CHAPTER 220: CHAPTER-220

Kaya froze, her throat tight. Yes. She remembered it all too well. Slowly, she gave a small nod.

"I thought so," he said quietly. "If I’m correct, that second poison was introduced six or seven months ago. Is that right?"

Kaya thought for a moment, then gave another nod.

"Good." His gaze sharpened. "After that... did you notice anything different? Any change in your body or your mind?"

Kaya’s lips parted, but the answer took a moment to form. Finally, she muttered, "The urge to kill. It became weaker."

The physician’s eyes glimmered faintly as he gave a small smile. "As I expected."

He leaned back. "And the third poison—it must have been about three to four months ago, yes?"

Kaya’s brow furrowed, but she nodded again.

His tone dropped into certainty. "After that, your sleep improved, didn’t it? And your headaches... lessened."

Kaya hesitated, weighing whether to answer. Finally, she admitted, "Yes."

A satisfied smile curved his lips. "Good. That means every part of my analysis has been correct so far."

He rose to his feet and stepped toward the back of the room. When he returned, he was carrying a small ceramic cup filled with water. He set it gently on the stone table between them.

"Now," he said, his eyes watching her closely. "Tell me—what do you smell?"

Kaya picked it up and instantly gagged. The stench hit her like a blow, rank and filthy, as if a sewer had been opened right beneath her nose. The reek of rotting waste, the sludge of an entire city’s drains—it was overwhelming. Her throat tightened as bile rose up. She set the cup down quickly, her face pale.

The physician’s smile widened, calm and knowing. "So. The smell is unbearable, isn’t it?"

The physician lifted the cup and, without hesitation, downed the water in one gulp.

Kaya’s eyes widened. What? The stench had been unbearable—filthy, suffocating. How could he drink it so casually?

He set the cup down and looked straight at her. "Strange, isn’t it? To you it reeks. To me... it has no smell at all."

Her brows furrowed.

He tapped the rim of the cup lightly with his finger. "I added a special herb. Its scent is faint, almost illusory. Ordinary people can’t detect it. Even I can’t. But you..." His gaze sharpened. "You smell it so strongly you nearly gagged."

Kaya’s chest tightened, unease creeping in.

The physician leaned forward slightly, his tone low. "One last question." His finger rose and pointed at her eyes.

Automatically, Kaya’s hand lifted to her face. "My eyes?"

"Yes." His voice was firm now. "Have you noticed any change in their color recently? What is your original color?"

Kaya hesitated, then answered, "Black."

He studied her, his expression unreadable. "Do you know what they are now?"

A pause. Kaya thought back—vague, blurry glimpses of her reflection in water. She had noticed a strange shine before, but never enough detail. With no mirror, she hadn’t questioned it.

The physician’s words dropped like stones in still water. "They’ve turned sapphire blue."

Kaya blinked. "What?"

His eyes didn’t waver. "Completely sapphire blue. As clear as a jewel buried in sand."

Her breath hitched. She touched her face again, her fingertips brushing beneath her eyes as if that could confirm it. Sapphire blue? Even she hadn’t known.

Shock settled heavy in her chest. What else about her body was changing that she hadn’t seen?

The physician’s voice deepened, steady and deliberate.

"Ms. Kaya, I will be clear with you now. The first poison in your body... it is so toxic I cannot even identify it. But I can tell you this—by all logic, you should already be dead. No one should be able to sit here and breathe with that inside them."

Kaya’s hands tightened on her knees, but she said nothing.

He continued. "The second poison—the one injected into you months ago—it could have been meant to kill you... or to protect you."

Kaya gave a short, humorless laugh. "Protect me?" The very idea was absurd. Her sister protecting her? Impossible.

The physician didn’t react. "Believe what you will. But I know this: the second poison is deadly. Even a drop could kill a grown man. And yet, judging from your pulse and the state of your blood, it was given to you in a heavy dose. Oddly enough... that poison has been fighting the first one. Its effect lessened the first poison’s grip, holding it back."

Kaya stared at him, her disbelief warring with the truth she felt in her own body.

"But," he went on, "after months of constant battle, the second poison began to weaken. That was when someone introduced the third."

His eyes fixed on hers, sharp as a blade. "And that changed everything. With the third poison in your body, the balance shifted. Your headaches eased. The paralysis faded. You began to sleep again. Your body—unnaturally—started to feel almost... normal."

Kaya slowly pushed her hand against the stone table and rose to her feet. The physician blinked, caught off guard.

"Thank you," she said, her voice even. "If that’s all, I’ll be leaving now."

She turned toward the door without waiting for his reply.

"Wait—but..." His words faltered, confusion flickering across his face.

But Kaya didn’t stop. The more she thought about it, the clearer it became. He had danced around the truth the entire time. Yes, he had guessed she was poisoned. But the exact cause? The nature of it? Nothing.

He had admitted he couldn’t identify the first poison. As for the second and third, his words were only speculation. If he truly knew what they were, he would have said it outright. Instead, he spoke in circles.

So what did that mean? He had only confirmed what she already suspected—that she carried poison inside her. But beyond that... he knew nothing.

Kaya wasn’t going to waste another breath here.

But before she could reach the door, the physician suddenly stepped forward, blocking her path with stiff determination.

"Wait a minute. I’m not finished."

Kaya’s eyes narrowed, her tone cutting like steel.

"But I am."