Chapter 79: Poison
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Stanley had soon arrived outside Elisabeth’s room in the mansion.

The two guards that carried Elisabeth here stopped out and told Stanley. “Wait here.”

Nodding in response, Stanley watched as they opened the door and handed Elisabeth over to the maids inside her room.

Once Elisabeth had been handed over, they swiftly left the room and closed the door behind them.

Turning toward Stanley, the guard that checked her medical condition earlier politely spoke, “It might be best if you left.”

The other guard with a rougher voice retorted, interjected himself into the conversation. “Leave? He can’t leave. What if he informs others that Misses has been injured? For the time being, he’ll have to stay in one of the guest rooms.”

“We cannot lock up and force a guest of Misses to stay against his will.” Stated the more polite guard.

Stanley interrupted them before they could argue further trying to bring the conversation back to relevant information. “This isn’t the time to be arguing. Is the poison deadly? Is there an antidote?”

The guards fell quiet and glanced toward each other.

After several seconds of awkward silence, the impolite guard spoke. “How would we know? Only the Misses would know the details of her secret projects.”

Stanley was flabbergasted, “Are you saying that this poison was developed by Elisabeth?”

“Would another species inconvenience themselves to research a poison that’s primarily effective against doppelgangers?” The rude guard sarcastically replied in response to his question.

The poison was developed by Elisabeth? Why would you develop a poison that was primarily effective against yourself?

“How did Roman get access to a poison you developed?” Stanley mumbled rhetorically to himself, utterly perplexed by this development. He turned back toward the guards, “Where was this research conducted?”

“We don’t have clearance for that kind of information.” The polite guard answered dashing his hope of receiving useful information.

Narrator… I don’t suppose you feel like redeeming yourself and providing some useful information?

[There existed no antidote in this city for the poison circulating through Elisabeth’s veins and, without intervention, Elisabeth would die in approximately four hours.]

Stanley clutched his hands into fists upon hearing the grim news from the Narrator and his expression turned gloomy.

Another person was going to die because he failed to take action soon enough and intervene.

No, Stanley refused to stand aside and let another friend of his die.

Determined to save her life, Stanley made the only choice he could think of and threatened the Narrator, ‘Tell me how to save her! Tell me, or I’ll never follow your advice again.’

…and to his utmost surprise, the Narrator responded.

[Stanley, being an utter moron, had completely forgotten he had an artifact within his possession to remove poisons.]

Wha- Do you mean the syringe of detoxification? Isn’t that only useful on… monsters.

Stanley was momentarily stunned into speechlessness by his own idiocy.

He’d completely neglected to consider the object that allowed him to survive the poisonous Second Zone of Hell Difficulty. The syringe of detoxification only worked on the bodies of monsters, thus Stanley had subconsciously been thinking that it was only useful in removing poison from his food before eating it.

However, Elisabeth happened to be a doppelganger which meant the artifact would be able to remove any toxins from her body.

“Move aside. I can save her.” Stanley ordered the guards blocking the door to move.

The defiant guard rudely rebuked, “No, you’re lucky that we haven’t already locked you up. It’s impossible to let someone like yourself get close to her at this time.”

The polite guard that had assessed Elisabeth’s medical condition argued. “Stanley is Misses’ guest, not a regular person. If he says that he has a method to save her, we should let him try.”

“He is a guest taken on a whim, there’s no guarantee that he won’t take advantage of the situation to kill her.”

The polite doppelganger guard turned toward Stanley and inquired, “How are you going to save Misses?”

“I have an artifact that can remove toxins from a monster's body.” Stanley explained while taking out the syringe of detoxification from his bag

The other doppelganger was quick to interrupt, “I won’t allow it. Who knows if that artifact does what you said it does?”

Stanley’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The fact a poison made by doppelganger hands ended up in Roman’s possession was suspicious by itself. The most probable explanation is that a doppelganger with access to that research supported Roman’s attempt to assassinate her and handed the poison over to Roman.

Immediately afterward, this guard was preventing him from saving Elisabeth’s life. Regardless of his reasoning, it was suspicious.

“I don’t care whether you allow it.” Stanley stated plainly before his voice turned threatening. “Move aside. Now!”

Compared to before his voice dripped with hostility. Stanley didn’t like hurting people or causing problems for others, but when it began to involve the life of his friends, he stopped caring about the consequences.

“Hmph, you’ve finally revealed your true nature. I won’t let you harm the Misses.” The guard replied, taking a defensive stance and pointed his spear toward Stanley refusing to let him step by.

Stanley grabbed the spear from the guard’s hands and broke it in half. When the guard reached to take out his sword, Stanley grabbed him by his armor and hurled him across the room.

A loud thump could be heard as the guard’s body hit the nearby wall and he slumped to the floor knocked out.

While Stanley preferred not to utilize his strength to bully others, there were times when it was necessary.

The more polite guard silently debated to himself whether it was worth it to attempt to engage in combat with Stanley.

Glancing toward the knocked-out guard, he put on a forced smile and began opening the door for Stanley. The guard politely stated while partially bowing, “I trust the Misses’ vision enough to believe you wouldn’t hurt her intentionally.”

Stanley nodded back toward him and promised, “I only plan to help.”

Entering her room, he found himself in slight awe. Elisabeth’s room seemed to be the idealized representation of a royalty’s room in medieval times.

