Chapter 27
Leticia's Mutated Organ
Twenty minutes later.
The laboratory door opened.
Blaji, who had been standing guard at the entrance, immediately stepped forward, his breath growing rapid.
"How is Leticia?"
Lucy, lifting her sweat-dampened silver hair as she removed her plague doctor mask, was just about to speak when a tearful voice suddenly came from inside the laboratory.
"Blaji, I..."
That voice carried the joy and sobs of one reborn from the ashes.
Lucy tactfully stepped aside. Blaji almost slammed through the half-open door and rushed inside. The old wooden door thudded shut behind him.
Lucy, who had nearly gotten hit by the door, wasn't annoyed.
She took a seat on the faded velvet sofa in the lounge and carefully placed a glass container onto the solid wood coffee table.
Inside the slightly murky preservation fluid, the mutated tumor extracted from Leticia's back writhed grotesquely.
From the mass of flesh sprouted many purple-black tendrils as thick as fingers, which kept slapping against the glass wall and stirring up fine bubbles in the fluid.
"This thing still remains active even after being cut out."
This piqued Lucy's intense interest.
She tapped the bottle lightly with her finger, watching as the tumor curled into a tight ball in response.
Could the externally formed enchanted organ be different from the originally mutated enchanted organ?
A mutated organ capable of surviving outside its host... She planned to take the tumor back for further study.
...
Inside a dormitory meant for intermediate apprentices.
A cast-iron skillet sizzled with steak, golden fat infused with the scent of rosemary spreading throughout the room.
Leticia took off the flour-dusted linen apron and gently placed a ceramic bowl filled with creamy mushroom soup in front of the silver-haired girl.
"Don't be shy, Lucy. Eat as much as you like. There's plenty more in the kitchen."
Across from her, the silver-haired girl mumbled polite refusals through a mouth already stuffed with several chunks of premium beef.
Half a month. Do you know how I got through this half month?
Every day it had just been bread, potatoes with barley porridge not a trace of meat or oil. At this point, Lucy saw everything as if it were a potato.
Across the table, Blaji was also eating steak. Though he wasn’t wolfing it down like Lucy, his pace wasn’t slow either, and the smile on his face hadn’t faded for even a moment.
From time to time, he glanced at the faint pink scar on the back of his wife's neck. Where once a purple-black tumor the size of a fist had nestled, now it glowed with a healthy sheen in the morning light.
Thanks to consuming Lucy’s "Master-Level Devouring Contamination Potion," Leticia’s Contamination Value had already dropped to single digits.
Coupled with the fact that this steak dinner was made by his wife, who hadn’t cooked in quite a while, even a Tier-6 apprentice like Blaji ended up eating more than he could handle.
As the last piece of steak disappeared into Lucy’s fork, Blaji lightly tapped the dining table.
Leticia, sensing the cue, rose to clear the dishes and went into the kitchen.
Skipping any polite pleasantries, Blaji got straight to the point:
"Say it. What do you need me to do?"
Witches were expected to follow the principle of equal exchange. Lucy had taken the initiative to cure his beloved wife now it was time for him to repay that favor.
They had already shared this unspoken understanding before the surgery even began.
Although she hadn’t been in this world long, Lucy was already very clear on that rule and didn’t beat around the bush.
She had already checked with Karen: while both Orlando and Blaji were apprentices of the Elemental School, the two had no direct connection.
"Senior, do you know Orlando?"
"Orlando? I think I’ve heard of him. Seems to be a Tier-3 apprentice."
"Right," Lucy paused briefly before continuing, "Half a month ago, I saw him once in the corridor on the first floor of the tower. He had a humanoid aberration with him. Since then... he’s been trying to kill me."
She deliberately omitted the original host’s death and calmly recounted the events involving the humanoid aberration and the amber sphere.
When she mentioned the "filthy Abyssal Tentacle," Blaji’s face darkened, his eyes lowered in thought.
Lucy added, "I suspect Orlando is involved in something that poses a threat to the tower. Maybe you could report this to one of the witches."
But Blaji gave a bitter smile.
"You overestimate me or rather, you underestimate what it means to be a great witch. In the tower, only a few peak apprentices have access to the witches, and every one of them is a student of a great witch."
"But I will report this matter to the peak apprentice in charge of daily affairs. If Orlando truly is a problem, I'm sure he will take action."
Lucy asked, "How long will it take?"
"Not sure," Blaji replied hesitantly. "Every peak apprentice is busy trying to break through to become a formal witch. Even I can’t see him whenever I want."
This left Lucy in a difficult spot.
She couldn’t just stay in her dorm all day, yet the route from the dorm to the morgue had several blind spots beyond the coverage of the iron crows.
If Orlando were lying in ambush and launched a surprise attack, the odds of Lucy, a trainee apprentice, surviving would be extremely slim.
Just as the living room fell into silence
A pair of arms, faintly scented with iris, wrapped around Blaji’s shoulders.
Leticia's damp fingers left dark water stains on her husband's sleeve as her gaze fell upon Lucy across the room.
"My life she dragged it back from the abyss."
Blaji paused, then nodded.
"Sorry. According to tower regulations, official apprentices are strictly forbidden from harming one another within the tower's bounds. I can't take direct action against Orlando."
"But during the time it takes for me to report to the peak apprentice and await a decision, I’ll escort you between the morgue and the dorm. If Orlando dares to make a move on you, under the tower’s unrestricted defense clause, I’ll deal with him."
Blaji’s method was clumsy but undeniably effective. The only downside was how much time it would consume.
But since even a Tier-6 apprentice like Blaji didn’t mind, Lucy certainly had no objections.
After chatting a bit more with Leticia in the dorm, Lucy took the initiative to excuse herself.
As she walked back into the vast corridor on the fifth floor, her gaze lit up slightly as it fell on the rustling shadows in the distance.
...
At dawn the next day, Lucy awoke on time after completing her seven-sandglass meditation. Her azure eyes gazed through the hanging window at the sky tinged with morning glow.
Half a sandglass later, Lucy opened her door and stepped out.
In the distance, a black-robed apprentice stood in the shadows.
It wasn’t Orlando it was Tier-6 apprentice Blaji.
Lucy gave a small courteous nod and headed toward the direction of the Green Vine Garden. She didn’t plan to visit the morgue today, but needed to pick up purchased herbs from Talia.
As for the payment due in two days, Lucy wasn’t worried.
She still had a few leftover magic stones from selling potions more than enough to cover the costs for a few corpses.
After a few turns, Blaji had vanished from sight, but Lucy knew he was still following her from behind.
And beneath her gray robe, her hand quietly tightened around the "Gear Staff."
Unfortunately, even in the side paths without iron crow sentries, Orlando did not appear.
Before long, Lucy saw Talia at the entrance to the Green Vine Garden.
In the few days since they last met, the girl’s condition had slightly improved. The trademark smile returned to her face, easing some of Lucy’s worry.
After receiving the ten portions of herbs and exchanging a few words, Lucy returned to her dorm.