At the same time, in Farcorners, inside a desolate abandoned house, the former smith's apprentice Luf paced back and forth in obvious tension, glancing out the window from time to time to make sure everything was still clear.
Luf had once thought he was already fairly strong.
That belief lasted until he met the boss, who was younger than him yet even taller.
On his second night staying at the smithy, he had been unable to sleep. By chance, he overheard the boss chatting with Angoulême and learned the secret behind his strength:
daily exercise, and a vigor tonic.
Especially the vigor tonic.
Not the watered-down kind shared with everyone in the smithy, but the pure, rich, fragrant concentrate that only Angoulême and the boss drank.
Taken over a long period, it could strengthen the body and give him what he longed for most of all—
the power to change everything and avenge the blood-deep hatred in his heart.
That obsession inside Luf, the one that could never be erased, came from the girl he had grown up with and loved. They had been taken by pirates together back then. After that, Luf had been sold to Novigrad, and he had no idea where she was now.
So if he wanted to save the love of his life, he had to pass the brutal trial with the boss's help and become a witcher, a being beyond ordinary men.
...
That afternoon, although the abandoned house was old and shabby, all four walls were still sound. Victor, Angoulême, and Luf stood by the wall with brushes in hand, a bucket of paint at each of their feet.
"Let me explain. This stuff is called sound-dampening paint. Brush it over the walls and it can effectively keep noise from leaking outside," Victor said. "Also, even though you already left the smithy and made your choice, I still think there wasn't enough time last night for me to explain everything properly. So we still need to talk a bit more. We'll work while we talk."
As he spoke, Victor took the lead in demonstrating how to brush the paint onto the wall. Angoulême silently followed suit, and Luf hurried to do the same.
"First of all, this is where I'll be carrying out your Trial of the Grasses. The trial is expected to last seven days. During that time, we'll have you tied to the birthing bed we moved into the middle of the room.
That's because during the trial, the incomparable agony will make you thrash wildly and scream with such force it could shake the heavens. That's also why we're painting the walls now. No point disturbing the neighbors."
"Boss, I can endure it!" Luf said loudly.
Victor's voice remained calm and resolute. "No. You can't. Trust me. You'll scream as helplessly as a maiden being made into a woman, or as shrilly as a woman being made into a mother.
The pain in your cries would make even the bravest man tremble.
That's what the books say, anyway. I've never seen it myself and never been through it, but I'd say it's worth taking seriously."
Luf silently accepted that and did not argue, continuing to paint.
"And after enduring that pain, what you gain is what I already told you yesterday: a long life, enduring youth, great strength, extraordinary senses. I trust that should be enough to solve your troubles."
"Yes! Boss, it'll definitely be enough."
"However, once you succeed, in return you must allow me to observe and study your body, so long as I cause no permanent harm.
And even if you fail, you have already agreed that I may dissect your corpse to determine the cause of death and the reason for the failure."
"I understand." Luf nodded repeatedly.
Working together, the three of them quickly finished one wall. The sound-dampening paint was black, and once the entire wall had been coated, the room took on a distinctly eerie air.
Without stopping, they moved straight on to the next wall.
"Good. Next question: you must answer honestly. Do you have any hidden illnesses? Does seafood make you feel unwell? Do any elders in your family suffer from chest pains?
Also, in the past fifteen days, aside from the salves and supplements I gave you, have you taken any other medicine or alchemical tonics? These questions are important. Think carefully before you answer."
"I don't have any other illness. Seafood doesn't make me feel sick. None of my elders have chest pains," Luf answered quickly, then his brush suddenly slowed.
He hesitated for quite a while before continuing to paint.
"I'm sorry. I secretly drank some of the undiluted vigor tonic. I saw you mixing it into the bottles everyone drank from. I knew it was good for the body, that it could make me stronger. I'm sorry."
At that, Angoulême's temper flared instantly, her brows shooting up as she prepared to explode, but Victor merely glanced at her and shook his head.
His voice remained light, and his brush never stopped moving.
"It's fine. Go on. Anything else?"
Luf answered quietly, "Nothing else."
"Mm. That's fine. The vigor tonic won't affect the Trial of the Grasses. If anything, drinking it is probably a good thing. It should improve your chances at least a little.
Don't look so miserable. Put yourself in my place. If I were carrying a blood feud on my back, dragged to a smithy by a boss whose morals I couldn't read, desperate to grab any chance to become stronger, I might have done the same.
That said, the vigor tonic only keeps your body healthy and makes training more effective. It really wouldn't have been worth getting caught for it."
Luf dropped to his knees at once. "I'm sorry. I truly had no other way—"
"Get up," Victor said coldly. "I don't need your apology. This is simply fate bringing us together, and both of us getting what we want.
Master Kalkstein was right. The moment I made this potion, I really did want to know whether it would work, and I really did want to find someone to test it on...
I just hope the second half of his prophecy doesn't come true."
Victor did not continue after that.
What was the second half of the prophecy?
Luf did not dare ask.
Angoulême did not ask either.
The Skelliger boy rose shakily and continued painting.
...
That night, all four walls had been painted black, and even the ceiling had been coated. Oil lamps hung everywhere, filling the room with bright light.
Luf was tied to the birthing bed in the middle of the room.
