Chapter 61

My heart plummeted.

Raul was dying. Right in front of me.

Voices echoed as if from far away, distorted and distant.

“Get His Grace to a medical facility, now!”

“We need to stop the bleeding first! If we move him carelessly, the wound will tear open even more!”

“There’s… there’s too much blood…. What do we do…?”

Still reeling from the shock, I snapped back to myself when a warm hand closed around mine.

“Muriel, it’s nothing serious. Calm down.”

“Lycian….”

When I turned, his face was shadowed with an emotion I couldn’t quite name. Something complicated.

“There’s a highest-grade potion left, isn’t there? That should be enough.”

“…….”

Right. There was.

I had the ability to save Raul’s life.

Me—the woman he despised and looked down on so thoroughly.

‘How would that feel? Owing your life to Muriel Tierney of all people.’

The thought cooled my racing heart in an instant. A hollow, humorless laugh slipped from my lips.

The shock. The fear. They were gone.

Strangely, I felt calm.

All that remained was the choice before me.

Save Raul—

Or let him die.

Ding!

Right on cue, the system window popped up.

A quest with no failure penalty.

Complete it and earn the reward—but there was no obligation to do so.

‘An important reward….’

An elixir recipe?

Elixir. Elixire.

The supreme substance of alchemy, equated with the Philosopher’s Stone—a perfect liquid.

Yet no one knew how to create it, nor what exact effects it possessed. Only speculation ran rampant.

In short, a legendary panacea whispered about in stories.

‘And they’re giving me the recipe for something like that… in exchange for saving Raul?’

Why?

Was Raul truly that important in this world?

‘But it doesn’t say it’s a mandatory quest. They’re not forcing me.’

So in the end, it was my decision.

‘…They say an elixir can cure any disease. Even restore youth to a dying old man and extend his life.’

A medicine like that… even if not now, someday it would be invaluable.

“Haah….”

Decision made, I took a deep breath and slowly opened my eyes.

Then I looked at Dante and Lycian.

“I suppose we’ll have to save him. I still need his signature on the divorce papers.”

---

“Step aside. I need to get through.”

When the crowd ignored Muriel, Dante and Lycian simply forced them out of the way.

The men shoved aside protested loudly, faces flushed with anger and indignation.

“Who do you think you are?!”

“How dare you push us—!”

They were proud knights of Winterberg. The reaction was only natural.

Dante, however, found them laughable.

‘Charging into a newly emerged dungeon with this rabble? An accident was inevitable.’

From the look of it, only the seven men surrounding the Duke of Winterberg were true elites.

Each of those seven could probably handle the work of ten men—but even so, dungeon raids were never easy.

Especially not one shaped like a palace.

‘They must have relied on orthodox strategies so far and cleared it without much trouble… but that only applies when it’s in tower form.’

Unusual dungeons often hid traps no one had seen before. Erratic patterns.

Which meant you explored slowly, with a small group of elites, gathering information step by step.

‘The Duke of Winterberg must have been in a hurry. Or overestimated his own abilities.’

If he was in a rush, it was understandable. The Tierney family was likely aiming for the first clear as well.

The reason everyone scrambled for that honor was simple.

Defeat the dungeon’s master—the “Ruler”—and you obtained the highest-grade Monster Core and ancient relics.

And ancient relics, in particular, often possessed functions modern magitech couldn’t even begin to replicate.

‘Tempting, no doubt.’

But excessive greed and rivalry only invited disaster.

Dante always prioritized survival above all else.

He would never recklessly charge into a dungeon.

That was his principle—and the reason the Veratis Guild’s survival rate remained so high.

---

When I reached Raul, the seven knights encircling him stared at me with wary eyes.

A few of them seemed to recognize me; their eyes widened.

“You’re….”

I lifted the highest-grade potion I had already taken out of my inventory and gave it a deliberate shake.

“Move. Unless you want him to die.”

“Y-You’re Muriel Tierney, aren’t you? How can we trust that’s a real potion?”

“If you don’t trust me, then let him die. I don’t care either way.”

“What kind of—!”

“Philip.”

Someone stepped forward, stopping the knight who had begun to shout at me.

The captain of the knights. Michelle.

Raul’s most trusted subordinate.

And to Muriel…

‘She never took part in the bullying. But she stood by and watched, right in front of her, while Muriel was humiliated.’

Michelle gave me a short bow, then spoke in a tone edged with interrogation.

“I was under the impression you had been exiled to the Contaminated Zone. May I ask what you are doing here?”

As she spoke, her gaze flicked between Dante and Lycian standing at my sides.

It lingered a little longer on Dante.

“The gentleman to your left… if I am not mistaken, he is the Guild Master of the Veratis Guild.”

I stared at her and answered flatly.

“You don’t have the authority to interrogate me.”

“…!”

Only then did Michelle seem to realize her mistake. She quickly lowered her head and stepped back.

“My apologies.”

She shot me a sidelong glance—an unfamiliar look, as if seeing a stranger.

‘Of course. The original Muriel would never have acted like this.’

I jerked my chin toward Raul’s limp body and sneered.

“Why are you standing around? Isn’t time of the essence? Or were you planning to let him die?”

Two knights were desperately trying to stanch the bleeding, but Raul’s face was only growing paler.

‘If we leave him like this, he’ll bleed out. They won’t even make it to a treatment center.’

Michelle’s lips parted anxiously. She glanced at Raul, then at the highest-grade potion in my hand.

“…Are you certain it’s truly a highest-grade potion?”

“I already told you. If you don’t believe me, let him die.”

My utter lack of courtesy made her expression tighten for a moment—but she regained control and exhaled slowly.

Then, as if reaching a decision, she met my eyes squarely.

“…I will trust not you, but the Guild Master of the Veratis Guild standing there as guarantor. Please administer the potion to His Grace.”

A clever move.

Dante would never allow an unjust poisoning. If what I held were poison, he would stop me.

I pulled the stopper from the crystal vial and laughed openly. As I stepped forward, Michelle moved aside.

She still looked doubtful, but when Dante made no move to intervene, she remained silent.

“Move your hands. I need to use the potion.”

I knelt in front of Raul’s unconscious body.

The knights trying to stop the bleeding hesitated, unsure whether to obey—but at Michelle’s nod, they withdrew.

The moment their hands left him, I pulled away the thick cloth pressed against his wound and swiftly poured the potion over it.

With external injuries, direct application was fastest.

“Ugh…!”

Raul flinched faintly, a low groan escaping him—but there was no sign of consciousness returning.

The potion worked from the inside out, mending damaged organs first.

About fifty seconds later, even the external wound had sealed completely. Only a red mark remained, destined to become a scar.

“Th-The wound… it’s healed…!”

“It really was a highest-grade potion….”

“How does she…?”

While the knights whispered among themselves, I pried open Raul’s mouth and poured in the high-grade potion.

He coughed slightly as if choking, but once he swallowed, color began to return to his face.

I tossed the empty crystal vial aside and rose to my feet.

Stunned—almost awed—gazes pierced into me.

And then, the system notification floating in the air.

Ding!

That much I had expected.

The real problem was the next pop-up.

…Has this system lost its mind?