Chapter 251

(251)

“Of course, it’s not dissection! It means I’m going to conduct a physical examination accompanied by some blood sampling and tissue analysis.”

Sererassie said excitedly, as if she were one of the academy students going on a picnic.

The sight of my disciple, the thug from the academy, Tupiol, taking out a surgical knife and forceps must be an illusion.

I instinctively took a step back.

“Sister, just stand there for a moment.”

There was madness in Sererassie’s gaze.

“Isn’t it truly fascinating? Purification and absorption. We need to find out these things by any means necessary. How much has the strength of the scales increased? What is crystallization? How can we control spiritization?”

There was a fervor in Marcus’s eyes.

“I’m very curious as well.”

Sererassie’s disciples and Marcus’s disciples surrounded me, inching closer.

“Your Grace!”

“Please comply willingly!”

“You have been allowed to sleep for four hours to focus on the experiment!”

There were more people than I expected, and their energy was fierce.

I reflexively called out the name of a knight.

“Lady Trentia! Lady Trentia!”

But she had just been granted a month-long leave.

“Valen! Run away!”

Rudi shouted, blocking my way.

At that moment, as her hand sought the hidden dagger at her side, Sererassie struck the floor with her staff.

“It’s Medusa’s Binding!”

With that, a stone snake sprang from the ground, coiling around Rudi’s entire body.

“Uh-oh?”

Sererassie’s disciples quickly lifted Rudi and moved her aside.

I took three more steps back, and the moment I felt something bump into my back, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

At this point, I could only pray for a quick end.

The examination room was on the sixth floor.

It was a tall stone building, each floor built higher than the last, and upon reaching the sixth floor, I could already see the surrounding buildings from above.

“Sister, why was the examination room built on the sixth floor?”

Naturally, this tower did not have a lift powered by wind magic like the Ivory Tower, and Sererassie was a wizard who didn’t like to move.

I couldn’t think of any reason why an examination room, which needed to be accessed frequently, would be built on the fifth floor.

“There’s always a reason.”

Then that prim wizard flashed a cunning smile and glanced over her shoulder at the priest of the God of Radiance, trailing behind us like an apprentice or assistant.

“Lord!”

He was also panting as if he could barely breathe.

Sererassie spoke in a witch-like voice.

“Why would I do something comfortable for those scoundrels? Just watching them struggle makes me feel so relieved.”

To prevent the Church and Marcus from teaming up against the Imperial Court, I had helped move the court nobles to amend the ecclesiastical laws.

Now, the church could enter and observe any place conducting experiments related to corruption or old artifacts.

Thus, the reason Sererassie was climbing the stairs like this was, in the end, my fault.

“Sister, you’re panting too.”

“Shut up. It’s better to pant together.”

“The best scenario would be if that priest is the only one panting, right?”

Sererassie laughed cheerfully against expectations.

“Of course. Do you have a good idea?”

I lightly extended my hand.

“Should I indulge you?”

Sererassie scanned me up and down with her yellow eyes.

Her gaze was filled with a mix of hope and skepticism.

“If you had said, ‘I won’t do it,’ I would have been fried with electricity. But now that you’ve asked, it makes me think you want to help me without any feelings at all. On the other hand, if I think of it differently, am I just an object? It’s frustrating.”

“So, will you indulge me or not?”

“… After the examination, if it’s proven that you can control spiritization perfectly, then I’ll ask for your help. For now, wouldn’t it be scary if suddenly your hands became translucent and you fell on the stone stairs?”

Just as Sererassie leaned on her staff as if it was genuinely supporting her, and I, unable to watch any longer, sidled up to her, we successfully reached the sixth floor.

“Very high.”

“You created it… don’t forget.”

* * *

The examination room on the sixth floor was slightly chilly, facing north without sunlight, and the white floor gleamed without a speck of dust.

On one side, there were test tubes, various flasks, reagents, and herbs arranged on a long table, while on the other side stood a dissection table or an experimental table, along with big and small cauldrons and heating magic tools.

