WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈

Chapter 17: Health (2)

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It was Selena's final hope, her last desperate struggle.

That was the resolve she carried into her private laboratory.

Her laboratory was equipped with everything a Mage Tower laboratory would have.

It was proof of how desperately she had fought to cure herself.

Her health had worsened rapidly, and getting to her laboratory had become difficult, but today was different.

"Mary. Just do as I say. Understood?"

"Yes! I'll do my best!"

"It's not difficult... Cough! Cough! Cough!"

A sudden coughing fit hit Selena, and she hurriedly covered her mouth with a handkerchief.

Mary rushed over in alarm, but Selena stopped her with a raised hand.

"Whew..."

Once she had recovered a little, Selena lowered the handkerchief.

A pool of blackened blood had collected on it.

Normally, the handkerchief would only get damp. But now there was a pool of blood...

'It would've been today or tomorrow.'

She didn't have much time left. Selena clenched the handkerchief tightly.

The pooled blood slowly soaked into the cloth.

She looked at the worried Mary and nodded.

With her body in this state, Mary would have to serve as her hands and feet.

"We don't have time. Let's start right away. First, bring that extractor over."

"Yes!"

"Then connect the extractor to the charger..."

Selena gave Mary one instruction after another.

Mary fumbled at first, perhaps because she was in a hurry, but she didn't make any mistakes.

She wasn't as brilliant as Selena, but she was still quite clever.

Considering she was a commoner, that alone was impressive.

'I should consider sending Mary to the Academy.'

Before long, Mary had finished preparing everything Selena had requested.

All that remained was extracting the essence from the Adult Mandrakes.

After that, they only needed to adjust it with various herbs so the human body could withstand it.

"Next... Cough! Cough! Hack!"

"My lady!"

Just as they reached the final stage, Selena began coughing again.

She didn't even have time to raise her handkerchief. Black blood poured from her mouth.

"Kh... Hurry... the extraction...!"

"B-But..."

"Hurry... do it...! Cough!"

"Y-Yes!"

Shortness of breath brought on by coughing and vomiting blood.

Selena endured it by force and continued giving instructions.

She had come this far. She absolutely couldn't give up.

She desperately held on as her vision slowly began to darken.

"M-My lady! There's a problem!"

"What... Cough! What problem?"

"T-That...!"

As if things weren't bad enough, there was a problem with a Mandrake.

Selena steadied her ragged breathing as best she could and looked over.

Just as Mary had said, a Mandrake that had been unconscious until moments ago was wriggling.

It was waking up. That was a serious problem.

'I was in such a hurry that I couldn't bring a flowerpot...!'

Mandrakes needed to be extracted while unconscious to prevent accidents.

If one woke up during the extraction, its scream could destroy the extractor.

To prevent that, people either used magic or planted them in flowerpots to keep them quiet.

Selena's body was already too ruined for her to use magic.

She had also been too rushed to bring a flowerpot.

It was a true crisis. The only saving grace was that only one had regained consciousness.

Selena considered what to do, then suddenly had an idea.

'They said it would quiet down if you hit it, right?'

It was the method Wild Grylls had taught her.

They said beating a Mandrake with your fists made it quiet down fast.

It was barbaric and scientifically unproven, but this was an emergency.

"Mary! Cough! Beat it senseless!"

"Pardon? Beat it?"

"Yes! Hit it! If that's difficult, grab it by the stem and slam it into the floor! Cough! Cough!"

Her breathing had settled somewhat, but blood sprayed from her mouth whenever she spoke.

Mary looked back and forth between Selena and the Adult Mandrake, visibly flustered.

She seemed unsure what to do, but decided to follow Selena's orders for now.

Mary clamped down on the Adult Mandrake's stem.

"Huh?"

The Adult Mandrake, with beard-like fuzz along its chin, quietly opened its eyes.

Thump! Wham! Bam!

"Gyaaak?! Kueek! Kueeek!"

Then it had no choice but to close them again.

Mary held it by the stem and slammed it around in every direction.

It screamed in the process, but not loudly enough to cause any confusion.

"That's enough!"

"Then let's extract it... Cough! Start extracting it."

"Yes!"

Following Selena's instructions, Mary began extracting the Mandrake essence.

As the extraction began, the Adult Mandrakes attached to the extractor gradually shriveled.

Drip. Drip.

Golden liquid fell one drop at a time into the glass bottle connected to the extractor.

As Selena watched the liquid, hope began to fill her.

Just seeing the brilliantly shining essence made her feel healthier already.

"Cough! Cough!"

"My lady, your handkerchief..."

"No. I'm fine now."

Of course, that feeling was only a feeling.

After coughing, Selena looked down at her clothes.

They were now soaked with dark red blood.

Every time she coughed, blood poured from her mouth by the bowlful.

Drip. Drip.

Time passed, and they had extracted nearly all the essence from the Adult Mandrakes.

