Viva was standing at the corner of the room, and she was holding the edge of her gown down while staring at three tiny creatures that were moving around the unconscious vampire guard that arrived with Rita’s sister. The three tiny creatures were all female, and they looked like dwarves, but they were very different from the dwarves that Viva was used to! Dwarves were all known to be very crude and ugly creatures that spent all their time working on weapons and artefacts, but these creatures were all unbelievably cute! They were like dolls that moved with grace and precision! They were all wearing white nurse gowns, and they worked together to clean the wound and prepare the patient for treatment!

’What the hell are those things?’

"Those are homunculi."

Viva jolted as she heard Lana speak up from beside her! Viva didn’t even know she had spoken her thoughts out loud, and she frowned slightly as she asked Lana what homunculi were. Lana immediately explained that the Homonculi were artificial creations made by biological magic.

"They look like the rest of us, but they were actually made by Master Percy to help him in the clinic. They also move around using Master Percy’s mana, so if Master Percy isn’t paying attention, then they’ll shut down."

"So Percival is controlling them?"

Viva was stunned to hear that! The concept of recreating life was something that researchers had been working on for more than a century now! It was thought to be impossible since magic had placed limits on how mortals could use it! But for some reason, Viva wasn’t even surprised that Percival was able to create life! Percy had done enough shocking things already, so this wasn’t enough to surprise Viva too much anymore!

But Lana shook her head at Viva’s earlier question.

"Master isn’t controlling them; he’s just providing them with mana. It’s like giving them the fuel that they use to move. If he removes the fuel, then they’ll just fall asleep, but when they have the fuel, then they’re no different from any of us. Like this: hey Beta!"

Lana suddenly waved at the tiny nurses, and one of them perked up and smiled happily as she shuffled off the bed and jogged towards Lana!

"Hey, Madam Lana!"

The tiny creature barely came up to Viva’s knee, and Viva felt an intense urge to pet her head because of how cute she was! Lana put her hand out towards Beta, and Beta jumped and high-fived her before Lana finally introduced her!

"Viva, this is Beta! She’s the most responsible of the three of them! Not as responsible as me, but she’s a close second! I’m just too awesome! The other two are Alpha and Gamma. They have their own personalities too, so make sure you treat them as regular people!"

"Saying that makes us look like we’re not real, Madam Lana."

Beta pouted up at Lana and stomped her feet in annoyance, and Lana put her hand over her mouth in shock before bowing apologetically! Viva slowly stretched her hand out towards the homunculi, and she was about to pet it, but the door to the clinic opened, and Viva pulled back as she saw Percy and Rita entering the room!

"Master!!"

All three homunculi perked up in happiness once they saw Percy, and Percy smiled and pet Beta on the head when she ran towards him. Percy looked towards the unconscious guard before he spoke.

"How’s the patient doing, girls?"

Alpha spoke up from beside the hospital bed.

"We’ve stabilized him, master. But he isn’t out of trouble yet. His healing factor isn’t responding as well as it should, so his wound is still bleeding."

Percy hummed as he walked up to the unconscious man, and Percy’s eyes turned blue as he activated his [Magic Essence] sight. Everything around Percy vanished, and it was instead replaced with various colours based on the type of magic in the environment! While Percy did this, Rita couldn’t help but get distracted by the sight of her sister’s dead body on another hospital bed at the side. The nurses had fixed up her sister’s body as well, and anyone who saw her wouldn’t even think she had been injured since all the blood and wounds were gone, but Rita couldn’t feel any magic flowing off from her sister, so Rita knew her sister was definitely dead.

’You’re nothing but a waste of space, Rita. If father didn’t care about you like he did, we would’ve gotten rid of you a long time ago. If you want to do something nice for us, why don’t you just die so we don’t have to see your pathetic face ever again?’

A memory suddenly flashed through Rita’s mind, and Rita frowned as she turned away from her sister’s body! It was impossible for Rita to look at her sister without thinking back to all the bullying and insults that she and her mother faced at her hands! There was no way Rita would feel bad about her sister getting killed!

"Something’s not right here."

Percy suddenly spoke up a few seconds later, and Rita looked at him curiously. Percy’s face was squeezed into a deep frown, and he was looking at the body on the bed like it was a complex puzzle that he needed to figure out! Percy only got an expression like this when he was stuck on something extremely difficult, and Rita realised that this was a very serious situation! Rita stepped forward and asked Percy what was wrong, and Percy was silent for a few seconds before he said.

"I don’t know exactly. But there’s something off about his mana. It’s not right."

Percy only said this before he dived back into his thoughts. Percy’s eyes were currently glowing with a blue light, so Rita knew he was using his [Magic Essence] sight to see the magic all around him. That meant whatever Percy was worried about had to be related to how the guard’s mana was flowing.

"Did you say something was wrong?"

Viva spoke up as she walked forward, and Rita raised her hand and told Viva to stay silent to allow Percy to think properly. Percy didn’t bother responding to Viva, and the entire clinic went silent for a few long seconds as they just watched Percy. And it wasn’t until almost a minute later that Percy blinked again and returned to the present. The first thing Percy did was mutter quietly.

"This isn’t right. His time is off."

It had been spoken in such a low tone that nearly anyone else would have missed it, but the three women in the room were all demihumans with great hearing, so they were able to pick up Percy’s words immediately! Viva frowned at the strange phrase.

"His time is off? What do you mean by that?"

Percy looked up, and he seemed to suddenly remember that he was in the room with other people. There was a moment when Percy simply studied Viva and Lana closely, and Viva put her hand down to her gown as she felt embarrassed at the intense look in Percy’s eyes. But then Percy spoke.

"Lana, I need you to go handle the front desk downstairs. Viva, go clean the library."

"EH!?"

Viva was shocked by the sudden order, and even Lana felt her eyes widen in surprise. It was obvious to Lana that there was something serious going on here! Something so serious that Percy was sending them away so he could talk ot Rita alone! Lana was already used to being sent away when there was something especially serious going on, so she could understand, but Viva obviously was not happy about it!

"What do you mean I should go clean? I haven’t even heard what’s going on yet! What do you mean by his time is off?"

Percy clicked his tongue in annoyance, and he gave Lana a signal, and in the next moment, Lana slammed the edge of her palm into the back of Viva’s neck!

"Hrk!"