"The ability to consume one's own life force to nourish another whose life force is nearing exhaustion..."
"How should I put it? Is it miraculously incredible? The result of completely digitizing a person's life can even be briefly shared with a second person? It's really hard to believe."
And after his explanation, Agnes Tachyon and Manhattan Cafe finally understood why he had called them to be his shield. After all, the ability he possessed was too incredible... so much so that even a scientific weirdo like her, if not for the wrong occasion, would probably have to grab her hair with both hands and scream with excitement.
But now, the main reason she was not so rude was because she knew that the one who was about to perform this great deed called "self-sacrifice" was the seriously ill person in front of her, who had been struggling on the verge of death a few months ago and had only just recovered a little vitality—his actions and determination were certainly noble, but it could not make her praise his actions from the bottom of her heart.
Because for her, the only commendable action for a person with little time left was to cooperate with the treatment and not do anything that was irresponsible to the little life they had left.
"...But if you have decided to do so, I have no right to interfere."
After a moment of hesitation, she made a different choice from the horse girls outside. She just pretended to be nonchalant and played with a bottle of potion in her hand, while laughing softly:
"Cafe and I will hide this for you. I will tell Rudolf and the others that it was I who woke her up with a special potion—if this is the result you, this silently dedicated trainer, want to get."
"Thank you." And he also nodded. To be honest, when he decided to let them come, he was a little regretful, because he was worried that if he told them about the "life return," they would stop him.
After all, no matter what, horse girls were blessed by the Three Goddesses and were set as "forever beautiful and pure creatures." He couldn't guarantee whether the two girls would do any extreme reactions to stop him. After all, with his constitution, it was very easy for a horse girl to suppress him.
And since they had no intention of stopping him, he subconsciously wanted to continue to infuse life force into her. But at this very moment, Manhattan Cafe stepped forward and couldn't help but ask:
"Excuse me... Trainer Kitano, how much life force have you already infused into the president?"
Her curious inquiry made him stop his hand. And faced with this black horse girl who had also once run for him and had been saved by him in the same way, he couldn't help but show a helpless smile and said softly:
"Don't tell Rudolf and the others... before you arrived, I had already transferred a part of my life force... about 4 months of life."
"However, she looks much better. If it weren't for the commotion outside that was too fast, in order to not let everyone be suspicious, I might have almost woken up the president."
Saying this, his gaze also turned to her on the hospital bed. Therefore, he did not notice the momentary astonishment of Cafe on the side, and the complexity of her emotions after knowing that he had already contributed a part of his life to her...
"...Is the president worth you doing so?"
Her sentence made both Tachyon on the side and the "friend" in mid-air can't help but look away, because they both noticed that when she was questioning him, her slightly clenched fist, and the expression she deliberately used her long bangs to cover her pupils.
Unfortunately, her subtle emotional change did not fall into the eyes of him, who was now completely focused on Rudolf. And in the next moment, his firm answer also came:
"It's already come to this... where is the need to ask this question? It's not about whether it's worth it, but whether I'm willing."
"But at least, I am willing to pay for her. This is what I owe her."
He did not think that she and Tachyon could understand the meaning of his words, so even his answer was ambiguous.
But in fact, no matter who was lying on the hospital bed, whether it was C.B., Ardan, Oguri Cap... or any other existence with whom he had had a deep relationship, he would have done so. His life was originally extended by these horse girls for him. To return the life he had obtained from them to them when necessary was "fair" in his perception.
He had reaped the "love" he had been missing from them, reaped feelings, reaped experiences and time... they had created everything he had been missing. Without them, how could he have had so many wonderful and memorable pasts?
The moment his words fell, but when he held up one of her arms, a needle appeared in his vision. He saw that at some point, Agnes Tachyon, who seemed to have been touched by something, had taken the initiative to come forward at this time, maintaining her relaxed attitude, and said:
"I am very interested in the changes in your and the president's bodies during this period. If I can figure out whether any special substances will be secreted in your and her bodies during this process, it might speed up my experiment progress."
"At that time, when I replicate a potion that can accelerate the recovery of life force, maybe the possibility of saving you will also be a bit greater."
"...Then I'll have to trouble you."
Faced with the familiar needle, he also did not show any disgust. Under Cafe's gaze, he saw his one hand intertwined with her palm, and the other hand, after being wiped by the alcohol and cotton balls she had brought with her, a thin needle pierced his vein, waiting for the opportunity for him to perform "life return."
And soon, under a silence, he slowly closed his eyes again. Tachyon and Cafe, who were present, finally witnessed with their own eyes the process of "life return"...
