I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 82: Your Heart in My Hand (1)

Alex’s final blow landed squarely on the Demon King.

Finally, the goat-headed demon’s body began to crumble to the ground.

At one point, I wondered what would happen if the Holy Sword was destroyed.

But Alex had found a new way to defeat the demon, and he managed to do it.

“Uh, is it over…?”

“I think so. The demons are disappearing.”

“Looks like he did it.”

The three people who had just been dealing with the hell demons on Alex’s behalf also realized that it was over, and each of them gathered up their weapons and magic.

The long, long main plot journey had finally come to an end.

“Ah.”

Come to think of it, this wasn’t the time to be wallowing in the afterglow.

With the Demon King defeated and the concentration of dark magic in the air at its peak, I must hurry and cure Alex’s heart disease.

If I don’t do it today, I’ll probably never have the chance again.

And with Azazel gone, I’ll be able to focus on his treatment with no distractions.

“Alex!”

“Sis, where are you going?!”

Walking among the corpses of the demons that had begun to disappear, I hurried to Alex, calling out the name of my fiancé, who had been slumped on the ground since his fight with the demon Azazel.

“Alex!”

Alex made eye contact with me and offered me a pale smile.

His eyes, which were usually bloodshot with fatigue, as if he was always chasing something, were actually showing a sense of calm, as if he was somehow at peace.

Oh, no, that’s the look of someone who’s letting go of everything, as if life has nothing to offer!

Who the hell is he to leave me alone in this world!

“Alex, Alex!”

“Yeah, it’s okay, it’s all over now.”

“Alex, come on, come on, come on!”

“It’s all over, it’s okay, we’ll leave for the palace in the morning in a carriage…”

I grabbed Alex’s shoulder, who was taking his time, and forced him back down to the floor.

“What, what’s wrong, Ariana?”

“Forget it, get undressed, now!”

“……what?”

If I tell you to hurry, you will do it. Why are you asking so many questions today?

Alex was still not grasping the situation and was stupidly repeating what I was saying.

“Take off your clothes and get on the floor like this, we’re running out of time!”

“Calm down, Ariana. I know it’s the middle of the night and it’s dark, but we’re outside.”

“We can only do it here!”

“Please calm down and listen to me. No matter how excited you were after defeating the Demon King, doing something like that in a public place like this is a bit…”

“What the hell kind of weird misunderstanding are you talking about?

Right now, this moment is the only time I can cure you of your heart disease, so take off your top and lie down on the floor!”

Alex, who had only regained his composure after my rant, repeated what I’d said with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“You can cure my heart disease?”

“Yes. So take off your top and lie down.”

“Ha, but how, it’s a disease that not even a high priest can detect?

Do you even know what I have?”

“Even as we speak, the window of opportunity for a cure is closing! Are you really not going to listen to me?!”

“Oh, okay, I’ll listen. I’ll listen, Ariana.”

After yelling at him several times already, Alex finally understood me and began to remove his top in front of me.

His pectoralis major and rectus abdominis muscles were revealed, hidden beneath his academy uniform.

Obviously, we’re in a hurry, so there’s no time for leisurely admiration.

“Do you mind if I lie down like this?”

“Yes, Alex.”

As I watched Alex lay down on the floor naked, I took a long swig from the vial in my handbag.

It was a magic amplifier that Miss Sophia had made for me.

Even now, the dark magic in the air was diminishing at a rapid rate, and at this rate, I would undoubtedly reach my limit while healing him.

Her reagents would have to be somewhat relied upon to make up the difference.

The intense emotions I’ll feel as a bonus will only strengthen my resolve to save Alex.

In one swift motion, I pour the contents of the vial down my throat, and before I know it, Charlotte is right beside me, asking me a question with a startled look on her face.

“Oh, Ariana, what do you think you’re doing?! How could you do such an act in the middle of the square….?”

“Charlotte, I can’t concentrate, can you please shut that mouth of yours?”

I could probably paraphrase that much better with a little thought, but right now I have neither the time nor the inclination to think.

“Oh, Ariana?”

“If you can afford to say something like that in a nonchalant manner, go to Prince Eamon and Kael. Tell them to keep an eye out and make sure no one else is around.

I’ve got important work to do right now, and I can’t afford to be distracted in the slightest.”

“…….”

“Did you not understand me?”

Charlotte’s silver-haired body shuddered slightly as her eyes met mine, her mouth agape in bewilderment.

“Ah, I understand, my lord Arianna, I will do as you command!”

I looked over at Charlotte, who immediately walked over to Kael and Prince Eamon and spoke to them, then shifted her gaze back to Alex, who lay back down.

At least this way I wouldn’t be distracted and make a mistake.

“It might tickle a little, but bear with me.”

