The Immortal Duke’s Physician Is an Internist - Chapter 31

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“What nonsense are you spilling now? Everain, doesn’t that look fake to you? Have you truly lost your mind—can’t you even recognize your own blood?”
Was this what that famous gaslighting looked like? But I hadn’t come from an era of deepfakes just to fall for this.
“Then what about those six fingers! Don’t you dare try to trick people with such sloppy fabrication!”
The Black Mage ignored me and pressed Everain instead.
“What are you doing, Everain! Bring me the Duke’s arm at once. Now! If you dawdle, I’ll kill your sister right here!”
Everain stood rooted to the spot, his eyes still fixed on the image of his younger sister.
The Duke merely kept his lips sealed, observing the entire situation unfold. I called out to Everain again, desperation burning in my chest.
“Everain.”
…….
“Please, snap out of it. You’re being deceived.”
Everain squeezed his eyes shut.
What on earth was he thinking?
When he finally opened his eyes, after standing motionless as though in prayer—
Whoosh!!
Long hair rippled with the sound of wind being torn apart. It was a speed that even someone like me couldn’t hope to follow with my eyes.
“Argh!!”
Bang!! Scarlet, a blade clean through his shoulder, was pinned directly into a tree. The man spat curses as that arm went numb.
“You, you bastard……!”
“Where is Shylo?”
“What nonsense! She’s right there, right there—aaaaaah!!”
Scarlet, who had been pointing at the image, let out another piercing scream. Everain was twisting the blade he’d driven through Scarlet’s shoulder, spinning it back and forth.
The sound of bone and muscle tearing apart echoed in all directions.
“I’ll ask you once more. Where is Shylo?”
“Ack…….”
Everain, his hand locked around the man’s throat, lifted his arm high. Suspended in the air, Scarlet thrashed about in desperation.
“Is he dead?”
“N-no! He’s alive, I swear!”
Bang!!
A violent explosion engulfed the surroundings in a wash of red light. It was the same Explosion Magic Scarlet had used back at the marketplace.
I instinctively ducked, then slowly opened my eyes—and gasped at the sight before me.
“What, what is this……?”
A large, luminous blue barrier that had wrapped around me like a sphere dissipated swiftly. It wasn’t hard to guess whose handiwork it was.
“Are you hurt?”
“N-no, I’m fine!”
The Duke nodded and turned his gaze away. I too searched the billowing dust for Everain.
As the haze gradually cleared, I heard Everain’s voice.
“……You’re the lowest rank among the Black Mages, aren’t you? I see why you’re so pathetically weak.”
Everain stood there unmarked, impeccable, as he spoke. Realizing his magic hadn’t landed a single blow, Scarlet cursed viciously.
“You, you son of a bitch—how are you……!”
“Surely you don’t actually believe I’ve been nothing but a spy for the Duke’s household all this time, Scarlet. I know far more about you than whatever information I handed over to your organization.”
Everain adjusted his grip on his blade.
With each step he took, fear crept deeper across Scarlet’s face.
“I hear that mages have a Core buried within their bodies where they gather their magical power. That if the Core shatters, one becomes paralyzed from the waist down.”
“You dare speak as though you know where my Core is!”
“Of course I know that each mage’s Core lies in a different location. But it matters little to me.”
With that, Everain raised his blade high.
“I’ll simply carve through every inch until I find it.”
And so began a beating that was utterly one-sided, humiliating, and brutal.
Scarlet lost teeth, blood poured from his nose, and he retched with every kick to his stomach.
Watching it unfold, I understood something afresh: Everain knew precisely how to inflict pain so exquisite that death would seem preferable.
As a physician, I found myself in a position to learn a thing or two from him about suffering.
“Argh, ack, aaaaagh!!”
Scarlet tried several times to chant an incantation, but failed each time.
Whenever he tried to open his mouth, Everain drove his blade into another part of his body.
“How did you kill Shylo?”
“I, I didn’t—I didn’t kill her!!”
“It seems you need to lose something truly precious before you’ll come to your senses.”
