---Viktor's POV---
I glanced at the exposed arms of the three young girls.
Even though medicine had been applied after their rescue, their wounds showed little improvement. It could only mean that they had deliberately wiped the medicine off.
I cautiously stepped forward.
The three girls simultaneously retreated further into the corner.
Was I that scary? I was just your friendly neighborhood skeleton. Maybe I should smile more often?
Alyanne, standing beside me, explained, "They've been like this the past two days. When I bring them food, I have to leave it at the door."
I didn't reply and instead looked down at her position, noting that she was standing closer to the girls than I was.
Realizing this, she awkwardly muttered, "Uh... maybe they're more familiar with me?"
She really thought hard but could only come up with this weak explanation.
"It's fine. Having just come out of the goblin nest, it's normal for them to reject male figures," I said, despite being nothing more than a skeleton undead myself.
I turned my gaze back to the three girls, who appeared to be shutting themselves off but were still subtly responsive to our conversation.
"At least compared to before, their vitality seems stronger now."
When the three were first rescued, they were utterly despondent, showing no reaction to the outside world.
Now, perhaps, they were... slightly better?
I stood where I was, caught in a stalemate with the girls, while pondering. Recently, there had been too much going on.
After having Alyanne arrange accommodations for the three and restrict their movements, I had left them alone, thinking they needed time to recover emotionally.
I planned to step in later with a standard rehabilitation plan for captives once they were stable enough to understand they were no longer in danger.
This way, I could skip the hassle of comforting traumatized individuals. But now, it was clear that taking shortcuts wouldn't work.
"Suicidal tendencies—depression?" I guessed internally.
Before crossing over into this world, I had just been a student, and after 600 years of rough survival in Aeltia, I had long forgotten how to handle such sensitive psychological issues.
As for Alyanne, she was even less qualified—an indigenous local whose approach to dealing with people like this was simply to eliminate them alongside the goblin nest they'd been captured in.
I, however, held a principle of not killing the innocent.
I wouldn't go out of my way to save people, but once they were in my hands, I wouldn't abandon them.
After a long silence, Alyanne couldn't hold back anymore.
"What should we do now?"
"We've already saved them; we can't just stand by and watch them die," I said with a sigh of resignation.
I then summoned a virtual panel visible only to me, tapping on it with my mental tendrils.
"Wait here. I'll find reinforcements."
Since the girls had been saved by players, it made sense to involve them in the aftermath as well. Considering the victims' apparent aversion to men, I specifically set the mission to be available only to female players.
---
Not long after, two players, Lux and GameLord420, arrived.
GameLord420's eyes reddened as soon as she saw the girls.
"This is heartbreaking," she murmured.
Lux turned her head away, equally distressed.
When they had first rescued the girls, it had been nighttime, and most of their wounds were hidden in the shadows.
Now, under better light, the injuries were worse than they had imagined—not because of their severity but because of the way they had been inflicted.
After placing temporary mental imprints on the two players to help them understand and use the Aeltia Common Tongue during the mission, my preparations continued.
The mission prompt included a clear warning: they must stay in character, as revealing anything about the game would result in a massive loss of SAN value. With a final gesture of support, I handed them two bottles of healing potion before sending them on their way.
"This one is for oral use, and this one is for external application. They're in your hands now."
Considering the difficulty of addressing psychological issues, I added, "If you can't get them to eat, don't force it."
If someone truly wished to die, it was nearly impossible to stop them. In that case, respecting their wishes wasn't the worst outcome. Maybe I thought like that because I didn't have a heart? Well, I was just bones.
Unexpectedly, Lux's previously hesitant expression became firm.
She clutched the healing potion tightly and promised, "Don't worry, Lord Viktor. We will save them!"
The girls had survived in the goblin nest until now; Lux likely believed they still had a desire to live. They just needed someone to pull them out of their despair.
GameLord420 nodded in agreement. "Leave it to us!"
With that, the two resolutely stepped into the room.
Alyanne and I moved to observe through the window, watching as Lux cautiously approached the girls, who flinched in fear.
"Don't worry, I'm a doctor. I'm here to help you," Lux said gently.