Of course, it was not actually a real birthing bed, though its overall design was quite similar.
Its purpose was simply to hold Luf firmly in place, so that his frantic struggling would not injure himself or others. Since they had needed it on short notice and had been unable to find anything more suitable, this bed had been borrowed from Crippled Kate's.
Don't ask why Crippled Kate's had a birthing bed.
That was for entertainment.
And don't ask why Victor knew that.
That was a secret.
In any case, with Victor doing most of the work and Angoulême assisting, they bound the Skelliger boy tightly and securely to the bed.
Victor stood beside it, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the immobilized test subject.
"Luf, this is your last chance. Your very last chance to change your mind.
I'm reminding you one more time: you are about to endure seven straight days of agony.
And I'm warning you plainly, the success rate is somewhere between forty and fifty percent. Not higher.
If you fail, dying on the spot would be the luckiest outcome. More likely, you'll end up paralyzed, deformed, or mindless and insane. No matter which happens, you will remain my test subject until I finish examining you, after which you will be disposed of promptly."
In the dark room, the flickering firelight played across Victor's face, half in light and half in shadow. His voice was cold and clear.
"I truly am sincerely reminding you once again that you still have a choice.
If you say no now, I'll let you go.
Of course, trust has already been broken, so I can't take you back into the smithy.
But I really will let you walk away. I'll even give you a pouch of crowns so you can live without worry for a while.
Our meeting wasn't meaningless, and you haven't caused me any real damage. So just say no. Say it now, and I'll let you go."
As he said those words, Victor looked properly at Luf's face for the first time.
When they had first met, his face had been badly scraped from hauling across the deck, and after that Victor had never really paid much attention to him.
But now that he looked closely, the boy was actually rather handsome. The few scars did nothing to diminish that. Maybe he really did have the face of a protagonist.
Luf nodded firmly. "I'm sure! I won't regret it. I want to undergo the Trial of the Grasses!"
"Heh... Let me give you a nickname."
That abrupt turn left Luf staring blankly, though Angoulême was already used to it.
"You're Luffy now. Trust me. With a name like that, it won't be long before you pass the Trial of the Grasses, become a witcher, return home to take revenge, rescue the woman you love, rise to the top of life, and show her just how formidable you've become. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?"
Angoulême rubbed her nose and said nothing. Luf gave a wry smile.
"All right. I'm Luffy."
Victor lifted a bowl of green supporting medicine to Luffy's lips.
"Then drink this, and begin your voyage to the Grand Line!"
After feeding him the oral medicine, Victor inserted a tube into his arm. The air seemed to tremble as the new green Grass Draught flowed silently into his veins. Wherever it passed, the green liquid and red blood mixed into a murky brown-black, and Luffy immediately began convulsing and shuddering from the pain, the kind that sank all the way into the marrow.
At Victor's signal, Angoulême stuffed a towel into his howling mouth, while Victor steadily continued injecting the Grass Draught into his limbs.
A mysterious foul stench suddenly filled the room.
Luffy had lost control of both his bowels and bladder, returning fully to his most primitive self.
The alchemist gave a bitter smile. This really was his first time, and he truly lacked experience. He should have given the test subject an incredibly strong laxative beforehand and made him empty himself first.
Then again, the sight before him was both spectacular and unbearable. But it could not simply be left alone. That would risk cross-infection.
Fortunately, it only had to be cleaned up once. After that, there was nothing left in him to expel.
...
Once everything had been cleaned, Victor returned to the bedside and examined the test subject closely.
"Not bad," he said to Angoulême, who stood guard nearby. "The rejection reaction in the first stage isn't too obvious. He didn't die immediately. Looks like the name Luffy really does bring good luck.
Ah, as expected of the man who'll become the Pirate King."
The troupe member shot the captain a sidelong look and ignored his nonsense.
Victor explained, "He's breaking out in a cold sweat and his complexion is starting to turn faintly green. That's the first stage of the Grass Draught. It breaks open the body's natural limits.
This stage is the most painful, because it's hard for a person to push past their own limits. But he has to break through within three days, or his body will collapse."
The girl stiffened and turned to look at the boy. His expression was very serious.
"Then it takes two days for the body to bond with the mutagens. After that, it takes another two days for those changes to start functioning normally.
He'll make it through the first stage. His will seems strong. His story must have been quite moving."
Angoulême smiled. "Do you want to hear it? I can tell you the short version."
"No. I don't want to know. If I know too much about a test subject, it'll affect my ability to stay in a good mood and make correct judgments.
Let's go. At this point, he can only endure it on his own. There's nothing we can do."
"I thought someone needed to stay and watch him."
"No need. Watching him suffer won't let us do anything, and it'll only sour our mood. This process is a lonely one.
There are only two possibilities when he regains consciousness. One is total success: he opens his eyes as a witcher. The other is total failure: he gets one last moment of lucidity before he dies.
If he succeeds, the earliest that can happen is seven days from now. If he fails, it could happen at any time.
So let's go eat pierogi. I feel like pierogi tonight."
Victor pushed Angoulême out the door first. Before leaving, he cast one last glance at Luffy, who was still struggling and whimpering on the bed.
"Hang in there, Pirate King!"
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