*
The moment Yulian was pushing a silver bullet into the chamber.
Erika, collapsed on the floor, bit her lip at the cold sensation against her cheek.
The metallic scent of iron filled her mouth.
'How pathetic.'
She wanted to be helpful.
To the one person in this garbage world who had ever acknowledged her.
Of course, the current situation was not her fault.
She had done the best she could for her age.
Her opponent was just that bad.But her young heart could not easily accept reality.
Tears blurred Erika's vision.
She couldn't stand the sight of her own red blood splattered on the floor, looking like useless filth.
The blood flowing from her forearm.
The revolver falling to the floor.
The mocking smile of the White Face looking down on her.
Just as everything felt like a story from another world.
A warm and gentle voice reached her ears.
- [—Child.]
A woman's voice, somehow nostalgic, yet possessing an undeniable authority.
- [Do not let them take what is most precious to you.]
The voice seemed to guide Erika.
Following that sweet guidance, as if possessed, Erika brought her lips to her torn wrist.
Lick.
The fresh blood on the tip of her tongue flowed hotly down her throat.
Her lips began to chant a phrase, regardless of her own will.
"「...To the bone throne, a bone,」"
Erika staggered to her feet.
The skin on the back of her hand bulged upward.
Tearing through the skin, a white piece jutted out.
"「For the one who offered, a substitution...」"
Too short to be a claw, too blunt to be a thorn.
The white pieces were forged into a shape resembling bone knuckles.
Seeing this, Yulian's eyes widened.
It was, without a doubt, a magical chant.
"「And so, with my remains, I shall break their pillars.」"
Swish.
She swung her fist, aiming for the left side of Kaski's neck.
The Clown with the White Face, his attention fixed on Yulian's gun, was too slow to react to the attack.
The spike on her bone knuckle tore through the clown's neck.
"Keuk...!"
Kaski screamed and stumbled backward.
Kaski fumbled at his wounded neck.
Fortunately for him, the wound had been transferred to his subordinate.
The clown let out a sigh of relief and sneered at Erika.
"Y-You surprised me a little. But with th-that kind of thing... Hehe... And besides, I still have my Claqueurs..."
Just then, Kaski's words began to slur.
"H-Huh...? My tongue... Why is it like this...? My subordinaaates... are still here..."
His pronunciation leaked out as if he'd been given an anesthetic injection.
One corner of his tightly pulled lips lost its strength and drooped.
Only then did Kaski realize that his body was not normal.
"My... my body... is... is strange..."
He frantically felt his own face.
There was no sensation in the left side of his face.
Soon, the grip of his left hand, which held the jackknife, loosened.
Thud. The knife fell to the floor.
Losing his balance, Kaski staggered and dropped to one knee.
"Uh... ugh...?"
Kaski drooled and swayed like a broken doll.
The man's terrified eyes darted between his paralyzed body and Erika's weapon.
Erika, too, stared with a dazed expression at her own crumbling white bone knuckles.
"Huh...?"
"It's magic."
Yulian patted Erika's head.
He looked at Kaski floundering on the floor and pieced together the symptoms.
Hemiplegia. Dysarthria. Facial Paralysis.
The classic symptoms of an acute cerebral infarction caused by an embolism.
Yulian knew of magic that could cause such phenomena.
"Bone Manipulation Magic, is it..."
It was highly likely a form of Arcane Magic.
Though he didn't know which family's magic it was.
'The performance is just monstrous.'
From its crumbling form, which was falling apart despite not hitting anything, Yulian was able to grasp the magic's purpose.
Judging by its durability, those bone knuckles weren't magic meant to face a spear or a sword.
Rather, it was magic whose purpose was to crumble as soon as it was created.
The moment the crumbling knuckle passed an enemy's blood vessel, it would inject bone fragments and bone marrow into that vessel.
And the moment those bone fragments and marrow flowed through the bloodstream, they would act as the most vicious poison, incurable by any antidote or healing magic.
'Magic that causes an embolism...'
Fat Embolism.
A condition where bone fragments or fat travel through the vessels and block a vital organ.
Erika's magic was one that artificially induced such a disease.