"Don't be scared; it's all over now…" GameLord420 added soothingly, treating the girls as though they were fragile glass figures.
Alyanne, witnessing this method of care for the first time, frowned in confusion.
"Why are they being so cautious? The girls aren't going to run away. Just go up and apply the medicine directly."
"Emotional wounds require emotional remedies… Wait, did you force the medicine on them before?" I asked, turning to her.
Alyanne nodded without hesitation. "Of course!"
After a moment of silence, I replied slowly, "… No wonder the potions didn't work."
Alyanne, having grown up in a mercenary group, valued life deeply and pragmatically.
Even if an enemy tried to heal her with malicious intent, she'd seize the opportunity to survive.
She just couldn't comprehend the mindset of the three girls, who might self-destruct at any moment, assuming that simply applying medicine was enough.
Realizing her mistake, Alyanne froze in embarrassment. Unable to resist, she asked, "Why go through all this trouble to treat them?"
"The mind and body are connected. When someone experiences severe trauma, their will to live can fade. These girls aren't just physically injured—their spirits are broken."
Alyanne frowned. "But they're safe now. The danger is gone."
"It's not that simple," I said, watching Lux gently coax one of the girls to extend her arm. "For them, the danger still feels real. Their minds have created barriers to protect themselves. Force the medicine on them, and you only reinforce that they have no control—just like in the goblin nest."
"So all this..." Alyanne gestured at the careful, slow approach the players were taking.
"Is about returning their sense of choice. Of power." I nodded. "The medicine won't work if they don't want to be healed."
I briefly explained the basics of addressing psychological trauma, though I didn't expect her to fully grasp it.
To my expectations, Alyanne was shocked and blurted out the exact question I'd anticipated.
"Why bother treating such a troublesome illness?"
"Because life deserves respect and shouldn't be discarded carelessly just because there are too many people around," I replied calmly.
I glanced at the room, where the players were beginning to make progress with the girls, and smiled faintly.
"Otherwise, how do you know you won't be the next one abandoned as a useless outcast?"
I added pointedly, "Many legendary mages you've heard of, ones whose names are famous, struggled with psychological issues far worse than these three girls."
Alyanne's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Really?"
If anyone else had said this, she might have scoffed.
But me, an undead mage who had lived for centuries and encountered countless magical geniuses, I wouldn't lie about something like this.
Why should I?
I was about to give examples when Lux suddenly ran out of the room, clutching half a bottle of unused potion.
"Lord Viktor, this is bad! They have severe injuries in their esophagus and stomach. The potion can't be ingested!"
---Third POV---
For a while earlier, Lux thought she had already demonstrated their friendly intentions. And she even got a nod of approval for the method of administering the potion.
This greatly boosted her confidence.
But as soon as the three girls drank the potion with frowns on their faces, they immediately spat it out.
And not just from their mouths—liquid came out of their noses and eyes as well!
She realized something was wrong right away and used Holy Light to examine their bodies. This was a technique she had figured out herself after gaining the Holy Light skill.
The Holy Light spell only activated when it encountered wounds. As long as she could maintain its presence, it could act like an X-ray.
And what she found startled her.
Apart from external injuries, their throats, chests... all the way down to their navels, triggered the Holy Light spell!
If it weren't for her mana nearly running out, she could've continued checking further.
"Based on the mana consumption, their abdominal area—specifically the stomach and intestines—is the most seriously injured!"
Lux's face was filled with indignation.
"I can't imagine what the goblins fed them!"
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
She clenched her fists, itching to grab an explosive and give the goblins another "warm gift"!
To dispel this notion, which would waste the organization's precious stock of explosives, Viktor took out a bottle of light purple potion.
"Ruptured organs aren't a big problem for a skilled alchemist. Try this."
Lux's eyes lit up.
"Great!"
She had thought she'd need to gather materials herself, but it turned out he already had a finished potion.
So, she eagerly reached out to grab it. She pulled, but it wouldn't budge.
The skeletal hand on the potion bottle was stuck as if welded in place, it wouldn't move at all.
