I’m (Not) Crazy!

After some indeterminable period of time passed with me just staring off into empty space, I noticed that Ily was trying to get my attention by saying something.

"What?" I was certain I miss heard her.

"I asked… What are we going to try next?" She quietly said.

"T-try next?" I stammered, "You still want me to try to cure your curse? My first attempt almost killed you," I frowned.

"You didn't," she laid her head on my lap, her cat ears falling as she continued, "Unlike the Clan elders, you stopped the pain. They would have just let the medicine run its course… They always did."

Nose wrinkling in disgust, I started petting her head as I considered her words.

She was from the Blank Tiger Clan of Demi-Humans; a type said to value spiritual strength above all. From what she'd just said, it didn't take a genius to figure out that while they tried to cure her curse, they didn't prepare contingencies as I had to deal with any unexpected backlash. In their eyes, if she didn't have the willpower to live through their treatment, she wasn't meant to have the power of their prestigious bloodline in the first place.

"Still," I grimaced, "do you really want to keep trying to find a viable treatment, even if you have to suffer again? If I'm being totally honest, I doubt even the best doctors that money can buy have the answer to your problem. Do you really want to place your trust in an idiot with zero experience in the medical field, like me?"

"Yes…" I could feel her tail waggling against my chest even as she kept her head down, "I don't want to be a burden on you. So even if it will hurt to continue… I want to keep trying to find a way to be more useful."

I continued to pet her for a while before eventually saying, "...Fine."

After reconsidering her situation, I accepted things for what they were and knew how to prepare better. As a Demi-Human she was much more resilient than her frail appearance would suggest. So even if it looked like she was dying from taking my medicine, it was likely that she'd probably suffered something far more sinister from what her Clan had attempted to use to treat her curse.

Then, there was the matter of preparing better contingencies. I should have known better than to just rely on creating a backup pill to cancel the effects of the experimental treatment. It became obvious now why doctors were so sympathetic to the use of syringes. Sure, oral medicine was great and all, but for emergency treatment of an out-of-control patient, nothing could beat the classic poke and push.

Since she was the one in favor of continuing, I could look past this first failure and continue. Only, I would strive to never take such a serious matter so lightly ever again.

…

Test 2: Using Soothing Wood Pills to "more gently" stimulate Vitality.

Results: Fail; A single Soothing Wood Pill did absolutely nothing and after taking a second, a solution made from water and a Sharp Metallic Pill was used to cancel the backlash.

…

Test 3: Using Skin Tempering Pills to raise Constitution before moving on to other methods of elevating Vitality.

Results: Fail; The Bloodline Curse prevents Constitution from being raised. Even after taking ten Skin Tempering Pills, there was no positive or negative change.

…

Test 7: Raising Vitality naturally through a Yang Cultivation Art.

Results: Fail; Excluding Dual Cultivation Methods — which I refused to even entertain the thought of imparting to Ily — all the Yang Cultivation methods I know of have proven to be extremely ineffective. Ily has little to no Yang Affinity.

…

Test 15: Raising Constitution naturally through a Water Cultivation Art

Results: Success at last! Kind of… I mean, it worked, but this didn't directly make an impact on the curse's effects.

…

Test 39: Double Cultivating Water and Wood Cultivation Arts to raise Vitality.

Results: Half success, half fail… Finally, I found the combination of Wood and Water Cultivation methods that synergize just right for Ily's body. What a shame that despite finding a way to increase her Vitality, she quickly loses all her progress upon stopping.

…

Test 88: Final Regiment — Supplement Vitality Cultivation with 5 Calming Water Pills, 5 Soothing Wood Pills, specialized Spirit Cooking for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, as well as a liter worth of Fortification Potion every day.

Results: Hahaha! Fuck you, you shitty fucking curse! I finally figured out exactly what steps to take for Ily to beat you. Ha! It only took a week and a half! What? What do you mean I seem a little crazy?! I'm perfectly fine! I'm more than fine! I'm—

…

Ugh… I woke up yet again with Ily hugging me from behind. As the memories of the last ten days came rushing back to me, I couldn't help but grin.

That goddamn curse… It had nearly left me clawing at my face and pulling at my hair from all the frustration solving it had caused. But, I'd managed to pull through and the correct combination of steps required for Ily to raise her Vitality without suffering from any form of backlash.

Sure, her treatment would be expensive; already, she required hundreds of times the average commoner's salary to "not" lose what little progress she'd made since yesterday. However, it would all be worth it if she managed to raise her Vitality to the point that it could fight back against the curse autonomously.

I had no idea what level of Vitality she needed for that to happen. But, even if it never did, so long as she continued to make progress she would be able to live more comfortably and—

I looked at the table full of perfectly replicated pills, brewed liquids, and sticks of incense that she had created from the non-cursed part of her active bloodline.

—of course, she'd also be more productive…

There was a reason I'd picked her out of all the other absolute slaves to choose from back at Deanon's Slave Trade; there was a reason I'd picked all the slaves between Alex and me. Ily, specifically, had the Skill [Replicator] which allowed her to perfectly reproduce anything of a certain Grade so long as she had the Magic Reserves to do so.

If this had been before we figured out a way to suppress her curse, then at most she'd be able to only replicate a dozen or so of the pills I could concoct every day. Now that she had me to feed her Spirit Cooking through the day and provide her with a bunch of other pills whenever she needed them, she could duplicate things on the level I was capable of creating until her Magic ran out.

If she kept getting stronger though, she might eventually get to the point of being able to duplicate the things Alex boosted. And if her Vitality won over her curse, then she'd probably get more than the original lifespan that it robbed of her.

The only thing I could want from her now…

Was for her to remember to stop sneaking into my bed every night. Even ten days later, it was just as distressing waking up to being held by her arms as it was the first day…