*Jeobeok.*
As I stepped right up to Rose with the experimental knife in hand,
*Eumchil.*
Rose didn't back down, though her shoulders trembled. Nor did she avoid my gaze.
‘Bold, isn't she.’
Did she even realize that acting like that would only provoke her opponent further?
*Seut—*
I moved the hand holding the experimental knife. Rose chased its trajectory with quivering eyes.
Instead of stabbing Rose in the neck with that knife,
*Tak.*
I merely reached past her shoulder and set it down on the table.
“Let's stop with the pointless questions.”
“…Pardon?”
“I wouldn't be able to stab you anyway, Madam.”
I muttered that last response under my breath so she couldn't hear. Then, I calmly ordered.
“Prepare to begin the examination.”
Rose stood there looking bewildered for a moment, but when I urged her with my eyes, she finally started moving.
“Huu.”
Placing a hand on her chest and swallowing a sigh, it seemed she had been quite nervous after all.
“Please wait a moment.”
As if she hadn't been flustered at all, Rose calmly fiddled with the devices around the chair.
*Dalchak.*
She connected a few additional tubes and inserted pre-ground herb powder into them.
“I'll put in three well-known poisonous herbs first. They're so common that Your Grace should already be immune to them. You can just think of it as a test run to see if it works properly.”
As Rose pressed a sequence of complicated buttons,
*Wiing—*
the chair began to vibrate softly. The needle on the dashboard moved, tracing a complex waveform graph.
“Please come over here, Your Grace.”
“Mm.”
I nodded and approached the chair.
Even knowing what would happen once I sat there, I didn't show any outward signs of it. It was something I had to endure anyway.
‘She's probably planning to do it again this time.’
Anticipating the next sequence of events,
*Teolssak.*
I sat in the chair. Feeling the hard sensation against my buttocks, I rested my wrists on the armrests.
At that,
*Cheolkeodeong.*
The latches on the armrests clamped shut, securing my wrists. I was now completely bound to the chair, unable to move.
“—!”
She's actually doing it.
I had braced myself for it, but experiencing it firsthand was still quite flustering.
This unfamiliar sensation of becoming prey caught in a trap myself was something I hadn't experienced in my entire life.
“…What is the meaning of this?”
“Ah, I'm sorry. You must be surprised.”
Rose lowered her eyebrows as if flustered, lying to my face with complete confidence.
“I should have told you beforehand. It's set to activate automatically when someone sits down.”
“Why?”
“Because your body must not move during the examination.”
“Why didn't you mention such an important detail?”
“Please don't be too angry, Your Grace. It's just a precaution in case.”
Rose blinked rapidly, signaling me not to scold her too harshly. Then, she quickly pressed something into my hand.
“Here is the control key. If you press the button that touches your thumb, it will release.”
“…….”
“If you feel scared or terrified, you can release it and stand up at any time.”
I had to swallow a hollow laugh as I looked at Rose's smiling face.
The original Dane, of course, did not press that button.
‘Does she think I'd be scared of something like this?’
I scoffed and outright handed the control key back to Rose, displaying my towering pride as a man who would never fear such a thing.
But this, too, was Rose's clever trick. A safety mechanism was already in place, so pressing the button wouldn't release the locks anyway.
‘As if they would give such authority to the test subject.’
Just as Rose said, because the body must not move during the examination.
It was a stunt she never could have pulled without the absolute certainty that I wouldn't press that button.
The Dane Schmaichel that Rose had observed across her past and present lives was exactly that kind of man.
‘Just how well does she know me...’
I didn't know whether to call her clever or brazen.
“…Anyway, I understand.”
I was incredibly tempted to press the button just to test it and fluster Rose, but
“I have no use for it, so take it back.”
I feigned a snort and returned the control key to Rose.
“…Yes.”
As things went just as she expected, Rose hid a knowing smile, yet scanned my face worriedly to see if I was offended.
“Hmph.”
I leaned back and relaxed my body as if I felt no tension whatsoever.
“By the way, Madam.”
“Yes?”
“If what you say is true, Madam, isn't this an incredibly outstanding invention?”
Being able to grasp every corner of a test subject's body—it was something the medical field would welcome with open arms.
“Why haven't you published this research? You could sell the patent for a high price.”
“Ah… well.”
Rose let out an awkward chuckle.
“It's a principle that injects the mana of a magic stone into the human body and connects it to the wavelengths of specific components. Through this, we can check if there are any resonating components within the body, and because of that...”
“The costs didn't add up?”
“Yes, that's right.”
Rose shrugged.
“Because it consumes the mana of the magic stone like flowing water, it can't be used without considerable wealth. It's also too complex to commercialize.”
“I see.”
There was actually another reason, but Rose hadn't confessed that part to me yet. Though it would be revealed soon enough anyway.
*Kkaddak.*
After moving my wrists a few times,
“Begin.”
