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ED: LonelyMatter
Part 2
Dill was still hovering between life and death, and the prospects for his recovery remained slim. His parents believed in his recovery, but as a matter of fact, Katima did not.
She was convinced that if nothing was done, Dill would definitely pass away in the near future.
“Hmm-hmm. You’re sleeping well-nya.”
Despite this certainty, Katima’s face was not sorrowful when she arrived at the laboratory’s door. She smiled when she saw Dill on the gurney and reached out to touch him.
“Tomorrow, the users of healing magic will come. With the new treatment methods that Katima-sama knows, things will surely turn out well.”
“Hmm-nya… I’m sorry-nya, but at this point, healing magic is just a comforting thought-nya.”
“Then you have a more effective means?”
“I think so-nya. I heard from Arche-sama on the water train… so it might be effective-nya.”
“You heard about it, you say?”
Katima did not answer and shook her whiskers.
“Good heavens. After all the danger I went through-nya, I’m not going to accept it unless he gets better, right-nya? When he is healed, my talisman will be waiting for him again-nya.”
Before going to Ist, Katima asked Krone for a deal. The reason was that she wanted to save Ain and, at the same time, save Dill as well.
So she ran around the Tower of Wisdom and returned to the royal capital with a magic tool that could be used to heal Dill.
“Now, let’s get started, shall we-nya?”
“Understood! Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Mmm! I need you to take care of the injuries I’m going to get after this-nya!”
“I-injuries…? Please wait! What are you going to do?”
But Katima was unwilling to answer.
She quickly pushed the gurney to the back of the lab and stopped it in front of a large, bed-like magic tool with numerous tubes strung together.
Startled and waiting for a response, Varra was soon moving forward on her feet.
A physical wall appeared between them.
“What are you doing?”
It was a transparent wall, similar to glass.
“It was a barrier I had prepared just in case-nya. I was going to use it in case the experiment failed and I was in trouble-nya.”
“Then what did you──!”
“Don’t worry-nya. It will open in a few minutes-nya.”
Varra continuously pounded hard on the barrier, but there was no sign that it would open. Besides, Varra’s voice could not be heard. All that could be heard was the sound of the barrier being slammed.
Katima heard the sound and pulled out a small black stone from the pocket of her lab coat.
“Thanks to Oz, we can try this method-nya.”
This was the stone that was left in Oz’s hand.
Before leaving the Tower of Wisdom, the stone was removed from his hand.
“Nya! Nya! Nya! …..Wait, did I also have a talent for swordsmanship-nya?”
Then, she held up Chris’s rapier, which she had secretly borrowed.
From the outside, it was a strange dance, and the way she swung around made one question her sanity, but she just seemed to be enjoying herself, and there was a definite strength in her eyes.
“…..Okay, let’s do this-nya.”
The black stone was placed next to the empty magic stone on the desk right next to it, and the bandage covering Dill’s body was cut open with the rapier.
Facing the deep scar that remained, she kept her eyes down and bit her lip.
With renewed determination, Katima took a syringe from her pocket and injected it into Dill’s neck. Then, after a dozen seconds of silence──.
“──Katima… sama…?”
Dill woke up and weakly opened his mouth.
Seeing this, Katima brushes a lock of hair off her forehead with the tip of her hand.
“There’s a lot to talk about-nya. But Dill doesn’t have much time left-nya.”
The injection used earlier was a drug used to force him to wake up, and it was also burdensome to his body.
“If we don’t do something, Dill will die soon-nya.”
“…..”
“But there is one way to save your life-nya. It might have a great effect on Dill’s body-nya. But will──Dill still want to live-nya?”
Before her pair of eyes, Dill understood that he had fallen and could not stay by his lord’s side.
The reason for Ain’s absence here can be easily guessed by him, who had been loyal to him more than anyone else.
“…..My loyalty… has not… died yet.”
He was about to cry out in frustration. But he suppressed his emotions and clung to Katima’s words.
The hand that was about to reach out to Katima without any strength was supported by her.
“I understand-nya. …I have made up my mind too-nya…”
Determination. Before he could ask the true meaning of those words, Dill lost consciousness.
Katima confirmed this and forcefully pushed the empty magic stone into his wound. After that, she inserted the tubes extending from the magic tool into Dill’s entire body and finally inserted one tube into the empty magic stone.
“The research process of the artificial demon king has shown that when the core is linked to the magic stone, it will connect with the surrounding organs and begin to build a new body. However, the problem here is that──”
As a human, Dill does not have a core.
Even if the core was destroyed, the magic stone will continue to live on its own, so it was easy to prepare an empty magic stone. However, if the magic stone was destroyed, the core would also die.
At the same time, however, Katima had also thought of a way to break through this situation. As in the case of Arche’s resurrection, the black stone would serve as the core.
“The necessary circulation is carried out by this magic tool──It seems-nya. Sadly, I’m not as organized as I should be, so I’m just imitating the Oz device I saw once-nya. It seems that this is necessary in order to rebuild Dill’s body around the magic stone-nya.”
If possible, she wanted to hear for herself what Oz had told Chris in their fight when he was still alive.
The only thing Katima understood now was what she heard again. As she had told Varra earlier, she had only heard it on the water train back to the royal capital.
Katima relied on her past experience and knowledge to make it closer to Oz’s theory.
“At least he doesn’t look like a half-monster, so that’s a relief-nya.”
Whether this black stone was a finished product as Oz claimed, or because of the way it was applied to the subject remained to be seen. However, Katima’s research indicated that it was completely different from the one embedded in the half-monster.
──Rather, the unsettling factor would be the lack of magic stones in humans.
The theory that Oz had thought through was not intended for a pure human being, so it was not realistic to apply it to Dill.
“Katima-sama! Don’t do that!”
Varra’s voice, which should have been inaudible a moment ago, was heard.
The next thing she knew, the barrier had been broken by the knight. It seemed that Varra had called for them, but the cracked hole was still too small for anyone to enter.
“The study also recorded that it almost failed when the subject’s characteristics differed!”
“Nyahahaha, I know that-nya.”
“There have been no experiments between humans and other races! It’s only between monsters! Guard Dill is an ordinary human being…! The purpose of the artificially implanted empty magic stone is different in the first place!”
“…I know that too-nya.”
“Then please don’t do it! If you fail, there is the risk of being physically harmed!”
Having learned a lot since coming to the castle, Varra was also studying the research on the artificial demon king. She understood at a glance what Katima was trying to do.
That was why she stopped her. She knew that there was no chance of success.
──But.
“…Oh, it hurts more than I thought it would-nya… Nyahahahaha…”
Without stopping, Katima thrust the rapier against her own magic stone.
The blood and magic flowed out without stopping, and she hastily connected the tube to the wound.
…It’s okay now. I can lose my mind without a care. That’s what she thought.
And then, her body collapsed on top of Dill, who lay on the gurney, with a smile.
“──I didn’t mean to dismiss you as a helper.”
Katima let go of her consciousness, murmuring in a ladylike manner like a princess.
Whaaaaaaaaa
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