Time passed little by little, and with every second that slipped away, the fine beads of sweat on Zuo Jian's forehead followed gravity and fell toward the floor.
His eyes were wide open, his entire body seemingly locked in a state of extreme concentration. One hand supported Grey's arm while the other slowly pushed the contents of the syringe into her vein.
Only after finishing did he realize he had taken almost no protective measures. He hurriedly grabbed a mask from the nearby table and put it on.
Not that a flimsy mask would provide any real protection against Oripathy patients, of course. Still, at the very least, it gave him a little psychological comfort.
After all, anyone who understood what the final stages of Oripathy looked like would inevitably feel a deep, instinctive fear toward it.
Zuo Jian had prepared himself mentally the moment he learned just how terrifying the disease was—but when a patient like this truly appeared before him, he still couldn't remain completely unmoved.
As long as one was human, one would naturally avoid things that could harm them. That was instinct.
But the reason humans were human was because, at times, they could overcome those primitive urges within themselves—could restrain the impulses born of instinct.
At least for him, there was no way he could simply stand by and watch someone who had been talking to him just moments ago—well, trying to pry into his background, really—die right in front of him.
Lowering his head, he looked at the unconscious Grey. As the inhibitor he had injected took effect, her breathing gradually steadied. Only then did he let out a long breath of relief.
It worked.
But it had taken effect far too quickly…
According to the "medical common sense" now in his head, the speed at which an Oripathy inhibitor took effect was generally tied to two obvious factors.
First, the quality of the inhibitor. That hardly needed explaining.
Second…
The patient's degree of Oripathy infection.
The more severe the infection, the faster the inhibitor would take effect.
Because that meant the Originium concentration in the patient's blood had already exceeded an extremely dangerous threshold.
Thinking of that, Zuo Jian fell silent for a moment. He pulled on a fresh pair of rubber gloves, then, as if facing a great enemy, carefully drew a tube of blood from Grey's arm.
He absolutely did not dare treat that blood carelessly. Quite apart from whether he himself might become infected, there were still his two daughters upstairs. He refused to let those children suffer even the slightest fallout because of him.
The moment he successfully drew the sample, he placed it into the nearby machine without hesitation and began a blood analysis.
Not long ago, he had specifically complained about why a small private clinic doctor—one who normally only treated headaches, fevers, and minor illnesses—would have so much ridiculously specialized equipment for Oripathy patients in this manor, including a stockpile of Oripathy inhibitors.
Who would have thought he'd actually end up using them…
After finishing everything, Zuo Jian stripped off his clothes. Once he made sure there was nothing on him that might carry any infectious material from Grey upstairs to Eblana and Loughshinny, he thoroughly disinfected himself inside and out, making sure that, aside from Oripathy itself, he wasn't carrying any other virus either.
By the end of it, he had practically bathed in disinfectant. Only then, satisfied, did he change into a spare set of clothes from the storage room, open the door, and prepare to head back upstairs.
But the moment he opened the basement door, a familiar little face popped out right in front of him, eyes fixed on him with a distinctly mischievous look.
"Eblana?! Why did you come down here? It's dangerous…"
Seeing the girl already standing at the entrance to the basement, Zuo Jian instantly became tense. Grey's condition had stabilized for the moment thanks to the inhibitor, but he had just drawn her blood—and that blood was still in the analyzer, measuring its Originium concentration.
The odds might be low, but just in case, preventing the girl from getting any closer to the room was obviously the right thing to do.
Realizing that, Zuo Jian shifted slightly, stepping in front of Eblana and blocking her from peering any further into the dispensary.
What he could never have imagined was what that very action meant in Eblana's eyes.
The displeasure in her gaze was practically overflowing, yet she still forced herself to endure it, speaking in the same sarcastic tone as always.
"What? Hiding something from me?"
"Who's that woman? Why are you so nervous? Your accomplice? Or maybe not just an accomplice—maybe she holds some other position too. Say… your lover?"
Her eyes darted slightly, and there was an almost imperceptible tension in her tone.
Hearing that, black lines practically appeared over Zuo Jian's head. Speechless, he reached out and poked a finger at Eblana, who was still trying to squeeze past him to look into the dispensary.
"What lover? Where did you even learn words like that? I only met that lady today. She's just an ordinary patient, nothing more."
"If she's just a patient, why were you two being so intimate?"
Eblana took another step forward, pressing closer to him with the air of someone conducting an interrogation.
Then she noticed that his clothes were different from what he had been wearing when he first came in, and immediately pointed it out as though she had found evidence.
"Oh? You even changed clothes. So this is how you treat women you've only just met, is it~?"
Her expression screamed that she had already decided he had done something improper. She even stepped closer and buried herself against his chest, wrinkling her little nose and sniffing hard, clearly trying to catch some lingering trace of that strange woman's scent on him…
And then Eblana instantly regretted it.
