010. Healing!

"Awake?"

Merlin glanced up at her, pinched the black hem of her skirt with his left hand, and drew a dagger across it with his right, slicing off a large strip of fabric.

Folding the cloth into a wad, Merlin gripped her jaw. Yol winced in pain, her mouth falling open involuntarily, and Merlin stuffed the fabric inside.

"I'm going to save you. All you have to do is watch quietly as I do it."

A trace of bitterness flickered in Yol's eyes. She knew her own injuries all too well.

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

On the way here, he had already absorbed the Lead Platinum Disease disaster from within her body, storing the disaster he'd taken from her in the index finger of his left hand.

As for the disaster of the gunshot wound—this kind of disaster, born from the flesh and directly observable, was easy to understand. During absorption, Merlin realized that if he didn't remove the foreign objects lodged inside her, the wound's self-healing would seal them within her body.

His Disaster Absorption, as it stood, couldn't assimilate and absorb foreign objects along with the injury.

After wiping the dagger clean, Merlin pinched both sides of her wound with his left hand, then looked at her with a calm gaze and said:

"It'll hurt a bit. Bear with it."

Yol hesitated, looking at Merlin. Observing him now, she realized he seemed about to operate on her. But if he cut her open now, she would only become a burden from then on. Just as she was about to move, Merlin spoke flatly:

"Don't make trouble for me."

Startled by the sudden sharpness, Yol froze, a flicker of grievance in her eyes. But Merlin's hand was steady as the dagger pierced into the wound, slicing it open in one motion.

An unbearable, searing pain shot through her. Fine beads of sweat instantly broke out on Yol's forehead, and she couldn't help but let out a stifled groan.

At that moment, Merlin paused, a sudden flash of insight striking his mind:

"Pain, pain... then pain itself must be a disaster."

As if guided by instinct, black flames spread from his left hand gripping the wound. Sensing a different kind of disaster, Merlin used the black flames to analyze and comprehend it. Before long, he manipulated the disaster black flames to absorb the pain.

Instantly, Yol's eyes went blank. The excruciating pain vanished. Merlin glanced up at her, then lowered his head to focus on cutting the wound.

A few seconds later. The incision was wide enough for his fingers. Merlin withdrew the dagger.

With his left hand, he pried open the flesh. With his right hand, he set the dagger on her belly, then slid his index and middle fingers into the wound in her abdomen. Amidst a sticky sensation, he retrieved two bloodstained bullet heads from inside her gut, along with some minor debris from her intestines.

Yol stared blankly at Merlin's brutal operation. He had cut open her belly, reached his fingers inside to rummage around, and yet she still felt no pain at all.

After removing the bullet heads and debris, Merlin found no other foreign objects. He pinched the incision shut with his left hand, and black flames rose, their dark radiance coiling around her body.

Disaster Absorption.

It was like manipulating cause and effect.

The "effect" of the penetrating wound vanished, and the "cause" of the injury naturally ceased to exist.

As his stamina and mental energy drained rapidly, ten seconds later, Merlin's left hand left her lower abdomen. Yol's wound had disappeared without a trace.

At that moment, the black flames in Merlin's hand faded, but his thumb quietly turned a deep crimson.

Disaster. Scarlet of Wounds.

Stored.

Yol sat up now, her mouth slightly open in shock. She touched her lower abdomen with her fingers—smooth as ever. Even when she pressed down gently, there was none of the previous agony, as if she had never been injured at all.

"Laplace, do you know magic?"

This sudden, inexplicable change left Yol's mind in a daze.

Merlin sat on the ground, breathing a little heavily. From saving the doctor, to Lami, and now Yol, his stamina was mostly spent. He was very, very tired now.

He glanced at the villa and said softly:

"Have you heard of Devil Fruits?"

As he spoke, he stood up and walked toward the main building. Yol quickly got up and followed Merlin's steps, nodding repeatedly:

"I've heard of them. They're legendary treasures of the sea. They say they grant people all kinds of miraculous abilities."

As she spoke, realization dawned. Her mouth fell open, and she stammered:

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

"Mm. Lucky break."

Arriving at the main building's door, Merlin pushed open the half-closed door and stepped inside.

