Chapter 230: Illness
Today, Lia waited at the junction as usual.
She leaned against the moss-slicked wall, eyes closed, calculating the passage
of time through the steady rhythm of her own heart and lungs.
It was nearly time. Amy's arrival was precise, rarely varying by more than ten
minutes. This was the conclusion Lia had drawn after five cycles of observation.
Footsteps echoed from the dark.
But something was wrong.
Lia snapped her eyes open, her brow knitting together. The gait was erratic,
lacking the light, rhythmic bounce of previous days. She shifted instantly into
a high-alert state, pressing her back against the brickwork and cautiously
peering around the corner.
A dim, amber light wobbled closer through the gloom.
It was Amy. And she was alone.
Lia relaxed her posture marginally and stepped out from the shadows.
"Big Sister Lia!"
The moment Amy saw her, it was as if the girl had found her only anchor in a
storm. Tears began to flood down her cheeks instantly.
Lia froze. She stood there, her hands rising and falling awkwardly as she looked
left and right, utterly paralyzed by the sight. In the Necrotic Realm, no one
had ever instructed her on the proper protocol for consoling a weeping juvenile.
"Mama... Mama, she's..." Amy sobbed, her words fragmented and breathless, her
small frame shivering with every hiccup.
Lia's fingers brushed against the fabric of her skirt in a nervous, repetitive
motion. It was an unnatural gesture for her—she had never suffered from
subconscious physical tics before.
"Speak slowly," Lia said. Her voice remained flat, but the edge had softened
into something resembling patience.
Amy wiped her nose with a dirty sleeve, though the tears continued their
relentless descent. "Mama is sick... she won't stop coughing, and she's so hot
to the touch. I wanted to take her to Doctor William, but she refused to move."
"She said we have to save the coin for my Citizenship Plate. But the teachers at
the Academy say you can't buy those—you have to pass the trials to earn them!
Mama won't listen... she thinks having a mountain of copper is the only way to
be safe. She says she's strong and just needs to lie down for a few days."
Amy's distress mounted with every sentence, her sobs turning into a full
breakdown. She eventually sank to the floor, hugging her knees, unable to form
further words.
Lia processed the data points as they came.
Condition: Illness. Symptoms: Coughing, fever. Patient status: Refusal of
treatment due to financial anxiety.
Based on her observations of this Plane, the physiological baseline of the
average human was quite high—likely due to the abundance of food and the
presence of the Sovereign's medical infrastructure. A common fever would
typically resolve itself within a week. Amy's mother was statistically unlikely
to face a terminal outcome.
Logic dictated that Lia should do nothing. She merely had to wait out the week,
and the variable would resolve itself.
But as she watched the tiny, shivering silhouette curled on the damp stone, that
"logic error" in her chest flared with a sharp, insistent heat.
"The cost," Lia said.
"Eh?" Amy looked up, her tear-soaked lashes fluttering.
Lia repeated the question, her voice clearer this time. "How much coin is
required for the treatment?"
Amy blinked, seemingly unable to grasp why Lia was asking. She rubbed her eyes
with a grimy hand. "I snuck away to ask Doctor William... he said it would be
fifty coppers a day for three days of medicine. But I don't have it..."
Amy's voice shrank until it was barely a whisper. "All my savings... I spent
them on the new Audio Novels and those strawberry candies from the corner
stall." She buried her face back in her knees, her voice thick with
self-loathing. "If only I hadn't been so selfish with the coin."
Lia knelt, bringing her line of sight level with Amy's.
"Teach me to harvest the slimes."
Amy's eyes widened. The raw vulnerability in her gaze was enough to make even a
wraith feel a pang of pity. "What?"
"Instruct me in the method of capture," Lia said, her tone brook no argument.
"If we operate in tandem, the rate of acquisition will double."
Amy stared at her, the tear tracks still glistening on her face. "Big Sister
Lia... you... you would help me?"
Lia nodded once. "Yes."
The dam broke again, but this time, Amy's mouth curved into a tearful, shaky
smile. "Thank you... thank you, Big Sister!"
Lia reached out, her movements stiff and mechanical, to wipe the tears from the
girl's face. Her touch was clumsy, bordering on rough, but Amy only smiled
wider.
"I'll show you right now!"
Amy scrambled to her feet, her despair replaced by a frantic, driving purpose.
She grabbed a handful of breadcrumbs from her basket. "First, you have to spread
the lure evenly where they gather."
She demonstrated the technique with practiced ease. The crumbs drifted onto the
surface of the water, and the nearby slimes reacted like a coordinated unit,
undulating toward the food.
"Then we wait. When they're full, they start to glow—like a little blue lamp.
That's the signal that they're about to divide."
Amy pointed to a specific slime. Its translucent body was indeed beginning to
pulse with a faint, ethereal light, visible even in the dimness.
"Once they split, you grab the babies and bag them. But you have to be careful!"
