“Ah!”
My eyes widened as the girl fell to her knees, pressed her hands against the ground, and started shaking. Her expression of pain sent a jolt to my spine. I knew exactly what had happened.
Anger surged through me and caused my vision to go red.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” I shouted as I stormed out from behind the boulder.
“W-what?!” The girl tried to leap up in surprise, but her pain was such that all she did was fall onto her backside. She stared at me as I stormed up to her. Her pretty face paled, but she quickly recovered and glared at me. “Who are you? What are you doing here?!”
“Never mind me! What are you doing?!” I shouted.
“E-excuse me?!” The girl looked like she didn’t know whether to be confused or angry as I yelled at her. Part of me admitted that I was acting pretty irrationally, but I was seeing red by this point. “Who do you think you are to yell at me?! What gives you the right to scold me as though you’re my father?!”
I ignored her questions as I knelt before her, grabbed her left arm, and pulled the sleeve back.
It was just as I thought. Her entire wrist was completely black, and that blackness extended from her hand all the way up her arm. Given how stiff and awkward her movements had been, I wouldn’t be surprised if the blackness extended past her shoulder.
“Don’t look!” The girl snatched her arm back and covered it with her sleeve again. She glared at me as though I had gravely insulted her ancestors. “How dare you peek at a girl’s skin without her consent!”
“No! How dare you practice Spiritual Techniques when you’re clearly suffering from Spiritual Poisoning!” I roared back. “Have you no common sense, woman?! Everyone knows that you can’t practice Spiritual Techniques when your body has been poisoned like this! What were you thinking?!”
The woman stared at me with something akin to shock, her eyes growing wider with each word that left my mouth. I was breathing heavily by this point. Perhaps that was why I didn’t realize what had shocked her so bad.
“You… you know what’s wrong with my body?” she asked, her tone uncertain.
“Of course I do,” I muttered. “Anyone with a pair of fucking eyes would know what’s wrong with your body.”
I wasn’t normally one for swearing, but I was really angry. Didn’t anyone tell this woman not to practice Spiritual Techniques when she was suffering from Spiritual Poisoning? That was one of the most important rules when practicing Spiritualism! Also, why hadn’t anyone created the antidote yet? Judging from just what I’d seen of her arm, she was already at a stage where the poisoning could be potentially life threatening. Damn it! Even the antidote wouldn’t be enough to save her without using an advanced form of spiritual massage techniques now.
The woman eyed me carefully before speaking. “None of the elders in my family were able to figure out what was wrong with me. How is it that you know what’s afflicting me?”
“Huh? What do you mean? It’s obvious that you have Spiritual Poisoning. Isn’t that just common sense?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
The two of us stared at each other in uncertainty for several seconds. I went over the conversation we’d just had now, and I slowly came to realize something. It struck me like a Spiritual Lightning Technique.
Nevaria was behind the times. Their alchemy had yet to reach a stage where they could make antidotes to cure Spiritual Poisoning, which probably meant they didn’t even know what Spiritual Poisoning was. In which case, this girl and her family also wouldn’t know what it was or how to cure it.
I sat down and crossed my legs as this knowledge coagulated within my thoughts. After staring at the girl for several more seconds as I calmed down, I finally released a sigh.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get angry,” I said at last.
“It’s fine, I guess.” The girl paused, biting her lip. “Do you know what’s happening to me? You said I had Spiritual Poisoning. Is that what’s wrong with me?”
“May I see your arm again?” I asked in a soft voice.
The girl hesitated for a moment before rolling back her sleeve, sticking out her arm, and allowing me to examine her. I studied the black skin for a moment. It certainly looked like Spiritual Poisoning. Using Spiritual Perception, I sent my consciousness into her Spiritual Pathways, only to discover that they were completely blocked.
“That is definitely Spiritual Poisoning,” I muttered at last. “And it’s at an incredibly advanced stage too.”
“What is Spiritual Poisoning?” she asked.
Now that I was calmer, I was able to think more analytically. I answered her with the knowledge I had gained about one year after Kari had been killed by the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm.
“Spiritual Poisoning is what happens when your Spiritual Pathways are unable to cope with your own Spiritual Power, either because they are too small, or because you used a technique that your body wasn’t ready for.” I narrowed my eyes in thought. “It can also happen if you train too much. Basically, what’s happening inside of you right now is that your own Spiritual Power has coagulated inside of your Spiritual Pathways, clogging them up. If you try to use Spiritual Techniques, not only will they not work, but the Spiritual Power will get stuck inside of your pathways and agitate the problem, making things worse.”
The girl paled. “T-that sounds bad.”
“It is bad,” I almost snapped at her again, but I held myself back. I could already tell that what happened to her wasn’t her fault. “Not only do clogged Spiritual Pathways damage your body because your Spiritual Power is no longer circulating through them, but if the clogging persists, you will end up either crippled for life or you will die.”
The girl held a hand to her mouth, her already pale face paling further as all the blood drained from it. “You… are you being serious right now?”
“I am completely serious,” I said.
