allendalepharm Page 110
Page 110
"Holy Maiden! Forget about your damn Mino! You haven't even seen his face yet! ...As the Ice Saintess of the Holy Church, carrying the hopes of countless people, have you forgotten your most sacred mission?!"
"If this continues, we might never escape the backlash of being frozen in this lifetime!"
“In this lifetime…” Lena blinked in surprise and murmured softly.
"Hey! Were you just a little tempted?" Ice Heart immediately asked suspiciously.
"Because as long as I stay frozen, I can close the age gap with Mino the Hero, so it seems very tempting, right! Right, right!!!"
"D-Damn, of course not! Ice Heart, am I that kind of person?" Lena guiltily looked away, not daring to meet the gaze of the shimmering Ice Heart. Under immense pressure, she finally managed a few forced coughs: "Alright!"
"Don't worry, Ice Heart, I know my limits."
Lena stood up, brushed her hair over her shoulders, and a faint smile appeared on her mature face:
“I’ve figured it out. I’m glad that Mino was able to express his feelings to me despite societal boundaries… but it’s still impossible for us to be together.”
"He's still young, and there are too many times when he's impulsive, prone to misunderstandings, and hot-blooded. Maybe his bold declaration of love using the demons was just a moment of indulgence before his death, maybe it was just a compromise under the suspension bridge effect, or maybe it was just a lucky coincidence..."
“Unlike him, I’m already a mature older sister, so I can’t accept his confession!”
Lena slowly raised her head, as if she had made up her mind: "As a mature and steady adult, I can't fall in love with someone just because they confess their feelings to me!"
"Only a little girl who has never been in a relationship would act like that!"
"Is...that so?" Ice Heart looked her master up and down, seemingly understanding but not quite, and finally felt a little relieved.
Its gaze swept around, and it asked again:
"—So, what's going on here?"
Right now, they are actually all consciousnesses, residing in Lena's own dream space. However, the dream space is not active at all times; when it is dormant, it is like the hazy space shrouded in white mist that appeared earlier...
Now, when my mood fluctuates, my dreams gradually solidify and materialize—
Before anyone knew it, a dozen or so dreamscapes shrouded in white mist slowly gathered around, as if they were about to materialize clearly at any moment.
Through the almost transparent white mist, the "rough map" that the Pure Heart saw in each dream was:
Minotaur in boy form, Minotaur in teenager form, Minotaur in young adult form, Minotaur in adult form... all kinds of Minotaur.
"Oh, you're so mean, Pure Heart~!!" Lena's face suddenly flushed red, and she said coquettishly:
"It's perfectly normal for a young girl still going through puberty to dream about all sorts of men occasionally. This is just the tip of the iceberg... It's perfectly normal!"
"You're still young my ass!!!" Ice Heart roared in a low voice, veins bulging.
"You call this occasional?!"
"A 24/7, uninterrupted, zero-percentage-rate series of dreams is called occasional?! Huh? Answer me?!?"
"You call this a bunch of different kinds of men? You're all minnows! Minnows of all shapes and sizes!!!"
"Your erotic dream is so innocent it's beyond belief! It's so pure that even the Warcraft Aminos would starve to death!!! At your age, when you're practically a wolf in sheep's clothing, isn't playing with pure love a bit of a mistake?!"
"Trying to fool people by mistaking the Pure Heart for a foreign relic? Who would believe you if you said you didn't fall for Mino?!"
Ice Heart was panting heavily. If it weren't a relic, it probably would have been complaining so much that its throat was burning, and it deeply regretted that it had chosen the wrong master.
It's said that she rejected nearly a thousand men before finally deciding to follow this aloof and cold flower with an iron will.
Damn it... which heartless bastard spread this rumor? It's clearly a lovesick fool who's been rejected nearly a thousand times!
Didn't the Magician's Tower discover such a fine gem?! Someone come and take her! She's so pitiful!!!
"Pure Heart, don't misunderstand..."
Seeing Iceheart's expression, Lena felt inexplicably guilty and finally explained:
"These fragments of dreams merely contain vague memories of Mino and me from various periods; it's a dream space I deliberately constructed—"
"Oh?" Iceheart came to her senses, not expecting Lena to have such a powerful control over dreams.
It's important to understand that although she is currently in a "lucid dream" state, in reality, she can only remain conscious within the dream, possessing the awareness and complete memories of being in the dream—controlling random and bizarre dreams, especially a dozen or more at once, is actually very difficult.
If Lena really has this ability, then the time it takes for them to break free from the backlash of the ice seal might actually be greatly reduced.
"As expected of the Ice Saintess, a once-in-a-millennium talent, Lady Lena, how did you manage to do this?"
Thinking of this, Bingjie's tone softened, and she asked with a mixture of admiration and curiosity.
Chapter 145 Lena's Love-Obsessed Strategy!
"Uh..." Lena's eyes darted around, and she stammered:
"It's nothing, it's just that every time I fail a blind date, I can't help but review which parts I went wrong at night... Gradually, I've been able to simulate a completely successful scenario in my dreams! — Although I cry for a long time every time I wake up and find it's a dream..." Lena put her hands on her hips as she spoke, looking a little smug.
"..." Ice Heart suddenly fell silent.
seriously.
Someone, marry her.
It's so pitiful.
It's truly heartbreaking to hear... It's one thing to fail at blind dates to the point of being able to see through the enemy's lies at a glance, but to succeed in a blind date to the point of being able to create lucid dreams is almost comparable to the power of the Nightmare Mirror, the seventh demon among demons.
I will never underestimate those who fail at blind dates again. Every single one of them is a superpowered loser!
"So," Lena said confidently, clasping her hands together with her fingers pressed together in front of her delicate, fair collarbone, her face beaming with innocence.
