Chapter 53: Ingredients for the Holy Medicine
The Great Demon King Misha, who was supposed to destroy the world, suddenly discovered that besides the Hero’s unwillingness to come to the Demon King’s Castle, he had encountered another terrible problem.
The Hero of Salvation, his destined mortal enemy.
Maybe, possibly, seemingly… liked him a little bit.
As a career-oriented Demon King who had never experienced a romantic event, Misha was panicked.
In other words, in the first hundred years of Misha’s demon life, he had focused almost all his mind on studying how to become a more excellent Demon King. He had never researched any issues related to love—oh, except for the Demon King missions that required establishing a tragic persona. He had read “One Hundred Ways to embody the Demon King’s Deep Affection,” but that was a required course for Demon Kings and had no connection to unreliable things like love.
Misha even firmly believed what Teacher Alisa had said.
For a Demon King, love is the most useless thing in this world.
This thing would only hinder the Demon King’s progress and even lead to the Demon King’s destruction. Misha knew the harm well. As far as he knew, there had been many cases of Demon Kings falling in love with Heroes, and these cases… not a single one had a good ending.
In most cases, the Hero didn’t believe the Demon King had good intentions. Temporary gentleness was just paving the way for the final stab.
Among the remaining few, some were deeply trapped in the gap between their identities and mutual incomprehension.
Under the constraints of the Divine Realm, the Demon King could not proactively speak the truth. So in the Hero’s eyes, the Demon King would always be the evil person who committed countless wrongs. This contradiction might be temporarily masked by love, but it inevitably couldn’t escape the moment of final eruption.
As for those who survived all that… they would likely be destroyed by the interference of the God Race in the end.
See, love really is the most useless thing in the world.
Misha strongly refused to step into such an ending.
Tracing back to the source, he thought carefully for a long time and could only conclude—Lance’s inexplicable affection for him must have originated from when he recklessly jumped into the volcanic fissure to save the Hero’s life.
Misha put himself in the Hero’s shoes. If someone did that for him, he would definitely be moved too… Ahhh! Why did I jump down to save the Hero back then?! Wouldn’t it have been better to just accept fate and switch to a new Hero?
I even burned my beautiful big wings!
Misha regretted it immensely.
Aspiring to become an elite Demon King, he absolutely had to avoid this kind of workplace romance.
His heart only held his career; he wouldn’t let this kind of thing stumble his steps of progress.
He must firmly reject the Hero. When the Hero went to the Royal Capital to save the Princess kidnapped by the Black Dragon, he would run away without hesitation and return to his Demon King’s Castle overnight!
Seeing that no one brought up the serious matter of the curse on Misha, and the Goddess hadn’t noticed anything unusual, the Bishop finally couldn’t help asking the Goddess: “Lord Gineses, regarding Divine Envoy Misha’s curse…”
Gineses was surprised. “Curse?”
She seemed to notice the abnormality on Misha only now. After being silent for a long time, she asked in great confusion, “Misha, what happened to you?”
Lance answered slowly, “I heard it’s a Demon King’s curse.”
Gineses: “…”
Lance: “He’s about to turn into a Black Dragon.”
Gineses: “…”
Gineses vaguely remembered what she had just said to the Hero.
The Black Dragon’s conspiracy… and the Hero’s love.
It’s over. This sounds so ambiguous. The Hero shouldn’t… be overthinking it, right?
As for the so-called Demon King’s curse… The Goddess thought this must be something Arlo and Misha fabricated to delay the Hero’s stay in Sky City. For such a small matter, she just needed to play along.
So Gineses continued to put on her usual airs and bullshit.
“I will bestow the formula for the Holy Medicine to lift the curse upon Arlo,” Gineses said. “You only need to find some rare ingredients.”
Arlo nodded vigorously.
Great, things have finally reached this step.
But Lance changed the subject and asked, “The Black Dragon conspiracy you mentioned can only be realized in the Royal Capital?”
Goddess: “Um… yes.”
Lance: “Then it seems we should head to the Royal Capital as soon as possible.”
Goddess: “Um…”
She started to feel a little uneasy.
Based on her understanding of this terrifying Hero, the Hero would definitely go stir up trouble. And the Hero seemed to have misunderstood what she just said. Then…
Poor Misha, you must take care.
The conversation with Gineses ended.
The Goddess said she had bestowed the formula for the Holy Medicine to lift the curse upon Arlo, so everyone turned to look at him, waiting for what he would say next.
Arlo: “Hmm…”
Of course, the Goddess hadn’t told him anything. He had to make it up himself.
With potions, if there was a mistake in the formula, it could cause irreversible consequences. Naturally, he couldn’t speak nonsense about the formula, but he also couldn’t name a formula that was too common and whose effects could be recognized at a glance.
He had to make it sound magical, preferably something that only existed in the Divine Realm. Hmm… for example…
Arlo thought of it.
In the Divine Realm, there were indeed some formulas unknown to the human world. Some of the ingredients sounded incredibly magical, but in reality, they were just healing potions to accelerate wound recovery and wouldn’t cause any extra burden on Misha’s body.
So Arlo coughed lightly and said, “The ingredients for the Holy Medicine are very complex. We might need to spend quite some time preparing them.”
