Chapter 56: My arms... You ate them?

When Celeste reached Magna’s body, the final words of her chant flowed out of her mouth. "...Halt your endless journey, and lock this flesh in eternal frost."

It was the same spell she had used to make the ice coffin for the mother goblin.

Of course, she wasn’t using it to give Magna a grave. She was using its true purpose instead, freezing the body instantly to seal and preserve it.

She was sure that Titus’s last hit, even if it hadn’t killed him outright, must have been a fatal blow. So she rushed to freeze all his vital functions immediately, planning to treat him more carefully afterward.

But the moment she reached his side and saw his body lying on the ground, she suddenly stopped the spell.

It wasn’t too late to save him. It was because he didn’t need saving at all. There was no danger to his life.

Magna appeared to have lost consciousness, his eyes closed, dirt covering his whole body. Aside from his broken, bloodied arms, from the guard he had raised at the last second to protect himself from the punch aimed at his chest, he was still breathing steadily.

"I can’t believe the kid actually blocked my fist..." Titus muttered in disbelief, staring down at the boy’s unconscious body.

His disbelief, though, quickly turned into dread the moment he felt the cold spreading beside him, along with a fast chant that filled his ears like a whisper of death itself.

"Wait, hold on!" Titus raised his hands in a sudden panic, trying to explain himself to Celeste.

But there was no stopping the completely cold, emotionless face staring back at him. "...Halt your endless journey, and lock this flesh in eternal frost."

Celeste finished her chant in seconds, and frost spread rapidly across Titus’s body, locking him inside a thick, transparent block of ice.

She looked at her husband’s frozen face, his eyes wide with fear, his mouth still open, his hands raised as if still trying to defend himself, all frozen in place.

Without saying a word, she turned her gaze to Magna instead.

She walked over, lifted his body into her arms, and started making her way back toward the mansion.

—

Magna slowly opened his eyes, the blurry outline of his room’s familiar ceiling coming into view.

"Where am I?" He mumbled, a dull ache throbbing in his head, his memories still hazy from whatever had happened last.

’So I didn’t die?’ He thought with relief, the memory finally coming back to him, that madman’s fist slamming into his body, right before everything went dark.

The memory of that moment was still vivid, the sound of his bones cracking still ringing in his ears as he tried to block the punch. He had been sure his chest had been crushed, along with his arms.

But apparently, he was fine.

At least until he realized he couldn’t feel anything below his shoulders.

A wave of pure terror rushed through him, so intense he couldn’t even bring himself to look down at them. ’No, no, please don’t tell me my arms got amputated.’

Living the rest of his life without arms sounded worse than death itself.

He was on the verge of spiraling into despair when a sweet voice pulled him back from the darkness.

"Oh, you’re awake?"

He turned his head slightly toward the voice and found himself looking into two bright blue eyes, framed by strands of blonde hair falling over her face.

"Faye..." Magna murmured, his voice trembling. "How bad does it look?"

He was already certain his arms were gone. He just didn’t know how bad it was, though honestly, it hardly mattered anymore once you had no hands at all.

Hearing his question, Faye’s face scrunched up in disgust. "It’s so bad I don’t even want to look at it."

Hearing her words, Magna’s lips began to tremble. ’I’m really done for.’

Every dream he held crumbled into dust in an instant. His ambition to become a Magus, to rule over this Witch world, and to take revenge on the unreasonable gods and his abandoning mother was gone.

He was certain now that he would spend the rest of his life as a crippled, armless boy.

Then she said something even more terrifying.

"You know, it doesn’t taste nearly as bad as it looks." Faye said casually, like it was nothing at all.

"Taste? You ate them?" Magna shot upright in bed, horrified.

He had always known something was off about this family, but cannibalism had never once crossed his mind.

Just as his whole world was sinking deeper into darkness, something caught his eye.

"Wait..." He finally looked down at his arms and saw they were still right where they belonged, simply wrapped in white bandages.

"Hm? What’s wrong?" Faye tilted her head, confused by his strange reaction.

"What do you mean what’s wrong? My arms are still here." He started laughing with pure relief flooding through him.

"Yes?" Faye still didn’t quite understand. She just assumed this was normal, since she herself always mumbled nonsense right after waking up, and figured Magna was doing the same thing now.

She picked up a bowl waiting on the bedside table and held it out to him.

"Here. Mother said if you drink all of this, you’ll feel better." She said, holding the bowl toward him while turning her head to the side, clearly unable to even look at what was inside.

Magna looked at the strange, foul-smelling, pitch-black liquid in the bowl, then back at Faye’s reaction, not sure whether he should laugh or cry.

’So that’s what she was talking about.’

It had all been one massive misunderstanding. He had nearly lost his mind to depression and horror over nothing.

"It smells awful." Even Magna, just sniffing it, couldn’t help wrinkling his face. It smelled like rotten fish.

Faye still held her arms as far away as possible, her head tilted back as far as it could go to stay away from the smell. "Just pinch your nose and drink it in one go."

That was apparently how she handled it herself whenever she had to drink it.

But Magna wasn’t exactly in a position to do that. "I can’t move my hands."

Faye turned her head slightly to look at his bandaged arms. "Um... then just think about something else while you drink it."

"How am I supposed to drink it when you are holding it like that?" Magna sighed heavily.

’Does she expect me to lap it up like a dog?’

"Ah... hehe... right..." She finally realized her mistake, set the bowl back down on the table, and ran out of the room, leaving behind a single line. "Stay right there, I’ll be right back!"

A while later, she returned wearing gloves, a spoon in one hand, and pieces of cotton in the other.

She set the spoon down on the table, tore the cotton into pieces, and stuffed two of them into her own nostrils first. Then she walked over and stuffed the other two into Magna’s.

"See? I’m smart, right?" She was clearly waiting for praise.

"Yeah. You’re just as smart as Smoky." Smoky had been the name of his cat, the one that died from a chronic health issue.

That chronic issue had simply been eating too much. The cat had died because it had gotten too fat to even walk anymore.

Not knowing what Smoky meant, Faye took it as a compliment and laughed, picking up the spoon and the bowl of medicine. With slightly shaking hands, she filled the spoon and held it out.

"Ahhh." She said, opening her own mouth wide, clearly wanting him to do the same thing.

When he opened his mouth, she shoved the spoon inside.

[New substance detected... A pitch-black medicine with a terrible odor...]

[Energy particles detected...]

[Converting nutrients into energy...]