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The Duke wasn’t in his study. He had left urgently due to a problem in one of the provincial estates, and it was said that it would take at least a week for him to return. Even amidst his busy schedule, he had taken the time to organize and leave the list of the dowry for me.  

‘I must thank him when he returns.’  

I didn’t return to the Sapphire Room. After thanking the Duke, I had planned to visit Eugene at the Ivory Tower.  

To be honest, when I last saw Eugene during the exam, he didn’t seem all that strange. However, with Hazen’s sudden appearance, I had a feeling that the situation might have drastically changed.  

‘Of course, there’s still a lot of time left until the day of the prophecy that Bael received…’  

But I couldn’t shake the suspicion that the Heaven folks, who liked to speak in ambiguous terms, might have left some sort of trap in their prophecy.  

As I walked towards the Ivory Tower, deep in thought, I suddenly heard murmuring from somewhere.  

Curious about what was going on, I looked down the noisy corridor and saw servants whispering with serious expressions.  

“Clothes… blood…”  

“Dead… isn’t he?”  

The words I overheard had an ominous tone.  

What caught my attention even more was that the direction the servants had come from was where Axel’s room was located.  

‘Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen Axel around lately.’  

Thinking back, he didn’t accompany us to the palace on the day of the debutante either.  

A strong instinct flashed through my mind—something was definitely wrong with Axel.  

I turned my steps away from the Ivory Tower and headed towards Axel’s room.  

When I arrived at his room after hurriedly walking, a male servant was standing guard at the entrance.  

From inside, I could hear the sound of someone groaning in pain.  

“What’s going on?”  

I quickly approached and asked, but the servant, looking troubled, just glanced at the tightly closed door without saying a word.  

It seemed Axel had given strict orders to keep quiet.  

Frustrated, I reached for the door, but the servant blocked my way.  

“He has ordered that no one is to be let in.”  

“If Axel says anything, you can tell him I came in on my own.”  

I felt bad for putting the servant in a difficult position, but the urgency to check on Axel’s condition overwhelmed my thoughts.  

Ignoring the servant, who exclaimed “Oh, Lady!” and tried to stop me, I forced my way in and opened the door.  

‘Gasp!’  

The scene that greeted me through the wide-open door made me gasp and cover my mouth with both hands.  

Axel was sitting alone on the sofa, hastily treating his wounds.  

Blood-soaked shirts and towels were scattered across the floor.  

It was immediately clear that the situation was serious without anyone having to say a word.  

Axel was pressing a wadded towel against his abdomen, but it seemed like the bleeding wasn’t stopping easily.  

Judging by the way his hands were trembling, it didn’t look like he had much strength left.  

Although Axel was physically strong, he wasn’t the type to engage in physical combat like knights.  

He was still, at heart, a frail magician.  

I quietly closed the door behind me without causing any commotion and stepped inside.

At the sound of someone approaching, Axel turned his head. The moment our eyes met, his face twisted in displeasure.  

“I specifically had someone stationed at the door.”  

“I figured something was wrong, so I pushed my way in.”  

Axel let out a small laugh, as if understanding.  

“You can still laugh?”  

I scolded Axel as I placed my hand over the towel he was pressing against his wound.  

I applied more pressure to his abdomen in his place, and from above, I could hear Axel groaning in pain.  

I was incredulous.  

“Why are you dealing with this alone?”  

There was a physician available, and if it wasn’t a situation where he could call a doctor, he could have at least asked someone else for help.  

Of course, I wouldn’t be included among those ‘someone else.’  

Neither Servian, Bael, Axel, nor Kirke shared serious and dangerous matters with me, now that I appeared as a child.  

‘I understand.’  

Even though they knew I was Greslin, they would naturally see me as someone to protect because of my appearance.  

In the past, we stood back-to-back, protecting each other as equals.  

Now, it was frustrating to be forced to stand by and watch.  

There were countless times when I wanted to ignore the fact that I was being hunted as the dark mage Greslin and just use my magic.  

If I could at least master the use of divine power to be of some help, it would be less frustrating, but I wasn’t making any progress there either.  

‘Damn those Heaven people.’  

I bought a stimulant to gain divine power, so shouldn’t they provide aftercare too?  

Grumbling, I mentally called out “Heaven Market!” to open the shop.  

When I sorted the product list by the keyword ‘healing potion,’ quite a few items appeared.  

‘I can help like this, too!’  

I selected the most effective-looking, powerful healing potion from the list.  

〈New Flesh, Healing Balm〉  

A universal healing balm for external wounds that can perfectly heal any injury!  

Apply it to the wounded area, and the wound will heal instantly.  

However, due to the side effect of rapid recovery, it comes with intense pain, so it’s recommended to use a painkiller if possible!  

Price: 10,000,000 coins  

Although it was a one-time-use potion, the fact that it could cleanly heal external wounds made the price a hefty 10 million coins.  

‘Still, it’s worth using when necessary.’  

I wasn’t going to hoard coins and take them to the grave with me.  

‘Besides, I get a half-price discount with the divine card, don’t I?’  

Without hesitation, I purchased the ‘New Flesh, Healing Balm.’  

[Message from Heaven]  

(Notification) You have purchased 〈New Flesh, Healing Balm〉. Would you like to receive it immediately?  

[Yes/No]  

When I selected ‘Yes,’ a box suddenly dropped from the air.

There were still over 2 billion coins left. Without even taking the time to check exactly how many coins I had left, I hurriedly opened the box. I removed the towel that had been used to stop the bleeding and applied the medicine thickly. Axel trembled violently and bit his lip.  

“Sorry. It heals quickly, but it’s really painful.”  

“…Shouldn’t you have told me that before applying it?”  

Axel looked at me with a resentful gaze.  

His eyes seemed to ask, ‘Did you do that on purpose?’ so I did my best to avoid his gaze and focused on applying the medicine.  

The effect of ‘New Flesh, Healing Balm’ was truly remarkable. As soon as I applied the medicine, the long diagonal cut began to heal rapidly.  

It was similar to the effect when a skilled priest used divine power to greatly accelerate a patient’s recovery.  

It seemed that the principle behind this medicine was similar to that of divine healing. After all, there was the commonality of intense pain when receiving treatment from a priest as well.  

‘Anyway, it was worth the high price.’  

Axel was sweating profusely from enduring the pain.  

I looked around, found a clean towel, and handed it to Axel.  

“Here, wipe off the sweat, and now tell me what happened.”  

Since I had treated him, it was now time to question him.  

I crossed my arms and tried to look as intimidating as possible as I looked down at Axel.  

However, judging by the way Axel let out a small laugh without any tension, it seemed I wasn’t achieving the effect I intended.  

‘Sigh. It’s this saintly face that’s the problem.’  

It might also be because I looked like a child, but my current face was too gentle, so even when I tried to make a stern expression, it didn’t come across as intimidating at all.  

Giving up on trying to threaten Axel, I gently asked,  

“I’m part of the expedition too, you know. If you tell me what’s going on, I can at least help you think it through, right?”  

“It’s because you wouldn’t just add your thoughts—you’d throw yourself into it completely, which is why no one wants to tell you anything.”  

Axel sighed deeply and began to speak.  

“Besides, Bael and Servian don’t know about this either. Neither does Kirke. I acted on my own, and this is what happened.”  

“On your own?”  

That meant he was either completely sure of his actions or in a hurry.  

My instincts were screaming that it was the latter.