Healing!

"Are you awake?"

Merlin glanced up at her, pinched the hem of her black dress with his left hand, and swiftly slashed through it with the dagger in his right. A large piece of fabric fell away.

He folded the fabric into a pad, then pinched her cheeks. Yol's mouth opened involuntarily from the pain, and Merlin took the opportunity to stuff the fabric inside.

"I'll save you. You just need to stay still and watch me."

A bitter look flickered in Yol's eyes. She knew her own injuries all too well.

Merlin looked at her abdomen, then carefully wiped the dagger and his right hand with her skirt.

Earlier, while they were on the road, Merlin had already absorbed the calamity of Lead Platinum Disease from her body. He had also stored the calamity he'd taken from her in the index finger of his left hand.

As for the calamity of the gunshot wound, this kind of calamity came from the body and could be directly observed, so it was easy to understand. While absorbing it, Merlin had discovered that unless he removed the foreign objects from her body, the wound would heal around them and leave them inside her.

His Disaster Absorption couldn't yet absorb foreign objects along with the injuries by assimilating them.

After cleaning the dagger, Merlin pinched both sides of her wound with his left hand. He looked at her calmly and said:

"This is going to hurt. Bear with it."

Yol hesitantly looked at Merlin. From what she could see, he seemed to be about to operate on her. But if he did that now, she would only become a burden afterward. Just as she was about to move, Merlin spoke coolly:

"Don't make trouble for me."

Startled by his sudden sharpness, Yol stopped moving. Hurt flickered in her eyes, but Merlin's hand remained steady. The moment the dagger pierced her wound, he cut it open.

Unbearable pain shot through her. Fine beads of sweat instantly surfaced on Yol's forehead, and she couldn't stop a muffled groan from escaping.

Merlin's movements suddenly halted. A flash of insight came to him.

"Wounds... wounds. Then pain should be a calamity too."

As if struck by inspiration, black flames spread from Merlin's left hand, which was still pinching the wound. Sensing a different kind of calamity, Merlin used the black flames to analyze and understand it. Before long, he controlled the calamity flames and absorbed the pain.

Yol's eyes went blank. The terrible pain had vanished. Merlin glanced up at her, then lowered his head and focused on cutting the wound.

A few seconds later, the incision was wide enough for him to insert a finger, and Merlin withdrew the dagger.

He held the wound open with his left hand and rested the dagger in his right on her belly. Then he slipped his index and middle fingers into the wound and, amid the sticky sensation, pulled out two bloodstained bullets and a few bits of debris from her intestines.

Yol stared blankly at Merlin's rough handling. He had opened her up and stuck his fingers inside to rummage around, yet she still couldn't feel the slightest pain.

After removing the bullets and debris, Merlin saw no other foreign objects. He pinched the incision closed with his left hand, and black flames surged up, surrounding her body with a dark glow.

Disaster Absorption.

It was like manipulating causality.

The "effect" of the bullet wound disappeared, so naturally, the "cause"—the injury—ceased to exist as well.

His stamina and mental energy drained rapidly. Ten seconds later, as Merlin's left hand pulled away from her abdomen, Yol's wound had completely vanished.

At that moment, the black flames in Merlin's hand disappeared, and his thumb quietly turned crimson.

Calamity: Scarlet of Wounds.

Stored.

Yol sat up, mouth slightly agape with shock. She touched her abdomen with her fingers. It was as smooth as ever, and even when she pressed lightly, the terrible pain she'd felt before was gone. It was as if she'd never been injured at all.

"Laplace, can you use magic?"

The sudden change left Yol's mind in turmoil.

Merlin sat on the ground, breathing faintly hard. From saving the doctor to Lami and now Yol, he'd already used up most of his stamina. He was exhausted.

He glanced around the villa and said softly:

"Have you heard of Devil Fruits?"

As he spoke, he stood and walked toward the main house. Yol hurried to her feet and followed, nodding repeatedly.

"I've heard of them. They're a legendary treasure of the sea. They say they give people all sorts of wondrous abilities."

She then realized what he meant. Her mouth fell open, and she stammered:

"So you're one of those legendary Devil Fruit Users?"

"Yeah. I got lucky."

At the entrance to the main house, Merlin saw that the door was ajar. He pushed it open and went inside.

He looked around and spotted a wine rack in the corner. Walking over, he picked up a bottle of fruit wine, bit off the cork, and took a long swig. He downed half the bottle in an instant.

