Rukna desperately searched for the holy sword.
‘Hi Bisby! Tell me right now how to neutralize the Grand Sage’s poison!’
“I’m sorry, master. The poison is confirmed to be a deadly toxin made by a dark mage and has already spread throughout the body. The probability of successful detoxification is less than 10%.”
‘Still, I can’t just stand by. Even if the chances are low, I want to find a way.’
“There is a mandrake root in the library on the 2nd floor of the laboratory. If you combine it with holy power and love directed towards the poisoned person, an antidote can be made.”
Rukna recalled the dream she had just had.
She remembered being told to convey her feelings through contact like a kiss, or by transferring blood or bodily fluids to the poisoned person.
“If master is the successor of Saint Closet, the success rate of the antidote will drastically improve. Time remaining until Grand Sage Kuran’s estimated time of death: 5 minutes 8 seconds.”
The countdown had begun.
Is that all the time left? Rukna quickly went up to the 2nd floor and searched the library.
It wasn’t hard to find what she was looking for.
The mandrake root was right there in a transparent alcohol container, as if it were soaking in ginseng liquor.
Do not touch. To be consumed when the blockhead gets married.
A small note that had been attached to the bottle was lying beneath it.
The container labeled ‘To be drunk when the blockhead gets 10 patents’ was already empty.
Next to ‘Fever-reducing elixir that works well when the blockhead has a fever’ was a small bottle with a note saying ‘Giant spider venom the blockhead asked for. Thought I’d die extracting this.’
For some reason, it made the tip of her nose sting.
‘You were raised with a lot of love, Bolton.’
But Rukna had no time to be sentimental, so she immediately took out the mandrake and got help from the holy sword.
As pure white holy power enveloped the mandrake root, it quickly turned into something like finely chopped ginger.
Rukna cupped it in her palm, went down to the first floor, and squeezed the juice into the mouth of Kuran who had collapsed on the floor.
“Ugh……”
Kuran’s Adam’s apple moved slowly as he swallowed the mandrake juice mixed with holy power.
“30 seconds remaining.”
‘Now I need to imbue it with loving feelings!’
Even for someone like Rukna, it was impossible to love a sage she’d only met today.
She needed to bring someone who loved the sage right now.
‘Right, Bolton!’
If she could slap that guy’s cheek to make him cry and then let those tears flow into the sage, it might work.
“25 seconds remaining.”
No matter how much she racked her brain, there was no way to bring Bolton here within 20 seconds.
“20 seconds remaining.”
‘No, please!’
Rukna flung open the laboratory door right away. And the countdown stopped.
“Oh, blockhead?”
Bolton was standing right in front of her with perfect timing.
‘God, thank you.’
A prayer flowed out spontaneously. She saw Matian behind him, but there was no time to pay attention to that.
‘How many seconds were left? About 15 seconds?’
“Why are you in Master’s lab? Your expression… huh?”
Rukna grabbed Bolton’s wrist and quickly dragged him in front of Kuran.
’12 seconds.’
“M-Master?”
Master! Bolton hurriedly put his ear to Kuran’s chest.
Tears began to well up in his anxiously trembling eye.
’10 seconds.’
“Sorry, Bolton.”
Rukna slapped Bolton’s cheek hard. The impact made the tears that had pooled in Bolton’s eyes fall.
“Ugh! What are you doing all of a sudden?”
‘5 seconds. Please.’
Rukna dabbed the teardrop with her fingertip and let it flow into the Grand Sage’s mouth. Did it go in properly?
“What on earth are you doing, blockhead!”
Bolton grabbed Rukna’s wrist tightly to stop her actions.
‘3 seconds.’
Simultaneously, Matian’s hand appeared and twisted Bolton’s wrist.
‘2 seconds.’
Argh! Bolton cried out in pain and released Rukna’s wrist.
‘1 second.’
Rukna roughly wiped Bolton’s moist eyes with her finger and then.
‘0 seconds. It’s over now.’
Put it in Kuran’s mouth.
Was it too little? What if it doesn’t work? Her hand trembled anxiously.
“You, what are you doing! Stop it!”
An angry Bolton shook Rukna’s shoulders.
Rukna’s body swayed back and forth from the force, but she, lost in a daze, only closed her eyes dejectedly.
As guilt weighed heavily on her shoulders for failing to save the Grand Sage.
Cough! The Grand Sage, who had been lying pale, coughed. A black, viscous liquid was flowing from the corners of his mouth.
Rukna immediately knelt down and wiped away the black liquid.
It wriggled like a living slime and stretched out long, caught in Rukna’s hand.
‘It’s just like a live octopus.’
Rukna tightly gripped it in her hand to restrain it. It squirmed and struggled to escape from Rukna’s hand.
If only Matian wasn’t here, she would have purified it with the holy power of the sacred sword, but now there was no other way.
That’s when Matian approached, took out a leather bracelet from his pocket, bent one knee to match Rukna’s eye level.
‘That looks exactly like the sacred object Matian gave me.’
And she checked her own wrist. Huh? The wrist where the bracelet should have been was empty. When did this disappear?
“Chad had it.”
Matian answered as if he had read Rukna’s mind. Chad, that quick-handed bastard! He must have taken it when they were facing off against the terrorist earlier.
“He said you didn’t need it. Did you trade it for that?”
