Chapter 10: Endure for Her

Cough, hack, keuk.
Blood splatters out.
Wiping my mouth with my sleeve, it comes away stained with fresh, red blood.
I was quite shocked at first, but now it’s a familiar sight.
I stare indifferently at the red-stained hem of my clothes.
A month.
It has been a month since I started receiving the daily drug injections.
For a month, I was injected with a drug that could destroy a body with just a single dose.
And I received it every single day, without fail.
Naturally, the state of my body now could hardly be called normal.
Fever was the baseline, followed by chills, coughing, muscle aches, insomnia, shortness of breath, and headaches; a host of illnesses manifested in my body.
Ugh, hngh.
I gasped for breath, curling my legs and hugging them to my chest.
The trembling seemed to lessen slightly.
As my body broke down day by day, my power was definitely growing.
Now, I can create a fruit just by vaguely thinking of it.
Of course, the Sages are not satisfied with this.
Eating anything lessens the pain, so I reach out into the empty air and create a fruit.
My face contorted in pain, which I felt fully even as I chewed the fruit.
Still, I couldn’t afford not to eat, so I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed.
And then—
Urp, blaargh.
It turned out my internal organs were just as ruined.
My damaged stomach couldn’t even digest the fruit, causing it to surge back up.
The sour taste of stomach acid in my mouth made me nauseous all over again.
Tch, d*mn it.
Every day is a living hell.
Yet, the only reason I can endure, the reason I haven’t broken, is Nahida.
The more I suffer, the easier life becomes for Nahida, so I have no choice but to comply with the Sages’ demands.
Even if this pathetic state is the result.
‘I can still endure.’
‘I have to hold on.’
If I lose my value, the Sages will come for Nahida.
They’ll use her as my replacement.
That can’t ever happen.
I will absolutely stop that from happening.
With a flick of my fingers, the pool of stomach fluids spread across the floor vanishes completely.
It’s better to clean up the bile quickly.
The headache is bad enough; I don’t think I could bear the smell of the bile on top of it.
A wave of lethargy washed over me, and I let my body go limp.
If I’m right, a Sage will be here soon.
I should rest as much as I can until then.
I won’t be able to rest once he arrives.
I now habitually lie down on my side on the floor.
The cold touch of the floor only made me flinch at first; now, it feels as comfortable as my own home.
Sleeping through the pain won’t be easy, but it’s better for me if I force myself to.
Hoping I can finally get some peaceful sleep today, I slowly closed my eyes.

How many hours had passed since I closed my eyes?
At the sound of the door opening, I slowly opened my eyes to the sight of the Sage’s filthy face, just like every other day.
I struggled to smooth out the grimace that naturally formed on my face and glared at the Sage.
“What an incredibly shameless face.”
My insult didn’t seem to faze him at all as he looked down at me with a sickening smile.
“Shameless? I am merely confident.”
“Same difference.”
Seeing him as a man not worth talking to, I sharply turned my head away.
I saw his hand twitch.
‘So he does know what he’s doing is wrong, despite his airs.’
“Just get it over with. So I can get some rest.”
“You’ve had plenty of rest.”
Despite his words, the Sage slowly filled a syringe with the drug.
He then pushed the full syringe toward me.
“Don’t move.”
…
No matter how many injections I’ve received, I can never get used to this.
The disgusting feeling of a needle piercing my skin and a foreign substance forcibly churning inside my body.
And the heat and pain that follow.
Ngh.
This pain, like my blood vessels are being ripped to shreds, is impossible to get used to.
A moan escaped my lips, and the Sage just watched with that same repulsive smile, as if he found it amusing.
I wanted to smash my fist into his filthy face right then and there, but I had no idea what kind of ordeal would follow if I did.
All I could do was crawl helplessly on the floor.