The Handbook for Completing Demi-Human Girls

Chapter 353: Deformity on the Back

"Whoosh..."

Amidst the freshly fallen, heavy snow pile, a few goshawks drawn over by this massive commotion stood on the tree branches atop the mountain peak that were completely bent down by the accumulated snow. They curiously sized up the area below, but the next moment, a man suddenly leaped up from the thick snow carrying two ladies, scaring them into hurriedly spreading their wings and howling at the area below.

"Are you guys alright... more than half of the accumulated snow above cascaded down. Pray that it didn't bury the supply point Balzac mentioned, otherwise I'm going to have to set you down in the snowveld."

"What the hell was that cannon? It looks so small, but I didn't expect the sound to be so loud. That little Kadu girl never showed her face, to think she actually kept this trick hidden... My god, Fisher, speaking of which, I've slept for so long and still haven't recorded the technical knowledge regarding your human steam engines. After we go down later, you absolutely must buy some for me to see. How can the Great Book Viscount not keep up with the times..."

"Mm, next time for sure."

Eimhart landed on Fisher's shoulder while calling out, and Fisher concurrently placed Valentiina on his back, while also having to support Filis who had only received some simple bandaging.

Her lower abdomen had been entirely pierced through by the Cardinal. Fisher had used his final piece of Healing Magic on her. The recovery ability of a sixth-rank Lion-kin was on par with the underage Raphaela. The speed at which she stopped the bleeding far exceeded that of normal creatures. If a normal human had taken that hit just now, they'd presumably be dead on the spot.

It was only a pity that Fisher didn't have any surplus magic on him right now. Back when he was in Mya, the magic he gifted to others plus what he used had been mostly depleted. Also because of Erwind's warning later on, he hadn't engraved any more magic.

At least regarding the matter of the Completion Handbooks, Erwind hadn't lied to Fisher. Because when he stopped extensively consuming Magic Power to engrave magic, those annoying hallucinations hadn't appeared for a long time. In order to avoid seeing Caleb Uz's bald head again, he ultimately decided to be a bit more careful, not to mention he basically had no Magic Materials on hand available for use right now.

"What a pity. The Cursed Prison that had been preserved so well for such a long time was destroyed just like that. You humans truly waste precious gifts. Who knows if there's even a second such Holy Artifact in this world. Sigh..."Standing on Fisher's shoulder, Eimhart looked back at the vast expanse of heavy snow behind them. Seemingly touched by the scene before him, he began to lament. It was unknown whether he thought of his former creators—the Angel-kin.

The Cursed Prison had already gone out of control when Corleone was shot and killed by Valentiina earlier. Coupled with the fact that it had been constantly consuming energy without the sealing object to contain it, the moment Fisher broke free from its control, it had crashed into and severed two mountain ranges in the distance, thoroughly turning into useless scrap, making Eimhart feel quite a pity.

Valentiina also occasionally turned her head to cast a glance at the snow pile behind them. Down there were the several Magic Rings Fisher gave her that had been snatched away by the Naris agents. However, facing such an utterly terrifying avalanche, it was clearly highly improbable to dig three feet into the ground to find those few Naris individuals. Fisher also didn't want to waste more time here.

However, there was ultimately good news. Although his response to the Cursed Prison had nearly resulted in a disaster, he had at least shaken off two of the four enemies now—and the weakest two at that. What remained for him to face was only the unknown curse inside the Frostwood Sycamore Tree and the Lord of Life, Erwind.

Right at this moment, Valentiina on Fisher's back looked over at Filis. It had simply been too dark inside the Slime Loop earlier; before she even had time to clearly see her injuries, she had already been bandaged up by Fisher.

"Filis, how are you... Your complexion looks so terrible..."

"Ah, I'm fine, Boss... I just feel like I've lost too much blood. That weapon is even more powerful than bullets, hiss. When did humans invent this kind of stuff again? Are they for sale? I want to get one to play with too..."

Despite her abdomen having been pierced through by the Cardinal weapon and practically being unable to even open her eyes right now, essentially to the point of being entirely dragged along by Fisher, Filis actually still had the mood to joke around with Valentiina, leaving Valentiina at a complete loss for words regarding what to say to her.

However, perhaps because Filis's optimism played a role, Fisher and the group's luck was not bad. Effortlessly supporting two people alone, he finally arrived at the last mountain peak on the outskirts of the Sema Mountains. Near the top on the flank of the mountain peak were traces of encampments left behind by predecessors. The extent of the previous avalanche had coincidentally brushed right past this camp, resulting in the fact that the facilities within were basically undamaged. This was the first camp on the Sema Mountains that could afford them a resting spot.

