Chapter 91: Variable (5)

Drip drip.

Henry’s blood fell along his arm and gathered into a bowl. They needed a lot of blood to use as both poison and antidote.

‘This should be enough.’

Henry divided the blood into two bowls and made his way to Vulcanus’s room.

Vulcanus’s skin was dark and decaying. He had not been able to eat properly for ten days, so he was also very thin.

“I’ll start now.”

Henry was full of confidence because he’d already verified this treatment at the Magical Spire. It was impossible that it would fail since he already had experience with the treatment in the past. The toxicity of Henry’s blood was more powerful than that of other poisons, so the important thing was simply to see how long it would take for his blood to remove the other poison.

Before Henry fed Vulcanus his blood, he put his hands out in front of the two bowls.

Whoosh.

Telekinesis using his mana. It looked easy, but it was high-level magic that kept the liquid from spilling as it floated in the air, forming a smooth sphere.

“Heat.”

Bubble…

Henry began to heat up one part of the blood. Henry put the antidote aside and began feeding the unheated blood to Vulcanus.

“

Argh…

”

“It’s going to be quite painful.”

.

Even though he was sick, Vulcanus could still see and hear. Henry forced Vulcanus’s swollen lips open and began to pour his blood inside his mouth little by little. After Henry fed the entire lump of blood to him, the anxious Vulcanus suddenly began to react violently.

“

Ah! Ahhh!

”

It was a poison that killed a superhuman swordmaster, and it was likely very painful. As Vulcanus squirmed in pain, Von and Hagler frowned and looked away, but Henry continued to patiently watch Vulcanus suffer.

Finally, when blood started leaking from all of Vulcanus’s orifices, Henry forced the antidote straight into Vulcanus’s mouth.

Sizzle…!

“

Argh!

”

The blood was hot and burned Vulcanus’s throat since the poison was designed to inflict pain on those who consumed it in any way.

“

Argh… Ah.. Ah…

”

However, as time passed, his groaning gradually decreased. The poison was being neutralized.

When Vulcanus’s groans finally came to a stop…

“He passed out.”

Vulcanus had battled with the synthetic poison for ten days and then faced the worst poison to ever exist. The pain would have been excruciating. Henry took out a high-quality healing potion that he carried around for emergency purposes and opened the cap.

“Healing potion?”

“I have to erase the burn marks.”

Henry would be in trouble for conducting the treatment, and to avoid letting people find out how painful the treatment had been, Henry had no choice but to erase the burn marks. Henry began to pour the healing potion into Vulcanus’s mouth the same way he’d done with the poison.

As the potion passed through his esophagus, white steam began to rise as the burned area healed. The three watched as Vulcanus began to recover and heal completely.

“Sir, his skin is…!”

“I know.”

Vulcanus’s decaying skin regained its original color.

‘It worked…!’

The poison had been fully neutralized.

After Henry made sure that the poison was completely gone, he began to clean up the bowls and other things that had gotten dirty.

“Clean.”

Flash!

Henry washed the blanket, sheets, and clothes.

“Are you done?”

“Almost.”

However, just because the treatment was over did not mean that the whole process was complete. Henry took a bottle of liquid medicine from his pocket.

“What is that?”

“This is a special energy recovery potion I made.”

“Energy recovery potion?”

“This may sound cruel, but we have to leave this place soon. If Vulcanus takes too much time to recover his strength, he may not be able to work on the iron colt.”

“You’re planning to give him that potion to force him to recover?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that too cruel?”

“This was made with the master's method. There are no side effects and it’s very effective. I can’t even count how many ingredients are in this tiny bottle.”

“I guess, but… Okay.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Von shook his head and lifted his hands with his palms up, as if to show that he’d given up.

With a faint smile, Henry began to pour the energy recovery potion into Vulcanus’s mouth.

“That should do it. Hagler, grab Veham.”

“Alright.”

The whole process was finally complete. Veham heard that the treatment was complete and entered the room with the other doctors, looking surprised.

“Sir Henry! What do you mean? You’re done with the treatment?”

“I apologize, sir. I had no choice because the mayor suddenly had a seizure while I was examining him.”

“But still, how could you do that without our consent? What would you have done if anything had gone wrong?”

He was controlling his anger, but Henry could still see it. However, at that moment, Monsieur’s doctors looked startled as they examined Vulcanus.

“H-huh? There’s no way?”

“Am I seeing things?”

“Right? This has to be…”

Veham approached Vulcanus to assess the situation after seeing the doctors’ reactions. Right at that moment, Vulcanus opened his eyes.

“W-what!”

“M-mayor!”

“The mayor has woken up…!”

Everyone took a step back as if they had seen a ghost.

Vulcanus bolted upright and began to look around at the people in the hospital room.

“...Is this Heim?”

“N-no. This is Monsieur, mayor.”

“This isn’t Heim…?”

Heim was a kind of blessed afterlife that the Monsieur people believed in. With a blank stare, Vulcanus tried to get out of bed, but the secretary and the doctors rushed to stop him.

“M-mayor! You can’t get up. You have to recover your strength first…!”

“It’s okay, I know my body. I feel so refreshed, like I’ve woken up from hibernation.”

“M-mayor!”

They tried to stop him, but Vulcanus was too stubborn. He got out of bed and approached Henry and said, “I’m not sure who you are, but I sincerely thank you for saving my life.”

“It seems like you’re finally awake.”

“I apologize for showing my behavior earlier. I was hovering between life and death for several days, and I couldn’t hear or see things properly, but I clearly remember that you’re my savior.”

“No problem. Losing a man like you would be terrible for the empire. I only did what I had to do.”

“Empire? What’s your name?”

“My name is Henry Morris and I'm currently a vassal of the Shonan family.”

“Henry Morris!”

The name and the Shonan Patrician Family. There was a brief moment of surprise in his eyes at the strange juxtaposition. Vulcanus got down on one knee to show his respect.

“...I have a huge debt to the Shonan family. Thank you very much, Lord Henry.”

“No worries. There’s a lot of people here, please get up.”

Gorba Vulcanus was gracious, and his gesture of appreciation prevented others from disagreeing with Henry.

* * *

Despite the advice of the doctors and his secretary, Vulcanus refused further treatment. Henry and Vulcanus were able to talk in private at the office at Henry’s request.

“Th