TFM 251

 Khan got hurt :(

Chapter 251

Before long, the maids opened the door and came in.

She shouted in a cracked voice.

“C-call the healer at once!”

The maids, who had frozen in shock, soon ran out of the room.

Unable to endure the heat that was growing worse and worse, Thalia lifted the hem of her skirt and began tearing loose the bandage wrapped around her leg.

A moment later, within her vision flashing white like bursts of lightning, the hideous skin beneath was revealed, flushed a burning red.

When Thalia saw the pale scar wrapped around her left leg like ivy beginning to crawl upward little by little, she screamed.

The uneven, swollen scar had climbed past her knee and up her thigh, stretching thin branches all the way toward her lower abdomen.

As though trying to stop it, she clawed madly at the scar writhing like a larva beneath her fingernails.

With a burning pain, blood flowed down her thigh.

She paid it no mind and tore wildly at the tough skin tissue, hard as tree bark.

Khan, as if trying to stop her, shoved his head between her hands and her leg, letting out a sharp whine from deep in his throat.

Thalia struck the wolf away with an irritated gesture.

“Go away! If I don’t tear this off right now…!”

Thalia, who had been clawing at her leg like a person half out of her mind, flinched and stopped when she saw Khan tumble off the bed.

The young wolf seemed to have twisted his paw when he hit the floor, and as he limped back toward the bedside, tears suddenly burst from her eyes.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Khan.”

Thalia hurriedly lifted the wolf into her arms with trembling hands and murmured in a cracked voice.

Khan kept licking her face without pause.

Thalia buried her face in his soft fur and let out a rough sob.

Just then, someone rushed into the room.

“Your Grace, I came as soon as I was called. Where are you feeling unwell—”

Tiuran, who had been approaching the bed, suddenly stopped speaking.

It seemed she had seen the blood flowing from her leg.

The Eastern healer drew in a short breath, then bent down beside the bed. Placing her hand over the affected area, she poured mana into it.

After a moment, the stinging pain and the heat that felt as though it were burning her body began to ease little by little.

Thalia let out a long sigh of relief.

“Water…”

When she murmured in a cracked voice, the maid waiting beside the bed immediately poured a glass and handed it to her.

Thalia struggled to sit up and accepted the cup with trembling hands, then drank.

As the cold water washed down her throat, which had been as dry as parched leather, her mind finally began to settle.

“My skin suddenly started burning terribly, and white light began flashing before my eyes. Why did these symptoms appear?”

“…It seems to be a side effect caused by the medicine.”

Tiuran, who was wetting a towel and wiping her leg, spoke in a stiff voice.

“Poppy and mandrago are herbs with powerful pain-relieving effects, but if overused, they can cause serious aftereffects. It appears that, because the medicine was abused far too much…”

“It could not be helped.”

At the sudden voice, Thalia turned her head.

Marisen, disheveled as though she had come running only after being called belatedly, was striding across the room.

“Her Grace has suffered from chronic pain for years. She had built up a tolerance to many herbs with analgesic effects, so if we wanted them to work, there was no choice but to increase the dosage.”

“That still does not justify abusing herbs that carry potentially fatal aftereffects.”

Tiuran sharply refuted her.

“Surely you are aware that some herbs can also be used as poison?”

Marisen’s face went taut.

She seemed angry at having her prescription openly criticized.

“I did not use the medicine so indiscriminately. It is only because Her Grace’s body has grown excessively weak that—”

“So you are saying this is my fault?”

Thalia, who had been leaning against the pillow and catching her breath, cut in coldly.

At that, the blood drained from the healer’s face.

“That was not what I meant. I only meant that I had no intention of causing Your Grace harm…”

“Whatever your intentions were, the fact remains that your medicine harmed me in the end.”

At that cold rebuke, the woman bit her lip and bowed her head.

“…I will take care to ensure this never happens again.”

Thalia watched her through narrowed eyes, then turned her gaze to the Eastern healer standing beside her. She was calmly straightening the hem of Thalia’s skirt.

Suddenly, Thalia remembered that something similar had happened in the past.

She looked back and forth between the two healers with a thoughtful expression. Then, as though she had come to a decision, she spoke.

