Waterfowl Dance Sword Style.
The moment she heard those words, something stirred within Millicent—like ripples across water, a reaction so instinctive it caught her off guard.
In truth, she hadn't even known she could use that technique—or perhaps, she just didn't remember. Much like Seriel, for reasons unknown, her memory was incomplete. Especially now, having just emerged from a bout of Scarlet Rot, her mind had been trapped in constant pain and nightmares. Though Seriel had temporarily suppressed the affliction, its lingering damage still haunted her.
And yet, when she heard "Waterfowl Dance Sword Style," even though no conscious memories surfaced, something buried deep—an instinct, almost—rose unbidden and made her respond.
"Huh? You know the Waterfowl Dance Sword Style?"
Lloyd looked at the red-haired girl in surprise.
It wasn't that he underestimated Millicent, but perhaps because of the toll the Scarlet Rot had taken, she looked frail and pale—almost ghostly. Coupled with that vivid red hair, she resembled a delicate flower more than a seasoned warrior.
And yet...
"I used to be... maybe a swordsman," Millicent said hesitantly.
She slowly pushed herself off the ground, as if trying to prove something. But just as she moved, she froze and looked down at her right shoulder—completely bare. Nothing was there.
"Her right hand is her dominant one," Seriel said suddenly. "Without it, she can't perform the Waterfowl Dance Sword Style."
Got it. So I need to find a quest item.
Lloyd nodded, ready to ask if she knew where he might find an arm for her—then stopped. A thought struck him.
This wasn't a game. It was reality. There was no need to follow game logic to the letter.
Besides, knowing how Miyazaki loved hiding things, there was no way Millicent would hand over any clues about that key item. He could end up searching the entire world for some crucial artifact, buried who-knows-where in a forgotten late-game area he hadn't explored...
No, better to take matters into his own hands.
"Mind if I take a look?" Lloyd pointed to her right arm. "I might be able to make you one."
After all, he'd recently helped Latenna attach a leg, and he still had that Crucible capable of shaping flesh. Making an arm didn't seem out of the question.
As for Irina's eyes... well, that was different. Eyes were far more intricate than limbs, too delicate for him to shape with his current means. Besides, losing one's sight could heighten other senses—something that might actually benefit her research.
And Irina had been born blind. That made things trickier. She was used to it by now, and he wasn't in a rush to change that.
But Millicent was different.
Seriel had said her right hand had been her dominant one. Compared to crafting eyes, making a new arm was relatively simple. So Lloyd figured he'd give it a shot.
Neither Millicent nor Seriel seemed particularly surprised by his offer. After all, even Godrick had limb-grafting techniques, and the Golden Order came with its own set of restorative powers. Reattaching a severed limb wasn't common—but it wasn't unheard of either, not in the Lands Between.
Still...
"My situation might be a little different," Millicent said.
Though her memories were hazy, she had a strong hunch—a regular arm might not do her any good. Worse, it might even serve as a vessel for something... else.
"It's fine. That leg I mentioned earlier was a special case too," Lloyd replied after a pause. "Let me take a look first. If it doesn't work out, we'll find another way."
He'd said as much already, and considering that Lloyd's companion had helped suppress her corruption, Millicent couldn't bring herself to refuse. Even so, when she agreed, her voice carried hesitation.
Not because she feared Lloyd would take advantage of her—far from it. It was more that she felt ashamed of her half-rotted, unsightly body.
"It might be a little unpleasant, and there's probably still some lingering corruption. If you start to feel unwell, please tell me right away..."
With a soft rustling, Millicent exposed her severed shoulder and arm to Lloyd.
Just as she'd said, it wasn't a pretty sight—frankly, it was a bit grotesque. Though the Scarlet Rot had been temporarily suppressed, what dwelled in Millicent was the essence of the Scarlet Rot itself, not just some common roadside infection.
Moreover, abundance and corruption weren't connected yet; a barrier known as the Golden Order still stood between them. Because of that, even Seriel's transformation could only hold the rot at bay—it couldn't heal the damage it had already done.
Scarlet. Rot. Distortion...
The long erosion had left deep scars on her body. The wound at her right shoulder was especially severe and revolting—far worse than the rest. It was a wound she never wanted anyone to see. As she revealed it, she turned her head away, ashamed.
As for Lloyd...
Huh, that's it?
Staring at the mess of twisted, festering flesh in front of him, Lloyd didn't even blink.
Please—he was an old Undead. What hadn't he seen? In Dark Souls, this kind of rot was everywhere. Compared to the horrors crawling out of cesspits or the monstrosities found in the maggot dens and fly rooms—not to mention Miyazaki's favorite dung-filled paths—this was nothing.
Honestly, it felt a bit nostalgic.
So, lost in memory, he reached out and gently touched the decaying flesh.
A warm sensation spread.
Millicent froze. Then she turned back, eyes widening slightly as she saw a faint glow rise from where Lloyd's fingers made contact. The rotted flesh began to knit itself back together, the corruption visibly retreating. The lingering marks left by the Scarlet Rot also began to fade.
The process was slow, and it clearly wouldn't be a complete restoration—but it was working.
He...
Millicent's lips parted, but before she could speak, Lloyd suddenly pulled his hand back and frowned.
"Your case really is a bit unusual."
Millicent was indeed... special—possibly even more so than Latenna.
With Latenna, he could tell the process hadn't been completed. But with Millicent, there wasn't even a proper wound where her arm had been severed.
Not that her body hadn't been cut—there were signs that the flesh had once been severed. The real issue was her soul. It had no right arm at all. No damage, no severance, nothing. As if the limb had never existed in the first place.