Having finished his deduction, Yulian's crow mask looked at Erika with concern.
"Erika. By any chance, did you use Exception Handling?"
"Huh? Eh? Exception Handling?"
"I see."
He took out a syringe and a small vial from his pocket.
The vial, sloshing with a clear liquid, was labeled [Heparin].
Yulian pulled Erika's arm and inserted the needle into her vein.
"Ah, that stings!"
"Let's have you take Heparin for a while. The fight isn't over, so there's a risk of bleeding, but from what I see, your magic seems far more dangerous."
"Why? Did I break Imperial Law?"
Erika looked up at Yulian with a tearful face.
She still didn't understand what Yulian was saying.
Yulian chuckled at her cute reaction and shook his head.
"It's not that. It's because you didn't use Exception Handling."
"Exception... Handling?"
"Magic only activates as written in the runic formula. It doesn't have a feature that automatically avoids you and your precious people."
All magic can have accompanying side effects.
Flame Magic carries the risk of burns and increased body temperature; Lightning Magic holds the inherent risk of electrocution and neural disruption.
That was why was a concept that all wizards had to learn before ever casting their first spell.
It was a basic of basics, a concept of inserting a condition into a runic formula to exclude oneself or one's allies from the target.
In coding terms, it was the same principle as learning conditional statements before learning how to insert negations.
But among them, there were always those who handled magic without going through this basic process.
"Novice wizards without a master don't know that. That's why many of them suffer irreversible disabilities during their first magic demonstration."
Erika's magic also harbored that kind of risk.
It seemed she, too, was unfamiliar with Exception Handling.
Therefore, just as she had caused Kaski to have a stroke, she was also at risk of a stroke.
"Then I'm..."
"You don't have to worry. I gave you medicine, didn't I?"
Yulian said, pressing down on the injection site.
Her expression, which had been clouded with worry for a moment, became much more relaxed.
Just as he was meticulously checking Erika's condition.
"Tea-Teacher..."
The Clown with the White Face, drool dripping from his mouth, called out to the Crow Doctor.
"Me, me too, sa-save me..."
"..."
The lenses of the crow mask stared silently at the clown.
"I-I'm a, a pa-patient..."
"...Understood."
Yulian nodded, filled a new syringe with medicine, and approached Kaski.
*
Just as he had done with Erika, Yulian administered the Heparin to the Clown with the White Face.
Feeling the sharp sting in his right arm, the clown cheered inwardly.
'Of course. A healer who comes down to a gutter like this would do this.'
Kaski's boss—the Narrenkönig—had said that healers with this kind of conviction were the most profitable.
Was it because of that naive conviction?
If you locked them in a room and just sent patients in, they would treat them without refusal.
There was no need for threats or persuasion.
Just kidnap them and put them in chains, and they would move as you wished.
'Hehe. What should I have him do first?'
Kaski's mind raced.
Should he have him fix the ones who were accidentally broken while sculpting our creations?
Fixing the ones who were sold off after being broken didn't seem bad either.
Secretly dispatching him to the VIP Nobles who desperately wanted to hide their vile hobbies seemed good, too.
Ah, come to think of it, he fixed that creation from a moment ago in an instant.
Since he seems to have extensive knowledge in that area, asking for his advice on how to make the creations didn't seem like a bad idea.
"Th-Thank you... Tea-cher..."
Kaski drooled like a fool as he expressed his gratitude to Yulian.
Now, once the paralysis subsides, he could take this naive and foolish doctor back to H-Sector.
"Wait, Teacher... Why that man..."
Over Yulian's shoulder, Erika stared at Kaski with a dumbfounded face.
The clown forced his facial muscles to move, sneering at her.
"Ahehe..."
Yulian, whether he knew Kaski's inner thoughts or not, looked down at him and whispered.
"But did you know this?"
"...?"
"There's actually no research proving that Heparin is effective for Fat Embolism Syndrome. In the old days, it was administered out of desperation, but it was even removed from the 21st Century guidelines."
"What does tha' mean?"
"Heparin is for prevention, not for treatment. To put it more simply, unlike Erika, for you, time is the only cure."
Having finished his explanation, Yulian straightened up.
