Ch.237Tale of the Past: Olivia Eleonora – 3

It had been three days since Abel’s Magic Tower received a gift that wasn’t quite a gift.

“How’s the condition, Abel?”

“Still the same. Blank stare, no response, but not dead either.”

“Have you done a thorough examination?”

“I used up all the scrolls you gave me. Nothing unusual. No magic circles embedded in her head, nothing strange inside her body. Even if I wanted to be more suspicious, there’s nothing to be suspicious about. At most, it might be some kind of brainwashing.”

Helena was in the external quarters where Abel had brought the girl. She visited almost daily, making it essentially a regular check-up.

She claimed it was because she needed to avoid any incidents if she wanted to become the next tower master, but everyone in the tower knew that wasn’t her real reason.

“So at least she’s not a human bomb? She’s just a girl who’s… um… well… injured?”

Helena stumbled over her words, unable to find the right term for the girl. Abel nodded.

“You could say that. If this girl isn’t a human bomb or some kind of trap, I have no idea why they gave her to us.”

“Hmm… that’s strange. Those people wouldn’t give us anything normal.”

“Oh, but there was one peculiar thing.”

“What is it?”

“There were traces of magic having been used on her body. Residual mana reacted around her wounds. I tried to identify what kind of magic it was, but it was too faint to tell.”

“Was it so faint you couldn’t even tell when it was cast? You could calculate that by measuring the mana consumption and working backward.”

“I already tried that. It seems to have happened shortly before they sent us the letter about giving us a gift. Something definitely happened.”

“……”

Helena fell into thought.

With no magic circles drawn on her and nothing strange inside her body, the possibility of her being a human bomb was close to zero. It seemed safe enough to move her to the tower for proper treatment now.

But the mention of traces of magic on her body was concerning. Especially since it had apparently been cast right before they sent her as a “gift.”

It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious until they understood what was going on. Though it was a bit annoying that Abel would have to spend more time alone with the girl, Helena could just visit frequently.

“You still don’t want to move her to the tower, Abel?”

Helena pointed at the girl. She was lying blankly on the bed, her left side wrapped in bandages. There was still no life in those purple pupils. Her hair spread in all directions, giving an eerie impression.

The bed was soaked with blood and pus that had seeped from her wounds, as were the bandages. This was despite Abel changing them about every two hours. A foul smell permeated the air.

“Her condition is too unstable to use healing magic, and we still don’t know what magic was used on her. If we’re not careful, she could die.”

There was a kind of secret healing magic shared only among mages, but it worked by consuming the target’s vitality to boost their natural healing ability to the extreme.

In her weakened state, using healing magic recklessly could kill her if she couldn’t withstand the backlash. That was why they had left the wounds untreated until now.

“…Well, if it gets too difficult, let me know. I can take shifts.”

“A girl who can’t even cook properly wants to nurse someone? Aren’t you being a bit too ambitious?”

“You really have to say everything, don’t you! And here I was trying to be nice!”

Helena smacked Abel’s back with her hand. There was a thudding sound. Abel took the hits as he saw her off. After one final slap on his back, she left through the door.

Outside, fellow mages from the tower were waiting for Helena. All of them had shared meals at this tower for over five years. Judging by the mischievous looks on their faces, they were clearly up to something.

“What are you all doing here?”

“Already being defensive? We can come check on that ‘gift’ girl too, can’t we? Why are you glaring at us like that?”

“Why do you think we’re here? We came to see how our friend’s love life is progressing. Someone’s been visiting this external quarters several times a day, all anxious because he’s staying alone with another woman. And you ask why we’re here? How could we not be concerned when you’re acting like this?”

“Hey!”

Helena quickly covered the speaker’s mouth with a shriek, anxiously glancing back at the quarters. She was worried Abel might have overheard their conversation.

Seeing this, another mage clicked his tongue.

“Good grief. How many times do we have to tell you? Just confess to him already! What are you so afraid of? There’s nobody here who doesn’t know who you like.”

“Ugh… shut up. Be quiet. I’ll handle it myself.”

Two of them teased her, while one clutched his chest as if dying from frustration. The four of them trudged back toward the tower. Suddenly, one of them asked:

“Hey, but what exactly did you fall for?”

“What?”

Helena stopped walking. The other two looked at her with gleeful anticipation.

“I mean, you know my grandfather was from this tower, right? I heard from him that Abel was practically the same age as the tower’s founders. That means he’s been in the tower for over two hundred years.”

“So?”

“No matter how young he looks, his real age is several hundred years. Can you really see someone like that as a romantic prospect? I couldn’t possibly. What made you fall for him?”

“Um…”

Helena trailed off.

She could pinpoint exactly what had made her fall for him if asked directly. But she wasn’t sure if she should say it. It was the kind of reason that would invite ridicule if shared.

“…I’ll tell you another time.”

So she decided to just avoid the question.

“Hey, that’s not fair! Tell us right now!”

Despite being immediately punished for it, Helena successfully managed to keep her reason secret. A truly remarkable achievement.

“…Hmm.”

Meanwhile, Abel was feeding porridge to the girl, who was propped up against pillows, while examining her condition.

“This is strange. How can wounds that look at least a year old still be seeping this much blood and pus? If it had been like this all along, she should have died from blood loss long ago.”

Despite changing the bandages every two hours and the blankets every twelve hours, both were always soaked with blood and pus. The amount seeping out was beyond imagination.

