Stigma Effect

Proofreader: kuroneko_chan

Yuriel, who was moving in the room, heard a knock and opened the door.

“Sir Shudmuel, you came early today!”

“You seem to be a lot better now. Any uncomfortable places?”

“My stomach hurts a little, but everything is fine. My fever has gone down a lot, so I’m exercising.”

Shudmuel, who was closing the door, flinched. Closing the door, he said, pointing his finger at the bed.

“I don’t think it’s okay to have a hurting stomach. Sit down.”

“It doesn’t hurt very much. It throbs sometimes.... Is it serious?”

“I have to test it to know. I'm going to have some blood drawn, are you sure you're eating well?"

Her cheeks, which had been flushed with heat, were paler than before. Shudmuel, who was examining Yuriel's face, opened the bag he was carrying and took out a syringe for blood collection. It was a syringe with a needle that was comparatively thinner than the syringe the alchemist used.

“I am trying to eat well. Oh, come to think of it, the alchemists tried to draw blood before, but Lord Raphlet kicked them out... .”

Watching Shudmuel push the needle into her arm, Yuriel said again.

Even after being evicted, they repeatedly asked for blood collection. The request was cut off by Raphlet, and the only document Yuriel received was a document containing a request to detect the location of the monster once her health was restored.

That was a request that could be granted, so Yuriel had tried to detect a monster even while she was ill.

Attempts to detect monsters unfortunately ended in failure. Among the knights in Albraka, she could not feel any reaction except for Raphlet’s energy, who had received an intact core.

Now, Yuriel could only feel the energy of the core that was implanted in Raphlet. It was as if the energy of the other core had been consumed by his energy.

Instead of being able to extract other energy, Yuriel was able to pick out Raphlet's movements more clearly than before. She could feel Raphlet's heading towards the Temple.

Shudmuel spoke to Yuriel, who was closing her eyes, feeling Raphlet getting farther away from her.

“Do alchemists draw blood?”

As the blood needed for the examination had been drawn, Shudmuel was putting a cloth soaked in disinfectant on her arm.

He asked in a shaky tone.

“What kind of experiment did they say that needed your blood there? That's not good....”

"No. They’ve never done an experiment. There was one time where they drew blood, but Baraha broke the syringe. After that, Lord Raphlet stopped them.”

“That’s a relief.”

"Why?"

“I don't know what tests they'll do there, but a blood test can tell you're pregnant. It would be better not to cooperate with blood collection in the future.”

It was only after hearing Shudmuel's words that she realized how foolish she had been. She hadn't thought that having blood drawn would reveal that she was pregnant.

After giving the warning, Shudmuel did a few interviews and got up.

“Get well soon and you can come up to my office. You can move now.”

He looked uncomfortable entering Raphlet's area.

Shudmuel secured the bottle containing Yuriel's blood to his bag and packed his belongings.

＊＊＊

After Yuriel's treatment, Shudmuel got a blood test as soon as he arrived at the office.

The result was clean. Naturally, she was a woman with better physical strength and better health than normal people.

“Then what is the cause of the stomach pain?”

Shudmuel murmured while touching the surface of the wide glass plate on which a few drops of Yuriel's blood had been dripped onto.

It was a coincidence that a piece of monster skin came into his eyes, who had been casually tapping the glass plate.

It was an item brought by one of the alchemists participating in Yuriel's experiment.

The alchemist asked him to test what kind of reaction it would cause when human blood and monster skin came in contact.

He grudgingly grabbed a piece of skin with the tongs.

What kind of reaction do they expect to happen?

The problem with alchemists is that they were always curious about useless things....

Dropping a piece of skin meaninglessly, he saw a noticeable reaction and widened his eyes.

The piece of monster skin that fell on the plate filled with Yuriel's blood melted as soon as it touched the blood, as if it had touched hydrochloric acid.

“… what."

What just happened in the blink of an eye? Shudmuel, unable to grasp the situation, muttered.

The skin tissue of a monster was quite different from that of a human. When the monster was alive, the skin was not only quick to recover, but it was also so hard that it could not be cut well with a sword.

The extracted skin pieces were different from the living ones, but he had never seen them melt as easily as they did now.

Shudmuel dragged a piece of monster skin from another dish in front of him.