“I had no idea. No… no one knew what was happening.” The distraught girl stared at me with horror clear in her eyes. “T-the elders tried to force my Spiritual Pathways to unclog, but all that seemed to do was increase the pain I was in. I’ve been coming out here to try and unclog them myself, but…”
“But you haven’t had any luck.” I rubbed my face as she nodded. “Of course you wouldn’t have luck. You can’t unclog Spiritual Pathways with Spiritual Power. That just makes it worse.”
I grew silent for a moment as I thought about this girl’s situation, and now that my anger had completely dissipated, all I felt was sympathy. This girl was suffering from an affliction that no one in Nevaria understood. Given the level of alchemy this city state possessed, there was no one here who could even think of healing her.
Except for me.
“All right,” I sighed as I came to a decision. “Would you like me to heal you?”
My words startled the girl. “You know how to heal me?”
I nodded. “I’ve had Spiritual Poisoning before, so I know how to fix it.”
A determined gleam came to the girl’s eyes. I could tell from this look that she had a will of steel. It made me wonder what would have happened to her if I hadn’t found her.
“What do I need to do?” she asked.
“I’ll need you to get several medicinal ingredients,” I began as I uncrossed my legs and stood up. “I’ll create a list of the ingredients you need. Once you have them, I’ll have you come over to my place.”
“T-to your place?” she squeaked.
I furrowed my brow. “Is there a problem?”
A dark red blush sprang to her cheeks as I stared at her. She twiddled her fingers a little and looked away. “Well… it’s just that a woman coming over to a man’s place is kind of… couldn’t you do this at my family’s estate?”
“I could, but I’d rather not,” I admitted. “I’m trying to keep a low profile right now. I can tell from how pretty you are and how soft your skin is that you’r
e of noble lineage. I don’t have any desire to find myself in the hands of the nobility at this moment, and given how… involved the method of healing you is going to be, I’d prefer we do it where I know someone won’t be able to watch us.”
“I… see…” The girl seemed to be considering my words. Her blush hadn’t receded, but I could tell that she had calmed down by the way her pink lips were pursed into a frown. She took a deep breath, then released it. “If that is the case, then I will do as you say… just so long as you can cure my Spiritual Poisoning.”
I nodded. “Thank you. Now, let’s go. I need to write down those ingredients. The sooner you can buy them, the better.”
“R-right.”
The girl was about to stand up when I held out my hand. She looked at it for a moment before tentatively placing her hand in it, allowing me to pull her up. We were walking back toward Nevaria, and I was lamenting about how I hadn’t been able to practice any of my techniques today, but then I suddenly realized something.
“I never introduced myself,” I said, only slightly embarrassed. “My name is Eryk Veiger.”
The girl looked startled for a moment, but then she nodded.
“I’m called Fay,” she said in a soft, lyrical voice. “Fay Valstine.”
Chapter 8
Healing Fay
There was only one way to cure Spiritual Poisoning—at least, one way that I knew of. After returning to Nevaria, I traveled to the library, which I knew had some extra parchment, quills, and ink in storage. I wrote down a list of the ingredients she needed. After which, I gave her my address and told her to come over the moment she had them.
The ingredients were, quite fortunately, items that could be bought at the apothecary I’d gone to previously. I would have bought them myself; however, not only did I have to prepare my room to receive her, I only had around 12,500 valis left from when I sold the A-Rank Spiritual Lightning Technique and couldn’t afford to spend that much money.
Fay had been wearing clothes made of silk. While there were plenty of more expensive fabrics, I could tell from a single glance that the silk of her clothes was made from the high-quality threads of a Silk Worm, an F-Ranked Demon Beast that was harmless and often used to create fabrics for clothing. Silk made from a Silk Worm was expensive. That meant she came from a noble family or a successful merchant family and had more money than me.
Upon arriving home, the first thing I did was tidy up. My room wasn’t messy, but I also wouldn’t consider it clean, so I carried out a few basic tasks like sweeping the floor, dusting off my bookshelf, and airing out my mattress. Once I felt the room was at least somewhat suitable for a female presence, I began filling the bathtub with water.
Filling the bath was a pain. In. The. Ass. There were no pipes that carried water to this place, so I had to rely on slowly filling the tub manually. I carried a large bucket to the stream, filled it up, and then dumped it in the tub. It required over 130 trips to fill the tub up just once. That was enough to make me wonder if buying the bath was even worth it.
With the tub filled, all I could do was wait. I sat down on my bed and began going through basic circulation exercises, basically speeding up and slowing down the Spiritual Power running through my Spiritual Pathways. It wasn’t the most effective exercise to do. However, it helped stave off boredom and still let me do at least some training.
By the time evening rolled around, I began wondering if Fay was going to come at all, but just as this thought crossed my mind, a knock sounded at the door.
It was Fay.
“Um… I’m here,” she mumbled in a soft, delicate, and embarrassed voice.
Fay had changed clothes. Instead of a tunic, she was wearing a dark green robe that contrasted with her hair and matched the color of her eyes. The robe was made from high-quality silk like her tunic. Patterns danced along the surface in glittering gold. I recognized them as runes, but it didn’t look like these runes served any purpose other than decoration.
