13 – Two News
“Put the two rings on both your hands and activate them.”
I wore the two rings named concentration and relaxing on my hands.
Suddenly, the artifact’s usage method automatically flowed into my head.
“Intense, relax.”
As the initiation phrase slipped out, the two rings began to shine, and I became captivated by a strange sensation.
“F-funny…”
A tranquil state of absolute calm, as if disconnected from the world, balanced by a sudden awakening of the mind that induced feelings of omnipotence — these two sensations existed in an inexplicable combination.
I have never done drugs, but it felt so peculiar that I wondered if this is what it might be like.
“Try visualizing again.”
I strongly imagined myself, palm up, lightly holding a glass marble the size of a fist.
After a few minutes, I started to see it.
“I can see it! I see it!”
“Is that true?”
“Yes. I even feel the touch.”
The glass’ unique smooth feeling was really sensed in my hand.
It was such an unusual phenomenon that I wondered if I was losing my mind.
“Ah…”
The buffing time is over, or the drug-like state has faded, along with the hallucination.
The sense of accomplishment was gone and I was terribly exhausted.
It felt as if I had pulled two straight all-nighters without sleep.
My body was drenched in sweat. Despite being so focused that my clothes got soaked, I didn’t notice.
Celenia opened her mouth in a surprised voice.
“Thomas, you really have an amazing talent.”
“Do I?”
I was so tired, I could barely muster a response.
“It’s true, brother! I used a lot of equipment and it still took me a month!”
“As far as I know, only one person has succeeded on their first try. But today, you became the second.”
“Ha ha ha…”
I chuckled sheepishly. Compliments feel good no matter what effort they come from.
“By the way…”
Suddenly, Celenia stared intensely at my face.
“What, what is it?”
A face so terrifyingly beautiful approached so close, it considerably flustered me.
“No, it’s not.”
She spoke with a face that seemed to be hiding something.
‘The way to anger people is to stop talking…’
“You’re likely to get mentally drained. That’s why I prepared the magic potion.”
Celiana dodged the conversation and handed me a magic potion.
I accepted the potion, my expression suspicious.
-Gulp, gulp
I drank heartily, but…
The taste… the taste was extremely bitter.
Bitterer than the medicinal herbs my mother forced me to eat when I was a child.
However, within less than 5 seconds, I could feel my mind becoming gradually clearer.
“Wow”
I gazed at the empty potion bottle as if I desired it.
‘If sold to students in Korea, I could make a fortune.’
Of course, I would have to control the production cost.
Such an effect that could make me think this way.
It didn’t simply dissolve mental fatigue, I felt sharper than my usual state as if my cognitive abilities had gotten keener.
It felt as though my cognitive potential had maximized.
“Magic potions are effective for fatigue as well, but they also provide extensive help for the mental weariness that wizards most frequently suffer from.”
After receiving the ring’s buff and consuming this potion, I felt like I had become a drug addict and couldn’t shake the feeling off.
It felt like an unknown doping sensation I had never experienced in my life.
“Does this have any side effects?”
Celiana gave a faint smile.
“They say it can lead to tolerance if you drink too much, but to be able to drink that many magic potions, one would have to be at least an emperor of an empire.”
“I see…”
“Then, let’s start again.”
“Okay.”
I activated the two rings again and imagined a glass bead.
This time, I managed to visualize it in less than 30 seconds.
“Enough.”
Celiana wore a shocked expression once again.
“It’s truly magnificent. You’ve managed to break the one-minute barrier in only two tries…”
“I am going to drink the potion once more and then attempt it without using the ring.”
“Okay.”
After gaining some expertise, it seemed like it might be possible to achieve it even without the ring.
When the duration of concentration and relaxation ended, I experienced spiritual exhaustion again.
I picked up a second Mana potion and drank it.
-gulp gulp
‘Hmm? The taste is different from before?’
The taste was even worse than the first potion I drank. Additionally, its viscosity made it difficult to swallow.
“Erg…”
Once I barely managed to get it down, I felt like I was about to throw up.
But this time, my mind didn’t clear.
