I caved in.
"Ah, fine! Surely there must be a way to numb the pain a little, at least. And anyway, that pair of wings is too big for you. I will kill something smaller next time. Go on, eat the thing."
***
Soon after that, I returned to Guying to ask him about this.
The man looked like I asked him to stop drinking.
"Ugh. Seriously? Make that pest fly? Add even more body parts that don't belong? Fine, fine, do that, Yujin. What a great idea. Anyway, I told you I only learned alchemy to brew booze."
"But surely you know something that can help, at least."
"Something… I guess."
With a list of herbs that Guying gave me, I spent several more days gathering and brewing—on my own this time—to make a numbing ointment out of them.
It was really a great thing that we were on a mountain full of herbs—making that ointment outside would've taken me a month of just gathering ingredients. If I found them at all.
