fatigue, and Hugo ordered that additional detailed examinations be conducted after returning.
Leonardo, who didn’t know the exact time of return, was simply relieved that the examination date had been postponed. However, thanks to the fact that he had a cast on his left arm and was instructed to refrain from actions that would put a strain on his heart, he was stuck in the cabin and was forced to recuperate.
Leonardo, who had only heard from Hugo that the overall situation related to the peninsula was coming to an end, was filled with thoughts about Nero, an unresolved concern in his mind.
Honestly, he didn’t think that guy, who had mingled among the Council members and came to find him until the end, would have obediently returned to the military Headquarters while he was unconscious. Still, judging from the fact that he hadn’t heard anything about him, it seemed that he hadn’t been caught or had any problems, which was fortunate.
‘But still, I feel uneasy for some reason…’
“Blaine, eat quickly. You have to empty this to take your medicine.”
At that moment, Flynn, who had been watching him all along, spoke to him.
Leonardo stirred the soup with a spoon and then raised his head powerlessly. Then, he glanced down at the bowl in front of him and looked at Flynn, retorting sullenly.
“This doesn’t taste good.”
“…Of course, it’s patient food.”
“Can’t you add some salt? Isn’t it completely bland? Besides, why is the soup so bitter? What’s in it?”
Leonardo complained as if he had been waiting for it. Flynn sighed and replied.
“Your organs are very damaged right now, so you can’t have food with salt or spices. Still, Sir Hares heard that you woke up and personally instructed the mansion chef to make it with good ingredients. Eat some for his sake.”
When Sir Hares’s name came up, he had nothing more to say. But because it really didn’t taste good, the soup in front of him was a chore for Leonardo, who didn’t have an appetite anyway.
However, in order to go out and find Nero, he had to finish it all.
Agrizendro, who had left for a while, had left Flynn next to him as a supervisor, telling him to watch him empty the bowl and take his medicine. He felt like he had returned to the time when he was constantly interfered with at the beginning of the subjugation, which didn’t make him feel very good. Of course, the meaning of supervision was quite different compared to then, but still.
“……”
In the end, Leonardo took a spoonful of soup with a sullen expression. Then, he frowned and forced it into his mouth while holding his breath.
Just as he was trying not to taste it and swallow it down his throat at once, he suddenly remembered something he wanted to ask Flynn.