[Chapter Size: 2900 Words.]
Third Person POV
Aretuza.
...
...
Isabella woke up the next day with a severe headache, as if she were still drugged. She didn't feel anything more serious, but her head felt like it was about to explode while her eyes tried to adjust to the morning light.
The window of her bedroom was open, and she found herself lying in her bed, under a strange blanket.
For a moment, she remembered nothing, until her eyes blinked and she grew dizzy as she recalled the events of the previous night. That made her open her eyes immediately, a little startled, and when she tried to get up, her body responded so quickly that she let out a feminine scream, slightly frightened, trying to steady herself as she sat up, before realizing that something was wrong.
Her body felt lighter. She made a movement she had never made before. She never got out of bed that way, and the weight on her back had diminished to the point of making her question whether she was still in her own body. That frightened her. She had never moved like that when waking up.
Panicking because her memories were still somewhat blurred, she lay down again. "What is happening...?" she murmured.
Her hand went to her own body, and she no longer felt the aligned curvature... Her waist felt strange, and there had been her twisted spine, causing the part of her body below the breast to project forward because of her condition. But now she was straight. Her abdomen was aligned. And that did not lessen the panic.
"What is happening... Wait! He said he would change my condition...", she whispered, remembering Madara's words at that moment.
Carefully, she lifted her neck and looked at her own body beneath a blanket that shouldn't even be hers. She was still naked, but she was shocked to see her body completely upright and perfectly aligned. Impulsively, she raised one leg, making a small movement, and realized it was straight. Slender, like that of the other beautiful girls and sorceresses.
"I am cured...", she murmured, still trying to believe it, finding it hard to accept. Even so, little by little, she began to get up again, running her hand over her own body, especially her back. There was no longer any curvature, nor excess flesh on the upper part. She was slim.
Immediately, she sat on the edge of the bed, her feet touching the floor, and stood up. She felt strange because of the new position of her body. She was straight, aligned over the ground, something she had never believed possible, but it was there, happening.
She took a slow step and realized she could walk normally. She no longer needed to trip over her own feet or walk crookedly.
'How did he do this...?', she thought, still unable to believe it.
The last thing she remembered was him showing his red eyes, everything going dark, and now she had woken up like this. She couldn't be more shocked as she took steps, one at a time, getting used to it. She could move perfectly, even though each movement felt strange, since she was used to walking in a different way.
She went to the wardrobe, where she kept some robes she had received as a uniform from the Aretuza tailoring, paid for by Madara at the time of her enrollment. Inside, there was a mirror.
She hated mirrors; they only showed how terrible her condition was. Even so, she needed to have one, because the teachers did not allow her to attend classes if she was not properly dressed, even if she was a hunchbacked girl.
She was never beautiful, but even so, she tried to maintain a more acceptable appearance, with her hair in order and everything else. That was why she used the mirror. Now, however, she needed to see her condition. When she placed her gaze on the mirror, her eyes froze.
She did not know how long she stood there in front of the mirror. She only knew that she remained there, looking at herself, wondering if it was really her.
"This... is me?", she finally broke the silence with a hesitant stutter, unable to believe it, as she moved her hands to touch her own face.
Everything had changed. It wasn't just the way she walked. Her body was different. Taller, no longer curved or twisted.
She saw herself as beautiful for the first time in her life.
Her brown hair was still a mess, but the face that should once have been crooked was no longer there. It was delicate and perfectly aligned.
She opened her mouth, just to make sure the mirror matched her own image. And it did. It showed her teeth. She was certain that before some of them had been missing and that they were extremely crooked, but now they were perfectly aligned. That made her wonder what had really happened.
"He did this... He cured me...", she murmured, still making faces, trying to overcome the feeling that it might all be an illusion.
The mirror was not adjusted to her current height, since it had been positioned when she was still hunchbacked, shorter. Even so, she could see herself perfectly. Her chest was more lifted, her shoulders were no longer crooked. Her hands, as she could only notice now, did not tremble or appear deformed. They were feminine hands, slim and slender.
"I am no longer that monster...", she realized, remembering how people had called her that since she was five years old. The way everyone treated her had never changed, her parents, her brother, the neighbors, her classmates at Aretuza, and strangers... it didn't matter where she was. Perhaps only in Kaer Morhen, although she knew that some witchers still laughed at her behind her back. Lambert always made some joke, while she was at the keep.
She brought her hand to her chest, feeling her heart pounding. "I must thank him... It was thanks to him", she said.
Her eyes went to the window. She opened it even more than it already was, breathing in the sea air from that coast where Aretuza stood, showing a slightly crooked smile, since she wasn't used to doing that. Little by little, however, her lips adjusted, and she began to smile for real. Then, she laughed.
