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Even if the Tentacle Beast can ignore the damage to its host, if I cut the bear’s four legs it shouldn’t be able to move. But I’m pretty hurt as well. My left arm keeps making grinding noises, and I can see a deep gash below my torn skirt.

At least it’s almost over now.

I cut off the last sprout, which has an orange sheen, and the giant monster stops moving. It doesn’t fall down as it’s tied up to the surrounding trees with Steel Silk. I’m so happy I decided to bring Aria’s Steel Silk with me. Otherwise my nerve threads would’ve been too short to tie up this many monsters. Or well, I could have done it, but then I wouldn’t be able to move myself.

Still, I can’t afford to take a break. I need to get back as soon as possible and prepare the medicine. I channel mana into the Steel Silk and untie everything.

I could see the sun shining atop the trees as I ran back home.

“Barf!”

I cut off a part of the Tentacle Beast out of the heaps of hosts. I have no idea how something this smelly could ever infect an animal.

It’s already past noon when I reach the mansion. I try to contain my emotions as I knock on the door.

“Natalia, wait you’re really hurt!”

Olivia looked relieved as she opened the door, but that changed the moment she saw my body.

“Don’t worry, I’m still fully functional. I’ll prepare the medicine right away.”
“No! I can’t let you continue in that state!”
“We don’t have time. Please think of what’s more important.”

Olivia is worried about me, but I refuse to listen to her. I push my way into the room and begin preparations. I glance at Ophelia, she’s still sleeping.

I take out a cauldron from my magic storage and begin following the recipe. I already had the required medicinal herbs from the garden. I check that I have everything, double check, and then put it all inside the cauldron and close the lid.

As I pour magic into the cauldron, a soft light leaks from inside. Alchemy doesn’t require much mana, but very precise control of it. My mana splits into many millions of strands thinner than hairs, cutting and dissolving the ingredients.

This medicine needs to be prepared cold, so I also use magic to cool off the exterior of the cauldron. I’m glad I can do at least this, even if my magic isn’t enough to serve as offensive spells.

Eventually the contents of the cauldron turn into an amber liquid. The curse cleaning medicine was complete. Now I have to make Ophelia drink it, but making a sleeping person drink something can be dangerous, so I need to wake her up.

“Mistress, wake up.”

Maybe she won’t ever open her eyes again? I try to ignore those thoughts and continue calling to her in a soft voice.

“Mm…Natalia?”

She slowly opens her eyes and calls my name. That made me so relieved I almost collapsed. But I can’t let that happen yet.

“Mistress, I’ve prepared some medicine for you, please drink it.”

I gently prop Ophelia’s half-asleep body up, and get some of the medicine on a spoon. I watch as the liquid enters her pale, almost purple lips. Olivia then offers her some water from a cup, making it easier to swallow the medicine.

When Ophelia is done drinking the medicine, she seems more awake and turns to look at me.

“That was the Tentacle Beast curse cleansing medicine, right?”
“Yes. I realize it might be rude, but I checked your notes.”
“I see… so you’re strong enough to take down a Tentacle Beast…”

Ophelia’s eyes close softly and I feel a chill run down my spine. That was not the face or reaction from someone who just had their life saved.

“You’ll get better then, right Mother? This should get rid of the curse, right?”

Olivia noticed that too. She clings onto her mother, but Ophelia responds by slowly shaking her head.

“The reason why I didn’t try this medicine before is because I already knew it wouldn’t help.”

My legs feel wobbly, like I can’t stand upright. The only reason why I managed to resist was because Olivia fell on her knees first.

“No way…”

Olivia mutters absentmindedly, and Ophelia shakes her head with eyes closed again.

“No! Please don’t die! Don’t leave me alone!”

Unable to resist any longer, Olivia holds onto Ophelia, almost screaming and crying as she begs. But no matter how much she cries, that won’t change reality. She knew that, as well as everyone else in the room.

Still, no one could tell Olivia that there was no point to her wailing, that it was all pointless.

“It’s okay, Olivia. You won’t be alone.”
“Mother…mm… I know…I’m sorry.”

Olivia seems to have calmed down a bit, relaxing her hands, though tears still trickled down her cheeks.

“Olivia, there’s something I want to tell Natalia, could you leave us for a moment?”
“Sniff, okay…”

Olivia wipes her tears and walks out of the room, her feet extremely unsteady.

“You seem much calmer than I expected.”
“I’ll get mad if you really mean that, Mistress.”
“I’m sorry, that was mean of me.”

She has been taking care of me ever since I reincarnated. I feel self-important saying this, but I felt like she treated me just as well as her real daughter Olivia, so of course I’m sad.

There’s nothing I can do for her! Dammit! My mistress is about to pass away, and I can’t do anything about it, I’m just a useless puppet! I’m sure she was expecting to get a far more capable and skilled magic automaton, but then someone like me decided to reincarnate instead.

“Thank you, for being you.”
“But I-!”
“Don’t worry. You’ve always shown way better results than I ever hoped for.”