By Zephyria 
Elvin roughly caught the woman who collapsed and laid her down.
Hugh Benson, who crouched down on the spot, flipped the woman’s eyelids to check if she had completely lost consciousness, then began to explain. His voice was no different from when he held meetings, as if there was no one to listen.
“I found out this mansion was empty. Apparently, the previous owner was assassinated about four months ago. That’s why there are a few weak spots left in the defensive magic circles.”
“…”
“Of all people, some Marquess or whatever lives next door, so Marianne stayed behind with the informants to set up soundproofing magic. I planted eight artifacts, but… I didn’t expect it to end in five minutes. What a waste of effort.”
“…”
I shifted my gaze to the bed.
My hand, extended to check the pulse, was soaked in blood. Hesitantly, I roughly wiped my hand on the bedsheet. My fingertips, which never faltered when practicing swordplay, were trembling.
I checked the child’s pulse.
…The mana that had seeped into that body was unfamiliar. Like those lying in the annex of the Diamant family…
Hugh Benson continued to chatter.
“I told them to clean this place up as if nothing happened. No one would suspect the whereabouts of the squatters anyway. Getting an antidote won’t take long either. Even if we’re not sure, we know the Rose-Bat Fruit was used, so we can start by figuring out the combination from there.”
“…”
“Let’s go somewhere safe and think about it. With the kid… Damn it, who am I even talking to?”
I couldn’t open my mouth, choked up.
Was I this weak? Thinking about how much pain this child, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully, must have endured, my vision blurred. My grip tightened. I was afraid of hurting the child because of me, so I just clutched the sheet pointlessly.
Wherever my hand touched, red bloodstains remained. On the crumpled sheets, and on the child’s white wrist.
Looking at the blood that had seeped in, I felt sick.
“…Hey. Hey, are you crying? Ha, this is insane…”
“…”
“Elvin, watch the kid. I’ll go get Marianne.”
“Yeah.”
From afar, he seemed so impatient, but now, with the child right in front of me, it felt so distant.
How could I have known affection was like this? If I had known, I would have wanted to live my whole life without ever knowing such a feeling.
❖ ❖ ❖
The place we moved to was not an ordinary inn but a secluded inner chamber of a mansion.
It was natural, after suffering greatly while pretending to be a commoner in the marketplace. I should have done this from the start. Regret is always too late. Precious things must be hidden well, but I paraded it around town, so how could this not happen?
In the large room, we pulled in a bed from the next room and laid Ruben and Benjamin down separately.
Tedros slipped in and informed us that he had brought three antidotes, which we inferred were the correct ones. However, with the Qi and blood already shaken, what good would it do to add poison to poison? I shook my head, stopped him, and said I would do it.
I sent everyone else away.
Only Hugh Benson, who didn’t want to pass the responsibility entirely to me, and Marianne, who offered to help if immediate magical treatment was needed, stood without chairs in a corner of the room, watching.
I untied Ruben’s buttons, who was lying peacefully.
Someone poisoned like this wouldn’t be able to hold themselves up properly. If the child had been conscious, I would have had them sit and assume the Lotus Position, but in their current state, limp even when held in my arms, it was better to lay them down.
As I laid the child’s body straight, the contours of their well-trained physique spread evenly. When I first met the child, they were tall and had a boyish aura, but now, after daily training, their muscles had swelled to a tight fit. I scanned my eyes over the dark shadows cast above and below the bulging chest muscles.
There was a large bruise from the white skin of their shoulder blades down to their upper arms. It seemed a low-grade Healing Artifact was used. The flesh was reattached, but it hadn’t healed completely. I swallowed hot breath to prevent my vision from blurring.
Could my mind waver?
To be frank, the Sajil of the Central Plains would have considered such wounds as badges of honor. The torn flesh had been reattached. For a martial artist, bruises appear four in the morning and eight in the evening. There was no need to be overly emotional just because the size was slightly different.
I placed my thumb on the child’s navel, and my four fingers and palm close to it. With my other hand, I felt the child’s wrist to check the pulse. While the standard method would be to join both hands and channel energy into the Dantian, I refrained, fearing it would be too much for the tender, nascent Dantian.
How many times have I checked Rubel’s pulse?
It was no different from being able to draw Ruben’s sharp eyes or the shape of his even fingernails with my eyes closed. I knew the shape of the Minor Meridians throughout his body like the back of my hand. Reading each twisted and narrowed trace, my heart ached at the weak breath, unlike usual.
Would threading a needle be like this?
I pushed well-refined internal energy into the narrowed Qi and blood. It was not much different from performing Jin Gi Do In, but this time, instead of expelling the impurities that had seeped into the child’s body to the outside, I brought them into my own body and consumed them.
