D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 2226 Recovery Step 2

--- Lily ---

Seeing as nobody was awake that didn’t know she was a person, Lily transformed and decided to just ask. ”Hey... so I didn’t quite manage to get my tail when I was using that healing potion, could I have a bit more?”

”Wait you’re a person?!” said Vanilla in the most deadpan voice possible. Lily glanced over at her and raised an eyebrow. ”What? Maryland here is actually injured! My worry is going to that.”

”Didn’t you sign up for this?” asked Lily.

At the same time Appoline said, ”She’s been healed, stop fussing and let her rest.”

Vanilla sighed, ”Yes we did... and I’m sure she’ll be fine but well,” Vanilla chewed on a few words. ”I’m limited in what I should say Lily. So, yes we did sign up but also yes I’m still worried.”

”Fair enough. I’m worried about Kat even though she’s technically fine,” sighed Lily.

”Wait where IS Kat anyway?” asked Vanilla. As this was happening, Appoline handed over another bottle of healing potion and Lily started to gently drip it onto her tail as she massaged the liquid into her fur. She could see a few spots that were less ’fur’ and more ’charcoal’ but it was all black so she was currently ignoring that to focus on everything else.

”Kat is currently trapped in some sort of spatial prison in Brook’s... room? In the room she was working on. The current worry is that if Kat just smashes her way out bad stuff would happen, from her getting banished to the void, or perhaps the void getting loose here in the basement.”

”Oh yeah that w-” Vanilla paused. ”I mean, I wouldn’t know anything about that. I’m just a humble guard,”

”Right,” sighed Lily, but she decided not to push. It was hard to know how intentional the ’slip’ was... nor what it was meant to be. Was it ’would happen’, or ’wouldn’t happen’ or some other W word? Considering she had no idea how the translation worked, it was possible that W wasn’t even the correct letter, just the most similar sound to whatever was correct. Lily didn’t know... so she decided it was best not to think on it.

”What’s the plan for now then?” said Lily as she tried to control her tail. It kept wanting to flick around but now that she was healing it, she found that not only was the skin scorched but apparently the damage was deep enough to get into the muscles. Lily barely remembered the impact, but she supposed she hadn’t properly curled her tail up when the light grenades went off.

Appoline tapped her foot on the ground. ”I’d really like to take a trip back to the greenhouse for ingredients. Even just for more healing potions. I’m not completely out but more than half of my stock is gone now. Everyone here seems fine, and the poison seems to have just been a knockout drug, a fairly weak one considering that nobody at Rank 2 was effected... but once it becomes clear Brook failed, it might lead to another attack. There is also the fact that Brook isn’t actually Brook,”

”Wait what?” asked Lily. ”What do you mean she’s not Brook?”

Appoline glanced over at the table. ”Do you remember that rather unique potion I was investigating when you and Kat snuck into my workshop?”

Lily glanced at the ceiling. ”I admit nothing.” Even as Kat transmitted the potion in question to her mind... which gave her a rather annoying picture of what’s going on. ”But... are you saying they managed to brew that potion?”

”Maybe. I might also be my copies of the potion. I had my own version, as well as two that were sent along for study. One was mostly used up, one was still completely full... and I made a number of less effective failures that might also have been grabbed for this purpose,” explained Appoline.

”How can you tell?” asked Lily. ”I mean she looks like Brook to me...”

”The skin,” Appoline answered. ”If you poke around you find that the skin doesn’t quite have the correct... give.”

”She seemed to bleed when I bit her,” countered Lily.

Appoline shook her head. ”She did indeed, but the way the potion works is... it essentially shrinks the true person down a bit, and then builds the overlay over the top of them, with the overly acting as most of a living person. It’s complicated, and the shell and the real person underneath are connected in a lot of ways to further sell the illusion. While I doubt anyone else could tell at a glance, after I investigate Brook’s wounds it was quite obvious to me.”

”Right... so what can we do about it?” asked Lily.