Chapter 88: Quitting Drinking Breaks the Heart

"Is this serious?" William asked the question that concerned the priest most. The portly priest had already begun to sweat; discovering half a basin of water had appeared in his belly, it was hard not to associate it with the supernatural means by which the Heavenly Father punishes evil deeds.

Adrian looked at Kraft's expression; it did not look like he was about to deliver good news. As expected, a terrible suggestion emerged from the mouth that had just described his condition, causing darkness to cloud his vision.

"To speak plainly, for the sake of your life, you must quit drinking, Father Adrian." While the priest gasped for air and his abdominal breathing was violent, Kraft placed his palm against his lower ribs to supplement the liver and spleen palpation.

A normal person's liver should be a soft, smooth organ, yet what his hand felt behind the right ribs was something with a harder texture and slightly uneven bumps.

The spleen under the left ribs could be felt beneath the rib cage; excessive blood stasis had caused it to become congested and swollen. This was an early symptom of high pressure due to blockage in the portal vein leading to the liver, and Adrian's condition was even more severe, estimated to be moderately to severely swollen.

Kraft did not dare to probe carefully; a congested spleen was like a water balloon, fragile and easily broken, and if it ruptured due to external impact, it would be fatal massive hemorrhage.

"And you must be careful to avoid collisions and falls. I guess bleeding doesn't stop easily for you after it starts." Kraft finished the brief physical examination, adjusted and smoothed his white robe, covering the priest's distended belly.

The situation was extremely grim, with no solution available. To be honest, even if the priest quit drinking now, it might not yield significant results; the name Adrian was already on the schedule to meet the Heavenly Father, the only difference being whether the checkmark confirming it came sooner or later.

Considering the texture of the liver, the risk of liver cancer was very high; he almost wanted to use his spiritual senses to generate an imaging report for the priest.

But issuing a report would be useless; current treatment methods could not extend his life long enough for liver cancer to become the primary concern. Other complications would send him on his way earlier, or he might unfortunately die from some injury due to a lack of clotting factors synthesized by the liver.

As a matter of professional duty, Kraft still had to emphasize the only feasible option at hand: "A faithful believer will not resist returning to the Heavenly Father's embrace, but if you still have attachments to the mortal world, I suggest you quit drinking."

"I haven't not tried, but once I quit drinking, my hands and feet tremble, I feel uncontrollable irritability, I can't sleep at night, and there are... some ramblings. They say I seem possessed by something, I can't stop."

Covering his head, which retained only a sparse ring of hair, with both hands, the symptoms he encountered during withdrawal made him question himself, wondering if he was truly bewitched by the devil and thus unable to control himself.

【Withdrawal Reaction】

Not surprising; like most addictive substances, alcohol also has a withdrawal reaction: trembling limbs, agitation, incoherent speech, and confusion.

Even someone who couldn't resist having a couple of drinks while hearing confessions consumed large amounts of alcohol daily; developing dependence was not accidental but an inevitable result, and the reaction caused by sudden withdrawal could be severe enough to cause death.

"No need to worry too much; this is a normal reaction to quitting alcohol. As long as you gradually reduce the amount, the situation can be alleviated significantly." Kraft held Father Adrian's hand; the roles reversed, and he became the priest trying hard to persuade the other to turn back from the cliff's edge.

"Ah, I truly don't know how to thank you; I will try." The priest returned to the table, painfully pushed the glass bottle toward William, and with his other hand naturally picked up the unfinished wine glass, "To celebrate my meeting with a good doctor today, we..."

Kraft reached out and pressed the cup back onto the table. "That's enough for today. If you truly wish to express gratitude, let me see your brewing tools; I am quite curious."

After some twists and turns, today's wish was finally granted; they led the reluctant Adrian away from the wine glass and entered that mysterious second-floor room filled with the rich scent of alcohol.

Upon stepping into the room, Kraft initially thought he had entered a small chapel. Unlike the casual and relaxed furnishings downstairs, this place was cleaned exceptionally thoroughly; a heavy wooden table was placed against the center of the wall, and above it hung a shiny, small double-winged holy symbol.

The ring body between the wings was also made of glass, perfectly round and smooth; at the junction where it met the wings, almost no welding marks were visible, demonstrating superb craftsmanship.

If the scent of alcohol were replaced with incense, it would be a perfect match; unfortunately, what sat on the table was not holy scriptures and wooden carvings, but the priest's brewing tools.

A long-tailed, teardrop-shaped retort with a streamlined body that narrowed near the mouth, stretching into a twisted, slender neck that sloped downward into a small bottle submerged in water.

The material used was highly transparent white glass, similar to the glass wings of the church. Cheap tubers commonly found in taverns were fermented and stored within it.

"I must introduce this concept to you; if I hadn't accidentally poured wine into the pot thinking it was water, I would never have thought to do this." Adrian took out a candle, lit it, and brought it close to the bottom of the bottle. "Fire can force out the most essential part of the wine."

"So I thought, could I collect them? I asked Vichem to help me make this. You may not know him, but you must have seen his work; those glass wings on the main gate are Vichem's masterpiece."

Watching him directly heat the bottom of the bottle with a flame, Kraft was speechless. Without a water bath for heating, condensation relied on the long neck, the air, and the collection bottle submerged in water; it was purely manually controlled, absurd beyond belief.

"Just doing this won't achieve that level of intensity, right?"

"Indeed, I have to carefully control a degree that isn't too hot, then repeat the process with the obtained substance several times before finally producing a small bottle."

Condensation was unfavorable, temperature control was left to chance, and a large amount of the product actually evaporated into the air; what truly achieved the effect of the scent wafting outside the alley was not the final product, but the wasted portion.

"I have an idea; since you already know to put the collection bottle in a basin of water, couldn't you cool down that long, curved neck? Or attach a tube that runs through water?"

"Ah?" As an amateur alchemist driven by interest, the priest had never considered further improving the apparatus. He had realized the importance of cooling, but his train of thought hadn't turned, leaving him limited to cooling the collection part.

"Also, perhaps using hot water to heat the retort would be easier to control?" The pitiful chemical experiment knowledge of a soul from another world finally came in handy, not betraying the hard work of his middle school chemistry teacher back then.

Thinking of it, they immediately got to work. With the addition of a water bath and condensation, the distillation effect improved greatly, even though the crude conditions only allowed him to pour water over the long neck.

A broad highway unfolded before the two of them; a mass-producible, high-yield alcohol purification device gave hope for Kraft's new sterilization method and startup capital.

"Fantastic! Let's go find Vichem and ask him to make a few more sets for me. Within a few years, we can build our own church!" Father Adrian cheered and jumped, even though he couldn't drink much of this wine. "Of course, it won't be as transparent as this one; to get such good bottles again, we'd have to dismantle materials from the church."

"I heard it was because of that alchemical potion?" Kraft recalled his original purpose for coming here: he wanted a set of transparent glass instruments.

"Yes, he often complains to me, saying that without that acid, he can't make glass like he used to."

"Acid?"