“Come on in.” I opened the door further and allowed her to step inside. She did so after several seconds of hesitation. As I closed the door behind her, I asked, “Do you have the ingredients?”
“Y-yes, I do.” She held out several bags to me. I took them from her and looked inside each bag, nodding only after I had confirmed that she had everything I needed.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “You can sit on the bed if you want. Preparing these pills is going to take a while.”
“Pills?” Fay’s eyelids fluttered. “You mean alchemy pills?”
“That’s right.” I moved over to where my alchemy set was stored, undid the latches, and began setting everything up. “There are several steps that we must do in order to cure your Spiritual Poisoning. The first step involves having you ingest a pill called a Spirit Cleansing Pill. What it does is travel through your pathways and break up the Spiritual Power that is clogging them. Well, I say it ‘breaks up the Spiritual Power,’ but it’s more like it loosens the power clogging your pathways, which will allow me to break it up for you.”
Fay had already moved over to the bed, where she sat with her knees together, hands on her lap. She was staring at me with an expression of fascination. This was likely the first time she’d ever heard of a pill like this. From what I understood right now, alchemy was something of a joke to the people of Nevaria.
These people had never seen true alchemy before.
“I’ve never heard of a pill that could do something like that,” she murmured. “What is the next step?”
“After the pill takes effect, I will use my own Spiritual Power to remove the rest of the Spiritual Power that’s blocking your Spiritual Pathways.” Fay opened her mouth, but I spoke before she could say anything. “The method for removing the clogged Spiritual Power is not something that just anyone can do. First, it requires someone who understands everything there is to know about Spiritual Poisoning. Second, the method involves massaging the affected area and pouring my Spiritual Power into you through skin contact.”
“S-skin contact?” Fay’s cheeks flushed a deep red, and I understood that she knew exactly what I was talking about.
“There’s still time for you to back out,” I said softly. “If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to do this. However, if you want to live, I recommend never using your Spiritual Power again. If you don’t resolve this issue now, even attempting to use your Spiritual Power will eventually end with you being either crippled or killed.”
I hadn’t said anything about the process of curing her because, to be honest, I hadn’t been thinking about it at the time. The only thing on my mind had been helping her. However, now that we were here, at this stage, I knew that what was required to cure her might be too much. All I could do was give her the choice to refuse.
Fay was silent for a long moment, and then, slowly, she shook her head. “I can’t afford to do that. I need to get stronger.”
In the face of such determination, all I could do was nod. “Okay then. I’m about to begin refining the pills we need.”
“All right. I’ll try not to disturb you,” Fay said.
“Thanks.”
My alchemy set was all set up, so the first thing I did was fill the 500 mL flask halfway with water. Then I lit a fire underneath it using a ceramic plate and some flint to bring the water to a boil. Once that was done, I grabbed one of the ingredients, wind raccoon bone shavings, and set them into the flask. I waited several seconds for each of the shavings to become fully submerged in the water before inserting another. Five shavings were required for this.
Once that was done, I grabbed another ingredient. A monster core from a C-Rank Demon Beast with a water element. It looked like a blue orb with ripple patterns on it. Setting the core on the mortar, I grabbed the pestle and began the process of breaking it down. The core cracked with each strike of my pestle. Finally, after about two minutes, it shattered, allowing me to grind the core up into a fine powder.
By this po
int in time, the bone shavings had completely dissolved into the water, turning it into a bright green liquid. I took a pinch of the monster core powder and sprinkled it inside of the flask. Then I did it again. I did this until all the powder was gone, and then mixed the two ingredients together in the water. The liquid went from bright green to a palish cyan.
As I worked, I noticed Fay staring at me with unbridled curiosity.
“You look like you have a question,” I said, not stopping my work even as I spoke. Timing was important in alchemy. If you let the ingredients sit too long, it would ruin them. “Are you curious about how alchemy works?”
Fay seemed startled at first, but then she nodded. “I’ve never seen someone do alchemy before. While I’ve never been very interested in it, watching you work has made me a little curious, especially if this can truly help cure my Spiritual Poisoning.”
“I suppose I can understand your feelings.” I stopped talking for a moment, filled up the 250 mL beaker to about a quarter full, and then brought the water inside to a boil. While I was mashing up the next ingredient, nirnroot, I began talking. “Alchemy is all about learning how different ingredients interact with each other, and then finding the right mixture to create various effects. These effects can be wide and varied. For example, the Spirit Cleansing Pill I’m making for you.”
“What kind of other pills can you make?” she asked.
“A lot.” I laughed. “Too many to name.”
I would never consider myself an expert alchemist. It wasn’t something I had studied in depth, so my knowledge would only be at the intermediate level in Midgard. I’d be what people called an adept. That said, I’d probably be considered a master in Nevaria.
“However, to give you an example, I recently created a Three-Way Spiritual Widening Pill. You see that bag over on the shelf? Take a look inside.”
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 1 Page 12
