Chapter 555 - 66. What She Concealed
In Chapter 555 of "Demi-human Girls Completion Manual": "Dong! Dong! Dong!"The church bells above suddenly rang, adding to the atmosphere in the small... Discover the next events!
"Dong! Dong! Dong!"
The church bells above suddenly rang, adding to the atmosphere in the small room across from the confession room. Fisher looked expressionlessly at the handwriting in his hand, while in front of him lay Sister Ilois, a nun with a rosy complexion.
"Excuse me, Sister Ilois."
"Ah, that... um..."
Fisher didnât wait for Iloisâs consent and gently placed his hand on her abdomen. When he touched Iloisâs belly through a layer of nunâs clothing, she inevitably pursed her lips slightly, and her right hand unconsciously clutched the bedding next to her as if his large hand had touched the fetus inside her through that simple barrier.
Is this too strange?
However, Fisher had none of the superfluous thoughts that Ilois did. He was genuinely researching the biological characteristics of the Moon Rabbit species and exploring why she would have a false pregnancy. He had some conjecture about the cause of the false pregnancy, but the first thing to do now was to confirm whether she was actually carrying a child.
The next second, a Magic Circuit suddenly lit up on Fisherâs palm which touched Ilois. The magic continued to be transmitted into Iloisâs body, also illuminating the vast difference in the Magic Circuit from humans on her body.
"Are you trying to check whether her body has a newbornâs Magic Circuit to see if she is pregnant?"
Hearing Emhardtâs soft question by his ear, Fisher shook his head and replied,
"No, she just showed these symptoms last night. Even if she really is pregnant, a new Magic Circuit wouldnât appear so quickly. But I do want to see the conditions of her own Magic Circuit..."
Recalling the soul theory Fisher had learned earlier, he pondered another question. When does a personâs soul enter the body? Is it after a mother confirms her pregnancy, or does it wait until the newborn departs from the mother to come into the world?
Fisher could answer this question, and the answer was the former. The childâs soul enters his body before he is born from the motherâs body.
Earlier in his Magic studies, Fisher had researched a topic on Magic Circuits, which was that some female mages experienced strange phenomena when engraving Magic Emblems during pregnancy, including significantly increased probabilities of magic disruption and insufficient efficacy of the engraved spells. He had written an academic paper on this.
Previously, mages subconsciously thought this was due to a decline in physical function caused by pregnancy. However, according to subsequent experiments, the more active the fetus in the womb of a mage mother, the more severe this situation was. This only indicated that the fetusâs unconscious disruption of the Magic Circuit interfered with their process of engraving magic.
"The soul generally enters the fetusâs body between weeks 22 and 24 of pregnancy, and the Magic Circuit also appears around this time. However, before this period, the Spirit Realm already locks up this vacant âslotâ, which is why the magic efficacy of those mage mothers is affected..."
"So, I want to see if the Spirit Realm has locked onto Ilois. This is the most direct proof."
Fisher softly explained to Emhardt, but his hands continued their examination uninterrupted. Under the stimulation of his warm Magic Circuit, the magic inherent in Iloisâs body became excited, although not in large amounts, yet exceptionally active, showing no sign of being pulled by the Spirit Realm.
This explained that Iloisâs pregnancy was indeed false, and the changes occurring in her body were merely special reactions due to physiological reasons.
Though the result was expected, Fisher still let out a slight sigh of relief for some reason.
Emhardt, standing beside Fisher, had already guessed the answer from Fisherâs expression but still sighed somewhat regretfully. After all, he really wanted to see Fisher being chased to his witâs end by other women due to a child.
Fisher quietly withdrew his hand from Iloisâs body. Since it was confirmed that her pregnancy was false, the next step was to determine the cause of the false pregnancy and to further research her to gain progress on the biological research of the Moon Rabbit species.
"There is no new life in your belly. Otherwise, your Magic Circuit would surely be affected... Do you know what a Magic Circuit is? Itâs..."
But before Fisher could explain, Ilois preempted him,
"I... I know... Sister Shalu told me about it. She said itâs something everyone has that can use the power inside to engrave magic. Iâve seen her do it, but she never taught me, saying that my magic power is too weak..."
Fisher looked at her in mild surprise. He hadnât expected that Sister Shalu, who raised her, was also a mage. But on second thought, it wasnât without reason that the Healing Corruption Church had stood unshaken for many years. Besides researching magic, and also studying demi-humans, there was no issue with her learning magic while being a nun.
