Chapter 19
Loen Favre, the Head Apothecary.
At her sudden visit, the two n's movents stopped.
‘Why?’
It was before they, who looked at each other with such an expression, could even assess the situation.
“I shall show her in!!”
Haman shouted, shaking off Killian's hand.
As the door opened, Loen revealed her gaunt face.
“Head Apothecary, you've arrived!”
Haman, who shot out like a spring, bowed his head to Loen.
It was a movent unbelievable for soone who had been struggling just a mont ago.
“Haman, stamina is sothing that grows only after being pushed to its limits.”
The cowering Chamberlain hid behind Loen.
“Young Master, there's no one else below . If I collapse, who will attend to you, Young Master?”
“Who's collapsing? As long as the mind is sound, the body will not break.”
“A person's body isn't so blade! What a grotesque statent!”
‘This brat!’
It was the mont Killian was about to deliver a long speech without a care.
“That's enough.”
“……”
“……”
Loen shook her head as if she was fed up.
Only then did Killian's gaze turn to Loen.
“I apologize. I was dealing with an ignorant fellow and was neglectful to an elder of the family.”
“……!!”
Haman's eyes widened, but Killian paid him no mind.
“Chamberlain, bring tea.”
“Yes.”
As if he had never defied him, Haman prepared the tea and cups in the blink of an eye and quickly disappeared.
“Were you training your chamberlain?”
Loen asked, slling the aroma of the tea. The hand holding the teacup trembled slightly.
“Aren't you worried that the weak fellow will get beaten up?”
“It's not a typical relationship between a young master and a chamberlain.”
“I pampered him, and now he won't listen, which is a big problem. He needs to go through it one more ti to co to his senses.”
At the unusual answer, Loen composed her expression.
A familiar scent tickled the tip of her nose, as if a dicinal preparation had been added to the tea.
‘Getting beaten up.’
Loen was not unaware that those words were related to the Third Young Master. It was because rumors had been circulating in the family recently that the Third Young Master was taking care of the lacking Fourth Young Master.
‘Even if it were the Matriarchs, not the Third Young Master, they are not a vessel capable of containing the Fourth Young Master. Does that an the Fourth Young Master is waiting for his ti?’
A hidden dragon. He was a talent that perfectly fit that description.
Since the family's symbol was also two dragons, the expression was quite aningful.
“I heard you were appointed as the tactician for the Blue Knight Order. Looking at you now, your body has beco much healthier too.”
“It is thanks to the Head Apothecary. The spiritual dicine you made was quite effective.”
“Quite, you say……”
Loen's expression beca strange.
The only person who could make such an evaluation of the spiritual dicine she created was the current family head.
Wasn't Killian reacting as if he had experience taking a spiritual dicine of a higher grade?
“When I talk with you, it feels like I'm dealing with a seasoned knight.”
“My expression was just clumsy, I am truly grateful. More importantly, don't you have so business with ?”
“Still impatient as ever.”
Loen took out a transparent potion from her bosom.
“This is a new Vitality Recovery Potion I made. If you mix it with drinking water, it will help improve your stamina.”
“……?”
Killian looked at Loen with a puzzled expression.
“There's sothing I wanted to ask. You could call it a sort of bribe.”
Having said that, Loen cleared her throat and avoided his gaze.
It was because she was more used to answering soone's questions than preparing sothing like this to ask a question.
‘I've changed too. No, has it beco an era where you can't survive if you don't change?’
She gave a bitter smile and belatedly t Killian's gaze.
Indifferent eyes. What they held was a strong confidence in himself.
“The Mana Heart.”
She parted her lips, which wouldn't open easily.
“I, too, have achieved 6-star, but it is still a difficult thing to handle. I thought you might be able to answer my question.”
“I am still lacking.”
“There's no need to be so modest in front of . Knights who can handle Blue Fla are not common.”
After taking a breath, Loen continued.
“I'll ask you straight. Do you know about the side effects of a Superhuman's Mana Heart?”
“Yes.”
Loen's eyes trembled slightly at the answer that ca without a mont's hesitation.
“Surely, you're not going to say you ca to know that after dying and coming back to life, are you?”
“I won't deny it. By any chance, have you fallen into a slump?”
“……”
Loen's body flinched.
At Killian's indifferent question, she felt her mind being burned white.
“If it's a discourse on the Mana Heart, I might know, but if you're seeking an answer to overco the wall of a Superhuman, it will be difficult for
to help.”
To beco a Superhuman, enlightennt is the most important thing.
And after becoming a Superhuman, one's class changes depending on the experience and enlightennt gained just before.
‘Head Apothecary, please do not be too hasty.’
The symptoms of a slump vary from person to person, but most manifest in the form of ntal panic.
If an apothecary of Loen's caliber experienced a slump and overca it, there was a high probability that she would instantly gain the class of a Superhuman.
But it seed she had taken his intention differently.
“Do you think my sincerity is lacking?”
Tak.
She took out another potion from her bosom.
“It's a Mana Recovery Potion I made along with the Vitality Recovery Potion. Not only can it calm down a 6-star level backlash phenonon, but if you mix them and drink it, it will be more reassuring than having a decent Priest by your side.”
“……”
Killian looked down at the two finger-sized potions.
According to Loen's words, just by mixing the two, their effect would be amplified to the level of a spiritual dicine.
She spoke of it as if it were nothing, but it must have been created after no small number of failures.
Nevertheless.
Killian shook his head firmly.
Loen's face, who had sunk into her chair, hardened.
