Published: August 15, 2025
I finally managed to reach my room. I was told to place the mana stone on the bed, so I did as Richarda instructed and put it there.
“Even just being near the mana stone might affect it, so I’m not very comfortable with this…”
With a sigh, Richarda put on gloves that blocked mana and efficiently began undressing me.
Normally, one was supposed to bathe after finishing pouring mana into the “God’s Will,” but having been sleeping while leaning against the bare rock wall, I wasn’t in any state to get into bed directly. Richarda said it was impossible for me to bathe just now, but at least she could wipe me down with a towel wet with warm water, which gave me some relief.
“Princess, please drink this and rest slowly.”
Richarda prepared the high priest’s special extremely bitter medicine and stepped back to patiently wait while I took the medicine.
Thanks to the physical enhancement magic tool, I felt like my body could move energetically, but I was shivering terribly and my head was spinning. Fully aware that I had a high fever, I hesitated to drink the medicine, which I really didn’t want to take, and glanced at Richarda.
…With this condition, I really don’t want to take that extremely bitter medicine that has no kindness at all.
Seeing me flinch at the high priest’s special extremely bitter medicine, which clearly paid no attention to taste, Richarda smiled but then made a very skillful expression by narrowing her eyes sharply and looked at me.
“If someone sleeps inside a cave like the innermost chamber in this season, even an ordinary person would catch a cold, and if things go badly, they might go all the way up to a more serious state. If a princess like you, who normally wouldn’t fall ill from something trivial, is bedridden now, it’s almost a miracle that you’re still alive!”
“…I apologize for causing you worry.”
Among everyone in the castle, Richarda was the most frantic about my frailty.
Because I hadn’t returned for quite some time, Richarda had worried and revealed my ongoing weakness to the teachers, including Hilsure. As a result, their impression shifted from thinking I was just a child tired from retrieving the “God’s Will” and resting to believing I had collapsed and almost died.
“Now, princess, please drink.”
“Yes…”
I grabbed the bottle containing the thick green medicine with one hand and drank it down quickly. There was no time for hesitation—if I didn’t drink it all at once, the hardship would only last longer.
“Ughh—!”
After drinking the extremely bitter medicine for the first time in a while, I pressed my hand to my mouth to avoid vomiting and writhed with tears in my eyes. But as I suffered, my condition rapidly improved. The effect was truly powerful—though the moment I drank it, I felt as if I were being summoned to heaven.
“Now, please rest well.”
Richarda finished tidying up the room and quietly left.
“You’ve gotten quite a bit smaller, haven’t you?”
Still lying on the bed, I gazed at the “God’s Will,” now reduced to a size I could hold in one hand. The more mana I poured into it, the smaller it became. It was said to blend with the mana and be absorbed inside me.
When I had dozed off in the innermost room and woke up surprised at the now smaller mana stone, Hilsure said, “That’s how it is. Please pour your mana well until it assimilates with you.”
In other words, until I fully absorbed the “God’s Will” within myself, I would have to spend time cradling the mana stone like a parent bird warming an egg.
Most of the time, holding it for a day and night was enough to pour in my own mana and achieve assimilation. Because of this, the real day for acquiring the staff was set on earth day, a holiday when lectures were off, so students could focus on pouring mana.
“Well, I’m just glad I made it back safely.”
I sighed as I recalled the chaos just now. It was good that Rufen woke me up with his loud voice, but what followed was miserable.