The Extra's Reincarnation-Chapter 50: Reveal (2)

"Julian, Ezekiel, come quickly. Lady Ophelia... she’s taken a turn for the worse."

As we hurried after my mother, I knew this was it. The moment of choice was upon me.

Save Ophelia, kill her, or let fate take its course.

Whatever I decided, I knew nothing would be the same after today.

We reached Lady Ophelia’s room to find chaos awaiting.

Servants rushed in and out, carrying towels and basins of water.

Nivel stood guard at the door with his face grim.

"What happened?"

My mother shook her head as her eyes were almost in tears.

"We don’t know. She was fine this morning, but then... she just collapsed. The doctor’s with her now, but..."

Her voice trailed off, but I understood. Lady Ophelia was dying and this must be her reaching point.

As we stood outside Lady Ophelia’s room, I felt frozen in place.

Lady Ophelia lay on her grand four-poster bed, her form looking small and frail against the luxurious silk sheets. Her skin, once porcelain-smooth, now had a sickly gray pallor.

The doctor, a portly man with a bushy mustache, hovered over her, his face creased with concern.

He muttered under his breath as he checked her pulse, shaking his head in bewilderment.

"I don’t understand," he said, turning to address the room.

"Her symptoms align with severe poisoning, but her blood shows no trace of toxins. It’s as if her very life force is being drained away."

As I witnessed Lady Ophelia in agonizing pain, I realized that there was no way I could help her, even if I dedicated time to analyzing the source of the toxins, I wasn’t on that kind of genius level where problems could be solved in an instant.

If there’s anything I can do, perhaps it’s best to try looking at the issue from another angle.

[Divine Eyes of Convergence has activated!]

The world around me sharpened, details coming into crystal-clear focus.

Streams of ethereal energy flowed through Lady Ophelia’s body, her mana.

But something was terribly wrong. Instead of the steady, pulsing flow I had come to associate with living beings, her mana squirmed and twisted like a nest of agitated snakes.

Dark tendrils of... something... threaded through her mana channels, corrupting and poisoning as they spread.

That’s when it all clicked.

It wasn’t her blood that had been poisoned - it was her mana itself.

That’s why the blood tests showed nothing amiss. The poison was magical in nature, targeting the very essence of her being.

Though the problem itself is far worse than I had imagined.

Mana poisoning was rare and incredibly difficult to treat.

If I remember right, there were pills for mana poisoning that did two things.

One pill had the ability to delay the poisoning, and the second pill was to freeze the zone of mana from where it’s been found.

But the problem right now is that there were no pills available during this era.

This was due to the fact that mana poisoning wasn’t a problem until the time of the first great war, where Kaiser managed to contaminate Aureus’s water supply through his extraction of the mana supply.

"There has to be a way, right?"

Ezekiel bit his nails, and I was brought back to the situation at hand.

"I’m not sure,"

With my Divine Eyes activated, I could see the poison spreading through her mana channels, corrupting everything it touched.

If I did nothing, she would die a slow, agonizing death, as her very essence was eaten away.

But how could I save her?

I was just a child, with no medical knowledge or magical healing abilities.

And killing her... the thought made me sick.

Even if it would end her suffering quickly, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Just as the tension in the room reached its peak, a commotion erupted in the hallway outside.

Hurried footsteps echoed off the marble floors, accompanied by a cacophony of voices.

"My lady, please wait!"

"You can’t just barge in there!"

The double doors burst open with a thunderous crash, revealing a figure that made my heart skip a beat.

There, standing in the doorway with her chest heaving and her eyes wild, was Diana Florence.

She’s finally back.

"Mother!"

Diana cried out, rushing to Lady Ophelia’s bedside.

Her voice cracked with emotion as she took in her mother’s frail body.

"What happened? I came back after…"

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Diana stopped with her words. I could tell from her eyes that she couldn’t say that she was kidnapped, nor had she been figuring out how to get back from Amberton Town.

Just from that look alone, she didn’t want her mother to be anymore worried than she is now.

Lady Ophelia’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of her daughter’s voice.

A weak smile touched her lips as she reached out a trembling hand to caress Diana’s cheek.

"My dear girl, you’ve returned. And in such a lovely dress, too."

Diana caught her mother’s hand, pressing it to her face as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Never mind the dress, Mother. Tell me what’s wrong. How long have you been like this?"

Lady Ophelia’s gaze grew distant, her brow furrowing as if trying to recall a fading memory.

"It’s... hard to say, the weakness came on so gradually at first. A little fatigue here, a dizzy feeling there. Nothing that seemed too concerning."

