**[Scene: Behind Spade Tower - Snow Wolf''s Hunt]**


    The crisp winter air carried screams before I even turned the corner. Three maids in blue uniforms scrambled across the snow, their breath coming in panicked clouds. Behind them, a massive white wolf with crimson-stained paws advanced with deliberate slowness.


    [Maid #1] *"Please! Somebody—"*


    A paw the size of a dinner plate swiped horizontally. The maid''s head spun twice in the air before thudding into a snowbank.


    The Snow Wolf didn''t feast. It *laughed* - a disturbingly human chuckle rumbling from its throat as it systematically broke each remaining maid like a child crushing ants. When the last twitching body stilled, it yawned and sauntered back toward the tower''s western annex.


    *Interesting. The beast kills for sport, not hunger.*


    ---


    **[Scene: Spade Tower Entrance]**


    Two guards in obsidian-black armor crossed their spears at my approach.


    [Guard #1] *"Halt! None enter the Spade Tower without the Tower Master''s permission."*


    [Kael] *"I''m Count Pera''s newly appointed advisor.Can I know where Clara live?"*


    [Guard #2] *"Ah. You''re the new advisor that our tower master talked ."* He smirked. *"Sixth floor, first door. Used to be a storeroom."*


    The disdain in his voice was palpable, but the spear points withdrew.


    ---


    **[Scene: Clara''s Chamber - The Locked Door]**


    The door was smaller than expected - a reinforced slab of black crystal that absorbed sound. My knock echoed strangely.


    [Clara] *"K-Kael? Is that you?"*


    The door creaked open to reveal a cramped space that smelled of antiseptic and dried blood. No windows. Walls lined with shelves of pickled organs in glass jars. Clara stood clutching a healer''s primer to her chest like a shield.


    [Kael] *"I need a favor."*


    [Clara] *"W-what could you possibly—"*


    [Kael] *"First, show me your door key."*


    Her trembling hands produced an iron key shaped like a skeletal finger. The moment cold metal touched my palm, I *swallowed it whole.*


    [Clara] *"W-what are you—?!"*


    ---


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    **[Scene: The Procedure]**


    My left arm *twisted* with a wet crack. Fingers plunged into my own shoulder, *ripping* the humerus free in a geyser of blood that splattered across Clara''s face. Her scream painted the ceiling red.


    [Kael] *"Observe closely."*


    My fist clenched. The bone *shattered* into glittering dust, which I mixed with black powder from my vial - pulverized Abyss-crystal.


    [Clara] *"S-stop! This is heresy! The Church forbids—"*


    [Kael] *"Restoration. Now."*


    Her holy light seared my flesh as the fragments *reknit* - darker, thicker, *wrong*. The new bone gleamed like volcanic glass beneath my skin.


    One by one, I repeated the process. Ribs. Spine. *Skull.* Each time, Clara''s sobs grew quieter, her eyes brighter. When I cracked open my sternum to reinforce the bones near my heart, she was *leaning forward*.


    [Clara] *"Kael... why?"*


    [Kael] *"Bones strengthen through breaking and reconstruction. Your healing methods are flawed - you restore weakness."*


    [Clara] *"B-but the pain—"*


    [Kael] *"Is temporary. Power is eternal."*


    By dawn, my skeleton was a hybrid of bone and Abyss-crystal. Clara stood in the corner, *biting her nails to the quick*, her once-pristine healer''s robes splattered crimson.


    Then she *laughed* - a high, broken sound.


    [Clara] *"All these years... and I never *thought* to improve the body itself!"*


    ---


    **[Scene: Next Morning - The Clinic]**


    A frantic maid intercepted me in the hall.


    [Maid] *"Advisor! Please, you must stop Lady Clara! She''s *breaking* the patients!"*


    The clinic was a chorus of screams. Clara stood over a nobleman, her steel medical rod rising and falling with *mechanical precision*. His right hand was already a purple ruin.


    [Clara] *"Almost there! Just three more fractures for *balanced* reinforcement!"*


    [Noble Patient] *"DEMON! YOU''RE —"*


    I took the rod from her grip.


    [Kael] *"You''re being inefficient."*


    The noble''s shin *exploded* under my swing. Clara watched, *giggling*, as I demonstrated *proper* technique - methodical, *educational* strikes to every major bone group.


    [Clara] *"Ohhh! So *that''s* how you distribute kinetic energy!"*


    Her notes, I noticed, were *meticulous*.


    [Noble Patient] *"The Church... was right... monsters *wear* human skin..."*


    **[Scene: Spade Tower Clinic – Late Afternoon]**


    The nobleman’s whimpers had dulled to shallow gasps. Clara twirled the steel rod like a conductor’s baton, her once-timid hands now moving with surgical precision.


    [Clara] *"The radius fractures cleaner if you twist *counterclockwise*—see?"*


    A wet *snap*. The nobleman’s wrist bent at a grotesque angle.


    **[Kael’s Observation]**


    A shadow moved where shadows shouldn’t.


    Near the clinic’s sole window, the flickering candlelight *stilled* for half a heartbeat too long. The scent of sanctified oil—thick and cloying—drifted through the iron-tang of blood.


    *Someone was watching.*


    Not openly. Not even magically. The man was simply *there*, his presence bending the room around him like light through stained glass. Clara, the groaning noble, even the flies buzzing toward the pooling blood—none noticed.


    [Kael’s Thoughts] *"Holy See’s Veil of Ignorance. Makes the unworthy overlook him entirely."*


    I adjusted my stance, deliberately turning my back to the window.


    [Kael] *"Clara. The sternum next. Strike at a 23-degree angle."*


    She beamed, swinging with the enthusiasm of a child cracking a festival nut.


    **[The Mysterious’s Gaze]**


    It weighed heavier now. Not angry. Not even disapproving.


    *Fascinated.*


    Clara’s rod struck true. The nobleman’s scream hitched—then cut off as his lung collapsed. The bishop’s breath caught, just audibly.


    [Clara] *"Oops! Was that too hard?"*


    [Kael] *"Perfect. Now observe how the ribs—"*


    A floorboard creaked. Not from our feet.


    Clara froze. The nobleman’s blood dripped onto her boots. Three seconds passed. Four.


    [Clara] *"…Kael? Why does it feel like…"*


    Her fingers tightened on the rod. *"Like we’re being *judged*?"*


    **[Silent Withdrawal]**


    The candle flames *leaned* suddenly, as if bowing. The scent of myrrh faded.


    Gone.


    Clara shuddered, then giggled.


    [Clara] *"Silly me! Must’ve imagined it."*


    Outside, a single snowflake struck the window—and burned through the glass like acid.