“Please rest assured, we will do our best to cooperate.” Finally finding a solution, the Bishop seemed relieved. “We should have most of the ingredients for brewing magic potions.”
Arlo: “…This might be a bit different.”
He thought, Black Dragon Gil had just started executing the mission to kidnap the Princess assigned by the Divine Realm. He still needed time to complete it. So they’d better delay the Hero for a few more days. By the time he gathered all the ingredients for the potion, Gil should have successfully taken the human Princess away.
Lance asked directly, “What specific ingredients are needed?”
Arlo said based on his memory, “Fire Blood Vines growing at the bottom of a volcano.”
The Bishop paused. “Uh… this… we indeed do not have…”
Lance opened the small pouch at his waist. In front of everyone, he pulled out a complete, fiery red vine and handed it to Arlo.
Arlo: “…”
Misha: “…”
Honestly, Misha had been curious about the Hero’s bag for a long time.
This bag looked tiny, but the Hero could always pull out all sorts of strange things from it. The volume was fundamentally impossible for the bag to hold. That meant the Hero’s portable pouch might contain some unique spatial magic.
No matter how you look at it, this isn’t something a novice Hero should have, right?
Arlo was concerned about another matter.
Arlo: “You… why do you have this kind of thing?”
Lance: “When I fell into the volcano, I picked some in passing.”
“Eh?” Misha was surprised. “When did you pick it?”
Lance: “…”
He gently patted Misha’s head.
Arlo had to continue.
Arlo: “We also need the fruit of the Thorny Tree from the desert—”
Lance opened the small pouch.
Arlo: “And the powder of Sandstone Wolf fangs.”
Bishop: “This… is unlikely to be available.”
Lance had already pulled out perfectly intact fruits from the bag, as well as a string of fangs made into a beast-tooth necklace.
Arlo: “…”
Misha: “…”
Lance knew what they wanted to ask, so he explained voluntarily: “Near… that palace.”
He was referring to Ashby’s palace.
That’s not right. How did Misha not know the Hero ran off to pick fruit and hunt so many beasts?
Even if he found time to hunt, where did he get the time to make these things into a beast-tooth necklace!
Arlo decided to name things that were difficult to obtain.
Arlo: “Ice Crystal Lotus from the Eternal Glacier.”
“Ah.” Lance finally frowned slightly. “That is too hard to preserve.”
Arlo sighed in relief, thinking he had finally found something Lance hadn’t collected.
After all, the Hero hadn’t been to the glacier yet. It wouldn’t be normal for him to have these th—
Lance: “Are dried petals okay?”
Arlo: “…”
Misha: “…”
How does he even have this!!!
Arlo: “Frost Leaf Flowers from beside Fairy Lake.”
Lance pulled out a bunch of dried flowers.
Arlo: “Frozen Frost Fruit from the Polar Realm.”
Lance pulled out a handful.
Arlo: “Stanch-blood Spirit Grass growing beside the God’s Tower.”
Lance pulled out a large clump.
Arlo was completely stunned.
He thought for a long time, but couldn’t help asking, “Where… did you find all these things?”
Lance answered very earnestly, “I accidentally fell off a cliff.”
Arlo: “…Huh?”
Lance: “I met a white-haired old man under the cliff.”
Arlo: “White-haired old man?”
Lance: “He gave them all to me.”
Arlo fell into deep thought.
A white-haired old man at the bottom of a cliff? He seemed to have heard similar legends. Some prophets in the human world liked to live in strange, remote places. If he really met such a person, receiving gifts from them seemed normal.
Only Misha couldn’t help sighing deeply.
Here we go again. One look at the Hero’s expression, and he knew the Hero was lying!
What white-haired old man? The Hero definitely collected these materials himself through some method; it had nothing to do with any inexplicable old man. As for where exactly these things came from…
Misha couldn’t help being suspicious.
He recalled what Ashby had said—people with methods similar to the Hero had appeared in many places. He couldn’t help suspecting… Is it possible those people were all the Hero in disguise?
Arlo hesitated again, then opened his mouth to name an ingredient he felt the Hero couldn’t possibly have.
“Dewdrops wrapped in the leaves of the Tree of Life,” Arlo whispered. “This is the most important ingredient.”
After speaking, he looked nervously at the Hero, afraid the Hero would pull something else out of the bag.
Fortunately, this time there was nothing.
Lance shook his head helplessly and said, “That place… is hard for ordinary people to approach.”
Misha looked at Arlo curiously.
“That is the Holy Land guarded by the Elf Clan,” Arlo explained to Misha. “Only those chosen by the Gods can enter.”
He wanted to say more, but Lance had already proactively continued the conversation.
“Let’s go. We’ll leave right now,” Lance said seriously. “First to the Holy Land, then directly from the Holy Land to the Royal Capital.”
Arlo: “Uh…”
He felt Lance was being a bit too hasty.
“I have to report this to the Lord first.” The Bishop snapped out of it and said, “We also need to adjust the direction of the teleportation array. That should send you directly to the Elf’s Holy Land.”
Lance nodded.
“Please do, it’s urgent.” Lance looked at Misha, his gaze flickering over the dragon horns on Misha’s head, and said solemnly, “The Black Dragon’s conspiracy is waiting for me.”
Misha: “…”
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