"Why me?! I've carried him all the way here! It's someone else's turn!" Besley complained.

"Because you are the one Troy trusts most," Lord Gracius argued. "I don't want anyone to be hurt just because he doesn't trust them to pick him up..."

Besley pouts as he realized that he can't defy his father's claim. "Fine." He then picked me up too quickly for my liking and placed me on the table. It's quite cold. I'm lucky it ain't metal, or there will be no way I'm staying on it for a second without freezing.

"I'll go read something in the library," Besley puffed.

"Don't you wanna see what we're going to do to Troy?" The woman asked. That stopped him in his tracks and got him back to the spot he was in a few seconds ago. But he's still frowning.

OoOoOoOoO~ Looks like someone's in a foul mood.

The scientists snickered at this brief drama. "So, we'll going to extract a scale first before withdrawing some blood, because we can get rid of the pain and heal the wound doing the former, but we can't do the same for the latter. We want to do the most uncomfortable-slash-painful last so Troy doesn't try to run away in the middle of the extraction."

Lord Gracius, confused, looked at the woman for a second. "How does that work? Surely creating a wound when cutting off a scale is more painful and damaging than the tiny spot made by a syringe. Doesn't the first then is harder to heal?"

Professor Damian jumped into the conversation to explain, "Because a wound is actual pain and damage to the skin. Potions or normal magic can fix those. What a syringe does, however, is to create such a small speck to either inject a substance or withdraw blood. That damage is small enough to be negligible. Negligible enough that no simple magic nor potions can identify and heal or prevent pain. And the uncomfortable feeling you get when it injects or withdraws... That's probably even harder to get rid of as it is doing no damage at all for any magic to identify. So the process won't be completely comfortable unless we find a way to disable Troy's pain receptors or something. But I assume that's some very complicated magic that no one in this room can do.

I better tell him next time to make explanations shorter because I'm about to sleep right now.

"That is undoubtedly correct, Damian. I wonder why you never went into the science business?" A researcher asked.

Professor Damian shrugged, "By the time I'm interested in such a career, I already had a whole town more-or-less counting on me to manage the building they come in to learn. I do also teach or advise some students here too and I am also experienced in finding the right career from their abilities and knowledge."

"You've gained quite the reputation around here, I see."

Before another conversation would break out, the woman biologist built another wall. "Alright, I'm ready," she announced, holding a scalpel and a pair of some kind of surgical tongs... And a small bag on the table to collect my scales, I assume.

Wait, she's fucking serious!

Karen, if you could do the pain-preventing magic," She said to the other woman scientist. "She's the magician and potion maker in our group.

The only thing I give a shit about her is her name. Every piece of my mind went insane for a few seconds.

KAREN ALERT! KAREN ALERT!

WAIT, just because her name is Karen doesn't mean she's one-

NO! KAREN ALERT!

In that timespan, the woman approached me and I squirmed as my mind still played a nuclear breakdown warning.

"Why is he scared of me and not you?!" She pouted.

"You're approaching too fast!" The woman biologist, who I annoyingly still don't know a name to call her by, half-shouted.

"Yeah, yeah. You say that every time and most of them critters we research try to attack me!" She then opened up a book and started reciting words in a different language. A light purple mist started to form on top of the opened book in her hand and runes floated out of the book and into the mist, orbiting each other. She then pushed it lightly onto the base joint that connects my body with my left back leg.

Wait, wouldn't that-

"Won't that make him unable to walk?" Lord Gracius asked, asking my mental question too.

"Hmm? What do you mean? We're going to heal it back, right?" The magician said.

"You can do complete healing magic?!"

The woman started thinking for half a second, "Oh! That! No no no no no... I'm not that fluent in magic. We're using potions to heal it back!"

"O-oh yeah, of course," Lord Gracius stuttered, clearly embarrassed that potions didn't even come into mind.

The woman biologist then asked Besley a favour, "Mister Besley, would you mind holding Troy for a minute and stop him from looking back. This is going to get a little bloody and we're afraid that he will lash out if he sees what we're about to do to him. Of course, you can also look away if you don't like blood also."

"Alright!" Besley said a bit too excitedly for the situation. He then proceeds to hold me while keeping an uncomfortable grip on my head.

Then I felt a similar feeling to that when you try to pick a scab. They must've started. Of course, I already knew that the pain-preventing magic worked because I once was curious and tried to pick at one of my scales. It started to get painful, so I stopped.

I first started smelling something metallic in the air, and then I felt something trickle down the same leg they're taking a sample from. Is that what I think it is?

"Why couldn't you just take the blood sample from that instead of taking more blood with a syringe?" Lord Gracius asked.

"Because the blood cells that trickled out might've died by the time we transported it." The woman-biologist said.

Damn, I guess that this place isn't as medieval as I thought with that kind of knowledge. Unless, of course, it was influenced by Bermuda.

Lord Gracius' eyes widen as my blood kept trickling down. Besley started to look away, and Professor Damian's face visibly scrunched up in disgust.

Is it that bad? I thought, starting to get a little panicky. I subconsciously started to try to look back. Besley noticed this and kept a better grip on my head.

The ticklish feeling of what I assume is my blood is making my stomach jitter in nervousness as it continued for another minute. It took away the pain from it, but I still can feel them picking my scale.

Suddenly, I felt a warm feeling on my leg which started to get hotter by the second. It kept getting hotter to the point where it's not painful, but it is uncomfortable. The trickling of the blood stopped. Besley sighed in relief as he was about to let go, but the woman-biologist quickly said "Don't let go yet! We're still going to extract his blood."

Way to calm me down, woman.

I can't help but try to squirm my way into an atom on the table at the thought of a syringe. Besley started hugging me more than holding me, which actually calmed me down for a while.

"Now, this is a very rare syringe that only exists in the single digits in this world. If I'm not mistaken, this was created a hundred years ago by a very successful alchemist who managed to allow the glass used to be infused with magic that could control the flow of time! Of course, it only stops time. And only for the substance inside the syringe."

Wait, WAIT! I WANT TO SEE IT TOO! I thought as everyone else marveled at the special syringe I CAN'T see. Of course, I still couldn't really move.

"SCREEE-" is what everyone heard when a sudden sting appeared on my back-right leg. I jolted but tried to stay still. But my shriek before obliged another pair of hands to hold me on the back due to the fear of me thrashing around while the syringe is still sticking out of me. In three seconds, the sting is gone as I was let go. I bolted for the door which was slightly open and no one stopped me.

In a moment, I'd realize that it would be safer if they did.