"Ugh!"
She had only gotten halfway through sniffing before her face abruptly changed. She hurriedly covered her nose and retreated two steps.
The smell was overwhelmingly strong—like alcohol, or some kind of disinfectant. It seemed to seep from every pore in his body.
She had smelled that scent before in the dispensary, but never anything as intense as what was coming off Zuo Jian right now.
"Urgh!"
Backing away another two steps, Eblana pointed accusingly at his nose.
"You definitely did something you don't want anyone to know about, didn't you?!"
"?"
Zuo Jian blinked, utterly failing to understand where she had gone with this.
"That much disinfectant smell—so it really was to cover up whatever traces were left behind—"
Listening to Eblana's conclusion, Zuo Jian once again felt speechless. What was wrong with this girl lately? Why did it feel like every few days she found a new way to force him into the role of some sinister villain?
With a sigh, he gave up on arguing with her in such a "dangerous" place. He simply stepped forward, scooped the still-uncomprehending girl straight up in a princess carry, and started walking toward the living room.
"I'll explain everything in the living room. This isn't the right place. And also—you two should stay away from the dispensary for a while."
At first, because they were so close, Eblana's resistance was extremely fierce. With how strong the disinfectant smell was, it practically assaulted her nose into numbness. She muttered all sorts of incomprehensible things the whole way.
Things about his true nature being exposed, or his schemes falling apart… all pretty chuunibyou, honestly. Entirely in line with how she'd been acting lately.
But halfway through her struggling, Eblana seemed to sense something. Little by little, she suddenly quieted down.
Zuo Jian took it as her throwing a little tantrum.
But in his arms, Eblana narrowed her eyes and carefully distinguished another scent hidden beneath the overwhelming smell of disinfectant on him…
The scent of death.
And the smell of blood—mixed blood. More than one person's, and in such a tangled variety that even she found it difficult to tell apart.
Something was wrong… very wrong.
That woman was wrong.
She absolutely was not as simple as the "ordinary patient" Zuo Jian claimed she was.
Zuo Jian, naturally, had no idea what was going on in her head. He simply carried her all the way into the living room and set her down in front of Loughshinny, who was likewise hesitating over whether she should go downstairs and look for him.
The moment she saw Zuo Jian, Loughshinny visibly relaxed. But the instant she noticed the silent Eblana in his arms, the relief on her face tightened into alarm once more.
Something's wrong!
Big Sister, didn't you say you were only going down to check on things?!
Fortunately, the awkward scene did not last long. Zuo Jian soon set Eblana down, and after landing on her feet, she didn't say a word. She simply sat there silently, as though thinking through something.
Looking at the two girls before him, Zuo Jian coughed lightly and began explaining the entire sequence of events.
Naturally, he omitted a few small details—such as the part where he had threatened a street thug with a revolver in the crowd. Not exactly child-appropriate material.
After hearing the explanation, Loughshinny seemed to have no doubts. She only looked at Zuo Jian with a trace of sympathy and asked,
"Will… she get better?"
At that, he fell silent for a moment, then gently patted her head and answered seriously,
"I'll do everything I can."
Watching the warm atmosphere between father and daughter, Eblana suddenly spoke again in a tone as ill-timed as ever.
"You really are a softhearted fool, aren't you?"
"My dear father."
She spoke, then fell silent once more, as though she were already plotting something else in her heart.
In the silent dispensary, Grey suddenly opened her tightly shut eyes.
Power surged through her waist and torso. In an instant, she rose from the frail, helpless pose of a weak woman in need of rescue and shifted into the stance of a predator ready to spring on prey at any moment.
But after sweeping her gaze over the sterile white room around her and the disinfectant-heavy air, Grey suddenly laughed.
She walked forward and glanced at the still-running machine nearby. Inside it sat a tube of dark blood.
Her blood.
She was more familiar with that stuff than anyone.
"Hah…" Grey slowly exhaled, then stretched lazily, her bones crackling from head to toe.
"Damn, I never expected my Oripathy to flare up at such a convenient moment… though, judging from how things turned out, I suppose I ought to thank it for picking such good timing—"
"No. You should regret that those fatal symptoms didn't finish off what little life you have left."
A young but distinctly threatening voice sounded from behind her.
Grey turned—and saw a girl whose height only barely reached her chest, pointing a sharp kitchen knife straight at her. Purple flames had ignited at the tip of the girl's tail and spread all the way to the blade of the knife in her hand.
"Sarkaz. Leave this place. Otherwise, you'll regret not dying when your Oripathy flared up."
Eblana said it in a low voice, her tone steeped in killing intent so thick it was nearly tangible.
....
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