Chapter 19
“Let’s see.”
Mia had descended into the underground storage connected to her laboratory. She peered inside an oak barrel, the top of which had been hollowed out. Inside, a shimmering purple liquid sparkled like it was dusted with glitter.
‘The quality isn’t bad.’
Satisfied, Mia chuckled to herself as she checked another oak barrel sitting nearby.
“This should be good enough for the experiment.”
With a flick of her staff, Mia lightly levitated the two barrels into the air. They glided smoothly up the stairs.
Creak, thunk.
As she closed the door to the underground storage and stepped back into the lab, the simple and usually quiet space was bustling today. In one corner, a plant dangled upside down, its roots as thick as an arm.
The roots had this uncanny resemblance to a human face, complete with hollow cheeks making a ‘heuk, heuk..’ sound as a brown liquid dripped from where its eyes might be.
Because it was hanging upside down, the liquid dripped right into a beaker below.
Alongside, various herbs and by-products were being drained of their toxins. The collected toxins were mixed and aged, filling the barrels to the brim.
Swoosh.
Mia poured the liquid from the barrels into a black bathtub placed in a corner of the lab.
Bubble, bubble.
The purple liquid bubbled up like carbonation before settling down into a calm pool.
Once she magically sent the empty barrels back down to storage, Mia looked at Lian, who was sitting atop a cold steel slab in the center of the lab.
“Now that everything’s ready, let’s begin the experiment.”
And just like that, a more intense experiment than usual kicked off.
*
I often found myself captured by mad scientists and subjected to their wacky experiments. It wasn’t that I was specially unlucky; mad scientists just loved cranking out thousands of experiments.
Thanks to the world’s comedic nature where you revert back to normal in a few days, none of their experiments ever really succeeded.
Anyway, I got so used to the experiments that they felt like midterms or pop quizzes which come around every so often.
Squeak.
Sure, at first, I was freaked out when my skin melted or blood sprayed everywhere like a fountain.
Splat!
But pain? Nah! My body eventually went back to normal, and honestly, the other guinea pigs didn’t seem to care much either.
Creak, crack.
So naturally, even when my organs were laid bare before me, and blood was gushing out more than at a crime scene, I stopped feeling scared.
“…Lian, you’re not a dragon descendant, are you?”
“Come on, no way.”
“Or maybe your parents are orcs?”
“Hey, that’s too harsh of an insult, don’t you think?”
I felt my heart sink; tears were about to roll down my face. Mia raised an eyebrow, peering at me, and then she nodded as if coming to a realization.
“Definitely not an orc’s kid.”
“…?”
“Hm, then what the heck is up with your body that it heals so fast…?”
Mia’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. She started cutting my body, breaking bones, and even sprinkled some poison on me before bringing out a needle attached to a hose and stabbing it into my forearm.
Blood gushed out through the hose, filling a big container on the ground.
“Wow, the blood is flowing out without any fancy gadgets?”
“The needle has a delicate magic circle engraved on it, ya know.”
I tried to get a closer look at the needle but it was half-stuck in my arm, so visibility was a bit of a challenge. Giving up on finding the magic circle, I took the chance to roam around the fantasy-like lab.
‘None of this was here before. When did she even get all this stuff?’
I gaped at the large flasks with rounded bottoms and long necks—they were almost as big as a person’s torso!
“…What kind of body is this? I’ve dissected it completely, yet I still can’t figure it out. Should I pop open the head too?”
Her ominous words made me glance away just in time to see a container brimming with my blood sloshing about.
‘Whoa, why is it filling up so fast?’
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised by all the blood. I grew up in a world where bouncing back like breathing was the norm.
Thump.
Mia brought an even bigger container over to catch my blood.
“Tell me when you start feeling anemic.”
“Sure.”
Yeah, that was pretty much saying, “Let me know when you’re tired of breathing.” But hey, just sitting around watching the spectacle was fun, so I nodded obediently.
Mia filled several containers with my blood, and my complexion didn’t even twitch. Ultimately, she pulled the needle out of my arm.
“Hah… I didn’t see this coming.”
Looking at the distressed beauty made me feel guilty—like the dog that made a mess inside. I started sheepishly glancing at Mia.
“Well, let’s move on to the next experiment.”
