Treatment

A few days later, preparations for the magecraft to connect to Ophiuchus were finally complete.

The weather was fine that day. There were few clouds in the sky, and after the sun set, countless stars soon appeared against the deep blue night.

"Is it here?"

Leaning on his cane and supported by Fern, Heiter came to the clearing. Lorenzo had placed a chair nearby beforehand.

"Sit down first."

"Don't I need to go inside the ritual?"

Heiter looked toward the center of the clearing.

"Of course not. This ritual is only to establish a connection between Ophiuchus and me. It won't treat you directly."

Lorenzo said.

The ritual essentially used Celestial Magecraft to construct a channel connecting him to Ophiuchus. Once the connection was established, he would be able to borrow some of the abilities Ophiuchus symbolized and use his own Magic Circuits to transform them into spells in reality.

Frieren stood on the other side of the ritual.

The last time Lorenzo had used Celestial Magecraft to connect to the moon, the two had only just met, and she hadn't had a chance to observe the ritual carefully. This time, she could get a close look at this unusual True Magic.

"Once you've established the connection, you won't need to hold such a big ritual again?"

"That's right."

Lorenzo checked the positions of the last few magic stones.

"Establishing the connection for the first time is the troublesome part. I need to confirm the celestial body's position, its trajectory, and its corresponding mystical symbolism, then fix all that information in my Magic Circuits."

"After that, whenever I want to use it again, I only need to activate the connection with mana."

Of course, convenience didn't mean he could use it without restrictions.

For now, how much power he could borrow from Ophiuchus depended entirely on the limit his Magic Circuits could withstand. If he exceeded that limit, it certainly wouldn't be the distant stars that exploded, but him.

After confirming that everything was ready, Lorenzo spoke up:

"Stand outside the ritual, and don't release any mana into it until it's complete. It could interfere."

Frieren led Fern back to a safe distance, and Heiter obediently sat down in the chair.

Lorenzo walked alone to the center of the ritual. He closed his eyes and opened his Magic Circuits one by one. Mana flowed out of his body and into the ritual beneath his feet, and silver-white light spread along the patterns on the ground, gradually joining together to form a complete serpent bearer.

Ophiuchus suddenly flared in the night sky. Countless slender rays of starlight descended from above, aligning one by one with the star points on the ground.

A humanoid silhouette appeared behind Lorenzo. Though its face was indistinct, it held a staff entwined by a giant serpent.

Immediately afterward, all the light on the ground converged on the center, and a tremendous force surged into Lorenzo's body through his open Magic Circuits.

But the searing pain he had expected never came. Instead, the feeling was exceptionally gentle. It even seemed that, if he didn't guide it, the power would flow along a set path of its own accord... as though he had connected to it before.

How was that possible?

This wasn't his original world. Though the stars overhead resembled those in his memory, there were many differences in their trajectories and mana fluctuations.

That was why he had spent more than two months observing them again. This should have been his first time connecting to this world's Ophiuchus. There couldn't possibly have been a path prepared in advance.

But the sensation from his Magic Circuits couldn't lie. That power was far too familiar.

Still, now was clearly not the time to ponder the question. The ritual was ongoing, after all, and if a moment's distraction caused it to fail, he really would become a laughingstock.

At last, after a little while longer, the light in the ritual slowly faded, and the silhouette of the serpent bearer floating behind him merged back into the night sky.

"Did it work?"

Frieren immediately asked from the side.

"It did."

Lorenzo raised his right hand, and a silver-white light tinged with pale green appeared in his palm. Within it, the faint image of a tiny snake coiled around a staff could be seen.

"Now I can begin the treatment."

Hearing this, Heiter, who had been waiting beside them for a long time, stood up with the aid of his cane.

"Is it finally my turn?"

"Why do you make it sound like you've been standing in line for ages?"

Frieren said from the side.

"Hold out your hand."

Lorenzo said to Heiter.

Heiter held out his right hand as instructed, and Lorenzo grasped his wrist.

"Your body might feel hot during the treatment, but it won't hurt much. You can sit down first. Standing won't make the treatment any more effective."

"Understood."

Heiter leaned back in the chair and slowly relaxed his body.

Fern stood beside him, looking even more nervous than the person receiving treatment.

"There won't be any danger, will there?"

"No."

Lorenzo said, then began circulating his Magic Circuits.

Heiter instinctively closed his eyes. The first thing he felt was warmth gradually seeping through his skin and deep into his body, spreading along the paths of his blood and mana.

After about a few minutes, Lorenzo lowered his hand.

"It's over."

Heiter still had his eyes closed, and Fern approached him anxiously.

"Lord Heiter?"

The old man slowly opened his eyes. He first looked down at his hands, then tried taking a deep breath.

His breathing was smooth, and there was no pain in his chest. Even the heaviness that had tormented him every waking moment had vanished completely.

Heiter pushed himself up from the chair. His movements were no longer as difficult as before. Though still slow, he no longer needed to put most of his weight on his cane.

He tried walking forward a few steps.

"How do you feel?"

Lorenzo asked.

"At ease. I haven't been able to breathe properly like this in many years."

Heiter stopped, a nostalgic look appearing on his face.

His appearance hadn't changed. His hair was still white, and the wrinkles on his face were no fewer. No matter how one looked at him, he was still an old man in the twilight of his life.

Only the pain that had plagued him for so long had finally disappeared from his aged body.

Fern's shoulders, which had been tense all this time, finally relaxed. She lowered her head and gently grasped Heiter's sleeve.

"That's wonderful, Lord Heiter."

"Sorry for worrying you."

Heiter reached out and patted her head.

"Then, to celebrate the end of my illness, let's all drink until we drop tonight, feast on meat, and gulp down wine!"

Heiter hadn't stayed serious for long before he produced a bottle of wine from who knew where and eagerly held it high.

His practiced movements made it clear he had planned this long ago. And wasn't he missing something about "weighing out gold and silver to share"? Had the Holy City's archbishop finally grown tired of serving the goddess and decided to take them all into the hills to become bandits?

"What a meat-eating, wine-drinking monk."

Frieren smiled and shook her head.

"That's exactly what we should do."

Fern, however, nodded with a completely serious expression.

"Lord Heiter has only just finished his treatment. He really should drink some wine to consolidate the effects. After all, wine is the best of all medicines."

"What have you been teaching Fern?!"

"Just some common knowledge about life."

Heiter smiled with great satisfaction.

"I never thought Fern would remember it so well. As her foster father, I'm truly moved."