Opening her eyes, Albatross woke with her body feeling weak and heavy. Overcome with a sense of drowsiness, she reflexively decided to go back to sleep, only to quickly snap awake when she became aware that she was not in her own bed.
Taking a moment to orient herself, Albatross found herself in a familiar room, Theodore's room to be exact. On her person, she discovered that she was wearing a loose robe that was far too breezy for her liking. She recalled being asked to put the robe on, being told that it would make it easier when they cut her open to reach the behavioral matrix fused with her heart.
Dragging her heavy body out of the bed with sheer force of will, Albatross got up and found her clothes neatly folded atop of Theodore's desk. Taking a moment to change into her original clothes, Albatross left the bedroom.
Guided by a scent of Aetherglow tea in the air, Albatross moved towards the living room. There, the figure of Kalman sipping down a mug of tea and Theodore slumping into the old couch could be found.
"Finally awake?" Kalman greeted as he spotted Albatross entering.
Meanwhile, Theodore gave neither and greeting nor response, lying on the couch as if dead. Surely, he must have been exhausted.
"So it's done? Is the curse removed?" Albatross asked. It was the first thing on her mind, the most important thing, in fact. After all that trouble she went through, it would be an understatement to say that she would be miffed if it turned out that the curse remained intact.
"It's less removed and more neutered, but either way, it will have a hold over you no longer."
"The curse, at least," Theodore finally spoke up, his voice cracking somewhat. "However, the mental conditioning wasn't something we could just remove. Trying to violate the restrictions imposed on you will still cause you a large amount of stress, but you won't have to worry about being 'turned to stone.'"
"I see... It's finally gone..."
Albatross placed a hand on her chest, right atop her heart, where the behavioral matrix for the curse still remained fused to the beating organ. The behavioral matrix wasn't something that could easily be removed, but thanks to Theodore's, or rather, the Demon Lord's expertise with behavioral matrices, the commands within the behavioral matrix were rendered nonfunctional.
"Well, I'm glad you're happy. Both Kalman and I had an Abyssal time trying to disable it," said Theodore, his voice cracking again. Perhaps being tired wasn't the only reason why he's not speaking as much as before.
"Was it that difficult?"
"It turned out, the behavioral matrix had a few safeguards just in case someone tried to mess with it. Ugh! I don't even want to recall the bullshit they put in there!"
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Holding his head, Theodore curled into a ball on the couch. Between being infected with parasitic worms and performing the surgery to disable the curse, he had very little left in him for the day.
"If you ask me, the most troublesome safeguard was the poison," Kalman picked up where Theodore left off. "Apparently, someone in the workhouse had the brilliant idea of mixing poison into the crystallized Aether. When the safeguard was triggered, the crystal unbound the poison and released them into your bloodstream. It took the combined efforts of Theodore and myself to get the poison out in time and repair the damages done. That was a close one indeed, I tell you. You're lucky that one of us is skilled in healing magic and the other is a master alchemist with plenty of experience with poison. If things were any different, you would not be standing here."
"Is... Is that so?" A chill ran down Albatross's spine thinking about what might have been if things just went a little differently. "So that's why you look so exhausted."
Looking upon Theodore that was lying lazily atop the couch, Albatross felt a feeling of appreciation towards him. Though it was he who had dragged her into this at the beginning, had he not done that, then she would still be bound by that curse.
Frankly, Albatross felt that after gaining an ally that was Kalman, an elder, Theodore could have just left her. She didn't feel like he needed her so much that he had to go this far to remove her curse, not to mention being 'cursed' himself.
That being said, there were still some lingering grievances that couldn't be dispersed so simply. Though humans possess the capacity for logic and reason, they were creatures based first on feelings, and feelings were never one to care for reasons.
(Once this is over... Once we're free, then perhaps...)
The road to freedom was still long. There will be time for giving thanks once everything was over.
While in thought as she stared at Theodore, Albatross noticed something unusual about him.
"What's that around your neck?" Albatross asked, pointing at what appeared to be a tiny vial, one about the size equivalent to that of a locket.
"It a vial of blood, your blood to be exact," answered Theodore, very carefully controlling his voice as he spoke.
"What for?"
"For your worms of course. Since they're such mommy's boys that they'd throw a tantrum when they can't sense their 'mother' around anymore, I have to apply healing magic to this vial of blood to keep the cells within alive and trick the worms into thinking that you're around."
"Oh, I forgot about that. Still, it's impressive that you found a way around that already."
At Albatross's casual remark, speaking as if it was someone else's business, Theodore felt a rage boiling within him. However, as if sensing his malevolence, the worms within Theodore's body began to move. Realizing this, Theodore hastily forced himself to think of something else, turning his thoughts away from Albatross and thereby sending the worms back into stasis.
"He *is* the Demon Lord reincarnate after all," Kalman chimed in. "If nothing else, he has the vast experience of living over thousands of years with him."
"Yes, I suppose that one of the few good things I've inherited," said Theodore.
"It is very good indeed. It'll be a pleasure to work with you, the both of you."
"It'll be my pleasure as well, let our cooperation be a fruitful one."
Kalman and Theodore exchanged their pleasantries, with neither of them being sincere in any way, shape, or form.
Albatross, standing on the side, only gave a vague, "Sure thing," before paying no more mind to the two, leaving them to their own devices.
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End of Chapter 83
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