"Why are you all looking at me like you've seen a ghost?"
When Syl said this, the butler in front of her was the quickest to react, hurriedly waving his hands.
"No, no, no, you are an honored and beautiful guest, how could you be a ghost..."
Syl blinked, reaching out to touch her cheek as she asked,
"Then is there something on my face?"
"No... it's not that..." Even the experienced butler seemed a bit unable to handle the current situation; he took out a handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. "Please wait a moment, I will go call the Master down..."
After the butler finished speaking, he bowed slightly to Syl with an apologetic look, then turned and walked toward the main entrance.
Syl shrugged somewhat helplessly and looked at the maids standing behind the butler.
As Syl looked at the maids, they immediately lowered their heads respectfully, but the hands clasped in front of them couldn't stop trembling.
The looks in their eyes before they lowered their heads were clearly filled with a bit of shock and... Fear?
This made Syl begin to doubt herself.
Her identity as a physician clearly hadn't been exposed much... She usually showed herself with a mask on, so why did it feel like they all knew her?
This feeling of being the only one kept in the dark made Syl feel a bit unpleasant, even dampening the joy she felt at the prospect of sewing someone up later.
Syl looked up at the butler who was walking up the steps, preparing to open the door, but suddenly, a change occurred.
Before the butler could open the door, it suddenly creaked open from the inside, and a withered, pale hand reached out. It was shaped like a claw aimed at Syl, and an eerie formation appeared in its palm.
Almost instantly, Syl reacted by pulling out her scalpel, preparing to slit her wrist to release the Hallucinatory Blood Mist. However, just as the scalpel was drawn, Syl's body was frozen in place.
"What's going on!?" Syl's heart shook, but she couldn't make any expression on her face. No matter how she struggled, it was to no avail.
In Syl's field of vision, that withered hand inside the door pushed the door wider, and a sinister, raspy voice came from the hand's owner:
"You don't construct Secret Arts very fast, do you, Mage... oh wait, maybe you're not even a Mage."
When the door fully opened, a tall, thin man with sunken eye sockets and a hunched back appeared at the now wide-open entrance. Over his black suit was a pure black cloak, and hanging from the cloak were six black feathers, each as long as a person's arm. He held his head high, and the white feather on his black top hat swayed back and forth.
He said in a slightly intoxicated tone:
"Welcome to the~ Bonsandi Manor—though I don't know why that brat sent someone who hasn't even drunk a Potion..."
The tall, thin man spoke in a punchable tone as he slowly lowered his head, preparing to look down upon the visitor.
This was his usual trick. If he didn't intimidate them first before offering some benefits, he didn't know how many people would actually give their all to treat his daughter.
But when he fully looked at the visitor he had restrained, he froze entirely, and even the words in his mouth stopped.
"How... how is this possible!!!" The man's eyes widened, and as if he had been terrified, he kept backing away until he fell onto the red wool carpet, completely losing his previous leisurely demeanor.
After he fell, Syl regained control of her body.
The moment Syl regained control, she quickly pressed her scalpel against her carotid artery. The sharp tip pressed into her snowy white neck, causing a few drops of red blood to seep out.
If the man in front of her made any move to raise his hand again, Syl would immediately slit her artery to release a large amount of Intoxicating Blood Mist, then take the opportunity to escape or simply use Missionary to wipe everyone out here.
The blood flow from slitting a wrist was too small, almost like a joke. Syl was afraid that when facing a powerful enemy, that little bit of Intoxicating Blood Mist from her wrist wouldn't be enough.
Anyway, a physician's life was surprisingly tough. Syl wasn't worried that slitting her carotid artery would lead to death; as long as she wanted to recover, the blood loss would stop in an instant.
After quickly considering various combat preparations, Syl finally looked at the man who had just fallen.
"But why did he fall down with a look of terror for no reason... this is too unseemly, isn't it?" Syl frowned, faintly sensing that something wasn't quite right.
Suddenly, Syl's peripheral vision caught something in the hall, and her pupils gradually dilated.
Looking through the open door, past the red carpet laid over the polished stone floor, her gaze followed all the way to the spacious staircase directly facing the entrance.
Looking up the stairs step by step, she saw that halfway up, the staircase split into left and right sides, leaving a wide platform in the middle. Sunlight could be seen shining down from a skylight above the platform.
And on the wall of the platform hung a huge, exquisite portrait of a woman.
The woman in the portrait was smiling gently and serenely. Her long silver-gray hair was slightly lifted at the tips by a breeze, and her silver-gray eyes were full of smiles, as if she were watching over and blessing everyone who entered.
In her arms, the woman held a silver Crow-beaked Mask.
Yes, it was a portrait that looked ordinary, just somewhat excessively large.
And the person in that portrait looked excessively like the Physician.
It couldn't be said to be very similar; it could only be said to be exactly the same.
The air froze just like that, and no one knew what to say next.
After a long time, perhaps because her hand was getting numb from holding it up so long, Syl spoke slowly:
"How much longer are you going to keep lying on the floor?"
Actually, Syl's subtext was that she wanted the man in front of her, who seemed to have not yet come to his senses, to explain the current situation.
Why would a portrait of the Physician appear inside the Bonsandi Manor, and hung in such a prominent position at that?
Syl felt that by trying to figure it out on her own, she definitely wouldn't come up with anything.
The man on the ground, who had made such a cool entrance, only snapped out of it after hearing Syl's voice. He scrambled to his feet in a bit of a panic, even stepping on and breaking a long feather on his shoulder cape in his haste.
"I apologize, please forgive my rudeness... forgive my insolence, forgive my disrespect..." The man, dressed in luxurious clothing and appearing to be of high status, knelt on one knee before Syl and took off his top hat. "Respected Lord Silver Crow, when I was a child, I often heard my great-grandfather speak of how you saved his life, how you sewed him back together like magic when he was a broken man."
"I just... please forgive me... I just couldn't imagine that a figure who sounds like someone out of a fantasy novel actually exists in this world... and has survived until now..."
"You will forever be the benefactor of the Bonsandi Family."
"I, Baro Bonsandi, hereby swear upon the name of Bonsandi that, according to the will left by my great-grandfather, the Bonsandi Family shall become your wings."
Syl's lip twitched, and the hand holding the scalpel trembled slightly.
What is going on?
...PS: Repaying a shout-out~
After Becoming a Ship Girl
An inspirational story about a player who becomes a Black Wyvern in a certain Azur world and is forced to become a combatant.
—Probably