"Alright."
Elsa bit her lip tightly and approached Schmidt.
"Hermit! Killing me like this gains you nothing! And you, Elsa, we were teacher and student, we were colleagues... You're still so young, why stain your hands with blood?"
"No, I can't die here, not when I've finally received the blessing I've dreamed of..."
The teaching assistant made one last frantic struggle, but his appearance only made Elsa's gaze grow steadily firm and cold. She let out a heavy breath and thrust the sword forged from sunlight in her hand into his chest.
As Sigrid's blade pierced Schmidt's heart, his frenzied mutterings finally ceased.
As Schmidt's flesh began to lose its spirit and warmth, his eyes, which had refused to close even in death, went completely vacant... Only then did Elsa realize he was truly dead. She had personally stripped a living being of the right to live.
Executing one's own kind for the first time brings an intense shock.
It can induce fear, cause numbness, or even become addictive for some.
Elsa was, of course, no sociopathic lunatic. She only felt dazed. Her hands trembled involuntarily, then she lost all strength and slumped to the ground... Despite desperately resisting, the urge to cry welled up uncontrollably.
It was a cold feeling, of being abandoned and detested, indescribable...
Silently, a few teardrops fell to the ground, merging with the sticky bloodstains. Finally, she could no longer endure this inexplicable bitterness and broke down sobbing openly.
During this time, Fran did not disturb Elsa. She merely walked calmly to Schmidt's lifeless body.
Once Sigrid had returned to her waist on her own, Fran placed her palm, wrapped in thin grey gauze, on Schmidt's forehead and activated the Crown-Thief.
...
When Elsa's sobs gradually subsided, Fran pulled her into the Mist Within the Door and quickly evacuated the Mandala Tavern.
The commotion from Nikolas's secret art, Summon Tide, earlier was no small matter. The Secrets-Hunters' arrival was only a matter of time. If Sister Haida caught her red-handed then, it would be rather undignified...
The scene of the incident was not a place to linger.
Inside the mist path, Elsa wiped her reddened eyes and awkwardly apologized to Fran.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Flamel, I don't know why... I really didn't want to cry, but the tears wouldn't stop..."
"Relax, sadness is normal."
Fran smiled patiently and began to explain.
"Don't all newborns come into the world with unconscious crying?... This is a sign of your recovery. Now, you have subconsciously left that warm, utterly safe 'womb' and stepped into the real world."
"Is... is that so?"
Elsa had gradually calmed down. Though she'd stopped crying, faint tear tracks were still visible on her face.
Fran rubbed her delicate grey gauze gloves and began the final summary of this treatment session.
"'Crying' is the surface phenomenon, while 'sadness' carries another meaning. Because you killed a blood descendant who worshipped the Great Mother, she no longer bestows her favor and love upon you. Sadness... is the feeling of being abandoned by one's mother."
"Forgive my impertinence, but your mother has passed away, correct?"
"Yes. My mother contracted an illness during the Great Plague... and ultimately couldn't receive treatment."
Hearing this, Fran understood why Elsa was the only one among the fifteen sacrificial offerings for the Birth-Feast Hall to be left with severe aftereffects.
Because Elsa's mother died early in the Great Plague, her childhood lacked the puzzle piece named "mother." This subconscious yearning for a mother's love was like an unconscious prayer in the void... eliciting a certain "response" from the Red Cup.
Had she been able to embark on the path of the Red Cup's blood descendants, she might have also become a favored one at the level of a High Priest.
---
[Elsa Royce's 'Panphobia' has been cured. This month's routine house call task has been completed. Completion level: S. Your next monthly house call will be randomly triggered next month.]
[This session's consultation fee: Unknown individual x1 (Fine Quality. Unidentified)]
[Your Parsing Rate changes: Mechanized Biology (17.1% → 17.5%).]
After returning Elsa to the Royce Mansion, Fran and Sigrid returned to the Fog Street Clinic.
Letting out a light sigh, Fran removed the grey velvet veil and pushed back her hair and ear feathers, which had become damp from the Summon Tide.
Furthermore, this grey gauze dress robe was also stained in many places with blood and seawater, causing parts of the silk gauze to cling tightly to the skin on her legs.