Matian nodded towards the red string peeking out of Rukna’s pants pocket.
The object that looked like a bracelet at a glance was imbued with Chad’s magic.
“Th-That’s not it. Really. I didn’t know it was gone.”
Rukna shook her head.
Matian stared intently at Rukna’s face as if detecting lies, then put the bracelet back on her wrist.
“Don’t lose it. And be careful of thieves too.”
“Okay.”
Rukna nodded her head vigorously. Though she hadn’t done anything wrong, she felt strangely apologetic.
That must be why the bracelet he put back on felt as heavy as handcuffs.
“Now try purifying it as we did in the holy power lecture.”
“O-Okay.”
Nodding once more, Rukna focused on drawing out the holy power from the bracelet to eliminate the deadly poison squirming in her hand.
The holy power flowing from the bracelet spread through Rukna’s hand and amplified, filling the laboratory with a pure white light.
Huh? Oh no, Bisby? It’s troublesome if you suddenly do this while Matian is watching!
“Aaagh, my precious eye!”
Bolton covered his one and only eye, complaining about the light pollution.
The black poison in her grip was purified by the holy power and disappeared, but the holy power showed no signs of diminishing.
‘Take it easy, Bisby!’
Rukna scolded the holy sword, but the light remained.
Come to think of it, it felt different from when borrowing the holy sword’s power, like the power was radiating from the center of her body.
‘Perhaps I can use holy power to the extent that I’ve recovered my memories?’
While it was a happy thing, now wasn’t the time to be purely rejoicing.
Rukna glanced at Matian while trying her best to control the holy power.
“W-Why is this happening?”
She tried holding her breath and clenching her fists, but the holy power ran wild on its own.
At that moment, Matian placed his hand on Rukna’s shoulder.
“…!”
As soon as he touched her, the holy power flowed into him, and she felt his energy as if they had become one.
Her heart sank.
Like the deadly poison she had been holding until just now, no, an even larger darkness weighed down on her shoulder like an iron mass.
‘Is this the demon fragment that was said to be embedded in Matian’s heart?’
Thanks to that stimulus, she was able to properly gather the holy power.
As soon as the situation was resolved, Matian quickly removed his hand.
When he was affected by dark magic in the central tower, dark power had seeped into his body and he wasn’t feeling well.
‘As soon as I touched Rukna, all the discomfort disappeared.’
A feeling of refreshment, to the point of feeling like he could fly, coursed through his entire body.
It was fortunate that he removed his hand.
If not, he might have kept touching her, wanting to feel that power more.
“Rukna, what is this……”
Matian clenched his fist tightly. He had to suppress the desire to touch Rukna’s shoulder, slender neck, and wrist.
“Thanks for the bracelet. It’s incredibly effective.”
Rukna cut off the end of Matian’s words and stood up.
Her legs were trembling from how tense she had been, but she tightened her stomach muscles and left the laboratory, following Bolton who was supporting the Grand Sage.
[This is the timeline separator]Fritz was nervously immersed in his experiment. Every now and then, he glanced behind him.
A dark-skinned woman was standing with her arms crossed, monitoring Fritz.
‘Damn it, I’ve come this far with the plan, if I fail here I’m dead.’
And he flipped through a worn experimental journal.
The journal filled with neat handwriting belonged to his wife, Gail.
“Fritz, you know you’re the last hope for this plan, right?”
“W-Watch your mouth. Call me Alchemist Fritz.”
“Hehehe, such pride. Everyone on this island thinks you and I are lovers, why put up such a wall?”
“Shut up. I need to control all variables.”
“So sensitive. Honey, we used to have some pretty hot times, you know.”
“That was because you used petty tricks to blackmail me…!”
Damn it. Yeah, it’s all my fault.
Fritz took several deep breaths as he carefully combined the drugs in the test tubes.
‘Once I complete this, Gail will come back to me. Everyone will look up to me when I become a Grand Sage.’
It had been over a decade since he started challenging himself to create the golden elixir, referencing the experimental journal Gail left behind.
Facing various limitations, Fritz had dabbled in unorthodox dark magic and became a Red Eagle.
He grew into a successful alchemist with the support of the Red Eagles and even became an Elder Priest level who could handle scriptures within the Red Eagles.
But the Red Eagle ranks weren’t important to him.
His ultimate goal was to become a Grand Sage, not a dark mage.
__________
Male Lead, The Black-Hearted Lotus (Female-dominant)
Short intro by Yuushi L:
At first, the male lead despised the female lead. Later, he misunderstood that she liked him, so he condescendingly and reluctantly reciprocated her feelings.
Then, he suddenly discovered that she was kind to everyone in the same way, and there was already someone she cherished in her heart, and that person was not him.
The male lead couldn’t believe it, he became angry and crazy. He was determined to capture her body and heart by any means necessary.
Synopsis:
Want to see how a green tea bitch male lead falls in love with the female lead?
Want to see how he flirtatiously pursues the female lead?
Want to see how he gets slapped in the face repeatedly?
The male lead is a green tea bitch, a poisonous lotus, jealous, ruthless, unscrupulous, with a venomous heart, and he’s also a delusional maniac.
The female lead is righteous, positive energy-filled, kind, a holy mother.
Let’s see how two people with extreme personalities come together~