Chapter 10 …

The Final Boss Is a Graduate Student?

“…Excess mana?”

“Yes. As I mentioned earlier, the pain and paralysis you’re experiencing are caused by an excessive amount of mana overflowing inside your body. However, if this illness is cured, you’ll be able to use that abundant mana to improve your swordsmanship far beyond what it was before.”

Adele quietly slid the vial toward Heon.

“So you need to keep taking this medicine consistently. Of course, it won’t cure you overnight. It will take quite a long time for your body to regain its balance.”

“How do you intend to prove that it actually works?”

“I already told you. If you keep taking it, you’ll get better.”

“?”

“Well… you’ll understand once you’ve tried it.”

Faced with her confidence that lacked any evidence, Heon was left speechless for a moment.

She wants me to drink this? To test it on my own body?

How am I supposed to trust the safety of that medicine? It’s already suspicious enough as it is.

And yet, before he realized it, his hand had already reached toward the vial.

…What am I doing?

The next moment, however, he forced himself to regain his composure. Turning his head away, he shoved the vial back toward her.

I’m not that desperate yet, damn it.

The bottle rolled across the table before falling to the floor with a sharp clink.

“You should peddle your drugs to addicts instead.”

His voice was cold enough to border on contempt.

Even so, Adele simply nodded as though she had expected that reaction all along.

“I figured you wouldn’t believe me right away. Well, it can’t be helped. I’m glad I used a sturdy bottle.”

Looking rather pleased that the vial hadn’t broken, she picked it up and placed it back on the table.

Then she pulled out a small note from her pocket and held it out to him.

“What is this?”

“My home address.”

Narrowing her eyes, Adele continued.

“As your condition progresses, you’ll experience pain so severe that you won’t be able to endure it. It’ll be on an entirely different level from anything you’ve felt until now.”

“Are you cursing me?”

Ignoring his piercing glare, Adele calmly placed a hand against her own chest.

“So, right here.”

The tip of her finger pointed precisely to the area just above the pit of her stomach.

“Once the severe pain starts there, you’ll suddenly find it difficult to breathe. You may even be unable to speak no matter how hard you try. It will last anywhere from a few minutes to around ten.”

Heon’s expression stiffened slightly.

He had never experienced symptoms like that before.

No… there was no reason for him to believe anything she was saying.

“That’s ridiculous…”

“So when that happens, use this medicine.”

Adele gestured toward the vial on the table before placing the note beside it.

“If you change your mind then, come find me at the address written here.”

As though any further explanation would simply be a waste of time, she stood up without even saying goodbye.

“Until next time.”

Soon, the tattered hem of her old robe fluttered as she completely disappeared from the reception room.

“Hah.”

How exactly did she expect them to meet again?

Shaking his head with a dry laugh, Heon muttered,

“Where did a scammer like that even come from…”

Her tone had been unbearably arrogant, and everything she said sounded absurd.

Yet strangely enough, he couldn’t bring himself to throw away the medicine bottle or the note she had left behind.

Or rather… he simply couldn’t.

For some reason, the spot just above his solar plexus—the very place she had pointed to—felt oddly itchy.

* * *

A few days later.

“See? Nothing happened.”

Heon chuckled quietly as he turned another page.

Books about mana were piled high across his desk.

Ever since that day, he had looked at the note and medicine bottle Adele left behind countless times.

Eventually, however, he found himself ridiculous and tossed both deep into a drawer.

Of course, he hadn’t completely forgotten about them.

Even though he acted indifferent on the surface, Adele’s words continued to bother him, so he decided to investigate the medicine himself.

He gave an order to his servants.

“Bring me every book related to mana.”

He wanted to find out whether there were really people who suffered because their mana couldn’t be discharged like his.

But while the books occasionally mentioned mana depletion, there wasn’t a single word about mana overload or mana absorbents.

Little by little, her warning began to sound like complete nonsense.

What? Pain unlike anything I’ve ever experienced? Suddenly unable to breathe?

“Hah. As if I’d suddenly stop breathing…”

Letting out a scoff, Heon shoved the book into the corner of his desk.

Still, for a fraud, she certainly knew how to talk.

She had almost managed to convince him.

Thinking the time he had wasted reading those books had been completely pointless, he slowly rose from his seat.

“What a complete waste of—”

Just then.

Without warning, his breath caught.

Heon clutched at his chest and tried to call for a servant.

But although his lips moved, not a single sound came from his throat.

Damn it… Damn it! Damn it!

His heart pounded violently.

His mind went completely blank.

His sturdy body staggered before collapsing powerlessly onto the floor.

“Ghk…! Kgh!”

Between his collarbone and the pit of his stomach—

The exact place Adele had pointed to—

It felt as though a massive lump of iron were crushing down on it, squeezing the life out of him.

At the same time, the words of the woman he had mocked for “cursing” him flashed through his mind.

“Once the severe pain starts there, you’ll suddenly find it difficult to breathe. You may even be unable to speak no matter how hard you try. It will last anywhere from a few minutes to around ten.”

Damn it all.

It was exactly the same.

He really couldn’t breathe.

Heon couldn’t believe it.

…What is this?

The bizarre woman’s words had actually been true.

At this rate…

He really might die.

Then… if that’s true…

Just before losing consciousness, Heon gathered every last bit of strength and dragged himself toward his desk.

He yanked open the drawer with all his might.

Every time his hand touched some random object, he threw it aside as he desperately searched.

Damn it.

Damn it all!

For the potion—

The very one that woman had called the cure.

“Hngh… Ghk…”

At last, Heon found the vial and grabbed it.

There was no longer any time left to doubt it.

With trembling hands, he tore off the cap and drank it in one gulp.

Gulp.

Gulp.

The potion slid effortlessly down the throat that moments ago had been incapable of drawing even a single breath.

As though it had been made for this exact moment.

And then…

Only moments later—

“Hah…! Haa… Haah…”

The muscles in his chest, which had been rigidly locked in place, gradually relaxed.

His breathing, which moments earlier had felt as though death were imminent, returned to normal.

When he clenched and unclenched the hand that had gone numb from paralysis, warmth instantly spread throughout his body.

Never in his life had he experienced such agony.

Nor had he ever experienced that agony disappearing so completely in an instant.

Still sitting on the floor, Heon gasped for breath for quite some time.

Then he looked down at the empty vial in his hand.

Without him realizing it, not a single drop remained inside.

“…It was real.”

Only then was Heon forced to admit it.

He finally had a reason he couldn’t ignore—

He had to find that woman.

* * *

I stopped halfway through putting on my dress and scratched my ear.

…Why is my ear so itchy?

“Hey, Adele. Are you finished getting dressed?”

“Oh my! It looks absolutely wonderful on you! What should we do? Shall I open the curtain?”

Outside the fitting room, Adolf urged me to hurry, while the tailor fussed over me nonstop.

Is it because I’ve got two noisy magpies flapping away on both sides of me?

Not thinking much of it, I nodded.

“Yes, please open it.”

Today was the day I was having a dress made.

On the day I visited Heon and made him an offer—or rather, a threat disguised as an offer—Adolf contacted me again after being exposed as completely broke.

He said he knew some investors and asked me to accompany him to a count’s banquet.

Hmm.

Getting an investment from Heon was still my top priority…

But any successful entrepreneur prepares contingency plans from Plan A all the way to Plan Z in case something goes wrong, doesn’t she?

Besides, I don’t even have to pay for the dress.

Adolf proudly declared that, as a commemorative gift for leaving his job, he would at least buy me a dress.

No matter how broke he was, he insisted he could still afford that much.