The Mandrakes had shrunk to about the size of a baby's palm.

Their once vivid red color had turned completely white.

Every bit of essence had been extracted, leaving them without even a trace of vitality.

"I think it's almost done. What should I do next?"

"All that's left is... Cough! Cough! Gasp...!"

Selena's eyes widened. She could endure the coughing.

The problem was the shortness of breath that followed.

She tried desperately to regain control of her breathing, but it didn't work.

Her vision began to black out, and pain washed over her as though her brain itself had stopped functioning.

'No... I can't...!'

Even Mary's desperate cries sounded distant, like an echo, as her consciousness faded.

Selena barely held on and reached out a hand.

Toward the essence they had just extracted. She gestured for Mary to give it to her.

Drinking unrefined essence was practically suicide.

But with her life hanging by a thread, Selena wasn't in a position to be picky.

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

Mary noticed Selena's gesture and poured the essence straight into her mouth.

Selena felt the hot energy of the essence flow down her throat.

Could this heat truly heal her?

Hope flared up again like an ember. She couldn't give up.

'I need... to circulate my mana...'

Even as her consciousness faded, she forced herself to circulate her mana.

But her mana circuits were already so thoroughly blocked that there was no way they would respond.

It was frustrating and unfair, but Selena refused to give up.

The faint survival instinct still left within her spurred her onward.

Then, just before she lost consciousness, Selena felt something.

Thump!

The vivid beat of her heart.

* * *

"My lady! Lady Selena! Please wake up! My lady!"

Mary patted Selena's shoulder as she checked whether she was conscious.

Selena had been sitting in a wheelchair when she lost consciousness and fell over.

If Mary hadn't been there, she would have hit her head first and been seriously hurt.

There was still no sign of Selena waking, so Mary couldn't help but panic.

'I-I need to get someone!'

Standing around helplessly wouldn't make anything better.

To be safe, Mary turned Selena's head to the side.

If Selena vomited blood like before, it could flow back into her airway.

Mary stood and was just about to leave the laboratory.

Crack!

A strange sound reached her ears. Mary froze.

It hadn't come from the laboratory equipment. It had come from Selena.

Mary turned back toward her with anxious eyes.

Crack! Crack!

"Uh... Uhh?"

Mary was utterly bewildered. A bizarre sight was unfolding before her eyes.

Selena's skin was white as snow, but it was white in a bad way.

Her mana circuits had become so clogged that even her blood couldn't circulate properly.

But that skin began to peel away, and new skin emerged beneath it.

It wasn't the sickly pale white from before. It was the soft, luminous white of someone who simply hadn't seen much sunlight.

Most striking of all were the blood vessels that gradually began to show beneath her skin.

It was proof that mana was circulating through Selena's formerly blocked mana circuits again.

Crack! Pop!

It wasn't just her skin. Selena's muscles and bones visibly changed as well.

Her body had been too afflicted by Nine Yin Absolute Veins to even exercise properly.

But once the energy within her, mana, achieved harmony, the situation changed.

Her immense mana was reconstructing a vessel worthy of containing it.

In the language of the Central Plains, it was called Body Reforging.

Normally, such a phenomenon required vast mana and profound enlightenment.

But Selena had suffered from Nine Yin Absolute Veins.

Her mana itself had always been abundant, and her talent had supplied the enlightenment. She had simply lacked harmony.

Crack! Pop!

Her sickly appearance vanished without a trace, and the curves of her body became more pronounced.

Her pure white hair fell out and grew back repeatedly, before finally stabilizing at its original length.

Her moonlight-white hair only enhanced her beauty further.

Her face changed last.

She had always been beautiful, but after the Body Reforging, her beauty bloomed even more.

Though many things had changed, Selena's condition could be summed up in a single sentence.

She had gained a body that was far more "healthy" than before.

"Mmm..."

As the brief yet lengthy Body Reforging ended, Selena regained consciousness as well.

When Selena groaned, Mary snapped out of her daze and hurriedly asked, "My lady! My lady! Are you awake?!"

"...Mary?"

"Yes! It's me, Mary!"

"What on earth happened... Huh?"

Selena unconsciously began to rise, then opened her eyes wide.

Since she had been lying down, the first thing she saw was her own body.

And the first thing that caught her eye was her chest.

It was impossible not to notice, since it was the first thing she saw when she looked down.

'Were my breasts always this big?'

Selena tilted her head as she touched her chest.

Her body had always been pitifully thin.

A body she believed had no feminine charm whatsoever.

Yet soft mounds of flesh filled Selena's vision and rested beneath both her hands.

By size alone, they were enough to make others envious.

'It isn't just my chest. My arms too...'

With an almost entranced expression, Selena examined her arms.

They were no longer the skeletal arms she had known, but arms with flesh on them like an ordinary person's.

Even her skin wasn't pale anymore. It was white, but it carried the look of health.