I nodded toward Rose.
*Cheok.*
Rose put her glasses back on. It seemed to be her personal gear, worn only when she had important work requiring focus.
*Dalchak.*
Rose dragged over wires with clips at the ends and began attaching them to my body.
*Dalchak, dalchak.*
Then, with a serious expression, she pressed various spots on the dashboard.
*Wiing—*
A stronger vibration than before emanated from the chair beneath me.
“It's going in soon.”
Rose's calm voice could be heard.
“3, 2, 1…. It's started.”
I felt an unfamiliar mana flow into my body. A cold aura spread throughout my body, riding along my blood vessels.
“Mm….”
I lowered my eyes and focused on the unfamiliar sensation.
“Are you alright?”
“So far.”
Rose looked back and forth between me and the dashboard. The dashboard was awash with incomprehensible symbols and numbers.
Understanding their meaning was something only a Magical Scholar like Rose could manage.
I stared blankly at Rose's serious side profile, and then,
“Ugh.”
a sudden, overwhelming unfamiliar sensation made me let out a groan.
“Your Grace?”
“…My stomach.”
I furrowed my brow, trying to figure out what this was.
“I feel… nauseous.”
My vision began to slowly spin. It felt like the churning rising from my stomach was overtaking my head.
“Ah, as expected.”
Rose pressed a hand to her forehead as if she had a headache.
“You're feeling it too, Your Grace. I thought you were so tough that you wouldn't.”
“Did something go wrong?”
“Ah, it's not like that. It's a symptom that inevitably manifests when mana that isn't your own circulates through your body.”
Rose gave a *Heung*, wrinkling the bridge of her nose as she spoke.
“I tested it on myself beforehand. The feeling is exactly… like a hangover.”
“Hangover?”
It was a word I'd never experienced myself, but I knew its meaning.
“You mean that thing you feel the day after drinking a lot of alcohol?”
“Yes, that's right. Uh… You've never experienced it even once?”
“That's correct.”
I hadn't had a single drink since returning to the Schmaichel estate, but during my time at the academy, I used to enjoy drinking with my peers.
I wouldn't get drunk on ordinary alcohol, so I would make the other guys pass out and stay until the very end, drinking alone.
‘Monster of a guy…’
‘Doesn't he have a bottomless pit for a stomach?’
My peers would sigh the next day when they saw me show up looking perfectly fine. I clearly remember them being in considerable agony, their faces dark and haggard.
‘So this is a hangover.’
Then that meant those guys had endured this pain every single time, constantly challenging me just to beat me even once.
‘Why would they do such a thing?’
A fresh sigh escaped me at their foolishness.
My vision kept spinning, and my stomach churned. One side of my head throbbed, naturally making my grimace deepen.
“Huu….”
I had braced myself to feel something like this. It was a description that had already appeared in the original work.
But experiencing a hangover in reality was far worse than I had imagined.
*Tuk.*
I leaned my head back. I thought that keeping my head still might lessen the spinning sensation.
I felt cold sweat beginning to form on the bridge of my nose and my forehead.
“Your Grace?”
Rose's expression clouded as she looked at me. Rose checked the dashboard and seemed to detect something amiss.
“What's this?”
She muttered in a flustered voice.
“You shouldn't be having this much trouble.”
Rose alternated her gaze between the dashboard and me, assessing the situation.
“Could you endure it just a little longer? It's almost over.”
“…Alright.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried my best to endure the pain.
The feeling of something suffocating rising from my stomach and shaking my head—it was truly alien and unpleasant. If I let my guard down for even a second, it felt like I would throw up something.
Not wanting to show an unsightly appearance, I had to struggle with all my might.
“What? Why is it like this?”
Sensing my state,
*Tak.*
Rose hurriedly pressed a button.
*Pwisik—*
Whatever had been rampaging inside my body began to withdraw. The nausea that had nearly filled my throat slowly subsided.
“Your Grace.”
Rose hurriedly approached me.
“Your Grace, Your Grace? Are you alright?”
“…I'm fine.”
As I gently opened my eyes, I saw Rose blinking back tears as if she were about to burst into tears at any moment.
“Oh no, I'm sorry. I did something unnecessary. What do I do….”
“I said I'm fine.”
As I tilted my head back and took a deep breath, the nausea subsided even faster. Rose didn't know what to do as she looked at me.
“I'm sorry, Your Grace. I'm really sorry. I didn't know it would turn out like this.”
“Don't worry about it. I'm the one who agreed to do this.”
Still lacking the leeway to turn my head, I merely shifted my eyes to the side to check the dashboard.
“Are the results out?”
“Pardon? Ah, just a moment.”
Rose quickly approached the dashboard to check the numbers. Then, she put on a serious expression.
“What are these numbers?”
Rose's fingers traced across the dashboard, scanning it thoroughly.
“Strange. Why would this….”