After scaling the mountain, many teams climbing the Sema Mountains might find their heavy baggage too ponderous and subsequently unload some provisions inside resting camps to alleviate structural burdens. Those descending the mountain may deduce analogous lack of necessity prompting concurrent surrendering of residual materials. This accounted precisely for why these camps harbored fractional vestigial supplies. However, even lacking these items, merely a localized resting spot upon a snowy mountain already possessed sufficient pricelessness.

Carrying Filis and Valentiina, Fisher laid them down within this tiny natural cave bordered by three gargantuan boulders. Centrally located amongst the cave dwelled an extinguished campfire pit formerly utilized by predecessors alongside living tools. Not requiring excessive exertion, Fisher rekindled the bonfire and withdrew portions of the food gifted by the Snow Fox-kin to roast.

"Eat a bit of food to replenish some energy, whilst concurrently warming up your body... Filis, considering your accumulated injuries I presume continuous traversal venturing deeper towards internal perimeters defining the snowy mountain remains impossible for you alongside our progression. I will stash proportional food supplements anchoring this specific position. Once you achieve physical mobility restoration proceed initiating unassisted native return utilizing prior trail vectors to execute mountain descents."

Filis's nose caught the scent of the meat Fisher was roasting. Just as she wanted to sit up and eat something, she felt a severe pain in her waist and immediately laid back down again. Letting out a sigh, she said,

"I... I definitely can't do it anymore. I'll have to rely on you and Boss from now on. But since that bunch from the Turan Family all died here, and you'll be entering the steepest parts of the snow mountain after this, they probably won't be able to catch up for quite a while. Anyway, I wish you guys good luck."

"As for now, let me think about where to go after losing my job... Kadu? No, they don't seem to welcome demi-humans there. Schwari? But the food there is too awful, and it's also Old Ba's hometown. I definitely don't want to go to a country filled entirely with people like Old Ba..."

Filis optimistically swept her tail beneath her. Even though the wound on her abdomen was still transmitting severe bursts of pain, she had actually already begun to envision things after leaving the Northern Border. This prompted Valentiina leaning against the rock to chuckle mutely. But because this smile inadvertently caused her back to scrape against the rock, a stinging pain instantly transmitted from there, causing her little face to scrunch up.

Roasting the meat, Fisher lifted his gaze to glance at her. While depositing the meat into a bowl, he spoke,

"You're hurt as well?"

"Ah... well, I was thrown off when I was on Filis's back earlier. The snow there was a bit thin, so..."

Fisher nodded. Turning his head, he inspected this camp and discovered a little medicine left behind by previous teams. It seemed to be traditional ointment from Kadu or something. Even now, the ancient nation of Kadu still hadn't abandoned their traditions, continually renovating numerous customs, including medicine. It could also legitimately be considered one of their major defining characteristics...

He perfunctorily inspected whether the medicine was still usable, yet discovered this medicine had actually been brought up the mountain within the last few months. Raising an eyebrow, he subsequently clutched the ointment and arrived beside Valentiina.

"What... what are you doing?!"

Valentiina immediately covered her body, looking at Fisher with a flushed face. But upon discovering he was also looking at her expressionlessly, she immediately averted her gaze.

Before Fisher even spoke, Eimhart standing on his shoulder had already begun to smirk wickedly.

"What else could he be doing? Naturally, it's having him look at your wound~"

Eimhart's punchable aura prompted Fisher to lightly deliver a slap without rhyme or reason, interrupting his strongly suggestive words. Afterwards, he shooed away Eimhart on his shoulder, pointed at the tent in the distance, and said,

"Your wound on your back will heal very quickly after applying the medicine. If we don't treat it properly and it gets infected, it will be troublesome... I'll take you over there and you just need to lie on your stomach. I won't do anything to you."

Valentiina pouted, then muttered in a low voice,

"Still saying you won't do anything to me, my legs can't move anyway, so doing whatever is just..."

Just as she was mumbling to herself, she suddenly felt the words leaving her mouth were rather familiar. Following this, the scene from within the True Ice surfaced in her mind again, giving her quite a fright. This once again caused her wound to smack against the rock behind her, hurting her so much she sucked in a breath of cold air.

"Hiss, so painful..."

"...Are you an idiot?"

Fisher speechlessly picked her up from in front of the rock wall, then cautiously supported her into the tent. One hand wrapped around her waist, whilst the other held onto her hand. Fisher's gaze was drawn by her fair, white neck and earlobes. His gaze dimmed slightly, and the tip of his nose drew closer and closer to her neck.

"The clothes, how do they open?"