Though no specifics were mentioned, the threat landed perfectly. Scarlet’s face drained of color, and he immediately changed his tune.
“Yes, yes! I’ll tell you! I’ll talk! Please, just stop, stop……!”
Scarlet’s arms thrashed about in a display of desperation and misery. Everain withdrew a step, his gaze cold and cutting.
“Speak quickly. My patience wears thin.”
“Yes, your sister—”
The moment those words left Scarlet’s mouth, I saw his hand slip behind his back.
“Everain!”
“—!”
Scarlet vanished in an instant. As I’d suspected, he clutched a Teleportation Scroll in his palm.
“Where did he go—?”
Even with a Teleportation Scroll, his body in its current state couldn’t have carried him far.
In such a dire situation, his only viable option was to take a hostage.
“Professor!”
The moment that realization struck, Scarlet burst from the shadows and lunged toward me.
The Duke raised his hand, and blue light erupted around me once more, hurling Scarlet back. But there was no time to breathe easy.
“Argh!”
Scarlet scrambled to his feet and bolted in another direction.
His target was Kaelen—still unconscious on the ground.
“Advisor!”
There was no time to think. I threw myself toward Kaelen, racing against the clock.
“Professor!”
“Stop!”
The Duke and Everain cried out, but I was closer—I reached Kaelen first and shook him with all my strength.
“Advisor, wake up! Please, wake up!”
“…”
“Advisor!”
My hands stilled on his shoulders. A shadow had fallen across me.
I looked up in alarm to find Scarlet—now grotesque with blood and dust—staring down at me with a sickening smile.
“Ugh, revolting! Get away from me, you hideous creature!”
It was a perilous moment, yet his sheer ugliness caught me off guard. Scarlet shrieked, his pride wounded.
“Shut your mouth! Shut up, you wretched woman! I’ll turn you into a human specimen and cast you at their feet!”
Then he began muttering something low under his breath.
Danger screamed through my veins. I scrabbled frantically across the floor, and my hand found something—which I hurled at his head with every ounce of strength I possessed.
“Get away from me right now, you charlatan!”
Crack!
The Abacus I’d swung caught Scarlet square in the head, and his body flew upward.
As if wings had sprouted from his back, he soared through the air before plummeting back down—
“Ahhhhh!”
At last, the mage who seemed eternal finally went limp.
I froze in shock, as did the Duke and Everain who had witnessed it all.
“…”
“…”
Silence descended without warning.
The mage—clearly drained of all combat ability—and the three of us surrounding him stood motionless, as if bound by an unspoken pact.
It was not one of the three who broke the silence, but the advisor who’d been unconscious until now.
“Ow… my head. Wait? What in the world happened here? Why is the Black Mage in such a state?”
Kaelen scrambled to his feet and stared at us in horror.
“Hold on—is that my Abacus in your hand? And that stain on it… is that blood?”
“It’s a long story, Advisor.”
I was still wrestling with whether to explain to Kaelen the specific use I’d found for his Abacus when—
Everain turned and began to walk away. I dropped the Abacus and grabbed his arm.
“Everain, wait! Where are you going?”
“Let go of me. I’m going to hunt down the Black Mages.”
“To do what?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
I tightened my grip on his hand and pressed on.
“It’s futile, Everain. Even if you find the Black Mages, you cannot have your revenge on Shylo.”
“What are you saying? You know they deceived me, and yet you speak like this?”
“Listen to me. The Black Mages didn’t kill Shylo. And the Duke already knows this to be true.”
Everain turned to look at the Duke, then asked with an expression of disbelief.
“Your Grace… how can you be certain of that?”
The Duke studied Everain for a long moment, then his gaze shifted to me.
I nodded, and Everain’s expression grew even more bewildered.
I steadied my breath and began to speak.
“Lord Everain. It’s time you knew. This is a diagnosis, spoken as a physician. You are suffering from a Delusional Disorder.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
“Your younger sister never existed from the beginning. Your sister, Shylo, she……”
Once I made this declaration, Everain’s world would crumble.
Yet despite that, I had no choice but to continue.
“She is a fictional existence, born from your wounded heart.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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