Covered in seawater, she needed to take a bath. Her clothes could be left to Sigrid...
Just as she was about to act on this thought, Sigrid took the initiative to ask about the situation during the house call.
"Dr. Fran, when you touched Schmidt's forehead at the end, were you using the Swaying Heart-Clock to probe his thoughts?"
"Not quite."
Fran wagged her index finger, denying the guess.
As she spoke, she mysteriously opened her medical case and took out a perfusion box for preserving organs. Inside, a flesh-pink brain covered in grooves lay quietly.
"My pocket watch can only probe thoughts directionally; the actual amount of information obtained is small. And it doesn't work on the deceased who no longer generate thoughts. To let Schmidt understand deeply what 'even the dead can speak' means..."
"I stole his brain."
---
During the Great Plague, Fran's talent Legendary Thief had reached its maximum proficiency, and she was at the time in a state of uncontrollable, swelling fervor.
Driven by intense emotion, she was able to attempt to steal directly from abstract things on a conceptual level.
Authority, principles, laws... even treasures from divine incarnations ultimately could not be exempted.
The only prerequisite was "contact."
But now, the Crown-Thief's proficiency is completely reset to zero, making the separation of abstract things nearly impossible. Trying to steal memories directly from Schmidt's brain... would be rather asking too much of her.
Forcibly using it would merely expend massive energy and yield a pile of worthless consciousness residue.
So, Fran chose a simple, unadorned, yet practical and effective method: bringing his brain back for a closer look.
Seeing the doctor suddenly produce a perfusion box containing a brain, Sigrid's expression couldn't help but become somewhat peculiar. She carefully recalled; she indeed hadn't seen any craniotomy or brain removal process.
Could Dr. Fran remove organs from someone's body just by touch?
"Dr. Fran, this brain... is it currently still alive?"
"Of course."
Fran deftly confirmed Sigrid's guess, then eagerly began to show it to her.
"If it were a dead organ, he'd be in slices in a specimen jar by now, not kept whole in a perfusion box."
"Extracting memories from a brain isn't difficult. Biological technology like the 'Omophagea' can directly and crudely obtain effective memories from the organ."
Hearing this, Sigrid raised a finger, lightly pinching her lower lip. Her molten-gold eyes blinked slightly.
During previous casual chats with Dr. Fran, she had heard details about Space Marine transformation surgery, so naturally she knew what the "Omophagea" was and how it should be used.
"Dr. Fran, are you saying... you're going to eat Schmidt?"
Sigrid nervously clutched the hem of her maid's uniform.
Come to think of it, although "Hannibal Lecter's Secret Kitchen" is primarily a book about cooking, for some reason it likes to occasionally mention the culinary characteristics of human ingredients... For example, that it's red meat, with a texture between beef and deer, and rather fibrous.
Fran curled her lip and shot Sigrid a sideways glance.
"Firstly, I personally do not accept such hard-to-swallow, inferior ingredients. Secondly, I don't have the 'Omophagea' in my body. Even if I ate it, I'd just digest it into amino acids and carbs."
"Compared to crude biological extraction... this time I'll use a more refined method."
Given the deepening research into Mechanized Biology and some insights from Biological Alchemy, she could attempt phased experiments using consciousness extraction technology from the Necrons. Schmidt happened to be good material; even if she broke him, it wouldn't be a pity.
Seeing Fran had no intention of cooking Schmidt, Sigrid secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"A more refined method?"
At the same time, she became somewhat interested in the technology Fran mentioned.
"Sigrid want to watch? The difficulty isn't high; let me make some preparations."
Fran took off the thin grey gauze damp with seawater and blood and tossed it into a storage basket at the side of the main hall.
Because the second-category secret art, Summon Tide, had caused torrents that splashed water throughout the private room, her shoes and socks also felt damp and sticky... But since Sigrid was curious, she might as well proceed with the technical demonstration first.
Saying this, she picked up the perfusion box and entered her operating room.
Fran first performed routine disinfection and dust removal, then embedded the entire box into a grey, cold-looking instrument. Web-like, dense mechanical lines extended into the box, beginning to connect to Schmidt's brain's neural clusters.