He lifted a piece of skin with the tongs and carefully moved his hand. The piece of skin melted away as soon as it touched Yuriel's blood this time too.

Yuriel's blood melted it as quickly as poison.

Shudmuel placed his hand on a new glass plate and lightly cut his finger with a knife.

He put a similar amount of blood in a glass plate, stopped the bleeding on his finger, and placed a piece of monster skin on his own blood.

"No response. Yes, this is a normal reaction.”

The blood stayed the same, whether or not the piece of monster skin touched it.

Dissolving the skin fragments was possible only with a liquid with a strong acidity, such as hydrochloric acid. If it was human blood, it was natural that there would be no reaction.

He groaned lowly as he put a piece of monster skin on Yuriel's blood a few more times. Yuriel’s blood, which had melted in contact with the skin of the monster, seemed to glow vividly. He thought it was his feeling.

Every time the skin fragments of a dead monster melted, drops of blood glistened strangely. Monster blood was darker than that of a human.

Shudmuel placed a glass dish of his own blood next to it, comparing the colors. The darkening was not due to his feelings.

Yuriel's blood was gradually changing to the same color as the monster's blood whenever a piece of the monster's skin touched it.

“Did it change because a piece of the monster’s skin touched it?”

He gathered his eyebrows while examining the blood that was close to black.

If a piece of the monster's skin touched it and it turned into a color similar to that of the monster's blood, would the opposite be possible?

“What happens to human skin tissue?”

Shudmuel, who was tapping on the desk with his index finger and worried, could not contain his curiosity and rolled up his clothes up to his forearm.

There was no separate experimental piece of human skin, but it was something that could be prepared immediately.

He cut off some of the skin on the inside of his forearm and dropped it on a glass plate. He moderately disinfected his arm, from which the blood dripped, and continued the experiments to answer his doubts.

Putting a piece of his skin on top of the blackened blood, he let out a regretful groan.

“… It doesn’t change.”

Unlike the monster skin, it did not melt and did not change color.

“It only reacts to the monsters’ skin….”

Shudmuel's fingers quickly tapped the desk. A sound of impatience resounded through the room.

“If I use this well, it will be helpful for terrorism.”

He couldn't take his eyes off the plate filled with Yuriel's blood for a long time, then he clicked his tongue and muttered angrily.

“If she hadn’t been pregnant, I would have used it right away….”

The problem was, after all, that she was pregnant and it aroused his guilt.

Shudmuel meticulously treated his arm, which had only been roughly disinfected while continuing the experiment, and muttered in an annoyed voice over and over again, as if realizing something.

"Ah."

Maybe this was the cause of Yuriel's stomach pains.

Commander Raphlet was the only person who had the core of a monster transplanted as it is. Considering that knights have monster core fragments transplanted, gain superhuman power, Commander Raphlet, who had a complete core transplanted, may have an aura close to that of a monster.

In fact, after the core transplantation, he had strong skin and skeleton like a monster, and the stamina that did not get tired even after staying up for several nights.

He was great even before the core transplantation, but he didn't have the monstrous body he has now.

So, it would be better to think of Raphlet's body as closer to a monster than a human being.

Shudmuel rested his chin and thought deeply.

Raphlet's physical records could be obtained by requesting it from the alchemists, and Yuriel's record was sufficient to investigate on his own.

She was unique enough to have prophetic dreams about monsters, and even her constitution was strange. If the alchemists find out, their eyes will light up and run at Yuriel.

Of course, the Temple wouldn't let her go, and in the Imperial Palace, the princess was aiming for Yuriel.

“… Not a single place is good.”

The contradiction was that there were many places that wanted Yuriel, but nowhere could she be safe.

It was also quite tragic for Yuriel.

Shudmuel stopped the thoughts leading to Yuriel's sympathy and got up. The blood on the plate was wiped clean so that no traces were left and he went to Yuriel's room.

To be precise, it was Commander Raphlet's room.

“Sir Shudmuel, why did you come back? Do you have anything left behind?”

Yuriel, who came out with a messy look, as if she was lying alone on the Commander’s bed, asked him.

Shudmuel looked pitifully at Yuriel, who was idly rolling around in bed without knowing her own constitution, and informed her what was going on.