Yol watched him, looking as though she wanted to say something. Merlin noticed, blinked, and held out the remaining half of the bottle.

"Want some?"

Yol couldn't help glaring at him. "Aren't we stealing?"

Merlin seized on the "we" in her words and laughed mockingly.

"This country has already fallen, and nearly everyone is dead. Everything here is just ownerless property.

"If I don't take it, should I leave it for those executioners?"

At his words, deep sorrow filled Yol's eyes. She took the bottle from Merlin and gulped down a mouthful.

"Cough, cough!"

But she drank too fast and choked, spraying some of the fruit wine back out.

For a moment, she looked utterly miserable.

Merlin gave her a helpless glance, then took out another bottle of wine, uncorked it, and started drinking.

Yol crouched down and coughed for a while, then drew a deep breath and sat on the floor, hugging her knees. A few seconds later, her shoulders began to shake.

She wept silently.

Merlin tactfully moved away and went into the nearby kitchen to look for food. He soon found some fruit, baguettes, and ham in the refrigerator.

He grabbed a bright red apple and ate it with a baguette. The energy from the food soon lifted his tired spirits.

After a while, he packed a bag of bread and brought out a plate of food. He set the plate in front of Yol and said:

"Have something to fill your stomach. You must be hungry too.

"Once you've eaten, we'll leave."

Yol nodded, her expression downcast. She picked up the plate and thanked Merlin.

"Thank you. Sorry for the trouble."

Yol ate hungrily, but tears soon blurred her vision. She sniffled as she spoke between bites.

"I thought I was going to die today. Thank you, Laplace."

Merlin sat on the floor, his ears twitching faintly as he stayed alert to the sounds outside.

"From now on, call me Merlin. Laplace Merlin.

"That's my full name."

Yol looked up at Merlin in confusion, but didn't ask any more questions. She simply nodded hard and answered, still not quite used to the name:

"All right, Me-rlin!"

After a while, she swallowed her food and found another topic to ask about.

"How did you know where I was?"

Merlin was silent for a few seconds. "I was born with a keen sense of smell."

He then briefly told her what had happened after they parted, including how he'd obtained a Devil Fruit, though he only mentioned that in passing.

Yol's eyes widened as she looked at Merlin in shock.

"So you went through all that during this time? Does that mean you cured my Lead Platinum Disease?

"Is Lami still alive?"

Merlin nodded. "When I realized I could cure this hereditary disease, I went looking for you.

"Lami should be safe for now. Let's rest a bit before we go find her."

Yol fell silent after hearing that. She spoke bitterly.

"All right, I'll do as you say. But if Viscount Mela had a Devil Fruit like that, why didn't he use it?"

Merlin replied calmly, "I don't know. Devil Fruits are said to be mysterious. Some have known effects, while others are unknown.

"Maybe the Calamity Fruit is one of the unknown ones.

"Besides, most nobles in this world wouldn't use their wealth to save ordinary people."

Yol fell silent. A few seconds later, she asked softly, "Hey?

"Do you think that if we went out now and announced that you could cure this disease, they would call off the attack?"

Yol wasn't stupid. After what had happened, she knew the question was terribly naive, but it was an old habit of hers, and she couldn't help asking.

Merlin's gaze remained calm. "Lead Platinum Disease in Flevance isn't contagious. It's a biological toxin that accumulates and passes down through bloodlines.

"The royal families here knew that long ago, and had already left.

"If ordinary people don't know, do you think the royal families in neighboring countries don't?

"Lead platinum is as valuable as gold.

"Flevance is now a battlefield in a fallen country. This place is already a mountain of ownerless gold. Do you think they'll listen to us and call off the attack?

"Yol, the nobles of the neighboring countries might be drinking and feasting right now, wondering how to divide up all these rich, ownerless resources!"

Yol lowered her head. A few seconds later, she murmured, "Human lives... what do they even mean to those people?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to guess. All I can do is stay alive."

"Stay alive?"

Yol murmured Merlin's words. He looked at her and asked:

"Enough of that. Tell me about you."

"Us?" Yol's eyes grew distant. "After we got word of you, I gathered the children from the church and prepared to escape together.

"We planned to find a suitable pile of corpses and hide among them, pretending to be dead.

"But fighting suddenly broke out around the church, and the children and I got separated.

"In the end, only ten children stayed with me, and I couldn't protect a single one of them."