It was natural. Breaking down and expelling impurities that were originally inside the body could be done with one’s own strength, but why create more pathways in an already exhausted body? It was right for me to endure it. It was fortunate that I could do something in their stead.
Still, it was fortunate that the attacks were mainly on the arms, so the Dantian was unharmed. I wrapped a thread of internal energy originating from the tender Dantian around my own, and slowly circulated it along the Belt Meridian in the direction of circulation.
Ruben flinched every time I widened a narrowed acupoint or broke down the roughly clumped Turbid Qi.
You must not move. I pressed the child’s body down onto the bed, not resting. Every time Ruben’s brow furrowed or his closed lips parted, it was painful. I felt the urge to ask, “Does it hurt a lot?” even though I knew there would be no answer. My heart felt that way.
I split my vision into two.
With my outer eyes, I observed Ruben’s face, and with the eyes of my heart, I scanned the child’s Minor Meridians for a long time. After about an hour, my back was drenched in sweat.
It was almost done. Just a little more, just a little more.
Not even the slightest mistake could be tolerated. It was natural for it to be difficult when breaking through major meridians. The clumped Turbid Qi in Ruben’s body was different from blocked meridians, but it was the same in that it had to be broken and overcome.
Gasp, Ruben made a sound as if he were suffocating, and for a moment, my concentration wavered, but I corrected it.
Then, finally,
The end was in sight.
The body, which had been twitching intermittently, became still. Both Ruben and I were drenched in cold sweat, but I clearly saw that Ruben’s expression had improved significantly compared to before. After checking all the meridians from head to toe one more time, I slowly withdrew my hands.
I sat on the floor as I was and contemplated my own body, circulating internal energy for three rounds.
In the room prepared for a patient, I coughed and spat out the blood that had seeped into the food bowl. The black clot was so grotesque it was unbelievable it came from a human neck. A lump the size of a man’s fist gleamed with a sinister color.
I immediately got up. There was still one left.
Then, Marianne, who had been watching my actions, asked in a voice full of concern,
“…Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
…When did she get so close?
Feeling self-conscious, I covered Ruben’s bare body with a sheet, and Marianne, who had been looking crestfallen, immediately glared with narrowed eyes, hands on her hips.
“I’m not looking! No, is this the time for that?”
“…Ahem.”
I didn’t have the energy to make any further excuses. I waved my hand dismissively, stopped the fuming Marianne, and tore off Benjamin’s shirt.
Using the same method, I placed my hand on his Dantian and observed the interior, trying hard to suppress a hollow laugh.
Just how strong-willed is this kid? I already knew that Benjamin’s Belt Meridian and Minor Meridians were like those of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, truly robust. However, unlike someone who had been forced to ingest poison, half of them seemed to have even digested it.
I examined him several times because his condition was so strange, but it was the same.
I was so glad I treated Ruben first and then Benjamin. If I had treated Benjamin first, in my haste, I might have pushed too much internal energy into Ruben and injured him.
After draining all the toxic energy from both of them, I finally felt at ease.
After Circulating Qi and regulating energy, Hugh Benson threw a wet towel at me as I collapsed, and I caught it to wipe my sweat.
“Are you feeling a bit better now?”
“…Yes. I’m sorry.”
“No, you don’t need to apologize.”
Come to think of it, where did Elvin go?
Marianne, who was casting Clean Magic on Ruben and Benjamin, immediately opened her mouth, sensing my gaze searching for the absent person. Marianne also seemed to have confirmed the well-being of the two children in her own way, her expression bright.
“Elwin Seonbae is holding a hostage right now.”
“A hostage?”
“The woman we captured. Since the informants aren’t a combat organization, they were a bit uneasy holding a Sword Master. So, to prevent her from escaping, they took her weapon, bound her tightly with artifacts, and put her in the same room as Elwin Seonbae.”
“Mm.”
My heart was weary, and I didn’t want to get involved any further.
As if sensing my feelings, Hugh Benson clicked his tongue and spoke in an uncharacteristically gentle voice.
“We’ll interrogate her tomorrow. She’s not going anywhere.”
“…Raul?”
“We couldn’t catch him. We’ve put out an order to find him, though. And besides the Diamant family, mercenaries in similar conditions have been found in eight locations in Semora-Gula… we’re deliberating on what to do.”
“…”
“It’s not our job. After the interrogation, we need to find out who the higher-up is, what their objective is, and how they contact the Black Magician, then report it to Duke Widrow.”
We ended up seeing a lot of strange things and not the Black Magician we came to catch. However, I had no desire to stay any longer. I just nodded my head.