+
[Bio-Conversion Device (First-Generation Prototype)]
[Quality: Flawed]
[Effect: Can extract and back up a biological entity's consciousness information. This process will also cause the individual's soul to separate out. Due to numerous defects in this device, including incomplete technology, suboptimal craftsmanship, insufficient material adaptability, etc., it is not recommended for actual deployment. Please destroy it after completing the next technological iteration.]
[Note: "Don't use this machine lightly. Don't say I didn't warn you..."]
+
Fran pressed her index fingertip onto the device's light screen. After confirming her identity, it began formal operation.
The information in Schmidt's brain was deconstructed and re-encoded several times, eventually being stored in the device's database.
His self-consciousness was completely shattered in this process, turning into pure "memory." The separated-out spirit was placed in a container on the other side, awaiting use.
Although the entire bio-conversion process appeared flawless, this device was cobbled together by Fran, and she knew exactly how unreliable its performance was... Besides not exploding, anything was possible.
But that's how phased experiments are; unexpected accidents are an indispensable part... Results always need to be checked.
Fran pressed the device's web-like mechanical lines against her forehead and began to examine Schmidt's memory information.
"Sigrid, give me your hand."
"Mhm."
Sigrid placed her hand in the doctor's palm and immediately touched a brass pocket watch warm with body heat. Using it as a hub for spiritual interaction, the two entered a state of shared sensation.
Bright day, dark dusk, the cycle of day and night.
Schmidt's life transformed into a fragmented zoetrope presented before the two. Scenes from various periods coexisted and intertwined, bizarre and kaleidoscopic...
Fran disentangled these bewildering pieces of information like unraveling silk, and within moments found the needed portion.
It was a night three years ago...
Schmidt knelt on the large velvet-covered hotel bed, his two hands bound behind his back with slender silk gauze.
His white bathrobe had become tattered strips, full of torn-open marks. Beneath the gaps in the clothing, crimson whip marks were clearly visible on his skin.
A beautiful dancer in a deep red silk dress lightly caressed a short whip with small thorns in her hand, tracing it teasingly across the skin of Schmidt's back, from neck to tailbone, like an amorous caress...
The next moment, the sound of merciless, sharp lashes rang out cleanly, taking with it a patch of skin from his back, leaving it bloody and raw.
"Child, you're so adorable."
The dancer lifted Schmidt's chin, uttering a praise that felt like a reward for a subordinate. Like throwing a bone to a begging dog.
And this White Cup teaching assistant's reason and resolve seemed completely dissolved. His gaze was illusory and intoxicated, nearly completely immersed in the endless sensory stimulation.
Agony penetrated to the bone, but simultaneously brought an inescapable pleasure.
Emotions overflowed, full, rich, mellow, like drowning in a deep pool of fine wine, savoring that alluring flavor to death.
"Milady, please bestow upon me more of your grace..."
Finally, he knelt in submission at the dancer's feet, kissing the golden silk ornament on the back of her foot to show complete submission.
Dignity, honor, ideals—everything that could constitute Schmidt's life was utterly discarded under the soaking of sweet emotion.
At that moment, he only wanted more touch, to obtain more warmth, to be forever held in those great arms.
"Hmm, so he was converted after being captured by Sines."
"It seems that dancer didn't use any secret arts, just the permeation of Cup Phase spirit to handle Schmidt... If this kid's will had been a bit firmer, he probably would've been implanted with Cistanche."
"In a way, his lack of firm stance gave him a slightly better outcome."
The fates of Nikolas and Gunes in the Star Chart Research Society were likely the result of non-cooperation. Implanted with parasites, transformed into living puppets with consciousness but actually controlled by others.
Fran watched their intense scene with great interest, only regretting not having prepared a bucket of popcorn in advance.
Seeing the dancer seem ready to remove her crimson silk dress and the two on the velvet bed becoming increasingly intimate and amorous, Sigrid pursed her lips and finally reminded her with a blushing face.
"Dr. Fran..."
"Alright, alright, let's change the channel. Skip the adult content."
+++
T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL