As a result of checking his vital signs, the young lady’s words were true.
The physician added that.
Ludville’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
But he said nothing.
“More precisely, his condition had gone beyond what the body could normally handle, and it seems the demonic energy had built up in his internal organs from repeated exposure to monster blood.”
“So?”
The physician glanced toward Odely before continuing.
“If the young lady had found His Grace even a little later…… you wouldn’t have been able to stand here and speak with us like this.”
Wait.
There was something unbelievable in the physician’s words, so Ludville asked again.
“The young lady found me?”
So it wasn’t the knights who had come to rescue him?
Come to think of it.
“I told you that you would need me.”
He vaguely remembered a pale face and a trembling voice.
Ludville looked at Odely again, this time with a hint of surprise.
“How did you do it?”
“It is my purification ability.”
This time, Odely spoke.
The red flush on her ears had already faded, and her voice was perfectly calm.
Ludville somehow felt disappointed.
“I briefly mentioned it before. It is my unique ability.”
She spoke as if she were simply giving him information.
But Ludville could sense the subtle intention hidden beneath her calm tone.
She was trying to show him how useful she was.
It was a cold, rational argument that he needed her by his side.
But……
If what the young lady said was true, there was no need for her to persuade him with such an ability.
If someone possessed such a power, anyone in the world would spend a fortune to have that person by their side, and even the emperor would gladly make repeated efforts to recruit them.
It was that absurdly powerful a talent.
And if it was a unique ability, there was even less to say.
‘She purified the demonic energy when I was on the verge of becoming a monster?’
This wasn’t simply a matter of relieving his headaches or temporarily weakening the effects of drugs.
It was on an entirely different level.
It was a miracle like purifying water filled with deadly poison until it became safe to drink again.
What she had done was no different from making a stagnant, rotten river flow again.
‘What exactly is this woman?’
What kind of existence was she?
This was the first time he had seen anything like this.
‘……No, this isn’t the first time.’
The ‘ancient magic’ created by the Cardel barrier had effects like this.
But their methods were different.
Whenever they used ancient magic, it was always an elaborate and showy process, almost like a ritual.
They brought along mages, covered the ground with complicated magic circles, and chanted grand spells while making sure everyone watched the entire process.
Under the name of sacred ancient magic, they always gathered crowds and made them pray and worship in awe.
And yet the youngest daughter of that family, who had never appeared in public because of her chronic illness, could use purification magic all by herself?
How was that possible?
With nothing but her bare hands, without any mages beside her, without prayers or incantations, and without any magical backlash……
This wasn’t ancient magic.
Ludville instinctively sensed it.
The power she called ‘purification ability’ might actually be the true method of purification that the Cardel family had been hiding.
‘Why had she been hiding it all this time?’
He was about to ask her.
Why was it always the eldest son, Gawin, who appeared at every official event?
At least, he was about to.
“And more importantly, you have not been completely purified.”
She added this in a firm voice.
“You have been saturated with demonic energy for so long that it won’t disappear after just one or two treatments. Your lack of emotions delayed the symptoms, so I only realized it now. The physician also……”
Odely continued calmly, but suddenly narrowed her eyes.
As if she had just realized how angry she was.
“……What on earth did you do to become like this in just three months?”
“Young lady, are you angry at me right now?”
Ludville found her words absurd, yet at the same time, he felt a strange sense of amusement rising inside him.
It was as if the calm expression she always wore had momentarily cracked, revealing who she really was underneath.
Curious about her raised eyes, he reached out like a child, but Odely slapped his hand away.
“You have terrible manners.”
“I think that’s something I should be saying. And earlier, you were the one who touched me first……”
“Anyway.”
Odely cut him off and continued.
“You need to keep receiving purification. If you continue pushing yourself like this, the demonic energy could become active again. And if, by bad luck, the conditions for monsterization happen to be met at that moment……”
“So I could become a monster.”
“That’s right.”
“A monster…… I’ve spent my whole life hunting monsters, but I never thought I might become one.”
He had always been called a monster.
And now he might actually become a ‘real’ monster.
Wasn’t that rather amusing?
Ludville gave a small laugh, showing no sense of danger at all.
“Don’t say things like that. As long as I’m here, Your Grace will never become a monster.”
She was completely certain.
She spoke like an experienced professional who had gone through this treatment countless times before.
‘I’d always wondered what gave her the confidence to speak like that.’
It was simply natural confidence.
Because she had the ability to back it up.
No, considering how she had never clearly revealed her abilities and had actually described them as much weaker than they were, she was probably overly humble.
As if she were used to hiding things.
‘Odely Cardel.’
The beloved youngest daughter of the Cardel family.
But if she really was loved, they would never have hidden the existence of a purification ability that far surpassed ancient magic……
With an ability this powerful, they would normally have given Odely the position of heir, put her at the forefront, and used her abilities to raise the family’s prestige.
But they had ‘hidden’ her.
The reason was, in all likelihood……
Ludville fell into thought for a moment before asking.
“So you can treat me?”
Odely nodded.
Before she could answer, the physician hurriedly spoke up, sounding nervous.
He was afraid that the reckless Ludville might say something absurd and drive away such a valuable talent.
“I have never heard of the concept of a ‘purification ability’ before either, but based on the soldiers’ testimonies, it appears to be a rare power specialized in removing demonic energy.”
His voice was filled with a doctor’s sense of duty and almost obsessive determination not to let such a talent slip away.
Odely nodded in agreement and added,
“If we continue the purification at regular intervals, you should be able to recover within a few years. Three years…… or, at most, five.”
“……”
By coincidence, that matched the length of the contract Odely had proposed.
Ludville stared at her with an oddly displeased expression.
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