“Sure.”
Mia brought over a wilted plant that was making a ‘heeek..’ sound.
“Lie down, please.”
Obediently, I lay down on the slab, and in a flash, my torso split open, my scar-studded belly being torn apart by magic.
“Kwek..!”
The poor, trembling plant screamed as it was forced into my stomach.
“I wonder what’ll happen in this situation…”
As Mia skillfully blocked the geyser of blood with a shield, she fixated on the toxic plant shoved inside me. I watched the root plant with mock sympathy.
‘Poor thing.’
I knew my organs weren’t just slouching like couch potatoes—they were alive.
“Hiek, hic… save… me, mom…”
At some point, the poison plant inside me began to cry. It didn’t even have proper speech or true intellect, yet here it was crying, which shocked Mia.
There was probably a conversation like this happening inside me:
“What’s this? A newbie?”
“This one doesn’t have any guts? Why isn’t it saying hi?”
“Hey, quiet down. Let’s listen to what it’s saying.”
“Cough, cough!! A virus? Is it a virus? Huh? Huh?”
That’s right. My organs were truly ‘alive.’ They had awareness and could even communicate under certain conditions.
I discovered this truth while being experimented on by a gloomy, but broad-hearted mad scientist who had obscured her forehead down to her eyes. She bravely sliced open my belly, only to be met with an avalanche of critiques from my organs, and ended up crying and quitting the experiment.
Despite being kidnapped, I couldn’t help but offer comfort. Miraculously, my split belly mashed itself back together thanks to my organs. It was a shocking occurrence, even for someone who found humor in all of this.
‘Since then, if timid or gloomy people pry open my belly, my organs wake up.’
Those organs simply laid there when other mad scientists sliced into me. But if someone timid or gloomy did it? They went nuts!
‘The epitome of picking on the weak while cowing to the strong.’
Lost in my thoughts, the crying plant began to wither. Not long after, it turned brown like a dead weed, shaking violently before keeling over.
‘Ah, such a kind soul gone too soon.’
Unable to endure such a cruel society, another life slipped away, and inexplicably, tears began to spill down my cheeks.
“What is, what is going on…?”
Mia stared down at my belly, her expression vacant, as if she had just realized everything she thought she knew was a complete lie.
Whoosh.
In contrast to the norm, my belly closed up all on its own. It probably thought it was cold or something.
“Why…? Why is it healing like this? It shouldn’t be able to recover so quickly?!”
Mia, now panicking, jabbed my side with a knife. But this time, it didn’t heal instantly. Naturally, to my organs, Mia was a powerful presence.
“Oh…”
Mia looked down at my body with an expression like someone who just discovered they studied the wrong curriculum for an exam.
“…Let’s do the final experiment.”
Having given up on understanding anything further, Mia got ready to perform the last experiment. She created wounds all over my body and magically set them in place.
Apparently, my recovery speed was so astounding that it took a hefty amount of magic to secure me. So, she told me not to exert any effort lightly.
Just a tad of energy or a simple shake could undo her magic, and I would simply heal back.
“Get in there.”
“What’s that…?”
“Artia’s poison, one of the most malicious poisons in existence. It’s so wretched, you can’t even store it unless it’s magically treated.”
“Oh…”
Would I become a skeleton if I jumped in there? Sometimes exposure to really bad poison would temporarily reduce me to mere bones.
‘That’s a little embarrassing.’
People who haven’t experienced it wouldn’t understand—the vital bones of one’s body, hidden from everyone, being exposed to another person.
Yet, I couldn’t let embarrassment stop me. I stepped into the bathtub, blood oozing from my wounds.
Ssshhhh!
My clothes and skin started melting away!
“Argh!”
I screamed and jerked back. Then Mia’s eyes lit up with enthusiasm.
“Did you finally feel real pain this time? Or maybe the threat to your life…!”
“Uh, it’s just that I don’t have many clothes left. It’d be kinda troublesome if they melted away.”
“…”
Once again, she looked at me with those empty eyes. I felt awkward under her burning gaze and muttered a nervous laughter as I shifted my view.
“…!”
Just then, through the slightly opened door of the lab, a pair of familiar green eyes locked onto mine. It was Noah’s gaze.
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