Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“You fool, if you really thought I was the culprit, you should have tucked your tails and disappeared immediately. You should have pretended to be dead, hid yourselves, and built up your strength until you could at least fight a battle against the House of Moner.”
The elf, with her head bowed, bit her lip in misery and remained silent.
“Even if I were the culprit, did you think you could dare to hold the young duke of the House of Moner responsible? The master of the Forest of Demonic Beasts?”
In the first place, the western forest was Moner territory.
They had only tacitly tolerated their existence, following the will of the previous duke who had accepted the elves who had fled all the way to the western forest from across the continent.
There was an unbridgeable gap between the elves of the western forest and the House of Moner.
It was unlikely, but if the House of Moner were to begin its march towards the western forest, the dark elves, who were merely a single tribe, would not last a single day.
Ian's mocking words spread calmly, and a drop of red blood trickled from between the elf's bitten lips, as if to express her helplessness.
“But the western forest is Moner territory. Whether you acknowledge it or not, as long as you live on Moner land, I consider you a part of the House of Moner. So let’s make a deal.”
Ian looked at the elf with cold eyes.
Her mouth was shut, but her thoughts would not have changed.
In the first place, if it were a suspicion that could be changed with a few words, she wouldn't have crawled all the way here.
For now, it was enough to just plant the seed of doubt.
“Go back and ask your holy and divine World Tree. How the elf hunters found you.”
“The World Tree does not speak falsehoods.”
The elf said in a voice that held not a shred of doubt.
“It was the will of the World Tree that I came here.”
“It probably thought you would go berserk and die. Or perhaps it was hoping for a war to break out between the House of Moner and the western forest, if it was lucky. Did the World Tree really say that I was the culprit?”
The elf, with her head bowed, trembled in seething anger and humiliation.
Blood trickled from between her clenched fists, which were restrained by the knight.
“No. It told me to head here to find the answer.”
“Right. The information that it wasn't me would also be an answer. For a tree that is said to support the world, that’s a petty method.”
“That’s impossible!”
The elf, who had lifted her head, looked at Ian with murderous eyes and screamed as if in despair.
“Of course, it would be hard to believe. Especially since it’s me who’s saying it. Now, go back and ask the World Tree. After that, take off your robe and come back to visit me formally. Let’s share our names then.”
Ian brought his face close and roughly grabbed her swollen face with his hand.
“Keep this in mind. This is a deal. If you want to convey even a single word, a single letter to me, you must abide by the terms of the deal. Asking the World Tree is first, and after that, you will have to bring the entire dark elf ranger unit.”
I didn't know how this seed would grow.
They could obediently die and become nutrients for the world as the World Tree willed, they could draw their bows and swords against the World Tree, or they could finally come to the House of Moner to live their lives free from the shadow of the World Tree.
‘It doesn’t matter what they choose.’
Unlike the elves who betrayed humans and joined the great monster army, the few surviving dark elves in the game fought alongside humans until the end.
If I could save the dark elves now, it would mean gaining a large force that I could move at will, so I had taken the chance.
I had nothing to lose but the time I had spent facing the dark elf.
“I hope you return with a useful fruit.”
Letting go of his hand and pushing the elf away, Ian waved his hand at the knight and ordered him to drive the elf out.
Thus, Akasha, the dark elf of the western forest who had visited the House of Moner to hold them responsible, left the domain in the middle of the night as if she were being chased out.
* * *
Returning to his room, Ian sat in a stiff posture and stared at the medicine laid out before him.
“Hoo… Reina.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Just in case… really, just in case……”
It was something he had already steeled himself for, but his mouth wouldn't open.
After hesitating for a long time, he was finally able to utter his last request.
“If I… if I soil myself, please take care of it……”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Reina replied with an unwavering, bright expression.
At the embarrassing request, Ian felt his ears burn and lowered his head, vowing to make everyone who had poisoned him suffer the same humiliation.
‘Ha… this is really fucking ridiculous.’
Ian's eyes shook violently as he looked at the medicine before him.
For the first time since transmigrating into Ian's body, his mind felt paralyzed by fear.
“What is this?”
He answered Reina’s question with a trembling voice.
“A stimpack.”
Stimpack.
A potion made from a mixture of a tree branch blessed by the elves, the common-as-potatoes Denian leaf, and the fruit Mokdamgwa that grew all over the Forest of Demonic Beasts, it was an acceleration potion that allowed the consumer to move faster.
Players who discovered that in the process, the speed of healing and the removal of curses or poisons also accelerated, believed that the stimpack was one of the hidden pieces for balance adjustment.
“What is a stimpack?”
“It’s a kind of acceleration potion. It’s effective for all treatments, so it’s more often used as a healing potion.”
‘Though it’s a medicine that no one knows of at this time.’
“Is this a healing potion?”
Reina looked at the unsightly potion on the plate with a surprised expression.
A potion that cost several hundred gold per person was usually infused with the holy power of a priest, but the black potion on the plate, from its color alone, did not seem to have any relation to the gods.
“Yes. It heals diseases or injuries that can be cured with natural healing power much faster.”
Ian looked at the stimpack, which looked just like a poison, with a heavy heart.
‘The problem is that the pain is a lump sum.’
The only drawback of the stimpack was that as the natural healing power surged, so did the pain.
He had to feel seven days of pain in 24 hours.
“Hoo…….”
After letting out a sigh, he looked around.
The preparations were complete.
Dozens of antidotes and painkillers were in the censer, and all sorts of poisons he had prepared and the stimpack were neatly laid out on the desk.