"Wait, wait, wait, why does it feel like you're... I'll... I'll do it myself."

"...Alright."

It turned out that, aside from the heavy overcoat Valentiina draped over the outside, her several inner garments all opened at the back. It didn't require completely removing the clothing to treat the wound on her back. Doing it herself was naturally fine too, only requiring Fisher to help her tie it back up later.

Fisher waited for her movements quite disappointedly. As the heavy clothing was taken off piece by piece, only a traditional inner shirt remained on her body. Her earlobes were slightly red. Facing away from Fisher, she pulled down the buttons on the back of the clothing little by little. The next moment, her fair white back appeared before Fisher's eyes.

Only, upon that fair white skin, starting from the spine acting as the centerline, distorted black patterns continuously spread out towards both sides. Those black patterns congregated at a distance slightly below her shoulder blades, from where two deformed protrusions bulged outwards, simply multiplying ugliness like a pair of incompletely grown organs...

"D-Don't look, treat the wound..."

Valentiina had always felt somewhat low self-esteem regarding the ugliness on her back. Sensing Fisher's tangible gaze continuously sweeping over her back, Valentiina spoke up in a low voice with some embarrassment, hoping he would quickly overlook the deformity on her back and hurry up with the treatment.

"Shh..."

But Fisher continuously scrutinized the incompletely grown wings. He drew a bit closer, his scorching large hand gently touching the protruding spot on her back, causing Valentiina's body to tremble sensitively.

In Fisher's faintly glowing eyes, those weren't two growing deformities, but rather gigantic feathered wings that looked as if they had been severed at the roots. It seemed as if a certain bloodline within Valentiina's body had already begun to construct the posture she originally ought to possess, yet was ultimately abandoned due to the dilution of the bloodline, leaving behind this defective product that could be deemed a "deformity".

"These are... wings. You originally should have grown a pair of beautiful wings exclusively possessed by the Phoenix Race, but due to the impurity of the bloodline, it resulted in this current situation..."

"Wings?"

"Mm, the Phoenix bloodline inside your body is already dense enough, but it isn't sufficient to form the proper appearance the Phoenix Race should possess... One can imagine exactly into how many portions the demon who established the transaction with your family divided the originally thin bloodline to inject into your descendants. But I feel you definitely hold the hope of resolving the bloodline problem of your family. When the time comes, you might truly transform into a Phoenix..."

Valentiina turned her head around with some confusion, only to discover Fisher staring entirely focused at her bare back. So ashamed, she immediately turned her head back around, her tone also trembling slightly.

"P-Phoenix? But I'm already an adult. Is it possible to continue developing further? Or transform into a Phoenix that isn't human?"

Fisher shook his head and began to explain,

"Having researched so many demi-human species, I've gradually begun to realize a most fundamental issue. And that is, one cannot use a human's perspective to measure demi-human species; the higher the rank, the truer this becomes... The distinction of adulthood defined by the short lifespans of humans signifies meaninglessness to Phoenixes. In my observation, your body is still developing, moreover, traversing explicitly targeting orientations corresponding to establishing a Phoenix Race structure."

At this exact moment, in Fisher's eyes, right above that pair of deformed protrusions, speckles of cyan-blue patterns were actually growing out like budding sprouts. But if one scrutinized them closely, one would discover they weren't patterns at all, but rather fine fuzz, like a newly hatched chick growing feathers. Emitting cold air that was visible to the naked eye, surprisingly, Valentiina actually couldn't feel the chill of that little bit of fuzz at all...

Fisher smiled. He stopped observing and instead covered the bleeding wound on her back with ointment. Valentiina on the other hand nodded, seemingly understanding yet not totally registering. Subsequently, she suddenly realized something. Turning her head, she asked Fisher,

"Wait, you... the other demi-human species you researched previously, did they also involve this kind of, um, research involving taking off clothes like now?"

"...No."

"I see, then that's good."

Valentiina satisfyingly turned her head around. Fisher truly didn't discriminate against the defective parts on her body whatsoever. This made Valentiina, who had suffered from considerable low self-esteem previously, feel quite grateful, not even finding the bandaging of the wound painful anymore.

Meanwhile, outside the tent right now, listening to their entire dialogue were Filis lying on the ground and Eimhart roasting by the campfire pit. When Filis heard Fisher reply "No," she raised her eyebrows slightly. She turned her head to look at the quite composed book Relic beside her, only to see Eimhart had long since grown accustomed to the strangeness. He merely stared at the campfire pit before him, while concurrently explaining to her in a small voice,

"Shh, he's just like this, getting used to it is fine."

"..."

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(End of this chapter)