It was a process that was undoubtedly extremely painful.
Under the gaze of the two girls, they could clearly feel that his originally full eye sockets were slowly sinking at a visible speed. The originally slightly full muscles on his body were also slowly turning back into a thin feeling.
Piece by piece of skin began to become rough and pale, and strand by strand of hair began to become more and more dry and colorless—this process, as if watching a person go from healthy to morbid at a speed accelerated by hundreds of times, was more intuitive than anything else to feel the passing of a person's life.
Her blood collection had long been completed, but she silently pressed the wound with her fingers. Cafe even watched him weaken little by little, while the originally weak Rudolf seemed to be getting more and more energetic...
"—Enough."
Finally, Tachyon could not bear it anymore. Almost at the same time, he only felt his and Rudolf's hands, which were holding each other, being pried open by an invisible palm. And Cafe even came forward, grabbed his wrist, and forced him to let go in pain.
And the moment the link between him and her was broken, before he could come back to his senses, a tube of green-glowing potion was poured into his mouth without a word. Before he could react, he had already swallowed it unconsciously.
"Don't worry, it's just some potion that can help you relax for a while." And seeing his confusion, and the inexplicable vigilance of Cafe beside him, she also put down the empty test tube and explained calmly:
"After all, you still have to see these charges outside, and the soon-to-be-awake Rudolf, right? You don't want to see everyone with a pale face, right? That will definitely make them suspicious."
"Then I'm relieved..."
He subconsciously wiped the corner of his mouth. At this time, he did feel that his expression seemed to have relaxed a lot. His heart, which had been beating fast and constantly alarming due to the loss of life, also quickly calmed down... his blood pressure and pulse should also have been controlled, right? It was really magical.
And all of Cafe's attention was focused on the now-healthy-looking Rudolf. Her pupils, looking at her, could not tell whether it was relief or hatred. She only asked calmly:
"So, how much time did it cost?"
"A year... a little better than I expected."
And he also answered calmly as usual. As a person who often used this ability on his charges, he knew very well that in fact, using the "life return" ability on his charges was often not much related to the severity of the injury, but was related to whether the injury the horse girl experienced was "historical."
He knew very well that if it was an injury that the horse girl had experienced in history, then the process of him wanting to accelerate her recovery would often require him to pay more life force to help them overcome the historical constraints—this was also why he had not been able to help Suzuka change her fate in the Tennō Shō (Autumn) back then. At that time, the life force he had left was actually not enough to pay.
But there were still successful cases. For example, Manhattan Cafe's tenosynovitis at the end of her retirement, he had paid about three years of life to help her overcome this... if not for a series of accidents later on, he, her, and Tachyon's playthrough would very likely have been able to continue...
And if there was enough lifespan to help a horse girl overcome her historical illness, it was a very worthwhile thing for him. After all, as long as it was overcome, the next time the horse girl had an accident, it would usually be a year or two later. During this period, his charge could earn him much more time than he had paid... this was also why he did not want his charges to resist his "life return."
But unfortunately, in his impression, none of his charges in his previous playthroughs who knew about this ability did not resist him using it. Even someone like Ardan, who was terminally ill and on the verge of death, had refused him to use this ability on her.
—Of course, in terms of results, whether it was Ardan or other charges who had been cured by him, none of them had ever successfully stopped him.
"Ugh..."
And at this time, a faint groan from Rudolf on the hospital bed immediately attracted his and the other two's attention. He almost subconsciously grabbed her hand, his eyes filled with unconcealed expectation, which made Tachyon and Cafe on the side feel a little dazzling.
Finally, in a daze, Rudolf on the hospital bed finally struggled to open her eyes... as if a drowning person who did not want to die had finally swum ashore with her last bit of strength.
She had finally, as she had wished, come back to life.
"Rudolf?" Upon seeing her awake, he also asked tentatively with unconcealed joy. And she, after turning her head stiffly and looking at him, who was tightly clutching her hand and seemed to have become much sicker, also forced herself to call out:
"Ki...tano..."
For some reason, the moment she called out this name without the "trainer" suffix, her voice had a hint of a sob. But this time, before she could shed a tear, he had timely wiped away the teardrop from the corner of her eye. Even though he was extremely weak, he still comforted her softly:
"Everything is fine, Rudolf. Everything is fine..."
Everything was safe and sound. All the tragedies of the past had not been repeated. He was still in front of her, and she was still in this world. All of this... should be blown away by the wind.
She felt her hand being held by him. With tears in her eyes, she had never felt so at ease... she had found it, the only person who could possibly reignite her will to live, to save her, was now right in front of her.
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