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Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Satisfactory Answer
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A faint blue light tapped rhythmically against the slightly ajar window slit.
Chirp chirp.
By the sound alone, it might have been an ordinary hummingbird, but the bird with those delicate blue feathers was no common fowl.
'She's here.'
I walked to the window and carefully opened it.
The blue bird flew lightly inside as if it had been waiting, landing in front of the chair beside the bed. I immediately dropped to one knee and bowed my head in the prepared posture.
In an instant, the blue feathers scattered softly, replaced by a swirling vortex of azure mana.
Then a clear woman's voice cut through the air.
"I thought you'd be at least a little surprised... but it seems you're already quite familiar with my transformation magic?"
I shook my head lightly.
"I could never treat the great Princess Evelyn so disrespectfully as a mere 'sparrow.'"
"You sure know how to lay it on thick."
As the swirling blue energy subsided, the princess sat on the chair in place of the blue bird, her sea-blue hair and eyes gleaming as she crossed one leg over the other.
"From the fact that Your Highness has come in person, it seems the information I provided earlier was of some help to you."
I took a deep breath and offered a serene smile that belied the eleven hours of surgery I'd just endured.
The princess studied my expression in silence for a moment before pressing her temple with the back of her hand and sighing.
"Haa... Yes, Lucas Argent. Just as you said, tracing the drug distribution in the slums led us to one branch connected to the Versailles family. They were so close to our imperial house that we never even suspected them... How did you figure it out first?"
I deliberately averted my gaze and answered curtly.
"Just luck."
"Luck...?"
Princess Evelyn's eyebrow arched subtly.
Her expression mixed surprise, doubt, and a faint, reluctant acknowledgment.
"Calling it 'luck' when you singled out the Versailles family—a house so loyal we hadn't even put them on the suspect list... You're a remarkably casual 'member,' aren't you?"
I shrugged.
Her evaluation didn't matter.
What truly mattered was that, just now, for a fleeting moment, Evelyn had called me a 'member.'
And despite her displeased frown, she tossed me the blue fruit she'd been holding onto.
The remnant antidote from the Adam and Eve branch.
It was a signal that she acknowledged me as part of the Ashen Hand.
I swallowed the fruit carefully and asked,
"Does this mean you've accepted me as a member of the Ashen Hand?"
"Haa... I suppose I can't deny it."
Evelyn crossed her arms and turned her head away.
"After all, thanks to your help, the empire is a little cleaner."
She turned back, narrowing her eyes.
"But remember this, Lucas Argent. You're still just a lowly member. I permitted your entry not because I trust you, but because I needed you. Don't forget that."
Her tone aimed for sternness, but it came off more like a child pouting over not getting more secrets.
Even the genius princess who became the protagonist's party's brain in the original story couldn't hide her youthful immaturity.
I chuckled inwardly.
'Whether you trust me or not, I don't particularly care.'
In ten years, when the original story exploded and the Argent family was dragged to the guillotine, I planned to use the Ashen Hand's influence to quietly slip out of the empire.
Head to some remote area, live peacefully as a village doctor.
I wasn't aiming for a high position in the organization, nor did I need excessive trust.
As long as I could live quietly like a mouse, this level of distance was perfect.
I nodded, lost in those calculations.
"Understood. Then... Your Highness. As payment for joining the Ashen Hand, may I make one 'request' now?"
Evelyn's eyes flickered subtly.
"Haa... You even know about that part?"
She slowly scanned my room and shook her head.
"At this point, it almost proves you're not an Argent spy. No family would stick someone like you in a rundown annex like this."
Her words were sharp, but laced with wariness toward talent she couldn't ignore.
In the original Vengeful Goddesses, when Piel and the protagonist's group allied with the Ashen Hand, Evelyn had granted each of them one wish.
It wasn't mere compensation.
It was her personal ritual for welcoming new comrades—a quiet declaration of trust.
But those wishes had two rules.
If it was within her current power as princess, she'd grant it immediately. If not, she'd promise to fulfill it once she ascended as empress.
And I... had prepared a wish that even the young Evelyn now could grant, but one desperately needed by me.
Seizing the moment as she glanced around the room, her guard lowering, I spoke quietly.