That was what she was seeking. She was seeking to change her life. But she had never imagined that it would truly happen. For her, it had always been just a distant dream, even as she worked so hard at Aretuza, with the hope that her body would one day return to normal by controlling Chaos and becoming a sorceress.
She laughed and burst into laughter by the window that morning, not caring about anything else. She only wanted to scream, overwhelmed by emotion at her new condition.
Then her eyes turned to the sun, and she realized she was late. She knew she could disappoint her teachers and give them yet another excuse to judge her, she knew she needed to turn in the report and that they might not even accept it anymore. Even so, she did not care at that moment.
All she wanted at that moment was to be happy.
She soon took a step back and sighed.
"I want to thank him. I need to do that. I just don't know where he is now, but he must be here in Aretuza. I'll go to class first, then I'll try to find him", she decided.
She took the report paper, which Madara had restored, and put it in her bag. Then she went to the wardrobe again and chose her best robe, the one she almost never wore. She considered it the most beautiful and did not want to ruin it with the other girls' pranks, as they had already done to some of her belongings, leaving cuts and even stains. She had never had clothes as beautiful as these, so she tried to take care of them.
She got dressed, took her bag, and, still a little unaccustomed to her new way of walking, moved forward, opening the dormitory door. She left the building and headed to another tower, where she would have her classes.
She felt some stares from the few souls walking around there. Sorceresses and even some older students stared at her, trying to understand who she was. She wore the uniform, but it seemed as though she had never been seen before by those people, the same people who used to look at her with disgust and laugh at her.
There were few people at Aretuza, each class had between six and eight students, and there were at most twenty female students in the entire college preparing to become sorceresses in the coming years and decades.
She went up to the third floor, where her first class would be, and stopped in front of the door. She took a deep breath and knocked on the entrance.
Heavy footsteps approached, and soon a teacher opened the door, visibly irritated by the sudden interruption. However, her eyes fixed on the girl wearing the uniform.
"How can I help you?", she asked, in an impassive tone, despite not recognizing who stood before her.
Isabella blinked a few times. Even the teacher had not recognized her. "It's me, teacher... Isabella", she murmured timidly.
The woman stared at her for a few seconds and then opened her eyes wide, startled, and seemed to freeze in place for a few more seconds before blinking again. The anger on her face turned into shock and curiosity.
"Isabella?! What happened to you?!" was the first thing she asked.
"A friend helped me. He performed a surgery and restored me. That's all I can say," Isabella replied carefully.
The teacher stared at her for several seconds, still in shock at seeing her once-hunchbacked student transformed into someone slender and even beautiful. That was enough to make her forget the irritation she had felt earlier over the absence of the former Isabella from that class, after all, she had not shown up until now...
"A friend...", she repeated, in a narrow tone. She clearly did not like the information, but she could not deny that Isabella looked like a completely different person. It was hard to even imagine her as the twisted girl from before.
"Who?" the teacher asked.
"I can't say." That was all Isabella said. The teacher was not satisfied with that and stared at her for several seconds before clicking her tongue, Isabella not even noticing that she tried to read her mind, but Minerva failed because of the mental blocks Madara had placed on her back in the days of Kaer Morhen.
Minerva and all the teachers had always been intrigued that the hunchbacked girl's mind could never be invaded, considering her a true anomaly since she arrived, but they thought she simply had great potential in mental magic, a justification for why someone had sponsored her.
Even furious, the teacher continued. "You may enter. You brought the report, correct?" she asked, not knowing what else to say.
Isabella only nodded, took the report from her bag, and handed it over.
"You will attend my class today, but afterward you will be taken immediately to Lady Tissaia. I cannot simply ignore someone who changed their appearance like this saying it was done by a friend. If you brought someone into the college, you will be punished for it," the teacher replied, in a severe and even dangerous tone.
Isabella shrank a little. She did not want to bring trouble to Madara, but she knew he always did things he was certain he could escape from. She did not believe Madara could have problems with Aretuza, since he could easily flee. Even so, she was afraid of putting his name in trouble, realizing she had spoken too much.
In any case, she entered the classroom, and all the girls present choked when they saw her. There were six students there; Isabella was the seventh. The eyes of all of them were in shock, staring at the girl who was supposed to be hunchbacked and the class joke, knowing it was her when they heard the teacher.
Isabella said nothing. She simply went to her seat and sat in the usual isolated corner, with all eyes turned toward her. She ignored it. She knew it would be quite a long day from that point on.
When the class ended, even she noticed that the teacher had barely managed to teach properly. Her eyes returned to the girl occasionally, as did those of the other classmates, who did not even pay attention to the tutor's explanations.
"Isabella, you're coming with me," was all Professor Minerva said before some of her classmates approached Isabella.