When Sererassie clapped her hands twice, all her disciples opened their lockers and put on white coats.

“We will now begin the physical examination of my half-brother Valenciaunos. It’s a rare opportunity to see the body of the blood-royal, so everyone should focus.”

“Ooh, that’s impressive.”

“You are now prohibited from talking.”

“Why?”

“The subject is not supposed to talk, you know?”

“I’ll bite that finger off if you point again.”

“That sounds a bit terrifying, so I guess I’ll have to ask Marcus to catch you.”

Marcus’s eyes widened.

“Why am I being dragged into this all of a sudden?”

I sided with Marcus.

“That prosthetic limb can feel pain because of the nerve connections.”

Sererassie smiled.

“It can be disconnected, so it’s fine, right?”

The priest, holding a paper and pen, stared at us with a blank expression.

I glanced at him and said, “If any problems arise, don’t think about handling it alone; just run straight to the cathedral and call the Saint. It’s a bit embarrassing for me to say, but my instincts tell me it’s somewhat dangerous.”

The priest nodded, and Sererassie gestured.

“Strip down.”

There were large mirrors here too, so I could see my body.

I unbuttoned my white uniform and laid it aside, then took off the shirt that Rudi ironed for me every morning.

The body reflected in the mirror was surprisingly solid.

The skin was smooth and pale, and I could see the tendons, muscle fibers, and blue veins protruding prominently.

My waist was thin, while my chest and shoulders jutted out like a rock, and the ribs and delicate muscles were faintly visible on my abdomen and sides.

The latissimus dorsi was clearly visible between my armpits, giving my body a thick and robust appearance.

Unlike before my return, I had no scars at all.

At this rate, I could smoothly reach a plateau in my forties.

Of course, that was under the premise that I wouldn’t be swallowed by a dragon heart until then.

Swallowing, I heard some of Sererassie’s disciples and Marcus’s assistants gulping.

I quickly hammered it down.

“I’m not taking off the lower half.”

“I didn’t intend to order that at all.”

“Can I catch that one who looked disappointed just now and throw him outside?”

“Do as you wish after we’re done. Now, first, try to raise your incantation.”

Sererassie approached, adjusting her pointed hat.

Behind her, the long-haired blonde disciple Lorraine and the shaved-headed disciple Tupiol approached, carrying various reagents and surgical tools.

I began to slowly raise the energy of the incantation.

Originally, my scales and horns would sprout spontaneously, but now I could control it.

Golden energy gathered in my palm, and the pupils reflected in the mirror split vertically.

Sererassie made a questioning face.

“I was going to draw scales, so why did you stop here?”

“You told me to raise the incantation. Now I can do it without donning scales.”

“It’s much more stabilized. Then, let’s raise the scales.”

I absorbed the energy of the incantation again, raising a few translucent dark-red scales on the back of my hand.

I could feel that they were darker and thicker than before.

“It will hurt.”

“I apologize.”

The disciple who was a thug, Tupiol, thrust his shaved head forward.

As I was pondering whether to push it away, I felt a throbbing sensation coming from the back of my hand.

Three scales emerged in Tupiol’s forceps.

“Good dexterity.”

“Thank you.”

The blonde witch, Lorraine, began taking blood with a needle right there.

“I’ll just take a little.”

“How much is ‘just a little’?”

“Enough to fill that vial.”

The glass bottle seemed to be about 10 liters.

“If you don’t want to die for the royal family’s assassination charge, trade it for a smaller bottle.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

* * *

While the blood sampling was being conducted, I watched as Sererassie and Marcus directed their disciples.

“Not that reagent, but this one.”

“Make sure to bring the data after measuring the strength at the end.”

“We’ll measure the changes in blood components right away, so prepare the reagents.”

Their hand gestures and commands showed no hesitance, and the experiment seemed easy.

“Please place the crystal in the magic tool for corruption prevention.”