Amy warned with exaggerated gravity. "Never touch the Big Ones. They are
Imperial property—they work for the City Management. If a Punishment Legion
patrol catches you with a Big One, the fines are astronomical!"
Lia nodded, cataloging the rules. She knelt by the water, took a handful of
crumbs, and tried to mimic Amy's flick of the wrist.
She overcompensated.
The breadcrumbs shot out like sharpened throwing needles, impacting the far wall
of the tunnel or sinking into the deep sluice where the slimes couldn't reach
them.
"Oh..." Amy whispered. "Big Sister Lia, you have to be gentle. Soft, like you're
tossing flower petals. Like this..."
She demonstrated again, slowing her movements so Lia could track the subtle play
of muscles in her forearm.
The second attempt.
Lia suppressed her combat reflexes, forcing her muscles into a state of
artificial lethargy. She tossed the crumbs. This time, the distribution was
better, though still uneven.
"Good!" Amy encouraged. "You're a natural!"
Lia didn't respond. she was busy analyzing the slimes' reaction, micro-adjusting
her posture for the next phase.
A slime nearby finished its meal. It pulsed with light, then stretched until it
tore down the center, becoming two distinct entities.
"Now! Grab it!" Amy chirped.
Lia's hand flashed out, fingers splayed. She seized the smaller slime with the
same precision she would use to crush a windpipe.
Splat.
The slime disintegrated instantly under the pressure, gelatinous blue fluid
spraying across Lia's hand.
"..." "..."
A heavy silence filled the tunnel. Amy looked at the slime-residue dripping from
Lia's palm, her face a mask of heartbreak.
"You... you have to be soft. Baby slimes are like bubbles. They break if you're
too mean to them."
Lia looked at the mess on her hand. Soft. Gentle. These were concepts she had
intentionally purged from her existence centuries ago.
She wiped the residue onto the stones and reached out again. This time, she
abandoned all "technique." She used the bare minimum of muscle engagement,
cautiously scooping the next slime into her palm as if it were a fragile egg.
Success.
The tiny creature shivered in her hand but remained intact.
"Yay!" Amy clapped her hands. "You did it!"
Lia offered no outward sign of triumph. She simply deposited the slime into
Amy's bag and waited for the next one to divide.
The two of them worked in the damp, reeking dark. Amy hummed her tuneless songs
while Lia operated with the cold, relentless efficiency of a machine.
As the bag grew heavier, Lia's proficiency spiked. She began to surpass Amy's
rate of capture. Her sensory training allowed her to identify which slimes were
nearing mitosis before they even began to glow. Her speed allowed her to bag
them the millisecond the split was complete. Her endurance meant she could hold
the same punishing crouch for hours without a single tremor.
The skills of an elite infiltrator and assassin were currently being diverted
toward the mass-harvesting of sewage-cleaning blobs.
"Ten... twenty... thirty..." Amy counted as she bagged, her smile returning in
full force. "Big Sister Lia, we're getting so many! At this rate, we'll have
fifty coppers before the lanterns go out on the street!"
Lia watched Amy's joy. It was a radiant, uncomplicated thing. No hidden layers.
No strategic intent. Just... happiness.
Lia felt a strange, jarring thought: This is an acceptable use of my time.
"Forty... fifty..." Amy's voice rose in excitement. "Sixty!"
She counted the final slime and practically leaped into the air, her face
flushed red with exertion and triumph. "Sixty! Big Sister! We caught sixty!"
"This is the most I've ever caught in one night! More than double my record!"
Amy spun around and threw her arms around Lia, squeezing her in a fierce
embrace.
Lia's entire body went rigid. She was not accustomed to sudden, unchoreographed
physical contact. In her world, a distance this close was a death-sentence—a
range reserved for daggers and garrotes.
But she didn't shove the girl away. She stood like a statue, allowing the small,
warm weight of the child to anchor her to the world.
"Thank you, Big Sister Lia," Amy whispered into her robes, her voice muffled and
thick with emotion. "Truly. Thank you so much."
Lia's hand hovered in the air for a few seconds. She thought of Doctor William's
smile. Slowly, clumsily, she brought her hand down and patted the top of Amy's
head. It was a jagged, awkward movement, but it was deliberate.
"It is unnecessary to thank me," Lia said.
Amy pulled back, her eyes shining like the Stars of Vollachia. "Can we do this
again tomorrow? We'll be rich in no time!"
Lia nodded. "We shall."
Amy's smile was blinding. She released Lia and hoisted the heavy bag of slimes
with a grunt of effort. "I have to go! I need to sell these to the Skeleton
Uncles and get the medicine before the Cathedral closes! See you tomorrow, Big
Sister!"
She waved frantically, lantern swinging as she sprinted toward the exit. The
light faded into a pinprick, then vanished around the bend.
Lia remained standing in the absolute dark.
She looked down at her hands. The cool residue of the slimes and the lingering
warmth of the child's hug felt like they were etched into her skin.
The heaviness in her chest... it wasn't so oppressive anymore.
☆☆☆
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