Chapter 91
Despite the rough resistance, the cool palm touched the soft skin.
The abdomen held a lukewarm body temperature.
Unlike her sharply raised thorns, delicate flesh was felt through the thin nightgown.
The sensation of flower petals greeting spring.
I was unconsciously stroking the snow-white stomach.
"Ugh, y-y-you... I'll kill you!"
The rose was shouting in a sharp voice.
She made an expression of disbelief and glared this way with fierce eyes.
She seemed unwilling to let go of her venom.
But
"How dare you do such a thing...!"
Despite such efforts, the trembling reflected in her pupils couldn't be erased.
Green eyes shaking violently.
Clear agitation rippled beyond them.
As I looked down at her fearful reaction, the corners of my mouth that had been quiet twisted in an ominous direction.
It was a sinister smile bursting out unknowingly.
"Now, now... I said I won't hurt you, didn't I?"
With those words, I lifted her top.
The girl's clothes had already reached below her chest, so now it was precariously covering the forbidden area.
Elise tied to the bed in a nearly half-naked state.
Perhaps due to the blatantly exposed area.
Her characteristic sweet body scent spread through the air.
"Ugh, uuu...!"
The scene escalated as if about to burst.
A thin figure perhaps due to her sickly health.
Yet her chest held its own presence.
Her roughly disheveled appearance clung to her body, drawing an infinitely alluring curve.
I stroked the girl's stomach with mischievous hands.
"Ugh, y-y-you, son of a bitch...!"
Elise freaking out at the sticky touch.
Her shoulders trembled.
Though she tried to forcibly raise her head, her red hair only sprawled out.
The rose moved her petals as if blown by the wind.
Squeeze-.
Following the momentary force applied, the girl's stomach was pressed down without resistance.
Only a soft sensation remained at my fingertips.
"Uu, uugh..."
The girl's lips finally closed.
Though she had been acting with fierce eyes until just before, her true nature came out in this moment of being so helplessly overpowered.
Moisture had gathered on the surface of her green eyes by now.
Pupils that were gradually crumbling, breaking, and finally reflecting only fragility.
"My."
Perhaps the teasing had gone a bit too far.
I had intended to tease her a bit because her treatment of Charlotte bothered me, but now it seemed I should stop and really start the treatment.
I didn't want to make her cry at our first meeting after all.
I conveyed a few kind words to mean she should calm down.
"Don't make such a frightened expression. This is only the beginning."
=You don't need to be scared. We're just starting the treatment now.
"Sh-Shut up, y-you, I'll definitely kill you...!"
"Huhu... Though you say you dislike it now, you'll come to like it before long."
=Though it may feel unpleasant now, you'll think it was good when it's over.
"Don't talk... nonsense...!"
"It will surely be happiness you've never experienced before."
=You'll realize how happy it is to have a body without pain.
"Cough... Is there, is there really no one outside?"
Elise requested help with a dying voice.
She cast her gaze towards the closed door, but of course no answer returned from there.
The noise inside was already perfectly blocked.
I had given Charlotte instructions too, so no one else would accidentally enter either.
I spoke with a leisurely smile.
"It's useless."
A sealed room with only the two of us present.
This state was planned to last at least 2 hours.
"You should give up and accept it. You just need to spend time intimately."
=I mean relax. I really want to spend time intimately.
"You, trash, of a person...!"
"As I said earlier, it won't hurt at all."
=I really don't intend to hurt you.
I soothed the rose in a calm tone, then gathered some power at my fingertips.
Rippling shadows thinly coated my fingers.
Perhaps because it was such a faint energy, the girl didn't seem to notice.
My palm moved nonchalantly, stroking her stomach.
Squeeze-.
Hands firmly pressing her lower abdomen.
Behind the softly touched skin, I raised my closed eyelids.
Clear mana was felt beyond the white skin.
"Then... I'll start lightly."
I concentrated my consciousness just like that.
An alien flow was passing through the girl's body.
Mana lines tangled haphazardly, unsmooth junctions, and even fragments of mana that had hardened while back flowing in the end.
Such symptoms were occurring throughout her entire body.
'The most serious condition is... the abdomen after all.'
As it was the area where the body's mana lines converged, the degree of petrification was more serious compared to other parts.
Fragments shattered like glass were stirring her insides violently.
'How.'
How was she enduring such pain?
The sensation of her internal organs being torn apart every moment, yet the girl wasn't showing signs of pain.
As if she had become used to enduring.
"Even if you endure... it doesn't lessen the pain."
"Ugh, what do you know!"
"I know better than anyone."
Mana Stone Disease.
An incurable disease where each mana line forming the body hardens like stone, and eventually the whole body crumbles to pieces.
These symptoms continue until the subject's life activities stop.
No cure has been discovered.
Even the cause of onset is unknown.