Kaski, the hemisphere of his brain still paralyzed, couldn't properly understand Yulian's words.
Yulian checked his watch.
Then, looking outside the clinic, he continued.
"Of course, that's if you have any time left."
"Eh?"
Thud.
Right after Yulian's hand left.
A heavy hand landed on Kaski's shoulder.
It was a rough, brutish touch, devoid of any courtesy or dignity.
"Hey. Even the underbelly has a code of conduct. Don't you think messing with a clinic crosses the line?"
It was a voice Kaski recognized.
His head creaked as it turned backward.
"Ta...o Chen..."
"Look at that pronunciation, you punk."
Boss Tao Chen.
A single bead of cold sweat trickled down Kaski's forehead.
Behind Kaski, the few remaining Claqueurs hurriedly raised their weapons.
Wangcho glanced over the Claqueurs.
"Knock it off, you lot. I'm tired."
Not bothering to hide his annoyance, he took out a leather pouch from his coat and emptied it onto the floor.
Thud, thud, thud.
Eight blackened, blood-stained Red Noses rolled across the floor.
That alone was enough to break the Claqueurs' morale, and they lowered their weapons.
"Why'd you station so many of you clown bastards on the way here?"
"Hiiik...!"
Kaski's complexion also turned pale.
"H-How... that many... so qui'ly?"
"Hey. You think Rank 1 is some dog's name? Trying to stop me by relying on a measly enhancement procedure and numbers, don't you have any conscience?"
Wangcho grabbed Kaski by the scruff of his neck.
Kaski struggled.
Naturally, Wangcho didn't budge an inch.
Then, Kaski pulled out a jackknife from his sleeve and swung it.
He aimed for Wangcho's neck.
But Wangcho didn't even dodge it, taking the jackknife directly to his neck.
"Ah, that stings."
The knife bounced off futilely.
At the scene that defied common sense, Kaski was at a loss for words.
"Im...possib..."
"Sigh. What do you mean 'impossible'? You think the boss of D-Sector is chosen by drawing lots?"
Wangcho brushed away the knife as if it were a tickle and twisted Kaski's wrist.
"Gyaaaah!"
"Shut up, punk."
Then he picked up the fallen knife and spoke to Otto, who was now leaning against the front door watching them.
"Buddy. Thanks for clearing the way with me. But you said this punk did that to your face, right?"
Otto, panting, nodded with difficulty.
Wangcho smirked, then brought the knife to Kaski's mouth.
"Hey, clown. My methods are famous, even if I don't say it, ain't they?"
"Aah... aaaah!"
Splat.
Fresh blood splattered on the clinic wall.
Kaski, who had been struggling in Wangcho's grip.
He resisted about four times, but after blood splattered four times, on the fifth, he stopped resisting and went limp.
Wangcho tossed the no-longer-moving Kaski aside and said.
"My apologies for being late, Teacher. The clowns wouldn't clear the path on my way here."
"No, it's alright."
"I thought you'd be fine since Buddy Otto was escorting you to the exit, but it seems I was too complacent. I didn't think these stray dogs would be this much of a problem... For now, please stay at my restaurant. I will protect you until it's safe."
Only then did Yulian let out a sigh of relief, un-cocking the hammer.
He then took two Silver Bullets out of the revolver's cylinder and returned them to his pocket.
'I'm glad I didn't have to use this.'
A Silver Bullet.
Ammunition that could neutralize any magical miracle, obtainable only from the Temple.
Costing as much as eight houses per round, this ammunition was not something even Yulian could fire easily.
'Honestly, it's a price that makes you hesitate.'
No matter how precious life was, if you had to crash a Rolls-Royce to save it, anyone would hesitate for a moment.
Yulian was the same.
The Silver Bullet was a measure that he, too, never wanted to use.
Fortunately, thanks to Wangcho's timely arrival, Yulian didn't have to pull the eight-house trigger.
Yulian sighed in relief inwardly and closed the empty cylinder.
Then, instead of ammunition, he took out a notebook with a communication frequency memoed inside and said.
"Ah, if you have a communicator, could I possibly borrow it?"
The special ammunition he possessed wasn't limited to just Silver Bullets.