“We’ll conduct cross-verification right here.”

“Bring the blueprints for the circuits to implant in the mechanical knights.”

And when I said something looked easy, it meant they were doing it exceptionally well.

“Why do you look at me like that?”

Sererassie, who had been flowing currents through the scales for some time, glanced at me.

I chuckled and replied, “Just because it looks good.”

It was a scene I had created.

“Shut your mouth; it’s disgusting. What looks good about this?”

Sererassie rolled her eyes.

“Even calming the scales for extraction is causing an uproar. Where would I find dragon scales if not here?”

I raised my chin defiantly.

“Well, that’s true.”

Sererassie approached again with tweezers.

“We need to extract crystal fragments too. Try raising the power of Az.”

“Oh, this feels strange.”

I pulled Kuith Az’s power to the surface.

The energy flowing from my heart grew through the scales as a medium.

Crack.

White hands split like porcelain with cracks, and through those gaps, red crystals began to sprout one by one.

“Lord.”

The priest muttered in a daze, crossing himself, and the disciples and assistants looked at me with excited eyes, while Sererassie and Marcus smiled with satisfaction.

“I told you this is combined with spiritization, right?”

“That’s right. It changes part of the body.”

Sererassie successfully harvested the larger-than-finger-sized crystals while Marcus checked if there was any energy of corruption or mental waves seeping out from the crystals through the magic tools.

“There are no issues. It can be implanted directly without purification. It will be easy to enhance the mechanical knights using resonance.”

His black eyes gleamed with excitement, and the prosthetic hand and fingers twitched as if they urgently wanted to touch machines.

Sererassie glanced at the priest and frowned slightly.

“It’s a bit worrisome. If the church catches wind of this, it could get troublesome, right?”

The priest was muttering the Lord’s Prayer with a face that suggested he had seen something he shouldn’t.

His gaze seemed to imply he wanted to rush to the Inquisition and report me and Sererassie.

I shrugged my shoulders and replied, “Then go get it verified. Well, Rudi, could you fetch a gold coin from the annex for me?”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Saint Matheos.”

The priest started coughing like mad.

* * *

“The ancient being known as Kuith Az was not an entity that could be negotiated with, and it has been fully absorbed by His Grace Valenciaunos, with all consciousness eliminated, becoming a single function. I declare this in the name of the God of Radiance.”

I offered a gold coin as a tithe, and Matheos purified and analyzed me from head to toe.

“Thank you, Saint.”

The conclusion was as stated above.

Matheos stared at me with his pitch-black eyes, then let out a soft sigh.

“Yongchan, spirits, and now even ancient beings… The Duke doesn’t look back.”

Not looking back, huh.

As someone who had turned back for 40 years, those words didn’t resonate much with me.

I brushed it off with a smile and said, “I’ve come too far.”

“How much stronger have you gotten now?”

“Kuith Az wasn’t an aggressive ancient being. I just got better at what I could already do.”

I summoned a fire spirit and had it ignite all the extinguished candles.

The small spirit in the form of a boy with bird wings buzzed around the room, disappearing with a puff.

Matheos, with a look of wonder, lowered his voice slightly.

“Things are proceeding smoothly on the Doroysen side. Faithful devotees have begun to participate in the national affairs, and we are searching through the Infiltrator’s lairs. Soon, we should uncover all the masterminds behind it.”

“Thank you, Saint.”

“And I’ll specially overlook the issue of sending spies mixed in with the purification potions.”

The implication that the royal family wouldn’t interfere with the activities of the purification potions was also clear.

The candles flickered suddenly, and the black Saint smiled chillingly.

He too had skillfully become a master of such calculations.

“Thank you.”

I simply said that.

On the way back in the horse-drawn carriage to the integrated workshop, I commanded Marcus.

“How long will it take to enhance the mechanical knights with my crystal fragments?”

“It seems like it will take about six months.”

“One month. Is that possible?”

“Have you ever seen such a damn rascal…? Yes. I’ll try.”