As it was so rare that it only occurred once or twice per century, the continent had a strong tendency to recognize this symptom as a 'curse' rather than a 'disease'.
As nothing had been elucidated at all, it was interpreted as something like 'God's wrath'.
'God's wrath... It's a terrible enough disease to be called that.'
Therefore, the stone disease had been a symbol of ominousness since ancient times.
This was no different for the Imperial Family.
The reason Elise stayed in this lonely detached palace was the same.
The disease name of the cherished 2nd Princess was ominous, and she was confined for the reason that she would become an ill omen for the Empire.
Later, all social activities were completely forbidden under the excuse that she was simply ill.
'The secret about Rose.'
It was confidential information covered up by the Imperial Family, but I knew it as someone who had read the original work's setting book.
How lonely a battle with illness Elise had been fighting.
Why did her bright personality break down so arbitrarily like this?
I muttered with a moment of pity.
"Though brief... even this must be salvation for you."
I consumed the output of lies.
I annihilated the mana fragments embedded in her body very slowly, with minute manipulation.
Following that, the blocked blood flow gradually regained its flow.
'This is a temporary measure.'
It would ease her pain for about a day.
I planned to gradually go through stages from now on, healing little by little.
Of course, there was a method to heal her at once, but considering later, it was better to do it this way.
Trust.
It needs to be invested with sufficient time.
To save the little prince, I had to open the heart of the rose she loved.
So I had taken the treatment as an opportunity.
"Cough, cough...!"
Blood kept spurting from between her bloodless lips.
I recited a faint incantation while simultaneously transmitting the lie held at my fingertips to the rose.
The thin shadow seeped into her stomach.
"Rest."
Right after.
It dyed her whole body.
The girl's world that had been noisy with countless screams.
Became quiet.
"......"
Suddenly peace arrived.
Perhaps because she had been suffering from pain until just before.
Elise was blankly lost in a daze, feeling the peace that had come after 10 years.
An enchanting sensation flashed before her eyes.
"Ah, aah...?"
A question involuntarily let out.
Green eyes were shimmering, even forgetting their venom.
I smiled quietly.
'Did it work?'
What swallowed the girl was.
Pleasure dyeing her whole body hazily.
Because she had lived in pain for many years, even the momentary peace given became ecstasy for the girl.
Rose twitched her shoulders at the unexpected rapture.
"H-How...?"
Breath that had become rough by now.
Despite her slurred pronunciation, Elise threw a question this way.
It was a question that had filled her entire life with despair.
"How... am I, not in pain, suddenly, why...?"
She seemed confused.
I raised my index finger and lightly blocked her tired lips.
With my other hand, I covered her green eyes.
"Shh."
First, what was needed was rest.
For the past few years.
She probably hadn't been able to sleep properly due to the pain, so I wanted her to close her eyelids and rest deeply for now.
The conversation about today could be had tomorrow.
"Ah..."
Swish.
Eyes closing obediently.
Her arms that had been repeatedly resisting soon lost strength and fell onto the bed too.
I whispered towards her fading consciousness.
"Sleep well."
A word conveying peace to the delicate rose.
In the quiet that arrived like that, I stroked Elise's stomach for a while.
It was still a sensation holding warmth.
***
A few hours later.
The closed door opened and two girls entered.
Charlotte who had been waiting outside, and the young maid she had taken out.
They had somewhat anxious expressions.
Perhaps worried about Elise.
Though they came in at the words that her condition had improved, they honestly didn't seem to have high expectations.
It was probably what they had learned from being abandoned by countless famous doctors.
Those expectations only make disappointment greater.
In other words, it felt like learned helplessness.
"Um... where's Elise?"
A terrible battle with illness.
They were the only two people who had stayed by her side, so they had shared in her suffering no differently.
Because they had shed tears listening to her groaning in pain every dawn.
'But.'
Today was different.
Because I had stayed by their side.
"This way."
I pointed to the bed.
The rose who had lost consciousness long ago, the girl was still sleeping.
Red hair was spread between the blankets.
Snore snore-.
Peaceful breathing heard.
Seeing her face with eyes closed without a trace of distortion, surprise spread in the eyes of the two people who had been full of anxiety.
As if witnessing an unbelievable miracle.
"Oh my."
"Elise...?"
"It's the first time I've seen Her Highness with such a peaceful expression. There's no sign of suffering, and she's not sweating at all!"
"It was really... possible."
"I'm so glad! Your Highness...!"
The maid rejoiced with tears.
Perhaps emotions were rising for her too, Charlotte was unable to continue speaking for a while.
Finally, as if grasping her reason, she threw a question.
"How... did you do it...?"
Only my figure was reflected beyond her transparent pupils.
As if answering towards the girl's mirror, I only left a playful word.
"Huhu."
The answering words were.
"It's a secret."
As always.