Alyanne whispered from the side, "Leader, is this potion very rare?"
"... Of course not," Viktor struggled to say.
It was just that, for the declining Watchers, two of the ingredients in this potion were extremely hard to come by.
Viktor silently asked himself, When will she learn to read her boss' expressions?
Eventually, the potion was still given to Lux free of charge. And she left in high spirits.
Watching the scene in the room where two players carefully coaxed the girls into taking the potion, Alyanne grew even more puzzled.
"They're surprisingly patient about this."
Putting aside the argument that treating psychological issues took a long time, she had suggested abandoning the three girls, considering how players usually have very short attention spans.
Caring for severely injured patients wasn't just emotionally draining—it also meant dealing with blood loss, infections, and incontinence.
Even noble mages, let alone slightly more refined commoners, would only feel disgusted when faced with such filthy conditions. They'd wonder why the patients didn't just die quickly instead of making everyone suffer.
"Never underestimate the players' love for rescuing the fallen."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing," Viktor replied casually.
When issuing the task, he had dared to keep the caretaker rewards at a moderate level, fully anticipating the players' reaction.
While the three girls weren't stunning beauties, their youthful, delicate skin and collagen-filled faces made them at least look charming.
These cute young girls, struck by sudden misfortune, were perfect for evoking the players' compassion. Letting players handle the rescue work was far more suitable than him, a skeleton, doing it.
Viktor glanced at the increasingly blazing sunlight.
"By the way, I specifically summoned three females. Where's the third one? Are young people nowadays late for work?"
"Lord Viktor, all our female members are here," Lux quietly reminded him.
Viktor froze mid-stretch.
Really?
So, there were only two female players in the game so far? How did he feel like he had recruited at least ten?
Looking at the quest panel showing a participation count of [2/3], Viktor rested his chin on his skeletal hand in thought.
I need to ban them from using emojis when filling out registration information!
The game's current overwhelming masculinity was enough to make him feel uneasy. No wonder all his highly suicidal aggressive quests were instantly taken!
Confirming there was nothing else for him to do here, he planned to leave. But just as he took two steps out, he thought of something and returned.
His tone turned unusually serious.
"Alyanne, are you sure the three victims ate something initially?"
Even after two days of care, they still couldn't drink liquid potions. So, where did the food go?
Alyanne hesitated. "But I saw the food decrease… a lot of it!"
"What exactly did you feed them?"
"The new food you brought back—potatoes!"
Potatoes, with their soft texture, were chosen by Alyanne, worried the girls couldn't handle normal solid food. She didn't want them starving to death and making Viktor blame her.
Her explanation churned in Viktor's mind, turning into an unsettling truth. He immediately ordered, "Open the door and go inside. They probably didn't eat at all!"
Bang!
The wooden door swung open again.
---
Two players' murmuring voices came from inside.
"Do you smell something weird?"
"Yeah, like something went sour… but there's no garbage here."
The two players frowned, sniffing around but unable to locate the source of the odor.
Seeing the girls' gazes, Lux gave a gentle smile.
"Just rest and recover. We'll handle cleaning the air for you."
She turned back, hands on hips.
"I don't believe there's any trash that can escape the eyes!"
Looking up, she spotted Viktor and Alyanne entering.
"Eh, Lord Viktor, why are you back?"
Viktor didn't answer. He turned his back at the doorway, motioning for Alyanne to follow his instructions.
Alyanne took a deep breath and cautiously approached.
"Sorry about this, ladies."
She lifted the blanket, searching the girls' bodies for something.
GameLord420, upon seeing this, initially wanted to stop her, thinking the patients couldn't handle any more stress.
But when she saw what Alyanne pulled out from the girls, she was stunned silent.
"Ugh—!"
She clasped her hands over her mouth, suppressing a gasp and the urge to vomit. Just why, just WHY?
The six potatoes Alyanne had prepared as food for the girls were all recovered.
After two days, soaked in bodily fluids, the potatoes emitted a stench akin to a biological weapon.
Whoosh!
Without looking back, Viktor conjured a magical flame that incinerated the distorted potatoes into ash.
---
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50 advance chapters!
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