“I made a mistake. I showed an unsightly side of myself while in a slump.”
A slump is the wavering of the heart that occurs when one hits a wall.
She had recently found a clue to reach 7-star from her conversation with Killian, but a slump had co at a similar ti.
The problem was that the slump that appeared in her was not simply because of the 7-star wall.
‘To say such useless things to the Fourth Young Master…… I must have really lost my mind.’
“Is it a symptom that appeared after a private eting with the family head who finished his seclusion?”
Loen's movent, as she was about to get up from her seat, stopped.
‘How did he know that?’
Her trembling eyes spoke for her feelings.
Killian added an explanation as if he understood.
“If 7-star is the reconstruction of the body that surpasses the human physique, then 8-star is said to be the reconstruction of the mind that surpasses the human spirit.”
An 8-star Mana Heart that is out of control is difficult to withstand without the resistance of a Superhuman.
‘This is not an ordinary slump. The family head's Heart Break must be affecting the Head Apothecary as well.’
As the family's Head Apothecary, she must have had private etings with the family head several tis.
It was clear that both Simon and Loen were not fully aware of the slump.
“They say there are listening ears even in unseen places in the family. As for the family head's condition, there is no need to speak of it.”
‘This young man is really…….’
Loen's eyes, which had beco difficult to control, trembled.
The Fourth Young Master's insight, which saw through not only her condition but also the family head's, was now becoming fearso.
‘Even after 200 years, research on Superhumans is still lacking.’
If Killian hadn't produced nurous Superhumans himself, he wouldn't have been able to grasp a situation like this at once.
If the slump stemd from Heart Break, there was no need to hesitate any longer.
“The heart of a Grand Ogre, which has Mana resistance, and the heart of a troll, which has excellent regenerative abilities. Try mixing the serum that cos from decocting these two Magic Stones.”
“What……?”
“Of course, just mixing them won't be enough. The Head Apothecary will have to process them separately.”
He told her a few processing formulas based on his experience from hundreds of years ago.
Loen instinctively committed the formulas to mory.
‘How does the Fourth Young Master know even this……’
It wasn't a grand formula. It was just that the very idea itself was surprising.
That thought didn't last long.
‘I must hurry.’
Ogres and trolls are considered 5-star, and Grand Ogres 6-star monsters.
To obtain an intact heart of such a monster in the frontier would take three months. No, if she used the Sepia rchant Guild, it might be possible to reduce it to two months.
Loen bit her lip.
A month would be one thing.
‘Two months is too long.’
There was a high possibility that her mind would collapse before then.
Above all, there was no guarantee that what she just heard was the answer.
It was in the midst of her heart tightening and her mind burning white as the symptoms returned.
“Co to think of it, both ogres and trolls inhabit the Kurt Mountain Range, don't they?”
“……”
Loen looked at Killian.
“A Grand Ogre and a troll. To obtain the hearts of such creatures in a perfect state, you would need at least a 6-star knight or a force the size of a knight order to move.”
“Fourth Young Master, does that an……”
“Coincidentally, what do you know, I recently took on the position of tactician for the Blue Knight Order.”
Swoosh.
Killian pulled the two potions that had been placed on the table towards him.
“I'll take these as a down paynt.”
His clear eyes turned towards Loen's pocket.
“Well, don't you have anything else to take out?”
***
The place Killian headed with a leisurely stride right after eting Loen was Julian's reception room.
He swung a wooden sword with a pleased look on his face. It was because he was satisfied with the contract he had just made with Loen.
Of course, just because he was in a good mood didn't an the sword he swung was light.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Every ti the two wooden swords clashed, a grueso sound echoed in the reception room.
“Enough…… let's call it a day.”
Whoosh.
Julian, who had created distance by swinging his sword wide, announced the end of the lesson.
“The worthless chamberlain is enough for whining.”
“What do you an by that…… Keok!!”
Julian, who was struck in the abdon by a surprise attack, let out a scream-like groan.
He couldn't breathe properly, and his back bent on its own.
Thud.
Julian, who knelt on one knee, let out a ragged breath.
‘This bastard did it again……’
An experience like a real battle. It had been over a week since he had been repeating training that truly lived up to those words.
Surprisingly, in the anti, his slump had disappeared without a trace.
Overcoming a slump is followed by growth.
‘The stage of 3-star is right before my eyes.’
It was the reason why Julian was gritting his teeth and enduring the current training.
If he ever tried to play a trick and pretend to be unconscious.
Press.
“Kuaaargh……”
Killian's wooden sword would invariably poke a vital point and make him get up.
Julian barely managed to stand up, relying on his wooden sword.
His legs were trembling, his whole body was drenched in cold sweat, and he felt like he would stop breathing at any mont.
‘Son of a bitch……’
Grit.
He gritted his teeth and glared at his tactician.
He squeezed his Mana Heart and focused all his energy on his lower body and the arm holding the wooden sword.
First Flash.
He was trying to imitate the technique he had been hit with before.
‘Let's see how you like it. If I use the acceleration enhanced by Mana……’
Clack.
A wooden sword that flew in as a surprise attack struck Julian's leg.
Thud.
One leg buckled.
Clack.
Thud.
When the second leg also buckled, he ended up in a posture of bowing his head.
“Keeu……”
“That's all for today's training.”
Killian, who had announced the end of the duel, hung the wooden sword on the wall and left the reception room.
Julian, with his head bowed, could only.
“F*ck, you're supposed to…… use honorifics with ……!”
Vent his anger in a voice that wouldn't be heard.
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