Isabella obeyed, putting away her things and, still by habit, keeping herself slightly hunched as she left before the others, who did not stop staring at her for a single moment.
They went to the rectorate building. The professor knocked on the door and entered. It didn't take long before Isabella was called inside.
"I'm telling you, Tissaia, she claimed that a friend helped her, but she refuses to say who. How is that possible? She brought someone here, that's against the rules. And if that person is still around... it could be dangerous! No one gets past the college's defenses!" Professor Minerva began.
Tissaia listened in silence to the professor, but her eyes went straight to a hunched Isabella, analyzing her transformation and thinking that now the nickname "Bella," as some students used to mockingly call her because of her condition, actually made sense.
Tissaia ignored Professor Minerva's arguments and continued to analyze the girl, thinking that Madara had done an excellent job.
"We have to search for whoever this helper is and investigate how her body was changed. This can't be possible. Just last night, the students said she was still hunchbacked!" the professor exclaimed.
Tissaia finally blinked, shifting her gaze from Isabella to Minerva. "It's all right. There's nothing to worry about," the rector said.
Minerva fell silent and looked surprised, staring at Tissaia as if asking whether she had heard correctly. "Tissaia, are you saying you know this person? Do you know who did this?" she asked carefully.
Even Isabella lifted her gaze in surprise toward the rector. "Yes, I know who did this, but I have no intention of revealing who it is. And if you want to know, it's the same person who sponsored Isabella. I know him. I witnessed his surgery yesterday, it took more than eight hours... I will not provide any further information. You are forbidden to try to read Isabella's mind. Are we clear?" Tissaia said, in a serious tone.
The professor remained frozen for a few seconds, until she realized that Tissaia's tone indicated she would say nothing more. She nodded, saying nothing else.
"You may leave us, Minerva. I want to speak with Isabella, then I will inform the other professors that she will not attend the rest of the classes," Tissaia said.
The professor, still somewhat dazed, simply nodded and began to leave the room. Isabella watched everything with caution and surprise.
"How are you feeling? Are you in pain? Does your body still have any motor difficulty?" Tissaia asked immediately, wanting to understand whether Madara's solution had been applied perfectly.
Isabella had never exchanged more than a respectful greeting with the rector. Even so, she felt a little insecure.
Tissaia may never have shown it, but she had always kept an eye on the students and, especially, on her. She noticed that among everyone at Aretuza, Isabella was the only one whose mind remained untouched by Tissaia; even the professors could not react to her mental assault, yet Isabella blocked it easily.
Even without many conversations, she had easily discovered that Madara was her sponsor after that and knew very well why he was doing it.
Madara did not want to trust any other sorceress; she herself had seen his caution toward others, and even toward Tissaia. He wanted, then, to sponsor someone who came from nowhere, someone who would have true loyalty to him. It was clever, but also reckless, considering that the girl showed no apparent talent.
Even so, if he helped, as he had said, after the surgery there would be a way to strengthen the girl's mind.
"I'm perfectly fine. I just had a headache when I woke up, but it's gone now. I still can't believe it...", Isabella murmured, in a sincere tone, unable to stop herself from smiling shyly.
"That was to be expected. In any case, you want to see Madara, right?" Tissaia asked.
Isabella felt her heart race immediately. "Yes... do you know where he is?" she asked, her tone full of hope.
"He's in the library, sitting and reading since dawn in a corner where no one can see him. If you want, I'll take you there. I'll excuse you from your next classes as I said before. On the way, I'd like you to tell me more about your condition," Tissaia said, beginning to stand and pulling Isabella along with her.
Then they set off toward the library of Aretuza.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
New update: I'm working with AI and creating images from the best scenes in the chapters!
I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!
I hope each chapter has provided incredible moments. If you like my work and would like to support the continuation of this fanfic, consider becoming a patron with plans starting at $2!. As a token of gratitude, I offer access to more than 210 extra chapters with 7 active fanfics at the same time, along with other exclusive benefits on my profile, such as images and significant decisions for the stories.
Even if you are not a patron, I am making chapters available a few hours earlier here, so become a free member on the platform!
🌟 RaccoonLeague | Patreon🌟
Visit our Patreon for more: https://www.patreon.com/RaccoonLeague
Extra Content Already Available:
🏴☠️ One Piece - I Am a Different Luffy!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!
🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!
🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!
⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! Finished! [100%]
👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters!
Except for One Piece with daily chapters and DragonBorn once a week, all fanfics are updated 3 times a week, there's just a pause in updating in the week, only to create drafts for the week's chapters.
In addition to the extra chapters, daily chapters are posted and 25 chapters per week!
Your support is very important and makes all the difference in keeping these stories alive.
Thank you very much for being part of this journey! I hope you continue to enjoy the story and that it brings even more joy to your life!
Visit our Patreon for more!!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