Strictly speaking, for Noah Guillerette, losing her sight was not entirely a bad thing. Humans have five senses, and after losing one of them, sight, Noah was able to devote all her energy to training her remaining senses: hearing, touch, taste, and smell. And the most important, and what she relied on most, was the sixth sense she had possessed uniquely since birth.
Before Noah lost her sight, her mastery of this ability was not proficient, but this feeling transcended the five senses, entering the mystical realm of a sixth sense—she could perceive others' emotions.
That's right, emotions—
This is a perception that is almost impossible to hide; people can fake expressions, voices, and even heart rates, but they can never fake their true feelings. So, in Noah's perception, everything was so simple and easy to understand. Those who were genuinely good to her, those who were feigning civility, those who wanted to deceive her, and even those who harbored ill will, all appeared so clear to her.
She lost her sight, but in return gained this almost cheating-like ability.
It was precisely because of this ability that she was able to climb to her current position.
No one could deceive her in her presence; her precise judgment and decisive methods made her almost invincible in the business world. With just one meeting, one negotiation, she could always navigate through countless traps and get what she wanted.
—
Originally, she wanted to boast about herself like that…
But in reality, her ability wasn't that convenient…
Emotions are not black and white; simple perception cannot truly analyze a person's thoughts. Her ability isn't mind-reading, but rather simple perception, much like how you can feel temperature but cannot precisely know the exact degree. Her ability also had various 'accuracy' issues. During her time at Rhodes Island, Noah had also encountered beings with stronger abilities, specifically Amiya, the leader of Rhodes Island. In front of her… let alone perceiving the other person's emotions, her own emotions would be led astray.
After meeting Amiya, Noah rarely relied on this ability anymore. As the saying goes, there's always someone better; who knows if someone could easily apprehend you, right?
However, there was also a good thing: Amiya, the only one who could restrain her so far, had a very good relationship with her. Or rather, Rhodes Island itself made people feel very close. Noah had even registered her name at Rhodes Island, though it was merely a nominal registration; she didn't even bother with a codename, simply filling in the name Noah. But this was enough to prove Noah's recognition of Rhodes Island. On this land, having an ally like Rhodes Island, whose stance was similar to her own, was a stroke of luck.
Noah would always recall her time at Rhodes Island. Although she spent most of her time in the infirmary receiving various treatments to suppress the dangerously located Oripathy crystal clusters, Rhodes Island even initiated an expert consultation mode. When those experts, whose names typically only appeared in academic journals, discussed her condition, Noah was actually quite apprehensive…
But the final result was good. It was said that because her physical foundation was still good, after undergoing a large dose of medication, her physique became very poor—but at least she was still alive. It was said that the dosage of those medications used on her had reached a very dangerous level, barely suppressing the rampant growth of the Oripathy. This treatment method caused great damage to the body. Before going to Rhodes Island, Noah's physical quality could be said to have fully reached the level of a Guard Operator, but after treatment—well, at least she was still alive.
A weakened immune system was no longer a big problem. The bigger problem was that she had to strictly and regularly take these drugs with severe side effects to suppress the Oripathy within her body.
Even the Oripathy expert, the legendary Kal'tsit, had to admit that the Oripathy activity in Noah's body was the strongest she had ever seen in her life. What made her even more headache-inducing was that extremely high Oripathy activity might not be a big problem; there were always ways to make Oripathy inert. The problem was that Noah's immune system was also powerful to a bizarre degree.
Noah's strong immune system itself wasn't a bad thing, but when a powerful immune system encountered an incurable Oripathy… that was the worst possible situation in the world.
Because her immune system viewed the Oripathy as a foreign object, it was almost constantly working at full power to try and eliminate it, while the Oripathy itself was also growing wildly within Noah's body. One grew, one tried to destroy; Noah's body temperature for a long time didn't even drop below thirty-eight degrees, peaking at forty degrees. If it weren't for her truly extraordinary physical constitution, she would have long been consumed by the high-level battle between her immune system and the Oripathy.
So the final treatment method was a two-pronged approach: not only to suppress the Oripathy's activity but also to specifically suppress Noah's immune system. However, the result was that Noah's body went from almost never getting sick to a frail constitution where she easily developed a fever if she wasn't careful.
To almost die because her own body was too strong, the research reports on her body alone were enough for several academic papers. But now, at least her immune system and her Oripathy had entered a truce, temporarily at peace. Otherwise, she would have either burned out her brain from her immune system's high-level battle or directly exploded due to the stress-induced rampant growth of the Oripathy.
However, Noah was also forced to abandon her past training in swordsmanship and archery, and could only turn to studying the field of a Caster, though even as a Caster… she was still not presentable.
It must be said, it was fortunate that she sought out Rhodes Island. This company waived a lot of her medical expenses due to her research value. Otherwise, the medical fees and subsequent drug prices alone would have been astronomical. Her transition to starting a company and making money was largely to fill the deficit that the Kielanlet family incurred from treating her. However, not only has it been completely filled now, but she has also made a large sum of money.
It's a huge blessing that she's alive now, so Noah is actually very open-minded about many things, such as the current situation where she is forced to keep her distance from Maria and others. At least she still has Kuro by her side, so she doesn't feel lonely at all, not one bit.
—Well, maybe just a little bit.
But only a tiny bit…
If only it were like this.