It had color, enough for the blood vessels beneath her skin to faintly show through.

"..."

"My lady? Is there something you..."

Selena suddenly sprang to her feet.

Mary was startled, then horrified by the sight of Selena standing on her own.

"My lady! You mustn't overexert yourself...!"

Tap tap tap!

Mary couldn't finish her sentence again.

Selena, standing confidently on her own two feet, suddenly began to run.

She didn't walk. She ran. She had skipped walking and gone straight to running.

And she was barefoot. Mary's heart dropped into her stomach.

"My lady! Where are you going? My lady!"

Selena paid no heed to Mary's frantic cries behind her.

She only ran, and ran, and ran some more.

Occasionally, she heard the shocked voices of servants working in the mansion.

Selena didn't care. She just kept running.

'I can run. I can actually run!'

She didn't stop sprinting. Even when she occasionally staggered, she kept going.

When had she ever run like this? She couldn't even remember.

No. Perhaps she couldn't remember because she had never run before.

Even walking had been difficult, but now she could run without issue.

Feeling as though she possessed the whole world, Selena ran out of the mansion.

Her expression, long frozen in place, was still stiff, but the corners of her lips had visibly risen.

"S-Selena?! Y-You...!"

"My child! Where are you going?!"

Selena's parents had just returned, and they recoiled in shock at the sight of her.

Their reaction was only natural. Their daughter, who had never been able to leave her bed, was running around like a wild horse.

With her clothes caked in dried blood, in cruder terms, she probably looked like a crazy bitch.

"Haa!"

Ignoring them, Selena steadied her breathing in the mansion courtyard.

Despite all that running, she didn't feel tired at all.

All she could hear clearly was the beat of her heart.

'I'm not coughing anymore.'

The cough that had plagued her all her life had stopped completely.

She couldn't feel anything wrong with her body.

That alone felt strange.

'My mana is circulating smoothly too.'

More than smoothly, it was incredibly fast.

She used to feel as though everything was clogged, but not anymore.

Her harmonized mana flowed through every corner of her body.

'Nothing hurts.'

A miracle had happened.

What else could she possibly call this but a miracle?

Selena closed her eyes as she looked up at the clear sky.

'Thank you, Mr. Grylls.'

The person who had given her a new life, a miracle.

A benefactor who had readily offered kindness despite never even seeing her face.

What were they like? She found herself growing more and more curious about them.

The tension naturally left her face, and a happy smile formed.

"Selena!"

"My child! Are you all right?!"

"My lady!"

As Selena savored the life she had newly gained, her parents and Mary called out frantically from behind her.

Selena opened her eyes and looked back at them.

The family she loved more than anyone was staring at her with concern.

"Yes. I'm fi-blegh!"

Swoosh!

Selena lowered her head in the middle of speaking.

Something poured from her mouth at the same time. It was blackened blood.

And not just a bowl's worth. She spewed out at least two whole bowls of it.

"Keck! Kueek!"

Plop! Plop!

It wasn't only blood that came out. Black clumps fell to the ground too.

They were impurities her body had failed to expel during the Body Reforging.

Her former condition had been so terrible that they had accumulated into solid lumps.

"Ah..."

"M-My dear! Pull yourself together!"

For her family, who knew nothing, it was a scene beyond horrifying.

Selena's mother fainted, and her father barely caught her.

Even Mary went pale, apparently sickened.

"Cough. Cough. Ugh."

Selena's brow twitched.

The stench was unbearable after she vomited rotten blood and impurities from her mouth.

She wanted to frown, but she still couldn't manage it properly.

'I need to wash up.'

Now she could wash herself without Mary's help. Selena felt a flicker of anticipation.

First, she needed to clear up her family's misunderstanding.

Selena approached her confused family and quietly spoke to them.

With blood still smeared across her face and her usual expressionlessness, she looked rather terrifying.

"Mother. Don't worry. I'm healthy no-blegh!"

Selena vomited black blood with a blank expression.

Her family screamed in horror once more at the grotesque sight.

"Ahhh..."

"P-Pull yourself together! You can't leave me too!"

She still had a long way to go.

* * *

At that moment, in the Gallery...

[Post title] Grylls, thanks.

[Author] Passing Dwarf

[Post] (Photo of Adult Mandrakes steeping in liquor)

[Post] Looks like I can finally have infused liquor again after so long.

└ [Wild Grylls]: You crazy dwarf bastard. You made booze out of something that expensive?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: What's the problem?

└ [Wild Grylls]: I told you that thing was expensive as fuck. And you made booze out of it?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: My call. Mad?

└ [Wild Grylls]: Go sharpen your sword with gold from now on, you crazy fuck.

└ LOL

└ LOLLLL

└ Telling them to sharpen a sword with gold lol

└ Yeah, I'd be fucking pissed too lol

└ Can't say no to infused liquor lol

Today was peaceful too.

Footnotes:

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