Chapter 98: Chapter 98: Obedient_1
"Oh, isn’t this Great Witch Priesia? I really didn’t expect to see that you had been caught too."
Inmate 3340, Meiruki, crossed her arms and looked at the bedridden, feeble Priesia with great interest.
Priesia glanced at her blankly and didn’t respond.
"Do you know her?" Aiden asked Meiruki.
"How could I not? Like that woman in cell number twelve who uses demons as servants, she’s a big shot at the witches’ gathering," Meiruki shrugged, "What’s with this pathetic look of hers?"
"It seems she swallowed something strange; it’s stuck somewhere in her digestive tract and she can’t get it out. Do you have a way to treat it?" Aiden asked bluntly.
"She swallowed a foreign object? Just because of this?" Meiruki seemed very surprised, "Can’t she deal with it herself?"
"She’s got amnesia, right now she’s basically useless." Aiden answered succinctly.
"Amnesia... What happened?"
"That’s not your concern right now." Aiden cut Meiruki off with a stern face as she pressed with endless questions, "Anyway, she started vomiting blood because she swallowed something unknown. I’m here to see if you have a way to treat her; if you can cure her, I can consider it a favor done."
When the prison doctor mentioned surgery, Aiden realized the seriousness of the issue.
The level of surgical practice in this world had barely developed to the point of understanding the need for blood type compatibility in transfusions; the surgical tools Aiden remembered seeing all looked no different from torture devices. To expect some high-end technique like endoscopic foreign body removal was absolutely absurd, and going through a major surgery was like gambling on whether you could survive.
Rather than thinking about having Priesia go through a literal gut-wrenching experience at an outside hospital and leaving her fate to the heavens, it was better to take a chance on a witch endowed with peculiar knowledge.
Meiruki had developed a demonic pact that granted control over bodily transformation and concocted a death-feigning drug that couldn’t be made even in Aiden’s former world; some of her techniques had far surpassed the medical standards of this era.
In Aiden’s eyes, inmates were a talent resource to be utilized, and the forbidden knowledge in a witch’s hands held extraordinary value.
"Goodness, I feel like you’re starting to order me around like a family doctor," Meiruki laughed.
"I’m asking you something..." Aiden reminded her with a commanding gaze.
"I’ll answer anything, alright, sorry, I can treat her!" Meiruki promptly raised her hands in a knowing manner.
"Then take a look at her right away." Aiden gestured towards Priesia on the bed.
"No need, knowing the cause is enough. To be honest, my treatment plan is going to be a little... special, possibly involving some prohibited materials; I need your approval to proceed," Meiruki said mysteriously.
"Explain clearly."
"I plan to formulate a special Magic Potion for her, injecting it to partly beastify her body..." Meiruki began to explain her treatment plan.
"Beastify?"
Meiruki nodded, "Yes, by temporarily transforming her into a serpent-like beast, she can spit out the object herself. Serpents have a highly stretchable digestive tract that can swallow and digest prey several times larger than their head, and can even spit out undigested bones."
"That plan sounds a bit horrifying, are there any risks?" Aiden assessed.
"I can’t say absolutely, but I can tentatively guarantee the success rate," Meiruki answered confidently, "Of course, that’s assuming you’re willing to entrust this to me."
After watching her for a while, Aiden asked, "What materials do you need?"
"I will make a list, some materials are hard to buy, but I know where to get them." Meiruki slowly said, "If nothing goes wrong, we should have everything by evening."
"Then hurry up, she doesn’t look like she can last much longer." Aiden gestured to Meiruki to quicken her pace.
"No worries, no need to be nervous, I can prepare some other medicine for her as an emergency treatment."
Aiden nodded silently and pointed towards the dispensary, signaling her to go and prepare the medication.
After Meiruki left, Aiden also gave a look to the prison doctor, indicating her to follow and assist while keeping an eye on the medicine Meiruki was preparing to ensure there was no issue.
Then, Aiden glanced at Presia who was lying on the bed.
"What exactly did you swallow? Do you really have no memory of it?" Aiden tentatively asked her.
Actually, the prison doctor had already asked her this question, but according to the doctor, Presia had not provided an answer.
Presia looked at Aiden with a bewildered face after hearing the question and then shook her head weakly, replying, "I don’t know."
It seemed she really didn’t know...
So, did she swallow it before losing her memory?
An object capable of scratching the throat and causing bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract wouldn’t have been easy to swallow.
In other words, the foreign object was probably not swallowed by accident but rather something Presia had intentionally ingested.
Aiden had seen his share of hardened criminals who swallowed contraband or hid it in their rears to avoid searches, so he felt it crucial to identify this foreign object.
After a while, Meiruki and the doctor came out of the dispensary, and Meiruki handed Aiden a prescription: "These are the ingredients, collect them according to the channels listed here."
Aiden looked it over and indeed spotted several materials that were not available on the market, but Meiruki noted down where to find them - mostly in the black market of the old city district.
Aiden passed the prescription to Flandre and instructed her to handle it.
The prison doctor, holding a silver syringe, was ready to give Presia the hemostatic medicine Meiruki had prepared; given Presia’s condition, even drinking water was not easy, so oral medication was clearly out of the question.
But as soon as she brought the needle close to Presia, Presia stared with wide, resistant eyes, "No, no!!"
The sharp needle obviously triggered her sense of danger.
"It’s okay, it’s okay!" the doctor soothed while grabbing her wrist, but Presia kept trying to pull away uncooperatively.
"Don’t move around, we’re trying to save you," Aiden said, looking at Presia.
He had uttered the words out of habit, not truly believing that Presia, who had completely lost her memory and knew almost nothing about medical treatment, would understand.
However, after looking at him blankly for a while, Presia surprisingly became docile all of a sudden, allowing her arm to relax. Seizing the opportunity, the doctor began the injection.
Seeing this, Aiden couldn’t help but be taken aback.
This one... was actually quite obedient...
