Chapter 39 : Chapter 39
Chapter 39. Brewing the Fountain of Unfading Youth
Sylvia’s fingers stopped moving, and she lightly tapped the smooth surface of the table.
The council chamber fell so silent that even a pin drop could have been heard.
General Victor still stood behind Alectos like a silent iron tower, and his very presence was a kind of pressure.
Alice gripped her staff nervously and hardly dared to breathe.
“General Victor,” Sylvia said, her voice echoing through the spacious council chamber.
“Your subordinate is here.”
“Take Mr. Alectos and his companions away to rest.”
“Arrange for them to stay in the Iris Courtyard on the western side of the Duke’s Manor.”
“Without my written order, no one is to go near them.”
Victor’s body stiffened for a moment, but he did not question her.
He accepted the order crisply.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
That single command announced her decision.
She had accepted this scalding burden, a card capable of prying at the very fate of the Demi-Human Empire.
The tension in Alectos' body finally eased.
He bowed deeply to Sylvia and spoke with solemn sincerity.
“Thank you for your protection, Your Highness Princess Sylvia.”
“The Huiyin family will never forget your kindness.”
Sylvia only gave a faint nod and offered no unnecessary courtesies.
She watched as Victor led the three of them away, then added one more instruction.
“In addition, select the most elite squad from the Shadow Guard.”
“Equip them with the newest Magitech communication devices and send them out at once.”
“They are to cross the Dragon Mountain Range and thoroughly investigate the recent movements inside the Demi-Human Empire.”
“Understood!”
The door closed, leaving only Logaris and Sylvia in the council chamber.
“You truly are an excellent strategist of mine,” Sylvia said as she raised her head from the mountain of documents and rubbed her brow.
“I had just managed to sort out some of the mess in the Northern Territory, and now you bring me a living volcano that could ignite a war at any moment.”
Logaris walked over and sat across from her, pouring himself a cup of water.
“Risk and reward are always proportional.”
“You understand that better than anyone, do you not?”
“A living legitimate heir can keep Remington awake at night more effectively than ten legions.”
“That is assuming we can live long enough to see the day he loses sleep over it,” Sylvia replied as she pushed over a secret letter sealed with wax.
Logaris opened the letter and scanned it quickly.
“This came from Aurora,” Sylvia explained.
“A high-level delegation from the Holy Church has already departed from the Holy City, and their destination is Winter City.”
“The one leading them is a ‘Holy Light Envoy’ from the Inquisition, along with the nephew of a cardinal.”
“I do not need to tell you who they are coming for, do I?”
Aurora was Sylvia’s close friend in the royal capital and a Saintess within the Holy Church itself, well-informed and exceptionally connected.
“A Holy Light Envoy?”
“Just another thug from the Inquisition.” Logaris casually set the letter aside, his tone showing not the slightest concern.
“You had better take this seriously,” Sylvia warned him.
“The people of the Inquisition have never cared much for reason.”
“They represent divine authority, and acting first while reporting later is commonplace for them.”
“And that nephew is said to be a notorious wastrel.”
“He especially enjoys picking fights with geniuses, particularly geniuses like you who dare to publicly challenge the Holy Church.”
Logaris pushed up his glasses.
“Trouble?”
“Then let them come.”
“I have recently developed a certain desire to study Holy Light.”
The moment Sylvia saw that expression on his face, she knew any further persuasion would be useless.
This man’s contempt for the Holy Church was as deeply rooted and incomprehensible as his academic obsession.
“Do as you please.”
“Just do not tear down my Duke’s Manor,” she said, giving up on persuading him before lowering her head back to the documents.
“I still have a pile of follow-up tax reform plans to review.”
“I have no time to deal with your nonsense.”
Logaris stood up and stretched lazily.
“Perfect.”
“I also need to go attend to my own proper business.”
...
The Duke’s Manor warehouse had already been transformed by Logaris into something completely different from what it had been at the beginning.