"As long as I keep recalling the time when I lived in the same village as Mino in my dreams, during that period when I had absolutely no feelings for him, I can gradually build up my resistance and regain the emotional state of not having romantic feelings for Mino!"
"So? Am I a beetroot?!"
"Is that so..." Iceheart's tone was somewhat uncertain. She lowered the frequency of her light to make a slight confirmation, feeling that what Lena said was indeed a good idea.
After all, according to Saintess Lena, when she lived in the same village as Mino the Hero, she did not fall in love with Mino because of their long-term companionship.
Perhaps this is also a natural memory that makes her realize the age gap between herself and Mino and the complete lack of affection between them, thus completely eradicating her romantic mindset...
"But, Your Holiness," Iceheart exclaimed softly, asking with some unease, "what is it?"
"What if, I mean, what if..."
"You probably won't actually fall in love with Mino while reliving your memories... right?"
"Don't worry, Pure Heart."
Lena's saintly robes fluttered gently, her blue eyes carrying a sacred and awe-inspiring aura—the icy rose of the Kingdom of Kur, the proud bottom line of the Ice Saintess. Saint Lena calmly declared:
"I'm not a woman who gives herself away so easily!"
……
Holding a white cloth filled with ceremonial materials, Hope walked out of the church's supplies storeroom with a sense of relief.
The ritual materials assigned by Pope Brad were not particularly valuable to begin with. He knew that the Holy Church would be well-prepared, which is why he chose the appropriate materials. Moreover, as the core of the kingdom and a top power on par with the Magician's Round Tower, the Holy Church would not have had much difficulty finding even rarer materials.
However, Hope was stumped by the herbs Pope Brad mentioned. These were clearly things that needed to be prepared on short notice... Herbs are generally only available on the market and are not considered necessities. Clerics use them even less than mages, so they are a knowledge gap and have very few storage and usage opportunities.
However, this did not deter Hope. He changed into a more understated ordinary priest's robe, walked out of the church and turned towards several dark street corners in the working-class district.
Hope was very familiar with the western district of the capital. Even though he had never used herbs, he remembered the various places around the Holy Church where they were sold. He could just buy the corresponding herbs from those herbalists when the time came.
Next, we need to find the herbs that Pope Brad mentioned are those that are more comforting and raise emotional thresholds...
Where there is light, there is darkness. After leaving the sacred and solemn Holy Church Square, the lively sounds of bustling markets and crowds filled his ears. After experiencing the simple and warm atmosphere of the common people's district in the capital, Hope looked on with anticipation and walked quickly toward the herbal stalls he had never been to before.
However, as the archbishop of the Holy Church, in order to avoid attracting attention, Hope skillfully applied a disguise to himself, so that to outsiders he would just appear as an ordinary, somewhat elderly priest.
"Selling herbs! Top-quality herbs!!!"
Some odd, incoherent shouts emanated from the stalls, and a thin, somewhat sleazy-looking vendor with a cloth band around his head, his face beaming with smiles, winked at the passing adventurers and warriors:
"Hey adventurer over there with a female companion, how about trying our shop's finest herbs! The effects last for a full two hours!"
"Hey! You muscular warrior, sir! I know you're in great shape, but... every man wants to be harder, right?! Duke Moss endorses it, personally tested and proven effective!!!"
Herb vendor Turn kept trying to sell his products to the passing adventurers, but for some reason, most of his targets were men.
Most adventurers, however, showed a hint of disgust, as if to prove something, putting on a look of deep resentment, and arrogantly sweeping past him without even glancing at him.
Subconsciously, I twitched my nose, smelling the faint fragrance of herbs... These third-rate herbal vendors are really something, so arrogant in broad daylight.
In the entire capital, everyone knows that if you want to buy genuine herbs, the best choice is to go to a herbal medicine shop with a physical storefront!
Moreover, most healing herbs cannot compare to the Blood Potion sold in the magic shop. Produced by the Lotte Merchant Guild, it is easy to use, works faster than herbs, and is cheap and affordable!
To deal with some abnormal statuses or toxins in the wild, you can buy some "holy water" or "Lena's holy water" (the bottle has a picture of the saint on it, the preparation method is the same as the holy water, but the price is 100% higher, and the money of fanatical believers is easy to make) from the clergy in the Holy Church.
You can imagine how shady it is that the herbs are sold at such an unrefined stall!
Any normal adventurer with a modicum of common sense would never need these kinds of herbs! Yes, absolutely not! They would never need them in their lifetime!!!
Turner understood this as well. After shouting for a while, he squatted down somewhat dejectedly, but he wasn't too discouraged.
After all... his business is booming at night, while he's just developing potential customers during the day.
As night falls, these adventurers, whom he couldn't possibly have approached during the day, will all naturally put on masks and sneak up on him. Then, he'll be the one ignoring them...
"How much are these herbs?"
Just then, a slender figure approached.
The herbalist, Turner, showed a flicker of interest.
Oh? You saw me during the day and instead of ignoring me, you brazenly came up to me?
interesting.
With a slight smirk, Turner forced a warm smile and enthusiastically introduced the items to the figure: "Just like the 1-kur copper coin, we have all kinds, everything you could want, just pick whatever you like..."
Turning his head to look at the person in front of him, the herb dealer Turn's eyes widened in shock, and he was filled with respect.
This person... isn't even wearing a mask!
Chapter 146 The Priest and the Silver Demon
How dare he? So brave?!
The world is going to the dogs; the atmosphere in this capital city... has actually deteriorated to this extent?
With a puzzled expression, Turner then noticed the incongruity he had previously overlooked: the customer's face... looked much older than those young people. His eyes widened, and his mouth involuntarily gaped open.