Even though he had changed the bandages right before feeding her, during the time it took to finish one bowl of porridge, they were already darkening with blood and pus.

“I don’t know how you ended up like this, but you’ve been through a lot.”

Abel gave her the last spoonful, confirmed that her throat moved as she swallowed, then carefully wiped her mouth with a handkerchief.

“……”

Having turned his back completely, Abel failed to notice that the vacant purple eyes slowly turned to stare at his back.

Throughout the time Abel spent washing the bowl, those purple eyes remained fixed on his back. When he approached the girl again, her eyes had returned to their blank, unfocused state.

Time passed without anything particularly special happening. Abel changed bandages, fed meals, and took care of various chores, while the girl stared intently at his back whenever he wasn’t looking.

Another week passed.

Helena, who visited Abel without fail today as well, wrinkled her nose at the smell of blood and pus that had completely permeated the walls of the quarters.

“Is she still like this?”

“Her condition has improved somewhat. She’s eating porridge faster now. But the blood and pus are still seeping out just as much. I don’t understand why she hasn’t died from blood loss yet. A normal person would have died long ago with this amount.”

Abel stood up after tightly securing the bandage on her hand.

“You’re still changing the bandages every two hours, right?”

“That’s right. Otherwise, they get too soaked.”

“And the blankets every 12 hours?”

“That’s right too.”

“And you personally feed her three meals a day?”

“She can’t eat by herself, can she?”

“And you take care of her… bodily waste too?”

“Do you really have to mention that? Can’t you just assume I do and move on?”

Helena crossed her arms with a sulky expression. Their eyes met. She looked somewhat displeased.

“Why are you doing so much for her? For two whole weeks at that.”

“…Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters. A lot.”

The distance between them narrowed. Helena strode purposefully toward Abel. She seemed to be trying to look intimidating, but her cute face and short stature made it ineffective.

Abel had to struggle to hold back his laughter.

“I hate to say this, but it wouldn’t really matter if she died like this. You’re just making yourself uncomfortable and worried, and there’s no guarantee she’ll get better anyway. We’re the unusual ones—other towers go through experimental slaves by the dozens every month—”

“Helena.”

Abel cut off Helena’s words with a gentle voice. He placed his hand on her head and began stroking her golden hair. Helena was surprised but didn’t push his hand away.

“When you all got sick after that experiment went wrong, who took care of you? Changing bandages and applying herbal remedies every few hours. All night long.”

“…You did, Abel.”

“And how long did it take for everyone to recover?”

“…About three weeks.”

“Did I complain then?”

Helena shook her head. The hand stroking her hair applied a bit more pressure.

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Helena. As you said, people are dying all over the continent at this very moment. I know I can’t save them all. I won’t even try to.”

His hand fell away. Helena was about to let out a disappointed “ah” but caught herself in surprise. Abel continued regardless.

“But I should at least try to save those within my sight. The same goes for her. I appreciate your concern, but you don’t need to worry. What else would I do besides putting my body to work?”

A very faint murmur was heard, but it was so quiet that Abel didn’t notice it at all.

“…If that’s how you feel, I have nothing more to say. Here, take this letter. It’s from the Red One Tower.”

“Letter? Oh, the one asking about what kind of gift this girl is supposed to be?”

“Yes. It seems to be an answer to that question, but I haven’t read it yet, so let’s open it together.”

“It took two weeks to arrive? That’s surprisingly quick.”

“I know, right? Either they didn’t want to reply, or they had some other scheme in mind.”

Helena waved the letter in her hand.

Since they couldn’t just accept a burned woman as a gift without question, Helena had sent a letter to the Red One Tower on behalf of the tower master, asking what kind of gift this was supposed to be.

She had sent it the very day they received the girl, and the reply had only just arrived.

Considering that letters between mages typically take at most a day to deliver, this was an exceptionally long delay. It was reasonable to suspect they hadn’t wanted to reply.

Helena deactivated the magic circle on the envelope and handed it to Abel. As he opened it wide, Helena naturally moved closer until her cheek was almost touching his.

Abel began reading the letter.

“The slave in question—as she has no name, you may call her whatever you wish—was an experimental subject of our tower, but during the experiment, a problem occurred with the healing magic malfunctioning. Since someone in your tower also possesses supernatural regenerative abilities, we provided this slave as a gift in case she might help solve the problem…?”

Both pairs of eyes turned toward the girl simultaneously.

“Healing magic malfunctioned?”

“What does that even mean… Oh!”

Helena looked at Abel with an expression of sudden realization.

“You said it yourself, Abel. She keeps bleeding but doesn’t die from blood loss. Could that be why? If the healing magic malfunctioned and keeps producing blood, that would explain it.”

“…That makes sense. It’s plausible. We’ll need to investigate further, though.”

“So what do we do now? If that’s true, then bandaging her wounds is pretty much useless. Are we going to leave her like this?”

“We’ll have to find another solution. I wonder if they’ll tell us what kind of healing magic they used?”

“It’s probably a magic they developed themselves, so I doubt it. The sky would sooner split in two.”

Helena was subtly pressing close to Abel as they contemplated what to do with the girl.

Whether Abel didn’t notice, didn’t mind, or was pretending not to notice, he made no effort to push Helena away.

From behind them, those purple eyes quietly watched with lifeless pupils.