He scanned the room, spotted a wine rack in the corner, walked over, picked up a bottle of fruit wine, bit off the cork, and took a long gulp. Half the bottle was gone in moments.

Yol watched this, looking like she wanted to say something. Merlin noticed, blinked, and handed her the remaining half:

"Want some?"

Yol couldn't help but glare at Merlin. "We're stealing, aren't we?"

Merlin seized on the "we" in her words and let out a mocking laugh:

"This country has fallen. The people are nearly all dead. Everything here now is just ownerless property.

If I don't take it, am I supposed to leave it for those butchers?"

At his words, a deep sorrow flooded Yol's eyes. She took the bottle from Merlin and chugged it down. "Cough, cough!"

But she drank too quickly, choking on the liquor, and some of the fruit wine sprayed back out.

For a moment, she looked utterly disheveled.

Merlin shot her a helpless glance, then pulled out another bottle, uncorked it, and started chugging.

Yol crouched down, coughing for a while, then let out a heavy breath. She sat on the ground, hugging her knees, and within seconds her shoulders began to tremble.

She wept in silent grief.

Merlin tactfully moved away, stepping into the nearby kitchen to find something to eat. He quickly spotted some fruit in the fridge, along with a baguette and ham.

He grabbed a bright red apple, bit into it along with the baguette, and ate heartily. The energy from the food soon revitalized Merlin's weary spirit.

After a moment, he packed a bag of bread and a plate of food, carried it out, and set the plate down in front of Yol. Merlin spoke:

"Eat something to settle your stomach. You must be hungry too.

Once you're done, we'll leave this place."

Yol nodded gloomily, picked up the plate, and thanked Merlin:

"Thank you. Sorry for the trouble."

Yol ate ravenously, but tears quickly blurred her eyes. She choked out between bites:

"I thought I was done for today. Thank you, Laplace."

Merlin sat on the ground, his ears twitching slightly as he kept part of his attention alert to the 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 further. She just nodded firmly and replied, still a bit awkward:

"Alright, Mer~lin!"

After a while, swallowing the food in her mouth, Yol tried to find another topic:

"How did you know I was there?"

Merlin was silent for a few seconds. "I've had a sharp sense of smell since birth."

Then he briefly recounted what had happened to him after they parted, including how he had obtained a Devil Fruit—though he only mentioned it in passing.

Yol's eyes gradually widened, and she stared at Merlin in shock:

"So you've been through all that in this time? Does that mean my Lead Platinum Disease has been cured by you?

Is Lami still alive?"

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

Lami should be safe now. Let's rest a bit first, then go find her."

Yol fell silent after hearing this, her voice bitter as she said:

"Alright, I'll listen to you. But since that Viscount Mela had a Devil Fruit like that, why didn't he use it?"

Merlin replied flatly, "I don't know. They say Devil Fruits are very mysterious—some with known effects, others unknown.

Maybe the Calamity Fruit is one of those unknown ones.

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

Yol was quiet. A few seconds later, she asked softly:

"Hey?

What if we went out now and announced that you can cure this disease? Do you think they'd stop?"

Yol wasn't stupid. After this ordeal, she knew how naive that sounded, but old habits made her ask anyway.

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

The royalty here knew about it long ago and have already fled.

If the commoners didn't know, do you think the neighboring kingdoms' royalty are clueless?

Lead platinum is a treasure comparable to gold.

Right now, Frevanz is a battlefield of a fallen nation. Do you think, with mountains of unclaimed wealth lying everywhere, they'd listen to us and stop?

Yol, for all we know, those noble lords in the neighboring countries are drinking and throwing banquets right now, celebrating how to carve up this land's rich, ownerless resources!"

Yol dropped her head. After a few seconds, she murmured blankly, "Human lives... in their eyes, what are they worth?"

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

"Live on?"

Yol repeated Merlin's words softly. At that moment, Merlin looked at her and asked:

"Enough about that. Tell me about you all?"

"Us?" Yol's eyes grew dazed. "Back then, after I got your intel, I gathered the children in the church and planned to escape together.

We were going to find suitable piles of corpses to pretend to be dead and fool them.

But then war suddenly broke out around the church, and I got separated from the children.

In the end, only ten kids were left with me. And as for the result... I couldn't protect a single one."