She paused, her breath coming in shallow gasps before she continued.

"But then... it began to worsen. Food lost its taste. Colors seemed to dim. And the pain... the pain began to grow, spreading through my body like fire in my veins."

Diana’s face contorted with anguish as she listened to her mother’s words.

Her eyes darted around the room, taking in the grim faces of the doctor and servants.

"How could this happen? She was fine when I left for the gathering! Who has been caring for her? What treatments have you tried?"

The doctor stepped forward, wringing his hands nervously.

"My lady, we’ve done everything we can. We’ve tried every remedy, every potion in our arsenal. But the illness... it defies all conventional medicine."

"Then try unconventional medicine! There must be something you haven’t tried, some cure you’ve overlooked!"

As Diana’s voice rose in anger and desperation, a girl with wolf ears walked past Ezekiel and I.

She wore a black and white dress similar to the maids in the Florence household.

"Leanne? what are you-"

WOM…

Suddenly, a golden glow lit up from the hands of Leanne and over Ophelia’s chest.

Energy was pushing back against the poison within her body.

The golden energy emanating from Leanne’s hands pulsed as she concentrated all her mana to push back any vile energy within Lady Ophelia’s body.

The room fell silent, with only the soft hum of magical energy breaking the stillness.

RUSTLE…RUSTLE…RUSTLE…

Ophelia’s body seemed to respond and her chest rising and falling with slightly more regularity.

But the healing was far from complete.

Leanne’s hands trembled slightly, but I could tell it was never going to be enough.

"I think I can only slow the progression, my mana isn’t good enough..."

Diana gripped her mother’s hand, her knuckles white.

"Keep trying,"

I watched the entire scene with my Divine Eyes still active, observing the intricate dance of magical energies.

The healing magic was pushing back against the corrupted mana, but it was like trying to hold back a flood with a single sandbag.

As Leanne continued her healing attempt, I realized this was a crucial moment.

If she could possibly push the poison’s progress back a little further, then there’s a chance Ophelia can live for another day.

*

As Julian watched Leanne continue her healing attempts, the delicate golden threads of her mana struggled against the poison’s movements.

With each push against the approaching poison, the seconds for death move back a little more.

"Julian… I can’t watch." Ezekiel’s teeth gritted.

"Then what will you do?"

Ezekiel turned his head towards him and smiled.

"I want to keep saving people."

"…!"

Julian’s eyes widened as Ezekiel approached Leanne.

He quietly moved behind her, careful not to disturb her concentration.

WOM!!!

A soft glow emitted from Ezekiel’s hand as he pressed it against Leanne’s back, channeling mana into her core and revitalizing her energy.

WHOOOOOSH!

Suddenly, a surge of mana burst forth from Leanne’s hand.

"What?!"

Leanne was surprised by the sudden influx of power, but she focused all of her energy on pushing back the poison.

And then...

-Lady Ophelia’s body!

-She’s regaining color!

The dark poison was pushed back.

Where moments ago it had threatened to consume Lady Ophelia, now it began to move down from her chest, then her abdomen, and finally stopping at her legs.

Lady Ophelia’s breathing stabilized, and her ashen skin regained a bit of color.

Diana stared in shock.

"How... how did you do that?"

She looked at Leanne, then at the boy who had helped save her that night.

"Ezekiel?!"

"Haha… that’s my name,"

He scratched his head nervously as they all watched Ophelia’s condition stabilize.

-Oh, my God… It’s a miracle!

-Our Marchioness lives…

-It’s a great joy for today!

*

As the room erupted in a flurry of activity, with servants rushing to attend to Lady Ophelia and the doctor hurrying to reassess her condition, I stood back, realizing what I had just witnessed.

Ezekiel conditioned Leanne’s mana core to the point where she was nearly maximizing each push of energy into Ophelia’s chest.

The result had been nothing short of miraculous. Of course, Lady Ophelia’s condition had stabilized and the poison’s spread was stopped, at least for now.

I still felt relieved in a way, but I knew of the guilt that was within me seeing how this could’ve ended.

I had seen the problem with my Divine Eyes, but still I couldn’t make a choice in the end.

FWANG…

[Choices:]

[Choice 1: Save Ophelia Florence - Reward: 1000 SP]

[Choice 2: Kill Ophelia Florence - Reward 1500 SP]

[Choice 3: Allow the quest to pass by - Reward: 500 SP]

The system notification popped up once again, and I was reminded once more of what I had to do.

Haah...

Am I really going to watch this happen without doing a single thing?

***