Now, after he drank those poisons and the stimpack, Reina would bind his whole body with chains to prevent him from having a seizure or giving up halfway.
“Alright, let’s begin.”
Ian's voice trembled with fear.
He controlled his breathing and, following the Ghost Absorption Method, slowly moved the mana that was near the mana hole in his lower abdomen.
Focusing on the breath of the Ghost King, which increased poison resistance and reduced pain, Ian poured the medicines into his mouth one by one and muttered out of habit.
“This is really, fucking great.”
His mouth tasted incredibly bitter.
* * *
“Kkeuaaaaaak!”
For over 20 hours now, Reina had been pacing in front of the door, waiting for her master.
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
Her master, who had said that only the last two hours would be a little difficult, had started screaming as soon as he left the room with the chains on.
She remembered how he had reassured her with trembling eyes that it would be okay, but even though her heart ached, there was nothing she could do.
All she could do was trust her master and wait until the end.
“Yiaaaaaaaaak!”
She wanted to go in right now and stop his pain.
She wanted to tell him that he didn’t need treatment, that it was okay to just live, and reassure him.
But that was not what he wanted.
Like children who suddenly grow up, like butterflies that suddenly emerge from their cocoons, her master wanted to change.
Therefore, she too had to change, so that she could stay by his growing side.
“Keoheok! Keuk! Rei… Reina!”
Bang!
The sound of her master banging on the door brought her out of her thoughts, and she asked towards the other side of the door with a sorrowful smile.
“Yes, Young Master.”
“The medicine, the medicine……”
There was no bell to call a servant like before, and the door was locked with a chain from the outside.
Ian's orders before taking the medicine were simple.
To not open the door under any circumstances unless he said the correct code phrase.
“Yes, I’ll open it for you now. How are you feeling, Young Master?”
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
While listening to the sound of him banging on the door and his desperate screams, unable to even answer, for a long time, Reina slid down and sat in front of the door.
‘Just two more hours…….’
If he didn't say the code phrase correctly, she was not to open the door under any circumstances for 24 hours.
To remove all personnel from this floor, and to not let anyone in.
She might be hated for not opening the door after the treatment was over.
He might even never see her again.
‘If I open it now, he’ll be disappointed again. And in the end, he’ll be in even more pain.’
Like two weeks ago, when he had ultimately failed to detoxify.
Just as he, who had failed then, was now suffering in there.
So, even though a part of her heart ached with the fear that her master might hate her, she faithfully followed his orders.
‘It’s okay to be hated. It’s fine.’
As she sat on the floor, calming her trembling heart, a familiar maid approached and relayed a message.
“The regent and the personal physician wish to come up.”
Was her name Lina?
A cute-looking girl whom Ian had suddenly introduced before taking the medicine.
Reina stood up and greeted her with a smile.
“I told you, you can speak comfortably? I’m of the same status……”
“The Duke said to treat you, Lady Reina, as you would him.”
Feeling the warmth of Ian's heart in those words, Reina smiled faintly.
“Tell the regent and the baron to wait.”
“They heard that the Duke is having a seizure and said they are coming up right now……”
“The Young Master said not to open the door under any circumstances unless the Duke returns or there is a war. If they insist, tell them to come in person.”
Ian had said that if anyone opened the door without heeding his orders, he would kill them regardless of their reason or rank.
He had personally sent a handwritten letter to the regent and the baron, so those two would not dare to open the door either.
“Kkeuaaaaaak!”
Lina, who was about to turn and leave, flinched at Ian’s scream that came at that moment.
“Will the Duke… be alright? Baron Malfoyeu said that if he doesn't receive treatment right now, his life might be in danger… Ah, I’m not saying I don’t trust the Duke……”
“He will definitely be fine.”
After bowing to Reina, who nodded with conviction, Lina went down to relay the message to the regent and the baron.
* * *
“Haa… haa……”
How many seizures had it been?
Hundreds of times, he had writhed on the floor like a caterpillar, lost consciousness, and then woken up to the pouring pain.
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
He knew it wouldn't be easy.
It was a drug that brought about a bad ending just by existing.
It was natural that getting rid of it wouldn't be easy.
That was why he had created far more safety measures than he thought necessary, and had even consumed hundreds of poisons and filled the room with the scent of a mixture of all sorts of medicinal and poisonous herbs to neutralize the pain.
But the pain he faced was far beyond the worst-case scenario.
This wasn't physical pain.
It felt as if both his body and mind were crumbling from the pain that was tearing his soul to pieces.
‘This is a game, this is a game. I am Ian de Moner. The scoundrel of the Moner family, hated by all.’
In the midst of the endless pain, all he could do was stare at the status window and repeat the same words endlessly in his mind to hold on to the crumbling pieces of his ego.
“Keuheuheuheu……”
How much time had passed?
It definitely felt like a week had passed.
No matter how slowly time flowed, it was clear that several days had passed, but the firmly shut door showed no signs of moving.
If Reina had not been outside, if she hadn't soothed him with her gentle voice every time he was about to give up, he would have given up a hundred times over.
“Ah……”
At some point, the pain that he had felt all over his body disappeared in an instant.
Soon after, he heard the sound of a chain being unlocked from outside with a sreureuk.
“Reina!”
“Yes, Young Master. How are you feeling?”
At the voice that had comforted him when he was about to collapse in despair several times, a wave of relief washed over him, and he smiled and said the pre-arranged code phrase.
“Fantastically happy.”
The system announced the completion of the quest, and with the sound of her laughter from outside the door, Ian’s eyelids closed.