This made him want to brutally torture that bastard prince of the royal family and his pet. Alas! Things had gotten out of his hands now.
"Is there no way to wake her up? I don't want her to suffer any longer. The more I see her like this, the guiltier I feel towards her." Zach's tone had grown solemn and somewhat pleading when he asked the old doctor for a remedy.
"I have seen similar cases before but never to this extent. Some of them consumed their potential to a certain percentage below the halfway point while others managed to go as high as the half of their potential and the entirety of their mana. But I have never seen someone who managed to use them both entirely and still managed to retain their life like her. She must have been quite powerful."
"She is powerful. But she was still forced into such a state. Please tell me if there is something I can do to wake her up." Zach answered with a voice laden with remorse.
"In fact, in situations like these, the patients need to rest for a while in order to recover their energy. When the mana in their body reaches beyond a certain threshold, the body begins to function normally and all the dormant functions of the body start operating again. I think the remedy in this situation is the same but the time it would take for such a method of recovery cannot be estimated at the moment since there is no precedent for such a case. However there is something you can do to shorten the time that it will take for her to recover her energy if you are willing to do so."
Drew was sorrowful because he couldn't help Zach at all. The favor he intended to return was out of his power. Even though Zach didn't say anything that implied Drew's uselessness, Drew began to feel self-conscious in front of Zach but he still tried to convey all the knowledge he had regarding the disease to Zach and the possible solution for it.
Zach on the other hand didn't feel that Drew was useless at all. He was exceedingly grateful to the old doctor because he had been looking for someone to treat Luna for a long time but hadn't found anyone who was capable enough. Jus the information Drew had provided to Zach was enough to repay what he had done for the old master of the Windsor family.
Moreover, the last sentence Drew uttered took Zach by surprise. He hadn't expected Drew to still have more to say on the subject. He excitedly asked, "What is it, doctor? Is there really something I can do to speed up the process?"
"Actually the time it would take for her to heal completely is entirely dependent on you. Her body is currently dried up completely. Since you are the person who is closest to her, she will automatically absorb a small amount of energy from your body in order to keep her vital organs from shutting down and to ensure her own survival. This is her basic instinct at the moment and she isn't doing this consciously. As long as the energy she draws from your body keeps on increasing in quality or power, her recovery should in principle speed up. You can either try to improve your mana capacity or raise your mage rank as soon as possible. This should allow her to recover faster as well."
Zach pondered on it a bit and deduced that it all came down to his strength. Luna was still lying in her bed because he was still too weak to support her. He wondered if that was the reason that he had to give up all her potential that he had extracted from her when she transformed into that fiery avian. If he were strong enough to support her, she might have just relied on his superior energy to get stronger as well.
Drew had told him the solution but he had actually been quite reluctant to do so. This wasn't based on any racial hatred or discriminatory thoughts but because he had seen how humans treated succubi and vice versa. He just didn't want to cause any misunderstanding between Zach and the sleeping succubus because there was no way for Drew to guess how Zach would react knowing that the succubus beside him had been stealing his energy from him little by little all this time.
At first he couldn't establish the connection between the sleeping succubus and Zach so he couldn't figure out why Zach wanted to save this succubus. But when he noticed the tenderness in Zach's gaze as he looked at Luna, he didn't hold anything back and spat out everything he knew.
As he expected, Zach's complexion changed visibly as soon as he came to know that there was something he could do to help her. He now looked more alive than Drew had ever seen him before.
Drew had never seen someone treat a succubus as nicely as Zach did. He had been called to treat some succubi before but their conditions were worse than animals. Despite being a human his blood sometimes boiled when he witnessed the treatment they received after being captured by humans.
Wanting to save those succubi could only be considered a fantasy for a man like Drew who wasn't at all skilled in battle magic or destructive elements. He was only suitable as a healer and the tag of SS rank mage really portrayed the wrong image in his case.
Therefore, he always forced himself to focus on healing their injuries or their sicknesses to the best of his abilities instead of playing the hero saving the damsel in distress.
There were people who made an entire profession out of capturing succubi and trained them to become the ultimate sex slaves before selling them to the richest customers. There were several underground auctions that dealt in such depravity. Although, the races were quite opposed to each other, it still didn't diminish the charming effect of the succubi over humans. The demand for such sex slaves never dipped as owning a succubus was a status symbol in some rich social groups.
In Drew's opinion, these people were worse than even the most dangerous of succubi who preyed on humans out of habit or for fun. They treated the living beings like commodities and traded them for benefits despite claiming that they were fighting for justice. In fact, in many parts of the empire, the movement against the succubus race was just a front for these slave traders to act all righteous while capturing the succubi to keep their businesses running.
That wasn't all. These slaves weren't just used as sex slaves due to their racial capabilities. There was an exceptionally dangerous group amongst the extremist human factions who trained the succubi to become special assassins capable of trespassing all kinds of defenses in order to murder high profile personalities in cold blood.
Anyone capable of paying their huge prices was able to hire one of their 'whore killers'. These whore killers bewitched their targets using their natural charm and eventually led them to the bed for nightly activities. They would then lead the men on until they were about to climax before brutally murdering them.
Not a single one of the humans actually sympathized with the plight of the non-human races. They were too busy exacting revenge on them for committing countless atrocities against the human race; atrocities that they didn't even have enough proof of. Just like Luna had once told Zach, there were extremist and peaceful groups amongst the non-human races as well. Humanity couldn't judge the entire race just because a small group amongst them refused to adhere to the righteous path. It wasn't fair.
Drew wondered what Zach would do if he found out that the humans were treating the succubi in such a manner. He wanted to know which side Zach would stand on once he discovered this truth. Still he kept his thoughts to himself in order to keep him from shouldering the burden of knowing the true faces of the human faction.
Drew wasn't sure what kind of a person Luna was that a genius like Zach was willing to do so much for her even though she was a succubus. From what he had devised, the reason behind the exodus of the Luther family from the Elizabeth city had in fact been linked to the succubus as well. Luna's importance in Zach's heart could be inferred from just that one fact.
Drew knew that despite not being as against the succubus race, he couldn't understand Zach's thinking of throwing everything away for that succubus. He even suspected that Zach might have been charmed by the succubus and might have been under her control. But reason told him that it was not the case considering the current condition of the succubus.
In the end, Drew attributed it to the eccentric behavior of a genius. He was sure that anyone else in Zach's position would have immediately gotten rid of the succubus or threw her somewhere in the middle of nowhere in order to save themselves without any mercy. Only Zach had the mettle to carry her along with him wherever he went despite being at a disadvantage.
Just as Drew was about to leave Zach alone with Luna to give him time to come to terms with her condition, Zach called out to him softly.
"Thank you, doctor. I now understand what I have to do. She is very important to me. I hope you understand what I am trying to tell you."
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