Those words from Nona caused Feliel to freeze in place, her hands trembling slightly as she held the empty porridge bowl.
Her dull black eyes, after a few seconds of extreme shock and bewilderment, suddenly erupted with an unbelievable light, trembling as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.
“W-What did you say?!”
In the next second, Feliel suddenly jumped down from the bed, not even caring about the stinging pain from her newly healed wounds caused by the sudden movement.
She rushed in front of Nona like a madwoman, reaching out to grip Nona’s thin shoulders tightly and shaking her with all her might. Her voice became sharp and distorted with excitement:
“Explain yourself! What’s going on?! Campbell — is she really still alive?! Tell me! Tell me now!!”
Nona was shaken until her vision blurred, and her thick glasses slid down to the tip of her nose. She looked like a little rattle, only able to make muffled, indistinct sounds:
“W-Wait, calm down… I… I still need to double-check… Stop shaking me…”
“Calm down, meow!” Seeing this, Lisika quickly stepped forward, putting in some effort to pull the hysterical Feliel away from Nona.
Watching the chaotic scene from the side, a trace of doubt flashed through Sefina’s wine-red eyes.
She remembered clearly that in the orphanage’s attic, she had checked several times. The girl named Campbell definitely wasn’t breathing, and no pulse could be felt in her carotid artery.
This was why she had concluded the girl was dead, guessing that some special magic potion provided to Feliel by [Black Utopia] had acted as a preservative.
‘Could it be…’
A possibility quietly surfaced in Sefina’s mind.
‘What if it wasn’t just a preservative, but some even more peculiar magic potion capable of mimicking a state of death?’
However, Sefina’s expertise in magic potion lore and alchemy was far less profound than Nona’s. For a concrete confirmation, she had to rely on Nona.
Seeing that Lisika had temporarily restrained the agitated Feliel, Nona straightened her glasses, her small face still a bit pale.
“Ugh — so dizzy…”
Sefina stepped forward without any unnecessary movements, simply reaching out to pat Feliel’s trembling shoulder gently.
“Seventh Seat, calm down. If she’s still alive, we’ll find a way to wake her up.”
These words were like a bucket of ice water, causing Feliel, who was at the center of an emotional storm, to shudder violently.
Her tightly clenched fists slowly relaxed. She took several deep breaths, the madness in her eyes gradually fading, and she managed to regain a sliver of composure.
Feliel stopped screaming, but her gaze remained glued to Nona.
Seeing that Feliel had calmed down slightly, Sefina turned her attention to Nona and asked:
“Nona, what’s going on? Did you discover something unusual?”
Nona walked over to a chair in the center of the room and sat down, rubbing her still-dizzy head before organizing her thoughts to explain:
“Boss, I just scanned that girl with a demon tool. The results show that inside her body… there are still very, very faint, but definitely present, Magic Power Waves.”
Nona paused, then added, “Generally speaking, the mana of a completely deceased living being dissipates very quickly. It’s impossible for there to still be such a continuous wave. However…”
Nona’s tone shifted, becoming more rigorous.
“It’s also possible that the interference is caused by residual mana within the potions Miss Feliel has been injecting into her over a long period.”
“As for the specifics, I’m afraid… we’ll need to perform a blood sample and a component analysis to be sure.”
Hearing “blood analysis,” Feliel, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, unconsciously tightened her grip on the bedsheets.
Her heart was clearly going through a massive struggle.
She felt both the wild joy and expectation of a narrow escape from death, while also fearing that this might just be a false hope leading to even deeper despair.
Without further delay, the group left the lounge and headed to Nona’s workshop.
Campbell was placed on an experimental bed that had been temporarily cleared in Nona’s room.
She still lay there quietly, her flaxen hair spread across the pillow.
Her eyes were tightly shut, her chest showed no signs of rising or falling, and her face was as serene as a delicate porcelain doll, no different from the dead.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Nona began her examination.
She first took a specialized blood sampling needle from a sterilization cabinet, then carefully picked up Campbell’s pale and slender arm. Finding a vein, she inserted the needle gently but swiftly.
Dark red blood slowly flowed into a small crystal test tube connected to the end of the needle.
Feliel stared fixedly at Nona’s every movement throughout the entire process, her gaze never wavering for a single moment.
“How is it? Is there… is there something wrong with the blood?” As soon as the blood collection finished, Feliel asked impatiently in a low voice, as if afraid that speaking too loudly would disturb something.
“I’ve only just begun,” Nona said flatly without looking up. She dripped the collected blood samples into several different containers.
Feliel bit her lip anxiously, her fingers unconsciously twisting together.
As the minutes ticked by, the only sounds in the workshop were the faint humming of the equipment and the occasional clinking of Nona handling the glass containers.
Feliel’s patience was nearly exhausted. Several times she wanted to open her mouth and urge her on, but seeing Sefina’s calm gaze, she forced herself to hold back.
She could only pace back and forth restlessly, her eyes never leaving Nona or Campbell on the bed.
Finally, after a long wait, Nona put down the last test tube.
She turned around to face the group and announced the conclusion:
“According to the blood analysis results, Miss Campbell… is indeed not dead.”
Feliel’s pupils dilated suddenly, and her heart seemed to stop beating at that moment.
Nona continued to explain:
“I detected a magic potion component in her blood called ‘Slumber Elegy.’”
“This magic potion is very rare, and it isn’t a poison. Its primary effect is to greatly suppress the user’s vital signs, including breathing, heartbeat, metabolism, and most neural activities, causing them to fall into a state of deep suspended animation that is extremely difficult to detect.”
She looked at Feliel with a trace of realization in her gaze:
“The concentration of this magic potion in Miss Campbell’s body is very high. Based on the half-life of the metabolic residue, this must be the result of long-term injections.”
Feliel felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She froze in place, all color draining from her face.
‘The magic potion… it was given by the Deputy.’
All along, the Deputy had told her that it was a magic potion meant to save Campbell.
‘Which means…’
He had been using this death-simulating potion to deceive her all along, making her believe that Campbell’s life hung by a thread so that she would willingly risk her life for [Black Utopia].