The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 534: What if the only doctor here has been out of commission for seven decades?

Chapter 534: What if the only doctor here has been out of commission for seven decades?

After our dear inventors worked non-stop for a night and day, they came to us after dinner with a needle in their hands and eyes sparkling like a pair of mad scientists.

Their victim, fortunately, wasn’t me.

"Can I...do it myself?" Natha, on a rare occurrence, swallowed nervously.

"Why, Big Boss? You’re scared?" Izzy and Neel, perhaps in need of much sleep, giggled like third-rate villains.

The scene wasn’t much better with the appearance of a black-clothed vampire with twinkling blood-red eyes smiling behind them.

"Of course I’m scared," Natha had no qualms about admitting it. "None of you have the experience."

It was actually a very rational excuse. Among us, the one with the most--or rather, any--of doing injections at all was Natha. Even though he was only there for two months, he received Nathanael’s muscle memory and practiced a lot...with me.

Right, he was actually my attending physician for a bit. That being said...

"Do you still remember it?" I asked curiously. "It was a loooong time ago."

"Still better than someone who had never done it," Natha grumbled while snatching the set from the disappointed inventors.

Guessed they really wanted to try poking Natha without incurring repercussions.

"And there’s no way I’ll let them do it to you," he said sharply, which made the two inventors rub their necks in a guilty conscience.

Pfft--so that was why. "But can you do it?" I asked curiously. Natha couldn’t even pierce my ears because his heart didn’t let his hands move to ’hurt’ me. "To me?"

"...I can do it for medical purposes," he muttered quietly before shifting his gaze back to D’Ara and the two inventors. "Now, explain this to me."

I straightened my back when D’Ara chuckled and started to give directions. "I heard you’re supposed to draw blood from the blood vessels, am I right?" after Natha nodded, she continued. "Then please draw the mana from your mana vein."

Oh? You could...do that?

As I blinked in intrigue, D’Ara spoke more while stroking my head, as if the explanation was directed at me. She pointed at the needle in Natha’s hand, in which the plunger looked like it was made of glistening crystal rather than metal.

"That crystal has the property to access the astral body."

Hmm...oh! The blood vessels in our physical body, especially the one in our arm, overlap with the mana veins in our astral body. "So...even if Natha sticks it to his blood vessel, it will only draw mana?"

"That’s right," D’Ara nodded.

"It’s not exactly a liquid, so we don’t need a vacuum or anything," Izzy pointed to a part that connected the needle to a tube, which again connected to the container I checked in the afternoon. There was something like a stopper with a complicated formation carved there; so small that I would need a magnifying glass to check it. "That formation will act as a guide to lead the mana flowing from the source to the container."

Oh! Now that I looked at it better, both the plunger and the tube’s surfaces were covered in runes to prevent the mana from escaping, trapping the formless substance inside the tube so it would be gathered in the container as it was; mana.

"So all I need to do is insert this in my mana vein?" Natha asked.

"Yes. No need to concentrate too hard or try to guide it--in fact, don’t do anything but let your mana be absorbed," D’Ara said in a warning tone. "You might disturb the spell if you fight it."

Ah...we did not really have any method to fight it when our blood was being drawn--although I guessed we could tense our muscles so the flow got disrupted. Anyway, with mana, if it was getting absorbed by external factors, we had a build-up reflex to suck the mana back into our core or close the mana gate.

Naturally, it would be an issue if the reflex kicked in during the drawing process.

Especially for someone with a cautious nature like Natha, with a high survival instinct honed through war and dangerous adventures.

"Umm...good luck, Nat," I clenched my fist and cheered him up earnestly.

Natha, who was already holding the plunger, paused and stared at me. He was blinking wordlessly as if waiting for something, so I leaned forward and gave him a good luck kiss on the cheek since I had no idea what I should do.

He smirked and shifted his gaze to his arm. "I’ll do well."

Oh, was that the right answer? I giggled and watched carefully as Natha took off the needle’s protector with his mouth before carefully injecting the needle into the inside of his elbow.

Mother...may I say that he looked so hot while doing it?

Izzy patted my back. "Don’t drool, Boss."

Who was drooling?! Ahem--anyway, I shrugged the elf’s hand away and focused back on the action rather than Natha. Wait--it was his action that made me distracted in the first place. Anyway!

I kept my eyes on the needle, which pierced the blue skin smoothly with no hesitation. Was he probably never forgotten this skill at all? I remembered that he was very good at finding my veins in the past, even though the other doctors and nurses always had difficulty spotting my tiny blood vessels. I glanced at his eyes, and saw the glint of magic in his pair of moonlight.

Ah, of course! It was because he could see past what a normal human could see.

