Having bid a tearful farewell to Dawn and her assistant after being release from the meeting, I went back to the shed first. Digging out the hidden shelf in the table, I hid the colorful jar of sugar candies they slip me into it.
Each one encased with translucent wrapping that gleam with rainbow hue, in this day and age, something like this likely cost a fortune. Olivia and Amber turned a blind eye to me receiving it but still stole a handful each from the jar despite each receiving other departure gifts from Dawn as well.
Childish! All of them!
Ahem...
Plopping one candy in my mouth, I stop to drone over the details a bit more. Now that I am finally more aware of the true tycoon that Dawn is, it make a lot more sense why she was able to curry favor with the Royal family through me.
She worked for the Aurelia guild - one of the currently fastest growing merchant in Meelani. Later in the novel, they became the peace keeper in numerous regions when disasters started breaking out. The Guildmaster - Orion Aurelius consequently became the arrowhead of humanity, his mass wealth and resources turned into a safe bastion in time of need.
Dawn I guess is a trustworthy commissioner who happens to become buddy with the Laurel family's heiress, the Guildmaster must had permit the overflowing spending of wealth and research to exchange a favor to have an audience with Hycarpo's Royal family.
Tucking in my system rewards along with the jar, I sadly could get back the potion? vial Selinus has confiscated. The four other rewards are semi... useless, kind of...
An [Acorn of Geology] - Crack the shell and burry the nut under ground. After 5 minutes, dug it up and see the change in color. It is said you can sorta tell the ground's material composition.
A [Snowy Compass of Consecration] - Amidst snow and ice, it pins and spins will direct you toward... a guiding light?
A handful of [Powder of Whirlwinds] - If you throw some it in the air with some mana, a breeze might blew by.
A [Lamp of Cheating] - Shine it upon a problem unsolved, nine of ten flash unlit shadow cast, fill me with precious of wealth and faith, upon acceptant burning answer remain.
Except the last ones being slightly more useful when I go to the Academy, all of them are F and G rank items. The one item that is useful to me right now is stuck in Selinus hands. It is still nothing too helpful for my circumstances but... it is for my aching muscles.
[Beige Oil of the Plain] - Extracted from the common herbs and fruits of the plain, it is commonly use among the mass as a simple remedy for muscle soreness, occupational pains and sometime a folk cure for colds and flu.
The maids still help me massage my body every once in a while but other than the black sludge, I an not allowed to consume or use anything medicinal that could potentially interact badly with the anesthesia since the operation itself is very experimental.
So. While the professional get there hands on to practice, prepare and test run the surgeries, I started to look deeper into my body's conditions once the timer of my skill reset. I hung the secret compartment back into the old desk.
Last time, the sight of the parasite like poison trigger this body so hard that I couldn't manage to pay attention to anything else. Not to mention the horrid flashback of something that shouldn't be there in both mine and Amelia's memory.
Rot. Fire. Blood. Death.
None of these things should show itself in a life of a pampered noble lady, especially not one belonging to this estate.
To mention anything else that I can recall, it would be the burning sensation on my arms spreading all the way up to my neck as if cracking, breaking, being pulled apart into pieces. More than anything, that make me fervently more conscious of this body most troubled part, making my thoughts spin and spiral.
_______
Effect Activation
[ The Things Under My Skin ] A map of your inner world. Witness how you body work with your own eyes. {Cooldown time: 1 week}
_______
...
'Just as I thought...'
Bloody lines taggled and caught on one another, sticking to other vessel as if melting onto each other. Some parts stretched beyond recognition, looping unnaturally between overlapping lines.
There are two sets of line running in parallels, one red in color, the other showing a faint white-ish gray. The red blood veins were more or less intact, some part clearly was snapped off and healed over and over again. Some spots still lay faint trace of the poison, littering with purple spots. The same could be said for the rest of the body.
When it come to the other parts however, the white-ish gray line on both arms are almost entirely smashed to bits. A few smaller lines barely held on by a hair's breath, but working as intended is out of the question.
In the main part where all the organs lay, these lines are also in rough shape, parts where the poison clawed, it shut down, circling the body roughly with each heartbeats. If I need to compare, my right hand is in a much worser shape than my left.
These are definitely mana circuits. The reason I was told to constantly try and circulate mana through my body to keep it from shutting down completely.
Despite not being no medical professional, I can judge that right side might never fully recover from this incidents. To a child barely a decade old, what kind of monster could be so cruel to exact this kind of sin and get away with it.
Tsk...
Poisonous vermins, I tells you!
From the adult's open and close conversation, I can be sure to anticipate numerous 'interventions' surgeries, working down from the major arteries for poison control to patching up bits and pieces until all is done and dusted.
This is gonna suck ass.
Being cursed might be better than whatever this is. Maybe? Fact check?
Eh...Probably not...
******
While I get back to sorting herbs from this morning, someone knocked on the door. I sent the maids away after they deliver my meal and medicine to get some alone time and slowly digest information. They did come back earlier to clean up so I reckon this isn't them.
Selinus would just barged in, the Duchess and sister usually announced themself while that Louis just silently walk in, stare at me for a while then leave.
" Who is it?" I asked.
"Uhm... We..." The first voice sounded hesitantly, but no words could follow after the first letter that came out. Before I could keep asking, I could hear multiple whispers- or attempted whispers talking over each other.
I stand wait from behind the door a bit, dusting off the dried leafy bits on my dress as I listen in on them. Oh. Those voices...
*Creak*
I crack the door open to see the small battalion standing outside of my shed door, each looking like they came straight out of a children's fashion magazine for gifted appearance.
They are my cousins. Speaking on both my age term and parents age term, I am absolutely the bottom of the barrow, being both youngest and coming from the youngest son. But as this youngest son is also the De facto and the De Jure of the family, my position is... probably not that much better.
" Um, Amelia, can we come inside and play with you?" One of them spoke up, catching me off guard a bit.
Realizing I might have stood there staring at them for a bit, I step aside and let them into the shed. Each of them finding their own seats with ease, as if all too familiar with this place.
What exactly are they doing here?