NOVEL NEXT Chapter 30: Pulsating Plasma Cells.
"Do you feel pain here, mother?" Damien asked as he pressed the lower half of Lady Cecil's stomach.
The woman on the bed smiled at him and nodded before saying, "It is a bit painful but not much. It's much more bearable than before."
"What about here then?" Damien pressed the side of her abdomen and Lady Cecil frowned lightly before replying, "A bit more painful than before but still the same."
'This isn't it,' Damien frowned as he removed his fingers. Though Lady Cecil's condition was related to stomach and liver, there was not a direct connection. The only good thing about this was that her vital organs were not as damaged as Damien thought.
But this subtle pain and her yellowing skin with sunken eyes—
This was not good.
He raised his fingers and then pressed them on the same spot as earlier, "This will hurt a bit, Mother. So please bear with it."
Lady Cecil nodded and gritted her teeth, but as soon as Damien pressed on the upper half of her stomach, she couldn't stop the scream, "Aaaargh!"
'It's really here!' Damien's eyes widened as he activated the Eye of Observation.
[Eyes of Observation activated.]
[Examination is starting.]
The blue screen in front of Damien's eyes covered Lady Cecil's stomach as it scanned her insides. The entire examination took two minutes before Lady Cecil's liver and gallbladder along with the large intestine came into view.
On the screen under the liver and in the middle of the gallbladder and large intestines, there was a bunch of thin tendrils-like substances with small pulsating bulbs.
It looked rather hideous.
[Examination completed.]
[Disease Detected: Pulsating Plasmatic Cells.]
"What is this?"
"It is similar to Cholecystitis," explained Dan. "It shares the same characteristics as pressure pain and reflex pain. The only difference is that this thing also has the property of spreading throughout the body. The reason she is feeling pain all over her lower and middle half is because the tendrils are almost reaching her stomach."
"However, the pain is not severe because they haven't grown like how they have wrapped around the liver. If it is not removed then I am certain that it will also affect her heart and lungs."
Cholecystitis? Wasn't Lady Cecil sick for months now? Damien held Lady Cecil's hand which was trembling due to pain. No wonder her condition was this worse, the pain she had been feeling must have been excruciating!
Damien tapped on the screen and sure enough, he did not see the tools and machines for the Laparoscopic surgery. If he had done the right thing, solving this problem wouldn't have been difficult. After all, cholecystectomy was not a major issue but in this era, it was simply unimaginable.
"Dami," Lady Cecil croaked in a hoarse voice. "There is no need to frown like that, I am fine. I have been getting healing from a trained healer as well as potions from the temple. I will be fine in a few months. The healer promised that it would take a year at most."
"Don't worry too much about me." She smiled gently at Damien as if trying to make him feel better. Even though she was the one who was in pain, Lady Cecil could not watch Damien frown and scowl.
Instead of worrying about her pain, she was more worried about her son.
Suddenly, Damien felt a bit choked up as if the room was suffocating him. This feeling —this care, he had never felt in the world where he lived, after all, he was an orphan. Who would care about him?
"Don't think too much Mother," said Damien in a light voice as he tried to suppress the overwhelming feeling in his throat. "I will treat you." He would not lose the warm embrace of his mother, not after feeling how nice it felt.
He turned to look at Priscilla and said to her, "Go and bring me the potion that the healer gave to our mother."
What kind of useless potion did that healer give to these naive two kids, it hadn't even stopped the growing of these Pulsating bulbs.
Not to mention Damien was certain that this disease was not something that could be cured by potions alone, but then again, this was the world of magic —anything could be a possibility.
"Wait a second, Brother. I will bring it," Priscilla replied as she climbed down from the bed and went to the small cabinet before opening the third drawer. From there she took out a transparent bottle and ran back to Damien's side. "This is the potion that the healer gave to mother."
"It was given by a skilled healer," added Henry from the side. "The temple had blessed this potion with healing energy."
Damien nodded as he took the potion and then opened its lid. He took a whiff of the thing and the information flooded right into his head—
[Greenhood: A plant found clinging at the back of the Rockwood bird. It helps in gaining strength but could prove fatal in case the patient is too weak.]
[Priest's Plum: A herb found near the springs of holy water. This is often used in medicines but it is more useful in treating weakness and small internal injuries, it cannot however remove tumour or tumour-like fragments.]
[BoneHead Powder of Blizzard Bear: It is used to deal with stomach heat etc. But has little to nothing to do with Pulsating Plasma Cells. In fact, it gives an ideal condition for them to get stronger and grow faster.]
[Feathers of Deryn: A little bird, with the same plumage as phoenix. Its feathers can heal injuries and wounds but cannot remove pulsating bulbs.]
"All in all, this is the work of a quack," remarked Dan as he watched the potion. There was light curiosity in his eyes but he still had a touch of contempt for the healer and the potion. "It seems like these people who call themselves healers are handing out just about any medicine without deducing the correct illness."
"Or they just don't feel like wasting their time and energy on someone like Lady Cecil," Damien muttered in a way where only Dan could hear him. "For them, Lady Cecil is of no importance, the mother of a dethroned crown prince, why would they bother themselves with her? They just gave her an examination for the heck of it and patted their butts clean."
Damien did not know whether it was due to the emotions of his predecessor or his own but he felt really angry at the healer who gave this quack of a potion to his mother. How could he treat a person's life in such a light manner?
But then again, when had people in power cared for those who have nothing in their hands? Wasn't this the reason why he became a roasted human chicken?
"This potion is useless," Damien said to Priscilla and Henry as he handed it back to them.
"How could that be possible? It is so expensive and people are dying to buy it," Henry said to Damien with his eyes widening. He had been using all the valuables that he snuck in his Sportal (A portable space which could be used to store things, however, the size is limited.) to buy this potion and now his brother was saying that it was useless.
"It contains Bonehead powder of the blizzard bear. It is not helping at all instead it's causing her condition to get even worse," explained Damien causing Henry to frown and Priscilla's expression to become even more fearful. "I have finished examining mother, and the reason she is in pain is due to Pulsating Plasma Cells. You might know this disease as pulsating bulbs."
Gasp!
Priscilla's hands flew to her mouth as she looked at Lady Cecil with fear in her eyes. Even Henry looked as if he had been knocked on the back of his head with a club.
"You—You mean to say that mother has pulsating bulbs in her stomach?" Henry asked with a tremor in his voice. "And you found out that just by pressing her stomach?"
"Yes, I am sure of it," nodded Damien.
"That's impossible!" Henry refused to believe it as he knew that the potion to destroy the Pulsating bulbs was still being researched. This thing had killed many beastmen, so how could he accept that his mother was suffering from the same thing?
He swayed dangerously on the spot and continued repeating that it was impossible.
"Lord Henry," Xavier, who didn't leave and stayed in the room, caught Henry in time. He noticed the look that Damien gave him and sighed before saying, "I know that it is hard for you to believe the result of the examination but Lord Damien will not joke about the illness of Lady Cecil. You must believe him."
He paused and added, "Any way you have handed almost all the money that you had to the healers of the Iris Temple, I don't think you have enough money to buy the potion anymore, do you? More importantly, Lady Cecil had drank this potion for months with no change in her condition."
"So why not let your brother give it a try?"