Mina placed the mermaid in a spare room just as Lucas walked in, followed by a panting Ayesha clutching the first aid kit.
"Turn her over. Let's treat the wound first." Lucas took the kit and ordered, "Cut off those wet clothes and wipe her dry."
"Yes." Mina flicked her wrist, and a knife appeared in her hand. She swiftly cut away the mermaid's peculiar garments, revealing a stomach as white as jade and a small navel.
The cat-eared girl took the linen cloth handed to her by the cow-horned girl and quickly wiped the water from the mermaid's body. She then flipped her over and peeled away the rest of the wet clothing, revealing a smooth back—though its beauty was marred by the still-bleeding wound.
"Go get some hot water. We'll wipe her down again in a bit," Lucas ordered, holding a bottle of rubbing alcohol. "Soaking in river water exposes her to a lot of bacteria."
"Yes." Ayesha ran off, nearly colliding with Elisa, who was just walking in.
"Elisa, is there anything we should be aware of regarding mermaids?" Lucas glanced at the approaching Elf and asked in a low voice. "For instance, anything they have an aversion to?"
"That... I'm not sure. I only know that mermaids are very fond of pearls." Elisa paused before answering, "I read that in books. Mermaids are simply too mysterious."
"Master, I know a little about mermaids," Mina said slowly as she set down the cloth. "I heard that mermaids live where the ocean meets the land. They can live on land just as well as in the water."
"Mn." Lucas nodded faintly. As long as the mermaid could survive on land, that was good.
Lucas used the alcohol to clean the mermaid's wound, trimming away some necrotic white tissue with small medical scissors. He then rinsed it twice more with alcohol to wash away any debris. It was fortunate the wound hadn't exposed the bone, or things would have been troublesome.
"Master, should we give her a blood transfusion?" Mina's eyes lit up. The miraculous transfusion method from last time had really opened her eyes.
"You test her blood type," Lucas said without looking back as he threaded a needle. The wound needed stitching; otherwise, it would heal too slowly.
"Yes." Mina took a deep breath and immediately brought out the blood typing reagents and glass slides, using a pipette to drop the mermaid's blood onto the slide.
"..." Elisa stood frozen, watching their actions. She immediately recalled the rumors in Sedona City about Lord Lucas saving a dying man. Was he going to do it again today?
"What blood type?" Lucas sterilized the needle and thread once more and began to carefully stitch the mermaid's wound.
"This... Master, it doesn't seem to be any of the three types," Mina said in confusion. She hadn't made any mistakes in the steps.
"None?" Lucas's stitching hand paused. A bitter smile touched his lips. "Then there's nothing we can do. The mermaid's blood type might be different from ours."
After all, mermaids could live underwater, so having a different blood type was plausible. Lucas couldn't help with that; he only knew some half-baked surgical techniques. Even a highly skilled doctor in this era might be helpless. Whether this mermaid survived would depend on the her will to living.
"Master, is there no other way?" Mina asked softly. In her eyes, the Master was omnipotent.
"It's up to fate, and her own will to live." Lucas shook his head helplessly. Looking at the crooked stitches, he applied some Celox.
"Go get some water and feed her this medicine." Lucas prepared some anti-inflammatory drugs and handed them to Elisa.
"Yes," Elisa replied respectfully.
"Should I set up an IV drip?" Lucas frowned, looking at the few bottles of solution in the kit. He sighed helplessly and said, "Turn her over. Make a depression in the bedding so we don't put pressure on the wound on her back."
"Yes." Mina immediately got to work, with Ayesha arriving to help lift the mermaid.
In the end, Lucas hooked the mermaid up to an IV drip. As for whether she would survive, it truly was up to fate now. He had done everything he could.
"Eh? This mermaid's tail is so strange." Ayesha was wiping the mermaid's body and stared at the tail in surprise.
"What's strange about it?" Lucas adjusted the drip and turned to look, just in time to see the cow-horned girl poking a seam in the mermaid's tail with her finger.
"Master, look. The tail can be separated." Ayesha gently pulled the mermaid's tail apart from the middle. Under everyone's astonished gaze, a pair of long, white legs was revealed.
"That is way too magical, isn't it?" Mina leaned in and discovered that the mermaid's tail was like a thin layer of fish skin used to wrap around the legs.
"Let me see." Lucas raised an eyebrow and stepped over to inspect it. The mermaid's private areas were covered by a fabric made of special material; he felt too awkward to study that, so he focused his research on the tail.
He discovered that the tail extended from the mermaid's hips—a tail similar to a beastkin's, with a thin bone in the center but wide and flat on the sides. It could easily wrap around the legs. When not wrapping the legs, it shrank into a strip-like tail, looking nothing like a fish tail.
"This tail is incredible. It can expand to wrap the legs and become a fish tail, or curl up when not needed on land so she can walk on two feet." Mina stared with wide, astonished blue eyes.
"What an eye-opener," Elisa sighed with emotion.
"Alright, let her rest in peace and quiet." Lucas rolled his eyes, glancing at the mermaid's pale face. If she knew they were studying her tail like this, he wondered what she would think.
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