Unlike the laboratory he kept at Saint Arcadia Academy, the one that looked as though it might explode at any moment, this alchemy workshop was orderly and immaculate.
Rows of glass vessels engraved with runes shimmered faintly on the shelves, and the air was filled with the strange scent of more than a dozen different magical materials mixed together.
Lilith was sitting in a corner in boredom, poking the bubbles rising from a crucible with a small silver rod while humming an unknown tune.
“Do not touch my things.”
Logaris' voice suddenly sounded behind her.
Lilith jumped in fright, and her hand shook so badly that the silver rod nearly fell into the crucible.
“Boss, why do you walk around without making any sound?” she complained as she patted her chest.
Logaris ignored her and walked straight to the central alchemy table, taking out one precious material after another from his Storage Ring.
There was the glowing Dragonblood Stone, the starlit Mithril Sand, and a small bottle of “Life Source Fluid” that had been found in the Dragon Ruins and left to settle for who knew how many years.
Lilith’s eyes immediately went wide.
Any one of those items, if taken outside, would have been enough for her to buy an entire town and live as a wealthy landlady.
“Boss, what kind of divine medicine are you making?”
“With so many good things, how about giving me a little?” she said as she moved closer with a flattering smile on her face.
“I am brewing the ‘Fountain of Unfading Youth,’” Logaris replied without even lifting his head as he began processing the materials according to an ancient tome.
“The Fountain of Unfading Youth?!” Lilith’s cry rose into a completely different pitch.
“The legendary divine medicine that can keep a person forever young?”
“That thing actually exists?”
“That is what the tome says.”
Logaris' movements were as precise as a machine.
He ground the Dragonblood Stone into uniform powder, dissolved it with the Life Source Fluid, and then carefully added the Mithril Sand.
Every step of the process was meticulous.
He was a scholar, and toward a legendary alchemical formula like this, he possessed an almost fanatical desire for verification.
The flame beneath the alchemy table was driven by Mana, gradually changing from a gentle orange to a blazing blue.
The liquid inside the crucible began to boil and spin, forming a beautiful little vortex.
According to the tome, once all the materials fused perfectly, the potion should turn a clear sky-blue and release a refreshing fragrance.
Time passed second by second.
The vortex in the crucible slowly subsided, yet the color did not shift toward azure at all.
It first turned into a strange, murky gray.
Then, after a violent surge of bubbling, it finally stabilized into a crystalline emerald green overflowing with vitality.
A rich fragrance of grass and wood mixed with the sweet metallic scent of dragon blood instantly filled the entire alchemy workshop.
It had failed.
Logaris calmly stared at the pool of emerald liquid in the crucible.
The finished product described in the tome was azure, while the color before him was obviously incorrect.
“The tome is not wrong, and my procedure was not wrong either,” Logaris said as he set down the stirring rod and fell into thought.
A few seconds later, he understood the crucial point.
“It is time,” he murmured.
“Time?” Lilith did not understand.
“This tome comes from roughly a thousand years ago.”
“Over a thousand years, the elemental tides of the continent and changes in the environment are more than enough to fundamentally alter the properties of many magical plants.”
“Their names may not have changed, but the internal structure of their Mana has already become completely different from that of their ancestors.”
Logaris picked up the bottle of emerald potion and observed it against the light.
“To use modern materials to reproduce an ancient formula and obtain a different result is actually the most reasonable outcome.”
It was an unavoidable scientific conclusion.
“Then... is this green stuff still useful?” Lilith asked curiously.
“It looks pretty impressive too.”
“I do not know.”
Logaris poured the potion into a crystal vial and sealed it with a stopper.
He closed his eyes and lightly tapped the air with his fingertips.
Several silver threads spread from his fingers and wound around the crystal vial, forming a complex, constantly shifting three-dimensional rune.
It was a divination spell—“Revelatory Divination.”
By peering into an item’s faint connection to the future, one could learn part of its nature.
A few seconds later, the rune dissolved into the air.
Logaris opened his eyes.
“So that is how it is.”