The bed sat against the wall decorated with fancy wool in various colors. Purple curtains hung throughout the room providing separators that artificially seemed to decrease the size of the room. Along the walls hung various carpets with various monsters or animals stitched into the fabric that Stanley couldn’t recognize.

Overwhelmed by the sheer size of the room and the various decorations that seemed extraordinarily expense, Stanley slowly stepping forward feeling extremely out of place.

Stanley’s only experience of rooms this fancy had been inside historical museums back on Earth. Even then, people weren’t allowed to touch anything and sometimes people were forbidden from even entering the room.

Spotting Elisabeth on the bed with several maids attending to her, Stanley walked over.

Fortunately, the maids didn’t seem bothered by his presence.

Elisabeth’s breathing was heavy and seemed unconformable. She was sweating heavily and appeared extremely weak. The maids had gone to the trouble of covering her with a blanket.

Examining her condition more closely, Stanley watched Elisabeth turn over and quickly realized the maids had removed the dress she had been wearing.

Stanley quickly looked away while blushing slightly. Stanley coughed to himself, before turning toward the nearest maid and asking. “How is she doing?”

“Everything will be fine. The Misses just needs some time to rest.” The maid standing beside Elisabeth responded professionally, placing a cold towel over Elisabeth’s forehead. “Please wait outside for her timely recovery.”

The maid’s words seemed more for comforting herself more than answering Stanley’s question.

He silently shook his head at her overly optimistic words, Stanley retorted, “She’s not fine. She’s dying, we need to remove the toxins from her system.”

If it weren’t for the Narrator’s diagnosis that indicated Elisabeth would only live for another couple hours at most, Stanley might have believed her. Unfortunately, while the Narrator doesn’t make predictions regarding the future often, the prediction he does make tend to come true.

The maid’s expression turned anxious and she quietly replied, “The poison is circulating throughout her bloodstream, it cannot be removed. Only fought off.”

“I might have a way to remove it.” Stanley answered holding up the syringe of detoxification, “This artifact can gather up and remove poisons in a monster’s body.”

“That…” The maid began to speak before gazing down toward Elisabeth before bowing toward Stanley, “Please try it.”

Stanley sighed a breath of relief.

While Stanley planned on utilizing the artifact regardless of the maid’s agreement, having her agreement meant he didn’t need to use violence to accomplish it.

“I’ll need to sterilized the needle before using it to remove the poison into her bloodstream.” Stanley informed the maids, “To sterilize it, I’ll need to place it in boiling water for around twenty minutes.”

After explaining the situation to the maid, Stanley created a small fire in the corner of the room. Taking a portion of water from a nearby maid, Stanley utilized the fire and began boiling the water in a metal pot.

Once the water had begun to boil, Stanley dropped the needle of the syringe in the boiling water. After waiting around twenty minutes to let the heat destroyed any bacteria remaining in the water and on the needle, he removed it and attached it to the syringe again.

Normally, Stanley didn’t bother sterilizing the needle before injecting it to remove the toxins. The main use of the syringe had been on meat or the dead bodies of monsters that were going to be eaten for food. At that point, the monster’s bodies were going to be cooked to remove any remaining harmful bacteria anyway.

This time he planned on using it on Elisabeth and Stanley wanted her to survive the ordeal, so he made an exception and sterilized it.

Injecting the syringe into Elisabeth’s arm, Stanley infused mana into the artifact and activated it. Slowly pulling on the plunger of the syringe, Stanley began to draw out the clear poison circulating throughout Elisabeth’s body.

Elisabeth’s condition made immediate noticeable improvements. Her breathing steadied and her body began to relax.

Seeing the artifact working as intended, Stanley let out the breath he’d been holding.

Although Stanley had used this artifact countless times before, he hadn’t been entirely confident the syringe of detoxification was going to work. The entire process seemed too simple and easy for it to actually solve the problem.

Once the needle began drawing blood instead of poison, Stanley removed it. Glancing toward the clear poison in the syringe, he internally debated what to do with it.

Eventually Stanley decided that he didn’t trust anyone but himself to hold onto it, and placed the syringe back into his bag with the poison still inside.

The maid noticed this action, but elected not to mention it.

The poison itself wasn’t valuable and it could be considered useful when used against doppelgangers.

Considered Stanley had just removed the poison from Elisabeth’s body and saved her life, he obviously didn’t plan to use it against her. Since Stanley didn’t plan on poisoning Elisabeth, his reason for keeping the poison was irrelevant to the maid.

Her main priority was Elisabeth’s safety and wellbeing. Once Stanley had moved aside, she immediately began checking Elisabeth’s condition.

Stanley turned around while the maid checked Elisabeth’s condition and probed, “How is she doing now?”

“She’s stabilized. While the poison has taken a toll on her body, she will be fine once she’s had some rest.” The maid answered in relief.

Stanley relaxed and spoke as he moved toward the exit, “That’s good. I’ll leave you alone for now. I’ll wait outside, please let me know when recovers.”

“She might take awhile to awaken. It’s almost nightfall, Sierra will escort you to an empty bedroom.” The maid gestured toward one of the maids standing in the room then toward the exit.

Feeling tired, Stanley deciding that sleeping might be for the best and accepted the offer,“… Thank you.”

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