"Hmm..." he murmured amusedly once he stopped inserting the needle and relaxed his arm. The formation at the stopper glowed and it seemed Natha felt something from it. Glancing at D’Ara, I could see that even the vampire got a little nervous. After all, we had no idea if this new concept would really wo--

"Oh!" I exclaimed while taking a deep breath, clasping my mouth right after as a dark blue substance flowed into the tube.

Immediately, the runes all over the tube glowed as it trapped what I presumed to be Natha’s pure mana. It wasn’t an exaggeration when I said that we were all holding our breath, watching the substance flow to the container in the table, which Neel had been watching with hawk--no, reptile gaze.

For a few long seconds, the bedroom was dead silent. Because of that, I could hear the slight hissing sound of the formation and runes activating, like the soft vibration of an electronic device. Drip by drip, the dark blue substance gathered inside the container, and Neel diligently made notes on the process. It was only when the gathered mana reached the first strip indicator that we let out a breath of relief.

"H-how are you feeling, Nat?" I shifted my attention back to Natha. I thought he might felt some kind of discomfort, but his face was just the usual nonchalant one.

"Fine," he nodded. "I’m trying not to think too much so my body won’t react weirdly."

D’Ara finally smiled in satisfaction after checking the spell worked as intended. She observed Natha for a few seconds before commenting. "Take note of your own mana level. You’ll have to judge your capacity by yourself since we don’t have an established standard for now."

Natha glanced at the container, which was already one-fifth full. He leaned back and closed his eyes to make some calculations before replying. "It should be fine to fill four of those."

Four?!

"Then we’ll take two," D’Ara said, to which Natha responded with a frown. But the vampire immediately added with a smirk. "What? We only have two containers."

"Oh..."

"Besides, successfully gathering your mana does not mean it’s over," D’Ara huffed.

I blinked in confusion. "B-but..." I looked at the tube and the container that was still steadily being filled. "Isn’t that--"

"Well, it’s done for the first part," D’Ara patted my head, as if telling me to calm down. "But the most challenging thing is the last part, sweetling."

"...the last part?"

She took my hand and rubbed my wrist. "Sending it safely inside your system," she smiled wryly, glancing at another half of the set which was still securely kept inside a protective chest, "...as well as make sure your body receives the mana well."

Oh...ah! Was it something like compatibility? Since mana didn’t have a type like blood...perhaps?

"Oh, but...didn’t you say it might work since we were connected by the eternal brand?"

"We still have no idea how your body will respond to foreign substances," Natha said. His eyes were fixed on the container--which was already half-full. "Even with the same blood type, your body can still reject it somewhat. Remember the time you were having a small seizure even after half the bag entered your body without a problem?"

"Oh..."

Was there such a case? Well, maybe there was. I wouldn’t remember too much since...uhh...there were too many cases of complications during my treatment. But yeah, I got where he was coming from.

"Humm..." I stared at the container while pursing my lips. But I shook my head right after. "Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine!"

D’Ara chuckled and stroked my head softly. "Sure, but let’s be vigilant still."

"Oka--"

"Young Master!"

Oh, Mother--I flinched in surprise when the bedroom door was opened suddenly. We immediately checked on Natha instead of the door, but he raised his hand to signal that he was fine. The spell also still working perfectly.

"Oh! Is this..."

Only then did we look at the door, where Arta was there. She cleared her throat and grinned. "Oh, umm...I’m sorry. It’s just...I heard you’ve started the procedure, and..." she scratched her neck awkwardly, clearing her throat again when none of us made a pip. "Uhm--Madam Nezja and Lady Amarein were asking about it," she added sheepishly.

I laughed and told her to let the Aunties come. As punishment for barging in rashly, however, Natha barred her from watching and told her to keep Zia and especially Jade--who might disturb the process by screaming and shrieking in panic from the injection--away from the bedroom.

Arta left with a dejected face and not long after, Aunt Nezja and Amarein came inside, closing the door behind them. Naturally, their eyes immediately trained on the container; the dark blue substance had piled up and made the mana look black. Almost like the color of Natha’s hair, actually.

"How...fascinating, my Lady..." Amarein muttered, eyes flashing as she tried to read the spells and runes on the device. "Do you think it might work with mine?"

"We’ll proceed with Natha’s mana for now," D’Ara watched the dark blue mana fill the last space in the container. "Let’s make sure it works first before experimenting with other things."

I couldn’t help but gulp; both in nervousness and anticipation. No one was talking while the container was filled to the brim, until Izzy activated the stopper and the needle stopped drawing the dark blue mana. The elf controlled the spell a bit more and the rest of the mana inside the tube was sent to the container cleanly.

And then, they all looked at me.

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