The Sorcerer's Handbook-Chapter 61: Deeply Shaken

Ashe lifted the towel from his face and pushed himself upright with one hand. He instinctively reached for his neck but found no wounds. "Strange. You didn't use me for surgical experiments, did you?"

"I already did."

At the foot of the bed, Healer No.222 sat with her head lowered, absorbed in the book in her hands. Her crow-beak mask bobbed slightly as she read, and she didn't bother glancing up. "It's done. The surgery was a complete success. You're a handsome man now."

"What?!"

Ashe scrambled to find a mirror, but none was in sight. The healer snorted and laughed. "I'm kidding. Repairing your throat was simple and barely took me any time. I just happened to perform a few other procedures while I was at it. It's nothing major. You didn't even wake up."

Relieved, Ashe leaned back. "Then... what exactly did you do?"

She listed casually, "The Daffy procedure to open the corners of your eyes, the Aibo procedure to adjust your brow ridge, the Luoza procedure for the chin, the Eiras procedure to give your eyelashes a natural curl, and..."

The longer Ashe listened, the more bewildered he became.

"So... how much do I resemble my old self now?"

"You should look fairly similar. After all, you still have two eyes, one nose, and one mouth."

"You call that nothing major? Then what counts as major? Replacing my entire head?"

"Not quite," she said with a casual gesture. "Replacing a head is still quite dangerous. Among sorcerers, the popular major surgeries usually involve swapping all your facial features. For example, eyes for those of a Swift Hawk, teeth for those of a Morphing Shark, nose for that of a Fang Wolf, and ears for Bat-Demon ears. Limbs and internal organs are commonly replaced, too, and mechanical prosthetics have been especially trendy lately."

Ashe's mind raced. So, sorcerers have already unlocked the biotechnology modification tech tree. That explains the hybrid prisoner with rabbit ears and boar tusks.

Back then, he had wondered if rabbits and boars could even reproduce across species. Looking back now, it seemed the true aberrations were the sorcerers themselves.

Curious, he asked, "Have you ever performed a major surgery like that?"

The healer paused for a moment, then said, "More or less."

Ashe studied her crow-beak mask. "Oh... I see."

She caught on quickly to his thoughts and placed her hands on his hips. "Don't lump me together with you. I'm not ugly. My face has always been perfect. I never needed a replacement."

"So... you never performed surgery on your face," Ashe said.

At the same time, he let his gaze drift over her body, only to find that there was nothing for him to see, as her thick medical coat had concealed everything beneath it.

"What are you looking at?"

"Just checking if your fingers can suddenly turn into a Phillips screwdriver."

"There's no screwdriver, only an ear pick. Want to try it?"

"Yes."

"Enough nonsense. Here."

She pulled ten Silver Coins from her pouch and placed them on the bedside table, then waved her hand.

Ashe pointed at the coins. "What's this for?"

"Did we not agree on this? You let me perform surgery, and I pay you. Ten Silver Coins for ten procedures, fair."

He frowned. "But didn't we agree on Gold Coins?"

"I asked around. Other healers don't pay when they practice procedures on people. At most, they'd give Silver Coins. No one ever pays in Gold."

"You really have no backbone. You can't just follow what others say. You need to stand by your own beliefs. If everyone else eats shit, are you going to eat it too?"

"You make a lot of sense. Deep down, I actually didn't want to pay at all. I can't let you keep misleading me."

Ashe quickly pocketed the Silver Coins. "But listening to others' advice once in a while isn't a bad thing either."

Healer No.222 stifled a laugh. "You're genuinely something this time. You're the only criminal in the history of Caimon City to get injured during a Blood Moon Tribunal and still survive."

"The only one? Has no other death-row inmate ever been injured during a tribunal?"

"They have," she explained, "but none could be saved. The executioners tore them apart on the spot. Someone like you, killed by another death-row inmate, yet with wounds shallow enough that failing to save you would count as a violation of the Life Rescue Act, is practically unheard of."

Ashe still struggled to wrap his mind around it. His head had nearly been severed, yet that level of damage apparently counted as a minor wound, treatable with a simple bandage.

"When you get out, find a way to earn more Contribution Points. Don't get selected for the next Blood Moon Tribunal. There won't be an elf standing in front of you next time."

Ashe studied her. "You seem pretty concerned about me. Did you grow attached after treating me so many times?"

"You come to the infirmary almost every day," she said with a shrug. "If the prison had a few more model inmates like you, I could probably leave this place after another month or two of hard work. And thanks to you, I've gotten very proficient with quite a few procedures."

"When you leave, can you take me with you? I'll even agree to be your experimental subject for three years. Sounds like a great deal, right?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

"If you're willing to let me pack you into three different boxes and carry you out, I have no problem with that. The prison would approve it, too."

