“But actually synthesizing a medicine isn’t the only issue ahead of us.”
Henrik pointed out the further flaw in their nebulous plans with a sour expression, which made everyone sigh in unison. But Henrik wasn’t done yet. He turned his attack on Felix instead.
“To actually enter clinical trials, we’re going to need a lawyer. That’s where you come in. Make sure you study law as hard as you can, so you can prove useful to our cause when the time comes.”
Henrik didn’t sound as if he had a great deal of faith in Felix’s scholastic abilities. Felix’s eyes narrowed.
“What the heck’s your problem? You’ve been needling away at me since we got back. Grades this, study that. What, are you trying to start a fight with me? Because if that’s what you want, then bring it on!”
“We four are a team, a single unit. It’s going to take all of us working together to pull this off. So don’t be the weak link, that’s all I’m saying.”
Henrik glared back at Felix, who clammed up for a moment, sulking.
“I’m gonna study, all right? But not for the likes of you—I’m doing it for Mia!”
“Oh, grow up.”
Henrik laughed coldly as Felix’s eyes bulged apoplectically.
“I’m older than you, you jerk!”
It wasn’t a very good comeback when you considered the circumstances that led to Felix being a year older. Namely, the fact that he’d ended up having to repeat the entirety of first year. The others all sighed from second-hand embarrassment.
But it was Mathias who quelled Felix in the end.
“Pipe down, will ya? You’re holdin’ up the meeting.”
“If this is overstepping my bounds, then my bad, but I need you to study hard too, Mathias. We’ll need all of your mage skills at our disposal. You’re pretty much all the magic we’ve got, you see.”
Mathias blinked his red eyes. They were the color of fresh blood, a sign of the strong magical powers he possessed. He’d been born to belong to the very best of the kingdom’s mages.
“Mm-hmm.”
Blushing, Mathias clammed up. Felix shot him an amused look, a smirk playing about his lips.
Henrik turned to Mia then and raised his eyebrows expectantly.
“Mia, we’re going to go ahead and try to create a new medicine. Then, once it’s complete, we will need to test it to find out if it works. But before we even do that, we’re going to need to test it to make sure it’s safe. Now, how do you think we go about testing it?”
“…!”
Mia brought her hand to her mouth in reflex.
She knew how, of course. She’d always known. But being forced to really consider the implications for herself…made her break out in shivers.
Testing a new drug to see if it’s safe…there’s only one way. It was something Mia was going to have to come to terms with. Until now, she’d only ever dealt with drugs that had already passed safety tests, so she’d never had to come face to face with it before. She didn’t need Henrik to enlighten her. Everyone knew the only way to test drugs without endangering human life was to put them through animal trials.
“Animal trials were designated as a legal prerequisite to clinical trials a decade ago. You’d better prepare yourself for this, Mia.”
Mia flinched. Henrik had seen right through her. He’d seen that she wasn’t prepared—not at all.
Henrik kept on talking, but Mia was still thinking a mile a minute.
Henrik didn’t seem troubled by the concept of animal trials. Perhaps because his chosen field already involved dealing with lives that were hanging in the balance.
Amazing…
Mia watched Henrik, feeling a deep sense of respect for him. Seeming to notice her gaze upon him, he angled his face away self-consciously as he spoke. Then he was suddenly interrupted.
“Sorry to interrupt, but what about you, Henrik? You’ve been issuing orders left and right, but what’s your part in all this going to be?”
Felix pursed his lips with dissatisfaction as Henrik’s shoulders stiffened. His expression was incredulous. It said: what more could you possibly want from me?
It was true—Henrik had steadily maintained his status as the top student in their year. Mia knew he worked harder at his studies than anyone else.
As Henrik continued to stare Felix down, this realization seemed to dawn on Felix too. He fell silent, cowed. Mathias sighed with resignation. Even Mia was getting frustrated with the way this conversation was going nowhere fast.
Why is Felix so determined to keep jumping down Henrik’s throat?
Mia looked to Mathias for backup, but he just heaved a huge sigh.
“For my part, at least, I’ll do what I can. Now, can we get back to the first hurdle we’ve already identified? Namely, how are we going to actually make a new drug?”
“Hmm…so we know the cause of the illness is a lack of magical power.”
Henrik nodded along with Mia.
“In other words, the question before us is: how to supplement insufficient magical power in the body by administering medicine? We don’t know how the magical power present in the body is even made or what magical power really is in the first place. I’ve been thinking about it constantly during school break, and I haven’t even got the first idea how we can even begin to make a medicine for this.”
Henrik fell silent, drawing his brows together. Mia felt at a complete loss as she mulled it over.
Analeptic medicines could be used to stimulate the central nervous system in the case of a lack of physical strength, but a lack of magical power was a different issue altogether.
Felix, however, rubbed his jaw thoughtfully as he spoke. “If lack of magical power is the problem, then what if we administered magical power directly to the patient?”
Mia’s head came up, her eyes focusing on Felix. Henrik was gazing at him too, his jaw hanging loose with amazement.
Like Henrik, Mia had been thinking of magical power as something made naturally in the body, a process that could be stimulated by administering medicine. This new approach was a revelation.
“But how?”
“Hmm?”
Felix blinked several times, rubbing his jaw again. Then he fixed his gaze on Mathias as he spoke.
“Powerful mages have plenty of magical power, right? So much that they could surely spare a little skimmed off the top. Why not inject that excess directly into a patient?”
Felix’s theory was basic, his conjecture a simple matter of subtracting and adding. But if things were that straightforward, they wouldn’t need to be agonizing over the specifics like this.
“Like I said, how? And what is magical power, in the first place?”
“Like I said…”
Mia gazed at Felix hopefully even as he trailed off. If only he had the answer, it would solve everything…!
But Felix simply shrugged. “I thought it was an inspired idea, that’s all…” he said, at as much of a loss as any of them.
Oh Felix…do you always have to be so…Felix-y?
There’s a thin line between genius and insanity—that cruel saying popped into Mia’s head. She had to bite her lip to keep from saying it out loud.
Felix was smart. Whenever Mia did her homework with him, he often arrived at an answer without even having to go through the steps of working through a problem. And yet, his answers were always correct. His brain just seemed to be wired differently from most people. Mia figured most geniuses were wired like that.
She found herself sighing with a mix of envy and jealousy.
Sometimes, it seemed so implausible…
The fact that Mia, the very definition of normality, could be standing shoulder to shoulder with people this smart, simply as a result of her hard work and grit.
Henrik was muttering something under his breath. “You really are more than just an average idiot, after all…”
Felix met Henrik’s wry smile with a scowl of his own. “Who are you calling an idiot?”
“It was a compliment.”
Felix blinked in surprise even as Mathias physically restrained him from leaping at Henrik. Had Henrik really meant to compliment Felix, even in a roundabout and sarcastic way?
“We’ve been too fixated on medicine. There is a way to administer magical power directly to humans. We already know there is. And as a result of it, it’s not only Demon Claw patients who are suffering right now, is it?”
Henrik’s words sank in for a moment. Then all four of them gasped in unison, eyes darting back and forth from one to the other.
“Angel Tears?!”