Be my pet!!

"Are you ready to die?"

The simple question hit her like a bomb. But, what else did she expect? She deserved to die anyway. She can't get anything right and she has always been a burden. Not like she contributes to anything in this world. Her eyes welled up as her heartbeat accelerated. Was this fear?

Definitely.

She looked up at Iris in the eye to give her answer. When her eyes met Iris' she froze and visible panic could be detected on her face. It couldn't be….

"Yes…I want to die, but I have a better question your highness."

Iris furrowed her brows.

"Go on."

"Are you ready to die?"

"What-"

"No. Practically, you are going to die. I can clearly see traces of the nightmist leaves extract in your eyes…." She said with panic. "Do you know what that means?"

"Clearly…I don't…and how did you-"

"I used the roots of the same plant in the poison I used on you. About three spoons of it…to make it lethal. When the roots and the leaves extracts are mixed in a three to two ratio, that basically leads to…DEATH!!"

"Melda-"

"Basically, the root extract causes neurotoxic shock leading to unconsciousness, which already happened, in front of my eyes. Then it draws moisture out of your body cells, like a sponge, were you dehydrated yesterday?"

"Yes, but-"

"Perfect!!Perfect!! it worked!! The cyogenic agent I added should have temporarily frozen your alveoli and made it difficult to breathe. Was it painful? Sure it was! I didn't make any mistakes!!"

She then went silent.

Iris rolled her eyes and turned to Marco, as if asking for help.

"She's just scared of death, I'm sure." Oliver broke the silence.

Melda let out a gruesome laugh.

"That's absolute genius! Why didn't I think of using that ratio? I knew beforehand if I added it she would die. So that's why she didn't. I messed up! I messes up! I was sure my calculations were perfect. Damn it!!"

Iris rolled her eyes again.

"it had to be perfect! It had to be perfect! It had to be perfect! I failed myself….i miscalculated…I…I…I deserve to die….but the princess will die too!! But…I want her to die. That poison…has to kill someone. Or else my research will go to waste! Should I save her? Should I kill her?no… no…I mean…I'n not an evil person…right? Eli doesn't have an evil sister!! I need….i need to fix this!! Only I can fix this"

"Alright, Melda. Enough of your games…"

"It's been….close to twenty four hours…you- you- before you kill me, take this down. The root I used, In simple terms weakened your blood vessels and lungs through constriction. Simply the compound in the leaves will stimulate a rapid dilation of your cappilaries and your arterial walls, essentially causing your vessels to expand suddenly. There will be vascular rupture all over your body. Your capillaries will burst….your eyes…"

As she said that, iris' vision got blurry.

"…will bleed….that's the first symptom…"

Iris raised her hand to her face as she felt a liquid trickling down her face. Her vision got even more blurry as her head began to spin. She felt like her head was going to burst. For the second time, she felt like she was going to die.

"She's going to pass out now, second symptom. If an antidote is not made in the next four hours she might die…but I'm technically not sure, because physically she's different from us…." She said to Marco who had already run to her side and held her up.

"Oliver, go to the apothecary wing and report everything that this girl has said and have them make an antidote."

"I wasn't even listening, commander. I just heard erm…roots in five to eight ratio causes…cappilarries?? Or was it…arterial walls? Does that mean we have walls inside us?"

"Oliver, focus."

"On what-"

"Commander…or whatever. I don't know if you trust this kid with such vital information at the moment. Or if you trust your apothecaries after they messed up with basic nightmist knowledge. I volunteer to make the antidote as long as all ingredients are given to me. You can tie me up…or anything…I just want to save the princess"

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Melda was in awe. The scents of the portions in here were immaculate. She really wished she could have the time to play around. Sadly, this was basically the first and last time she would ever be in such a beautiful wing. Since she might never do this ever again, she decided to make something perfect and remarkable. The perfect antidote. To make a perfect antidote she would need a perfect poison. The poison she had used initially was not perfected by her. But she could do it. Its simple. Just get the ratios and proportions right and mix everything together. The other apothecaries and alchemists in the room watched in awe at how good and precise she was. She was definitely better than all of them if they worked together on a single project.

After an hour or so, she asked for a test subject, just to confirm if the poison was working. Then she paused. She had always tested her poisons on Eliara…this would be considered cheating on her test subject. No, she won't do it. She's sure it works anyway. Sure? No. she wrote down the formula again and again but something just didn't add up….Iris is not an ordinary witch. She's white haired, meaning on the ranks, she's a special witch. So there has to be one ingredient that she uses on other classes of witches that she has to swap with one that will be effective on iris' class to make the perfect posion!

If only she had more time….she shifted her attention to the antidote. She started writing down formulas. Even the oldest apothecaries in the room were shocked at how fast her brain worked. No wonder she had been able to craft something that would take down Iris. No one, before Melda, had done that. Iris was basically immune to all poisons, until Melda showed up.

The antidote, in Melda's perspective was practically the simplest part. Basically it's dping the opposite of what you did to make the poison. And so within thirty minutes she was done.

But it wasn't perfect in her eyes. That fact gnawed on her brain painfully, since she knew she was going to die immediately after iris was back to normal.

"Done."

Marco was stunned. But he didn't show it or say it

"I'll take it to her. I'll have the guards esc-"

Melda held the portion daintily and threatened, "I won't spend time making this only for me not to witness how it works. I'll drop it if you won't let me see how it works, then the princess and I will die-"

"Fine."

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Melda walked into Iris' chamber alongside Marco. She didn't bother looking around, her eyes gazed at iris….she was really dying, but her body was clearly fighting it. Her skin was pale, clammy. Her temperature as she felt it, was really low. It's like she was already dead.

"Petechiaefi, her capillaries burst…."

Elizabeth who had been with iris since had her eyes open in horror…she had never seen her mistress in this state before.

"Listen, you have been with her right? Compose yourself and tell me all the symptoms if you don't want her to die."

"Melda-" Marco interjected. Of all the people, Elizabeth was closest to Iris so of course seeing her like this was traumatic as it is, and Melda was just adding salt to the wound in the worst way possible.

"fine I'll figure it out." Her heartbeat was too rapid it even shocked her. Her pulse, was so faint. Of course her breathing was shallow too.

'Seems I made too much, two spoonfuls will be enough. Or…should I give her an overdose to see…what happens hhehehhehe WHAt? No!! melda, focus this is your last mission… don't think about….but a tiny overdose wouldn't…NO!! NO!! NO!!'

She gave her two spoonfulls and sat back. If the poison took less than a minute for her to pass out, the antidote should do the same. True to her words, almost immediately a white hue surrounded her body, as her breathing came back to normal, and her skin gained it's colour.

"She's going to be alright. Her body responds quicker than I expected."

Iris lashes fluttered open slowly as she felt energy surge back into her body. Elizabeth cried with joy; her mistress was coming back. She started thanking Melda endlessly and Melda totally ignored her, not because she was rude or anything, but because she was simply admiring her work. It worked. She didn't kill anyone. She fixed everything.

Iris sat up on her bed. Melda stood up and immediately bowed. "I apologize for the pain I caused. Though I would really wish to get a description of how it feels to have your capillaries burst inside you, that knowledge won't be of any benefit. You may kill me now."

Iris just stared at her.

"Be my pet!!" she declared.

"H-huh?"

"BE. MY.PET."