“From now on, the two of you will prepare my medicine together.”

Marisen jerked her head up.

“Your Grace, I am a high-ranking mage who has been professionally trained by House Tarrein over many years. I have no reason to be treated as the equal of some mere herbalist from the East—”

“Are you saying you intend to disobey me?”

Thalia cut her off firmly, one hand pressed against her throbbing head.

“Tiuran is a healer belonging to House Siorkan. Originally, she held the same position as you. But she also made a mistake in prescribing medicine and was demoted to an assistant mage. Would it not be fair for you to receive the same treatment?”

Marisen closed her mouth tightly, as though she had no rebuttal.

Thalia continued in a calm tone.

“From now on, the two of you will take turns examining me.”

“…As you command.”

The woman lowered her eyes and answered in a stiff voice.

Thalia gestured with her chin, her face weary.

“You may leave. Today, I will entrust my condition to Tiuran’s care.”

The woman moved her lips as though she wanted to say something, but soon left the room with a look of resignation.

Thalia sank deep into the pillow, exhausted, and turned her eyes to the woman standing beside her.

Even after the sudden decision to restore her position, the woman showed almost no sign of surprise or joy.

She merely walked calmly to the brazier and began adding several medicinal herbs into the pot.

“I will prepare an herbal tea to remove the toxins built up in your body. After drinking one cup, you must eat plenty of porridge, drink enough water, and rest well. And for the time being, it would be best to reduce your painkillers. Instead, we can find another way to lessen the pain…”

“I understand, so look at Khan’s leg first.”

Thalia carefully lifted Khan, who was curled up quietly on her lap, and spoke in a worried tone.

“He fell off the bed because of me earlier. I think he may have sprained his front leg.”

The woman, who had been stirring the pot with a ladle, came back to the bedside.

While the healer carefully examined his leg, Khan lay completely still like a doll and did not move at all.

But Thalia could feel the little wolf’s small heart beating rapidly.

Her heart ached at the sight of him seeming so terribly startled because of her.

More than anything, she was worried that Khan might come to dislike her.

“His bone isn’t broken or anything, is it?”

“It is only a strained ligament. Magical beasts tend to have strong recovery abilities, so he should recover completely within a few days.”

Even with Tiuran’s calm explanation, Thalia could not shake her concern.

“Can’t you cast healing magic on him and make him recover right away?”

“Your Grace, magical beasts possess strong resistance to magic. Unless an exceptionally powerful amount of mana is poured into him, it would be difficult to expect much effect.”

Thalia felt her heart drop.

That meant that even if Khan were badly injured in the future, there would be little she could do for him.

She looked down at the wolf, her face pale.

Khan still looked unsettled.

His tail, which was usually wagging lightly, was curled into a round shape and did not move at all, and his ears drooped low.

Feeling guilt press heavily on her chest, she carefully drew Khan toward her heart.

Instead of resisting and twisting away, the wolf buried his nose against the nape of her neck and let out a small rumbling sound.

At the sight of him coming into her arms without the slightest sign of resentment despite her rough behavior, her throat tightened for a moment.

“I’m truly sorry, Khan. I’ll never hurt you again.”

Thalia was gently stroking down his slender, trembling body when she suddenly felt a strange gaze and lifted her eyes.

The healer was looking down at her with a faintly pitying gaze.

In that instant, humiliation, as though she had been stripped bare, ran down her spine.

She snapped rather sharply.

“Didn’t you say you were going to prepare that herbal tea or whatever?”

“My apologies. I will prepare it at once.”

The healer answered calmly and turned back toward the fireplace.

Thalia also sent a look to the maids watching her for cues, telling them to withdraw. Then she set the wolf down on the floor and walked with a limp behind the screen.

Inside the large bathtub, cold bathwater had been left full.

She threw off her bloodstained indoor clothes and plunged herself into it.

As the coolness spread over her skin, which still had not fully lost its burning heat, the tension that had been pulled taut drained out of her body.

Curled up inside the tub and catching her breath, Thalia glanced down at her leg beneath the water.

The scar that had crawled all the way up her body had, at some point, returned to its original state.

She touched it with her fingertips for a moment, then roughly washed her face.