Shock, the Youth Ignores the Girl's Cries

"This room..."

Mayuna was stunned by the sight before her eyes. Even though they were underground and there was no light magic, the room was incredibly bright. Long, white objects on the ceiling were emitting light, yet it was completely different from the glow of magic crystals.

"You're sick. If my deduction is correct, it should be severe tetanus. You're about to die."

The boy placed Mayuna onto a sofa he had crafted himself, opened a wall cabinet to retrieve a transparent bottle filled with liquid, and then fished out a sealed syringe.

Of course, Mayuna didn't know that the cylindrical object was called a syringe. She was simply puzzled by the strange items in his hands that she didn't recognize, so she began to survey the underground room. Although it was a space carved out by hand, it wasn't cluttered like the caves she had seen before. The floor was covered in pristine white tiles that, upon closer inspection, could even reflect Mayuna's face. The walls were painted with white paint and covered in warm-toned wallpaper; in short, it was far too tidy to be a basement.

"How do you know? Are you a healer?"

She didn't understand what tetanus meant, but the fact that she was about to die had been hit on the mark. Mayuna turned her gaze back to this strange person and asked.

"Don't compare me to those people—those who can't even cure such a minor illness."

The boy's tone was full of disdain, as if he looked down upon the sacred healers. This arrogant attitude made Mayuna frown, but she quickly caught something else in his words and couldn't help but ask, "If they can't cure it, does that mean you can?"

"Of course. That's why I say the system of this world is deeply flawed; it focuses too much on developing magic while completely abandoning science."

"You're trying to trick me. This is a curse that even ninth-tier healing magic cannot cure."

Even though she was dying, Mayuna didn't resort to desperate measures. She remained highly suspicious that this person wanted to do something to her.

"What kind of nonsense curse is that? Think carefully. Has your body ever been pierced by any sharp objects?"

"Hmm? About a month ago, when I went to the Great Library, I saw a very strange dagger. While I was playing with it, I was scratched by the blade, but I healed myself immediately."

Mayuna thought about it and realized she had indeed been injured. No one had paid any attention to it; such a minor wound didn't require a healer at all.

"That's it. You mages... your magic is powerful, but you are incredibly fragile, which is why you're nearly dying from something like this. This is a matter of science. Can magic cure it? Healing magic that takes several days just to cure a common cold."

The boy knew the sword was likely rusted, but people in this world had no awareness of rust. He couldn't be bothered to explain the principles to these unscientific mages.

"You seem to hate magic?"

"That's right. Take off your clothes."

After calmly admitting that he hated unscientific things, the boy raised the syringe already filled with medicine and approached Mayuna. The silver needle tip looked particularly terrifying under the light.

"You... what are you trying to do?"

Although she had never seen such a strange tool, a woman's sixth sense told Mayuna that this was dangerous—very dangerous, even more dangerous than his request for her to take off her clothes.

"Give you an injection. I'm going to inject the liquid inside this into your body."

"Take off my clothes... for which part?"

Mayuna shrank back into the sofa. She didn't see any twisted emotions like lust in the boy's eyes, but she actually wished she had! If she could see that, she would have a legitimate reason to kill him!

"Your buttocks. Your hip."

"No, no, no. Under no circumstances would I ever expose my buttocks to you, right?"

"Hmm... I made a mistake. This isn't my world."

The boy thought for a moment and gave up. Because of the conservative nature of this world, he didn't want Mayuna crying and demanding he take responsibility after she recovered, or worse, trying to kill him to silence him.

"We'll hold off on the intramuscular injection. Let's use an intravenous one. Give me your hand."

The boy put down the syringe and picked up another needle tip connected to a rubber tube, which extended down to the bottom of the transparent bottle. If there was a difference, it was that it looked less aggressive.

"In the end, you're still going to stab me! Where do you get the confidence to think I'd let a stranger do whatever he wants with my body?"

Mayuna felt that instead of using force, she should try to reason with him—and it definitely wasn't because the mana in her body was no longer enough to take this guy down.

"It's the most basic trust between people. I believe I can cure you, so you must also believe that you can be cured by me. If you give up, you can only wait for death."

Hearing the boy's earnest words, Mayuna felt a sense of frustration she hadn't experienced in a long time. Aside from when her teacher sealed her mana and threw her into the Forest of Magical Beasts, this was the first time she had felt this way. After much hesitation, she made the biggest decision of her life: to trust this person. She gathered her courage and held out her left hand to the boy.

"You... don't touch me like that."

The boy held Mayuna's hand, touching and kneading it. Poor Mayuna had never been touched like this by a man; even the Emperor treated her with great respect, let alone holding her hand and touching it so wantonly.

"Found the vein."

"Eek!!!"

What was a vein? Before Mayuna could figure out what he meant, she felt a sharp pain strike the back of her hand. Caught off guard, tears welled up in her eyes, and she let out a scream.

"Is that sound magic? First time I've seen it."

The boy covered his ears in pain but persisted in hanging the medicine bottle high up, letting the drip flow smoothly into the tube. He then held the needle in place with cotton to keep it from slipping, and finally secured it with tape.

"Is it my imagination, or do I really feel a little better?"

Mayuna quickly recovered from the pain. It had only hurt when the needle first went in; the cool medicine entering her body felt quite comfortable, and the intense nausea she had been feeling had subsided significantly.

"Of course it's your imagination. The illness was discovered too late; don't expect to be better for at least half a month."

"Half a month? Do I have to be poked by this every day?"

"Yes."

"I guess it would have been better to just die... By the way, did you really just save me so easily?"

Mayuna looked at the medicine bottle hanging from the ceiling and sighed, then looked at the expressionless boy. She had originally just wanted to find a place to rest in peace, but she never expected that in this remote little town, on this ordinary hill, such a person would exist. This was probably a miracle.

"Definitely."

"What's your name? I'm Mayuna."

"My name is Ruben. My profession is scientist."