That wasn't too difficult to address. Lloyd had just made a soul prosthetic for Latenna, after all.
But here was the puzzle—if her soul had never included a right arm, how had that arm become her dominant hand?
Even with an incomplete soul, the body could compensate to a degree. But flexibility and coordination would definitely be affected.
In this case, calling it her "dominant hand"... well...
"Can I check your whole body?"
Lloyd wanted to see if there were other parts of her affected the same way.
Millicent froze for a moment. After glancing at the festering wound on her shoulder, she hesitated, then gave a small nod.
"...Alright."
She reached for her waist, preparing to lift her clothes—only to be stopped by Lloyd.
"No need to undress. Just let me feel around a bit."
Without waiting for her response, Lloyd reached out and lightly touched places like her ankles, waist, and shoulders. But he didn't find anything similar to the issue with her arm.
The worst area was her feet, likely because she had spent so much time walking around Caelid, where the Scarlet Rot had seeped deep into her flesh.
Scarlet Rot was a plague that targeted the body rather than the soul—but since the body could affect the soul, that heavy corruption had indeed left traces on it.
Still, the influence was minimal. There were faint signs of soul damage, but nothing like her right arm, which felt as if it had never existed to begin with.
Strange...
But Lloyd didn't overthink it. If it didn't make sense, then forget it.
After confirming the rest of her soul was intact, he started thinking about how to forge her a new arm.
A soul prosthesis would definitely be necessary, and since it would be used in combat, it needed high precision and responsiveness—making it even harder to craft.
As for the flesh, while he had previously made a hybrid body for Sellen, that wasn't quite the same. That thing was more like a humanoid Gundam than actual flesh.
Sellen's true body was a small orb called a Primal Glintstone, so Lloyd didn't need to worry about the rest. He simply built a shell according to her schematics, dropped the orb inside as the core, and the rest was up to her.
In comparison, reforging a physical limb could sometimes be even trickier than building a whole body from scratch.
Take the Albinaurics, for instance—if Lloyd were to extract Latenna's soul and place it into a newly made body, it would be tedious but doable. But if he were asked to "fix" an existing Albinauric body, he'd have to start by deconstructing it, reverse-engineering the design structure, and rebuilding it from there. One wrong move, and the whole model would collapse...
Thankfully, Millicent's body, though corrupted, still followed the structure of a normal living being. That made things relatively simpler.
Relatively.
After thinking it through, Lloyd looked up at Millicent.
"Do you have anything urgent to take care of? If you do, I can help you with it. If not, stick with me, and I'll try to make you a new arm."
"...Is that really okay?"
Millicent's voice was hesitant.
Now that the Scarlet Rot was under control, faint memories of her purpose returned to her. She had to travel far, find someone, and return what she had lost.
But the problem was—her corruption wasn't being held back by the Unalloyed Gold Needle, but by Seriel's transformation. She couldn't stay away from Seriel for too long, let alone make a long journey.
Even if she had the needle, she'd still need greater strength to complete her mission. Restoring her right arm would clearly boost her fighting ability.
"Of course."
Lloyd paused, seeing how conflicted she looked, then added,
"And don't worry about payment. I need your Waterfowl Dance Sword Style. Helping you helps me too."
That seemed to ease her tension. After a moment of thought, she nodded slowly.
"This may sound presumptuous, but I'm quite confident in my swordsmanship."
"So if you ever need another fighter, I hope you'll count on me."
"Absolutely."
Lloyd agreed without hesitation.
Sure, that sounded a bit like one of those types who had beauty for offense, defense, and support—dealing two-digit damage with a Dark Moon Greatsword.
Still, whether she could actually contribute in battle or just bump up enemy HP, it worked for him either way.
His problem wasn't that he couldn't kill fast enough—it was that his damage output was too high. He barely got to enjoy the fight before the enemy was already down.
So, after that talk, Lloyd's team gained a new member.
And in between exploring, his daily routine now included helping Millicent recover and planning the crafting of her new arm.
Speaking of crafting...
"Sellen, your body's holding up okay, right?"
After finishing a round of exploration, Lloyd stopped by the underground chamber where Sellen was.
Part of it was for her routine check-up—partly to see if she was still in one piece, partly to make sure she hadn't done anything reckless.
"No problems here. I'm doing fine."
Sellen, of course, understood the little tricks going through Lloyd's mind—but she didn't mind. In fact, she even kind of enjoyed it.
After all, back when he asked her to teach him, he had certainly put her through the wringer.
Now watching him dash around because he was worried about her gave her a tiny taste of revenge.
Especially as the feared "Graven Witch," Sellen had never received this kind of attention even among the Academy faction. Honestly, she'd always been a bit put off by such things.
Sorcerers—especially when gathered—tended to fall into obsessive research frenzies.
Men and women alike? Just distractions from the pursuit of magic.
That was how she had always seen it. Even though she had sacrificed much for the Academy, she had never formed any deep connections.
But now...
"Well, nothing major is wrong with my body, but sitting too long really makes my neck sore..."
She sighed and glanced at Lloyd.
Then—
"Oh, if there's nothing else, I'll be heading back."
Watching him actually start to turn away, Sellen's expression twitched.
"I said... my neck is sore."
She repeated, laying the hint on thick.
Lloyd paused, then finally caught on and walked over to her. Her expression relaxed slightly.
Maybe this idiot wasn't completely hopeless after all...
A warm flame ignited in the air.
"There. That should help with your neck, right?"
Looking at the gentle glow floating in front of her—and Lloyd's serious expression—Sellen fell into silence.
For a moment, she genuinely didn't know what to say.
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
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