Chapter 140

[ 1,397 words ]

Ivy’s Point of View

The moment we entered the bedroom, the first thing I noticed was the fear on the faces of the doctors surrounding King Damon’s bed. They stood with their heads lowered, barely daring to breathe as Deyani faced them with anger burning in her eyes.

“You call yourselves doctors?” Deyani snapped, pointing at them one after another. “My father is lying here dying, and after all this time, you still cannot tell us how to save him. You have been treating him for days, yet his condition keeps getting worse. What exactly have you been doing?”

“Princess, we have tried everything we know,” one of the doctors answered nervously.

“Get out of my sight, you pathetic cowards. You clearly do not know enough. You call yourselves the master pharmacists, yet you are completely incompetent and unable to even cure your king, and all you can do is pray for his demise!” Deyani shrieked.

“Deyani,” Vikron called softly, trying to calm her.

“How am I supposed to be calm?” Deyani turned toward him, her eyes filled with worry. “He is dying right in front of us, and these people keep telling us they have tried everything.”

Before Vikron could answer, I stepped forward. “Let me see him.”

Deyani immediately turned toward me, and the anger on her face disappeared as her eyes filled with surprise.

“You’re… Physician Lin?” she finally asked, sounding genuinely stunned.

I gave her a small nod. She blinked, still staring at me in disbelief, before glancing at Vikron as if silently asking him whether this was really the same physician who had saved him.

“He is,” Vikron confirmed.

Deyani turned back to me, and the shock on her face deepened. “I thought you were an old man. I didn’t know you were this fine looking young man.”

I gave her a small nod before looking toward the bed. King Damon was lying completely still, but his entire body was trembling. Foam gathered around his mouth, while dark circles had formed around the corners of his eyes. His breathing was weak and uneven, and even from where I stood, I could tell that his body was already struggling to hold on.

My heart sank. There was not much time left. I quickly walked toward him, but before I could reach the bed, King Damon opened his eyes. His gaze moved from me to Deyani and Vikron before he slowly shook his head.

“No.”

Vikron immediately stepped closer. “Father—”

“Do not waste your time,” King Damon whispered. His voice was weak, but the meaning behind his words was clear. “I know my condition better than anyone. I can feel my body giving up. Whatever you are planning, stop it now.”

Deyani’s eyes filled with tears. “You cannot say that. No, Father.” She shook her head. “You cannot decide that you are going to die and expect us to stand here and accept it.”

King Damon sighed. “I have lived long enough.”

“That is not your decision to make alone,” Vikron said, his voice shaking as he moved closer to the bed. “You are my father and the King of this kingdom. There are thousands of people who still need you.”

King Damon looked at him sadly. “And what good is a king who cannot even save himself?”

Vikron clenched his fists. “That is why we brought Physician Lin.”

King Damon looked at me again. “Father, you have to let him examine you. Lin is not like the doctors you have been seeing. He is one of the greatest shamans Evenight Kingdom.”

King Damon gave a tired laugh. “You speak as though he is some kind of miracle worker.”

“He might be,” Deyani answered without hesitation. Then she looked at me before turning back to her father.

“When Vikron and I fell from the cliff, he was the one who saved Vikron. You should have seen Vikron when we found him. He was badly injured and barely alive, but Physican Lin brought him back.”

Vikron nodded. “She is telling the truth, Father. I would not be standing here if Physician Lin had not treated me.”

King Damon stared at both of them for several seconds before finally closing his eyes. “Fine,” he whispered. “Let him examine me.”

I did not waste another second. I sat beside the bed and placed my fingers against his wrist while my other hand rested over his chest. I carefully checked his breathing, his pulse, and the flow of energy inside his body before moving my attention toward his abdomen. The moment I checked his liver, my heart dropped.

It was already overwhelmed. His body had been trying to break down the poison for far too long, and his liver could no longer handle the constant flow of toxins moving through his blood.

A doctor lowered his head before speaking. “It is Black Lotus poison.”

The room became silent. I slowly turned toward him. “Black Lotus?” I asked to be clear.

“Yes. It has been secretly consumed by His Majesty in small, unnoticeable daily doses for a very long time, which directly led to this catastrophic organ failure. The venom is rooted into his very marrow.”

Someone inside this palace had known about the poison and had made sure the truth stayed hidden. That was the betrayal.

Someone had been watching King Damon die while making sure no one brought in a healer who might discover the truth. But there was something even worse.

I looked back at King Damon. “Black Lotus was not given to him once,” I said. The doctors stared at me, but I ignored them and continued, “His body has been fighting it for too long. Whoever poisoned him gave it to him repeatedly.”

Deyani covered her mouth. “Then someone has been close enough to my father to poison him again and again.”

“Physician Lin,” AMA finally spoke, “can you save him?”

I looked at her, ans I wanted to say yes. I wanted to give Vikron and Deyani hope, but I could not lie.

“I don’t know.” I slowly shook my head.

I know Black Lotus. I have studied it before, but the books only explain how to remove it when the poison has just entered the body. They do not explain what to do when someone has been poisoned for months and the liver is already failing.

“Then find another way to save my father.” Vikron pleaded. “Physician Lin, please.”

I looked back at King Damon, trying to think of anything I could use, but every method that came to my mind was useless against a body that had already suffered this much damage.

Then King Damon suddenly coughed, his entire body jerked. He cough again, and this time blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Deyani’s face crumpled. “No… Father, please.”

Vikron looked at me desperately. “Physician Lin, do something!”

I checked King Damon’s pulse again, but it was weaker than before. “I am trying.”

“You saved me before,” Vikron said, his voice breaking. “You saved me when I was already dying. Please, save him too.”

I looked at him, then at Deyani, who was crying beside her father. I had saved Vikron because his body still had a chance. King Damon’s body was different. His liver was failing, his blood was filled with poison, and the Black Lotus had already taken too much from him. I lowered my head as helplessness filled my chest. For the first time since entering that room, I had nothing to say.

Vikron grabbed his father’s hand while the doctors rushed around the bed, but I remained frozen for a moment, staring at King Damon’s weakening body. I had studied countless poisons. I had saved people others had already given up on. But this time, my knowledge was not enough.

Dominic came to my side, I looked at him, and read his eyes: “It’s not your fault if you can’t save him.” That’s what his eyes read.

There was nothing more I could do with the knowledge I had. The only person left for us to pray to was the Moon Goddess, because she was the only one who could decide whether the dying King Damon still had a place among the living.

And if the Moon Goddess decided that his time had come, none of us could stop his fate.

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