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T/N: Today I’d like to thank my Cookie Donor, Samantha! Thanks for the sweets!! ❤
Author’s Note:
The grotesque imagery from the last chapter will be continuing in this one.
And thank you again for sticking with me. I’m extremely happy that you are reading this story!
“Alicia, you need to finish what you started. Something like this should be child’s play for you.”
Gilles and I both stiffen. Grandpa Will has always been so kind and caring towards me. I’ve never seen him act this cold and unyielding before.
……But the tears have stopped.
“In the future, you’ll face much more difficult situations.”
Grandpa Will’s low voice seems to add gravity to his words. They strike me to the core.
“Didn’t you tell me that you wanted to become the best villainess in the world? Was that all a lie? Just a childhood whim?”
“No….. It’s the truth. And I still want to,” I say trying to put strength behind my words.
“Then you can’t allow yourself to fail here. Exactly what kind of person is this villainess that you’re aiming to become?”
“A villainess who’s strong, who is extremely proud, and abhors lip service of every kind….. Someone who acts based on logic instead of emotion and doesn’t allow her feelings to show on her face….. I want to be someone who remains prudent no matter what and can make calm judgments under any circumstances.”
Although my voice falters as I talk, I make sure to finish strong.
And as I’m saying all this, I once again find my resolve.
Right. I’m going to be strong. I’m going to become a tenacious villainess. A villainess who won’t lost to the heroine.
“That’s right, Alicia,” Grandpa Will says, smiling approvingly at me.
“Alicia, you got this,” Gilles agrees, his eyes full of encouragement and confidence in me.
I’m doing this. I’m going to become this world’s best villainess. If I can’t do something as small as saving a single woman’s life, then how can I even consider becoming the most wicked woman in the world?
Now think, Alicia. Use what you know. What can you do with your current repertoire of worthless magic?
Her skin is inflamed and festering…… Is there anything I can do to return it to normal?
A spell does come to mind for that, so for now, I’ll just have to try it and see. I don’t have the time to waste on hypothesizing for every possibility.
I snap my fingers, invoking the magic to purify skin.
The spell gently envelops the woman in a glittering aura. And in moments, her skin really has been purified.
I never would have imagined that this spell could prove useful for something other than clearing up acne. And to think that it was able to heal such horrendous wounds! Why didn’t I realize this sooner?
The darkened patches on her face are quickly clearing up as well….. She’s actually younger than I had initially thought.
She probably isn’t much older than I am. And, looking at her face, she appears to be quite pretty too. Though, in a world where ugly people don’t seem to exist, I suppose that’s to be expected.
Now that all of her burns are gone, I wonder what I should do about the areas that have already necrotized?
As expected, a skin purification spell isn’t enough to regenerate dead flesh.
The skin on her leg has already started to rot. If it was still in the process of dying, then maybe I could have saved it with magic, but since it’s already gotten to this point, there’s nothing I can do for it.
….Looks like I have no choice but to remove the dead flesh before the disease has a chance to spread.
I remember reading that when dealing with necrosis, you can’t just remove the visibly dead parts, you also need to remove a good deal of the areas around it in order to completely eradicate the disease.
That means I can’t just amputate below the knee…. I’ll probably have to remove part of her thigh as well.
My sword seems to be my only option for performing the amputation. But, if I cut off her leg without giving her any sort of anesthetic, she’ll likely die from shock due to the excruciating pain.
Hmm….. Didn’t that book say that darkness magic combines both healing and destruction?
Destruction….. Right, wasn’t there a spell to destroy skin tissue….?
No, that won’t help.
Think, Alicia, think! You need to be smart about this or else she’s dead.
…..There was a spell that can nullify pain for 10 seconds…. But there’s no way 10 seconds is long enough to remove her leg, right? Well, even if I can somehow amputate it that fast, once the spell wears off the pain will come rushing in and I’ll still have the same problem.
I guess no matter what I do, pain is going to be an issue.
Besides that, I also need to worry about how to stop her from bleeding out.
……There is a spell that can connect things together at the cellular level….. But I wonder if it will work on blood vessels and arteries. Since I’ve never had the chance to try it before, I’m not sure. But I don’t have any other means to stop the bleeding, so I guess I’ll have to make it work.
I take out my sword and disinfect it in the water.
I suppose I should take this opportunity to clean off my cloak as well.
I cast a cleansing spell on it and watch as the bloodstains and dirt evaporate off of it.
Alright! With this, everything is ready.
“What are you going to do?”
Ignoring Gilles’s question, I throw a hard, concise punch into the woman’s abdomen, making her pass out.
It’s for the best that she doesn’t watch her own leg being cut off.
I stand over her and grip my sword, taking in a slow, even breath.
The next 10 seconds will mean the difference between success and failure, life and death. And I can’t afford to fail. I need to finish this in one shot.
I focus all of my strength on my sword. And as I do so, I can feel my heart start to beat faster.
Calm down. You can do this… You will do this. Everything is going to be fine.
I suck in a sharp breath and immediately after I snap my fingers and raise my sword. With all my strength I swing it down in a huge, fluid arc.
With a thud, the woman’s right leg falls to the ground. Blood spurts everywhere, gushing out of the wound.
I snap my fingers once again and gradually the flow of blood begins to slow.
“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
Before all the spells had been completed, the woman regains consciousness. It seems that my 10 seconds are up. It’ll become a huge problem if she starts struggling now.
“Gilles! Hold her down!” I yell and Gilles instantly throws himself forward, leveraging his weight down onto her shoulders to keep her still.
“AGHHH! It hurts! Agh! Make it stop! It hurts! It hurts!”
Your leg was chopped off, so of course it hurts.
After confirming that the bleeding had completely stopped, I slice my cloak into long strips and begin binding her leg with them.
“Help me! Please! It hurts! It hurts so much! Please! Agh!”
“Ugh, for goodness’ sake, you’re so loud! Weren’t you the one who asked me to save you? If you want to live, you’ll have to bear with at least this much!”
I’ve said this many times before, but I’m not a good person. At a time like this, a saintess would be giving her words of encouragement, but I’m a villainess. You definitely won’t hear any kind words from me.
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T/N: Lol, I guess the whole dying from shock thing is a risk she’s willing to take since there’s no other option. It’s pretty comical how callous Alicia’s being about her pain when she knows the woman could literally die from it XD
Also, for those of you who are not so fond of the gore, there is no author’s note on the next chapter, so I think worst is over now!
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