Klein sighed softly, dragged the armchair over to the fireplace, and lay down in it with his eyes half-closed.
The aftereffects of fighting Vice Admiral of Ailment were more severe than he had expected. He had initially thought it was merely an ordinary cold, but after going out once, he suddenly felt as though his entire body had been burned out.
His lungs gradually developed a burning sensation, his throat was swollen and painful, and his head was groggy, unable to muster even a shred of energy...
He even felt that his condition today was worse than when he had fought Vice Admiral of Ailment yesterday.
If he had not truly failed to detect any traces of a curse, he would have suspected that he had unknowingly been cursed.
To keep himself from falling asleep while brewing the medicine and letting it boil dry, worsening his cold, he could only let his thoughts wander and force himself to consider all kinds of questions, battling the increasingly heavy drowsiness:
The owl on that fat Apothecary's shoulder did not seem ordinary. Its gaze somehow made Klein feel that it was very intelligent, and it seemed to have been watching him all along.
Was he another person like Miss Justice, who had raised a Beyonder animal as a companion?
It might also have been a tamed animal that had undergone specialized training.
From some of the things the fat Apothecary had said at the gathering convened by Mr. Eye of Wisdom, it could be inferred that the Sequence he advanced to likely possessed the ability to tame animals.
The fat Apothecary's teacher was a young man at least sixty years old. That fit the characteristics of a Vampire very well.
The Sanguine had always been hostile toward Artificial Vampires. If the fat Apothecary's