Ashe smacked his lips. "Can you put me back together once I'm outside?"

"If I were a Four-Winged Legendary Sorcerer, I could probably do it. Might even install a few upgrades while I'm at it."

"Are you?"

"If I were, I wouldn't have time to chat about this nonsense with you," she said, crossing her arms. "And you're actually thinking about escaping. Tsk. After surviving a Blood Moon Tribunal, you still haven't given up on such a childish idea?"

Ashe clenched his fist. "Which decent young man wouldn't think about escaping prison? After seeing the Blood Moon Tribunal with my own eyes, who could stand staying here? I'm definitely breaking out." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Good luck. When you escape, stay safe. Try to keep your corpse intact, at least."

He leaned closer. "Do you have any good ideas for a prison break?"

The healer glared at him through her beak. "Don't think that just because I made you a little more handsome, I won't report you."

Ashe looked completely unconcerned. "Relax. After everything you did for me, let's just treat this as post-operation small talk. Think of it as a puzzle game. Hypothetically, if you were framed and thrown into Shattered Lake Prison, how would you escape?"

"But I would never be framed."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Memory specialists exist. They could check my memories and know I'm innocent."

Ashe frowned. "Don't you think that's kind of... wrong?"

"What's wrong?" she asked, puzzled.

"Having your memories searched. Aren't memories extremely private?"

"And you say you're innocent? That's classic freedom terrorism," she said.

"Huh?"

"Only terrorists with malicious intent want to abolish the memory extraction system. Some even make outrageous demands, like unbinding Miracle Chips, granting pregnant women the right to choose abortion, or publicly disclosing breeding match records. Why do you look so nervous?"

Ashe swallowed. "Are pregnant women not allowed to have abortions?"

"Of course not. Abortion is mandatory only if the fetus shows any congenital disease or hereditary defect."

"Mandatory?"

"Yes."

"What if the fetus is healthy?"

"Then it must be carried to term."

"No need to ask the woman's opinion?"

She sounded genuinely confused. "Why would we ask? Would a woman refuse? Each birth subsidy is almost equivalent to three years' wages for a mid-level profession, adjusted by race. Sorcerers receive even more. A first birth grants a 100 percent bonus, and giving birth within the recommended age range adds another 50 percent. Unless the woman is an exceptionally talented sorcerer who doesn't want to waste time, most women have their first child during the recommended age.

"Whether there's a second or third depends on how active their nightlife is. Pregnancy itself is just a minor inconvenience. After birth, the baby is sent to a care facility, and the woman receives her birth fund on the same day."

Ashe looked at her with a strange expression. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You... did you receive a birth fund?"

Healer No.222 hesitated. "I cannot give birth."

Ashe quickly apologized. "I'm sorry."

The healer waved him off. "There's nothing to apologize for. I'm not short on money anyway. But... you actually support a woman's right to choose abortion? Even among freedom terrorists, that makes you one of the more radical ones."

Ashe wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "That already counts as radical?"

"Of course," she said. "Supporting abortion autonomy means lowering birth rates. Humans and beastfolk might tolerate it, but races like elves and veela, whose birth rates have always been low, absolutely despise that kind of rhetoric. One legislator who proposed it was exposed in a series of scandals and forced to step down within days.

"Supporting the abolition of memory extractions has similar consequences. It makes criminal investigations harder and creates fertile ground for crime. Only people who intend to commit crimes would support that idea. Even legislators would never propose something so blatantly provocative.

"The same goes for unbinding Miracle Chips. It's like removing the shackles from criminals' necks, making them harder to capture and more likely to reoffend."

Ashe frowned. "But all of you have Miracle Chips. Doesn't that mean you're all wearing shackles? Aren't you afraid?"

The healer gave him a strange look. "You say that as if you aren't one of us. We don't commit crimes. Why would we be afraid? Only criminals who threaten public order would fear it."

It made perfect sense. Ashe had no way to argue. In the Blood Moon Kingdom, the healer's views reflected the mainstream mindset. Everyone accepted this system of social control, so the system itself was considered correct. Those deemed wrong were the death-row inmates, including Ashe himself.

He thought, In my previous life, I had been a law-abiding, rule-following taxpayer. And now, after transmigrating here, I had somehow become a freedom terrorist.

"Back to the point. Suppose you were framed as the leader of a Four Pillars Cult. The Heresy Court dares not examine your memories, and you are locked in the Shattered Lake Prison. How would you escape?"

"Were you really framed..."

Ashe responded, "It's just a game, a thought experiment. I heard healers aren't great at logical thinking anyway. Is it too hard for you?"

The healer turned her head away and snorted. "Do you think I'd fall for such childish provocation? Do you take me for a kid? The escape route is obvious. Only someone like you would fail to notice it."