**[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—?!"*

  ---

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  **[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.