"If you would bestow upon me the 'Water of Life' that the imperial family always carries... I would be eternally grateful."
Evelyn's eyes widened slightly.
"Water of Life?"
She repeated my words, furrowing her brow faintly.
"The one that restores any wound to perfect condition? ...Unexpected. I thought you'd demand something much bigger. This is more modest than I imagined."
Her words said that, but her voice held a mix of caution, curiosity, and faint fondness.
"I figured you'd ask me to casually act like I know you at some noble salon or ball."
"...Me? And that's all you'd think I'd wish for?"
"'All'?"
Evelyn's eyes narrowed.
"Lucas Argent. You know how noble society views you—no need for me to spell it out. You know the struggles you went through to cling to your family name, the pitying looks over your 'birth limitations'."
That was unexpected.
Did that Lucas guy really flail around that desperately just to make a name for himself?
Even as a bastard, to let everyone see his desperation.
And considering how he'd grown up venting that rage on innocent slaves... there was no room for sympathy.
But something in my reaction irked her further, and Evelyn took a step closer.
"And besides."
She lifted her chin slightly.
"Who am I? The Second Princess of the Abellan Empire. Do you know how great an honor it is for other nobles when I personally speak to them or move with them? They're all desperate for even a word from me, and you call that 'all'! ─That's rude, Lucas Argent."
"Ah... Then I apologize, Your Highness."
Her slightly sulky demeanor carried the innocent charm of her age, a far cry from the girl who'd just calmly discussed state affairs.
I took a deep breath and steered back to the point before emotions could flare.
"Your Highness."
With that, I stood.
Without looking at Evelyn, I walked straight to one corner of the room.
There lay Piel, the fox beastkin child barely clinging to life on the bed.
I stood by the bed, carefully supporting the child's body to lift the blanket slightly or angle her head just enough for the princess to see.
"The reason I asked for the 'Water of Life'... is to restore this child to perfect health."
"...Wait."
Evelyn's eyes widened in shock.
"What's this child? I thought it was just the two of us in the room."
Only then noticing Piel, she uncrossed her legs and approached the bed slowly.
The princess was also a mage.
Peerless at sensing mana signatures.
But Piel's mana was as faint as a dying ember, so it was no wonder she hadn't detected it.
The moment she saw the child's state, Evelyn's expression hardened completely.
The young beastkin lay there, collared as a slave, surrounded by the scent of bandages and herbs.
I'd treated many wounds already, but their brutality remained vivid.
"I've done everything I could manage."
I said calmly.
"But her eyeball is ruptured, parts of her organs damaged... and above all, one ear is completely gone."
I tilted Piel's head slightly to show.
"For beastkin, ears aren't just body parts. They're tied to senses, balance, racial pride... everything."
"Even if she miraculously survives..."
Evelyn continued in a faintly trembling voice.
"She won't have a normal life."
She turned away, unable to face the stump directly.
In that brief motion, I saw the 'princess overly sensitive to the weak' from the original story.
"...You really did all this treatment yourself?"
Evelyn asked quietly.
"I could believe a court physician did it."
"Yes. I have some knowledge of medicine."
I answered plainly.
"Besides, this child is my first slave, a birthday gift. I couldn't let her die."
Evelyn, gazing down at Piel, slowly slipped her hand into her bosom.
What she drew out was a fingernail-sized vial, one only imperials possessed.
Inside rippled a crystalline liquid.
The Water of Life.
The empire's highest healing essence, rarely permitted even in the palace.
"So... that's why you chose this as your wish."
Evelyn whispered.
She fell silent for a long while.
She lifted the bandages slightly, inspecting the tissues I'd sutured and arranged one by one.
Her expression... was hard to pin to a single emotion.
Then she turned back to me, regaining her imperial composure.
"Lucas Argent."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Once this child wakes... what do you plan to do?"
She asked seriously.
"Is it just a whim? Or... is there some un-Argent-like reason I don't know?"
I paused to steady my breath.
And—
As a doctor, and now as this child's owner,
I answered honestly.
"Does it... really need a reason?"
"...Pardon?"
"The reason I studied medicine is simple. Helping people doesn't require grand motives. I just... follow my 'beliefs.'"
"!!"
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