"Sister Shalu used to carve some simple magic to sell in Luxiang Castle, fetching a good amount of money," she said, her voice subdued. "But ever since she left... weâve run out of money. Now, I can only resort to gathering wild shells to eat..."
Fisher glanced at the pitiful Sister Ilois in front of him, then at the dilapidated Healing Corruption Church that was nearly falling apart, feeling that her situation was desperately grim.
Unfortunately, the treasures he had obtained from the Flying Fish had sunk into the ocean with the ship, otherwise he could have used that gold to repair the church for her.
However, he was also grateful for Iloisâs prior exposure to magic knowledge; otherwise, he would have had to spend quite some time explaining the relevant concepts to her.
"Since you understand the concepts, I wonât go into too much detail, but knowing whether you truly have a little one on the way is just the first step. I need to understand the specific reasons to come up with a solution for you..."
In fact, according to Fisherâs conjecture, the false pregnancy symptoms of the Moon Rabbit Species were certainly not a normal reaction for their raceâhe needed only to explore the unique aspects of her being and her feelings from yesterday to develop a direction for his hypothesis.
While holding a pen, Fisher sketched Iloisâs general physique and various data in his notebook, meanwhile casually prompting her to recall any differences she had with her peers during her childhood.
"Differences? Let me think... Well, I... I donât have a lot of... does fur count?"
"No fur?"
Fisher paused mid-writing and looked up at her, noticing Iloisâs cheeks flush with a seemingly embarrassed hue.
"Um... since I was little, Iâve had less fur than other Moon Rabbits. I only have hair on my head, ears, and tail; no fur anywhere else... Thatâs why I didnât like being around peers my age and preferred staying on the boat with my father."
Hearing this, a flicker of disappointment crossed Fisherâs eyes, imperceptible to most.
Donât get him wrong; Fisher didnât have an odd affinity for smooth rabbit fur. It was just that if the counterpart was a unique individual within their species, this could undoubtedly hinder the progress of biological research on the Moon Rabbit Species. Yet, during this period, he had been recording data while the Demi-human Girls Completion Manual was heating up, signaling promising progress, so he hadnât dwelled on it much.
"Also, I often see very strange things at night, sometimes many odd shadows, and they talk to me, asking me to help them with something. So, many nights I do not sleep well... But my father says itâs entirely normal, as he often communicates with those entities."
Fisher nodded, gazing into her eyes. Iloisâs pupils were black during the day, but he distinctly remembered the pink eyes soaked in moonlight from the previous night.
If he hadnât guessed wrong, the figures Ilois had seen were likely souls that hadnât fully dissipated, which wasnât very strange. However, it was clear that the Moon Rabbit could see more clearly than other races because they could also converse with the souls.
He remembered back in the South Continent; where the soul of Qi Qi, a Werewolf Species, had dissipated in front of him. Both its form and her words to him had seemed quite blurry, which highlighted that the Moon Rabbit Species was unique from other races.
Since the Moon Rabbit could gain a stronger soul perspective from moonlight, and souls became more active at night, did these phenomena also indicate a profound connection between the Moon and the Spirit Realm?
Suddenly, Fisher thought of the huge round moon he had seen in his dream and connected it to several clues he had gatheredâthese indicated that the Phoenix Species also had a relation with the Spirit Realm... or rather, some kind of pollution originating from there. Where did the Spirit Realm Pollution mentioned in the Demi-human Girls Completion Manual come from, then?
Regardless, the one thing Fisher now knew for sure was that Renie was closely linked to the Spirit Realm, a piece of information she had never disclosed to him.
What else are you hiding from me, Renie?
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
The Demi-human Girls Completion Manual in Fisherâs chest was growing increasingly hot, the stream of information about the Moon Rabbit continually fueling his biological research. Just as Fisher was about to take out the Completion Manual to check, a card the Cardinal had previously given sparked with an urgent beeping sound.
Frowning, Fisher rubbed his forehead and pulled the card from his chest, seeing the light points on its surface converging rapidly toward the baseâa signal indicating that a Cardinalâs mechanism was approaching him!
His expression shifted slightly, and he quickly rose to look outside.
"Knock! Knock! Knock!"
The church bells rang out again, and looking through the sound waves to the forest outside Luxiang Castle City, a discreet black carriage was meandering towards the coastline, heading directly for the decaying Healing Corruption Church.