Chapter 97 Blue Death

"Grace?" Ryan asked, furrowing his brow. He barely recognized the woman he had been assigned to, what felt like a lifetime ago.

"Hey, Ryan," Grace said, staring at the alley floor.

Looking around, Ryan said, "This isn't the place to talk. Come to my dorm room."

Not waiting for an answer, Ryan picked up Grace princess style and started to walk toward his dorm.

"What are you doing? You're supposed to take me to the infirmary!" Grace complained as she tried to put some space between her and him.

Ryan ignored her and continued walking. His strides were long and powerful while secretly putting energy into his legs to speed them up.

After about two minutes of walking, Ryan stopped in front of a door that Ryan could tell was a spatial door.

Now that he was in the top 10 enhancers, he got special privileges like his own spatial door.

Pushing open the door, he willed the door to take him to his dorm room and allowed Grace to follow him.

Once inside the room, Ryan locked the door behind them and placed Grace on his bed. She fell asleep almost instantly from exhaustion and pain.

Taking out a plethora of pills, Ryan poured them into Grace's mouth, forcing them down with his hand.

When all the pills had gone down, Ryan watched the effect of his medication. The bruises faded away, but the wounds seemed to be getting worse.

Frowning, Ryan took a closer look at her wounds.

"What are these?" Ryan asked, looking at the wounds again. He didn't know how he had missed it before. Little blue veins were coming through her skin.

Grace sighed and turned over onto her back, groaning when she did so.

Thinking, Ryan brought out his girls to see if they knew anything.

With a flash and a clap of lightning, three beautiful women appeared in front of Ryan.

Emily was short and flat, as always. She had green hair tied in pigtails with a ribbon that matched her shirt. Her eyes were peanut brown and had eyeliner around them. She wore a green top and skirt that went up just above her knee-length socks.

Izzy was tall and busty with bright red, waist-length hair with two black bows on the side. She wore glasses and held a booklet.

Lizzy was a bit taller yet even flatter than Emily. She had blue, wavy, waist-length hair, wore fake glasses, and held a booklet. She wore a leather corset dress with lots of holes and buttons that fit her oh-so-nicely.

They all looked at him as if waiting for orders. They always thought he could fix everything right away, like he was some magical superhero who could save the world whenever he wanted to.

Ryan frowned at the trio of gorgeous women standing there before him.

"Do any of you know anything about these wounds?" Ryan asked them, pointing to Grace's injuries.

​ All three girls started to talk at once but stopped when Grace spoke up and said, "I'm sorry, but I have to interrupt."

The three girls stood quietly, looking ashamed and embarrassed. Grace let out a long sigh and continued speaking with an exhausted voice, "Yes, it hurts, okay? I've been beaten half to death! But why are you making it sound worse than it is?"

"It's because you are poisoned by Blue Death," Lizzy replied carefully.

"What exactly does that mean?" Grace asked worriedly.

"You were injected with a poison that causes your blood to become blue. It will slowly kill you unless you remove the toxins from your body," Lizzy explained.

Grace swallowed hard and closed her eyes for a moment before asking again, "How do I remove this stuff? How am I supposed to get rid of it?"

Izzy patted down her hair, contemplating her next move. Then, "I got it!" she screeched. "I'll be right back," she said as she raced to Ryan's courtyard.

Grace cast her eyes on Ryan, a hopeful glimmer driving her tears away. "Do you think Izzy can help me?"

Ryan gave a sideways glance towards Lizzy, who shook her head quickly.

Ryan tried not to look disappointed as he turned back to Grace. "Let's try to see what she has planned. Sometimes Izzy has some... out of the box ideas."

Ryan tried not to look at Lizzy, who was rolling her eyes, signaling there wasn't a chance that Izzy knew what she was doing.

Meanwhile, Izzy searched the courtyard and found what she was looking for.

She returned inside and said, "This is a treatment that our Grandmother used to use to rid our bodies of most everything," holding up a thorn from a bush and a strong piece of grass.

"Izzy! Are you serious?" Lizzy groaned.

"Well, it worked for us," Izzy retorted. She turned toward Grace, "Give me your finger." Not waiting for a reply, she grabbed Grace's hand.

Quickly, Izzy wrapped the grass around one of Grace's fingers, licked the thorn, poked a hole in the top of the wrapped finger, and waited for the blood to appear.

Once drops of blood began seeping out of Grace's fingers, Grace felt a pang in her stomach.

A loud belch came out of Grace's mouth, and Grace turned beet red.

Lizzy said, "Our Grandma used this method when we had an upset stomach."

"And other things," Izzy said, defending herself. "But," she said to Grace, "I don't think this will work. I think we have to find another way. I'm sorry."

Grace mumbled, "Thank you for trying."

Finally, Emily turned to Ryan, "From what I have heard, this poison can be removed, but even for a noble house, the antidote would bankrupt them."

A single tear ran down Grace's cheek as she closed her eyes. She knew she was going to die. The one thing she did right was trying to help her village. Now that was all undone. She had failed. She had let everyone else down.

Emily kept her eyes on Ryan, her gaze asking the question on his mind. 'Do I save her?'

Ryan's hand reached up and stroked Emily's hair before he said, "Grace, we haven't known each other long. But I can tell you're like me. You're someone who was born and raised without a lot."

He took a deep breath before continuing, "There is an easy way out of here. But... it involves you becoming part of my harem."

At first, Grace didn't say anything, but after a minute of thinking about it, she smiled sadly. Her lips curved upwards into an amused smile as if she had just heard a joke she could barely believe.

"Thank you for trying to give me hope," Grace whispered to him in response to his offer. Then she stood and started walking towards the door.

She stopped and looked back at Ryan before saying with her best attempt at bravery, "You have nothing to worry about! I'm not afraid! I don't want to burden you," Grace said, realizing her thoughts had been misplaced. 'He didn't cause me to go astray. My love for him did.'

Before Ryan knew what was happening, Grace pulled an item from under her skirt and threw it over to him.

"My village token is on there. If... if you could let them know, I tried my best. That I did all, I could. They should be able to send some money for my funeral," She said before running away.

Ryan carefully picked up the object she had given him and held it in his hand. It had a white stone polished perfectly by loving hands. He brought the stone closer to see a heart with Grace's name in the middle. Underneath the heart, he read 'Wakana Village.'