“……Yes.”

Slightly to the left of the center of Alex’s chest, I place my palm where the average person’s heart would be.

I deployed the advanced magic detection that Chancellor Del himself had taught me.

The energy flowed in thin planes, not lines. It was a magic to draw the shape in its entirety, including any bends or missing parts.

The precision is such that I can detect the thickness of a thin cloth, and I can determine the location and shape of the internal organs of a human body.

From the back of a rib in the center to a fist-sized organ sandwiched between two lungs.

It doesn’t take long to figure out that it’s Alex’s heart.

“…….”

As soon as I realized where the heart was, I pushed all other organs aside and focused all my energy on detecting just that one organ.

It took me a while to get it into full form, as it was still working hard while I was sensing it.

Using all of my concentration, I formed a thin membrane of magic around Alex’s heart.

Somehow, I was able to draw the shape of his beating heart in its entirety.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha….”

“Ariana, are you okay?”

“…I’m fine.”

I was already feeling a bit exhausted, as I had used up quite a bit of magic just for detection.

On top of that, the side effects of the medication were starting to kick in, and my mind was a whirlwind of emotions.

The sight of Alex’s upper body muscles twitching in front of my eyes was partly to blame for my emotional turmoil.

Somehow, I managed to mentally reign in my beating heart and refocused my attention on the medical procedure that was keeping him alive.

If I gave in to my instincts now and held Alex in my arms, it would be fleeting.

But if I suppressed my instincts and fixed his heart now, I could live happily ever after for the rest of my life.

I’m not an immature child who grabs the marshmallow right in front of me.

“Excuse me, I almost lost my train of thought for a moment, let me get back to the treatment.”

“…Okay, don’t push yourself.”

I checked Alex’s heart, which was fully scanned, and it was in such a sorry state that I could only say it was definitely terminally ill.

Although at first glance, it looks no different from a normal heart, inside, his heart was riddled with three holes that most people don’t have.

Congenital ventricular septal defect, that’s the name of the condition that has turned Alex’s life into a ticking clock.

A hole in the membrane that separates the left and right ventricles prevents his heart from functioning properly.

Eventually, it can’t take the strain and either overwork and die of exhaustion.

It’s one of those horrible diseases where even if you live with minimal movement, you’ll suffer from complications for the rest of your life.

It was my disease in a past life, so of course I know it well.

No wonder a high priest couldn’t find it, a priest’s holy magic is only meant to detect and cure ‘abnormalities in the body’.

Alex’s condition, born with a congenitally malformed heart, cannot be detected or repaired by holy magic.

The only magic that can fully cure him is the protagonist’s light magic.

Technically, it’s a treatment similar to a so-called organ transplant, where you use light magic to create a new heart for Alex.

Of course, since I can’t use light magic, I can’t perform such an efficient treatment.

So what I’m about to do will be a very tricky and inefficient treatment.

I apologize to Alex for being the guinea pig for an imperfect healing method, but it’s the best I’ve been able to come up with.

Maybe, just maybe, it will fail and if it does, it may hasten his death rather than cure him.

If that happens, I’ll live with regret for the rest of my life.

I’d be constantly beating myself up, wishing I had spent more time with him, even if it was just the few years he had left.

But how can you live your life and only gamble with 100% probability?

The more you risk at once, the more valuable it is when you win.

If there’s one moment in your life when you should risk it all on the unknown, it’s definitely that moment for me.

“…….”

Focusing my mind, I carefully injected dark magic into the hole in Alex’s heart.

Dark magic, unlike other magic, does not mix with blood, so it can be formed into a form within an organ even before it is stabilized.

The dark energy formed into a small sphere, then flattened into a thin plate.

I fit it snugly into one of the three holes between Alex’s ventricles.

“Ha, ha, ha….”

I’ve only just plugged the first hole, and I can already feel my magic power draining away.

The dark magic in the air was already almost dispersed, and the amount of magic consumed with each spell was increasing.

I couldn’t stop what I had started, so I moved on to the next task.

Luckily, the two remaining holes were a bit smaller than the first, so I should be able to complete them with less magic somehow.

Using a little less magic, I close the second hole in Alex’s heart.

Finally, just before closing the third hole I felt like my mind was going to shut down at any moment.

“…Ha, ha, ha, ha.”

Oh, no, it’s the last one.

I’m hoping for the best and that my sanity will hold out.

I whispered a final note of caution to Alex, just in case I collapsed as soon as I was done.

“Oh, Alex….”

“Ariana….”

“Now, listen to me, please….”

“Okay, I’ll listen.”

“If I lose consciousness and fall down, you must never…….”

I squeeze the last bit of magic out of my fading mind, to fill the third hole.

My memory ended there, with a ringing in my head.