Instead, I began to feel a heat spreading inside my body.
“Argh…”
The heat gradually intensified, turning into a moan.
“Thomas? Are you okay?”
Celiana looked at me with a worried expression, but I didn’t have the mental capacity to respond.
Because the heat was followed by a sensation of all my organs churning and twisting inside me.
“Uuurgh…”
“Brother!”
“Thomas!”
Both women rushed to assess my condition.
The change came rapidly.
I felt as if every bone, muscle, skin, hair, every facial feature, was shrinking rapidly.
Within a minute, the transformation ceased.
“Oh, brother…?”
“Huh?”
I responded to Christine’s call out, but there was something off about my voice.
“Aah… Ah… Eh?”
My low and thick voice was gone, replaced with the whining voice of a little child.
“So… So cute!!”
Christine suddenly jumped on me and hugged me tightly.
“Hey, wait a minute! Whoa!”
She was definitely a lot smaller than me, but I had a hard time supporting her weight as she threw herself at me.
“You’re cute!”
Christine rubbed her cheek against mine.
“Hey, just a moment! Get off me!”
I managed to break free from her and stood up.
But…
I had to look up to see Christine standing in front of me.
“What the…”
From Noble mtl dot com
“Just, just a moment.”
Celiana approached me with a very flustered expression and started examining my body.
“You really have changed… Polymorph? No, that’s impossible… Where did you get that potion?”
“Erm, it was from a potion shop in the royal capital. I don’t remember the name of the store, though.”
“I have to visit that potion shop right now. We need to figure out how this happened… Oh, no, we need to change Thomas back!”
She calmly assessed the situation and gave instructions. As expected of an elf who has lived for a long time, her composure is different from that of a human…
I think she briefly revealed her true feelings in the middle of that, but I decided to let it go.
However, I was curious. What exactly happened to me?
Did I accidentally buy the wrong potion that caused me to become younger?
“Excuse me for a moment.”
I asked the two of them to bear with me and stood in front of a mirror hanging on one of the walls of the room.
“What is this…”
Standing in the mirror was a little kid who looked to be in the lower grades of elementary school.
His black hair had grown incredibly long, reaching down to the floor, and the clothes he was wearing were so loose that they looked like they were about to fall off, barely clinging to his body.
The face somehow resembled my childhood, but it was slightly different…
“This looks exactly like Mom when she was young.”
It reminded me of a picture of my mother as a child that I had seen in my parents’ old photo album.
Even though she was my mother, I couldn’t help but think that her appearance was incredibly adorable…
Wait a minute. No! It can’t be…
“No way. Impossible.”
I tried my best to hide my unease as I took my shaking hand to my crotch.
Nothing.
“F*ck me!!!”
I cursed and collapsed on the spot, my knees and palms hitting the ground.
“I’ve never even used it yet…”
Celiana approached me as I was feeling completely bewildered.
“Thomas? We need to get to the potion shop quickly. The sooner we take action, the better…”
I turned to her, slightly annoyed, intending to say something.
“Right now I’m a little troubled… Huh..? Grrrooooaaan”
The symptoms from when I drank the potion earlier started to reoccur.
I felt my entire body contorting. However, that strange feeling of discomfort, although not as painful, continued for dozens of seconds.
My field of vision then returned to normal.
I was at the same height as Kristin, looking down at her.
“Uh, did it come back?”
I looked in the mirror. I felt my crotch.
“Whew…”
I let out a sigh of relief. I had completely returned to being a male.
Smiling wickedly, I collapsed like an old tree trunk three seconds later.
“Master!”
“Thomas!”
For some reason, I’ve been called out to a lot today.
With that final pointless observation, my consciousness faded.
———————–
Duke Tyler was in a good mood these days.
It seemed like things were progressing smoothly with his eldest daughter’s situation and, more than anything, he could already feel the influence of the royalist faction growing stronger.
The royalists had to somehow seize the initiative and maintain a balance. If the initiative fell into the hands of the nobles’ alliance, there was no telling what those cunning authors might do.
Duke Tyler had always thought this way.
If a relationship of kinship is fully established with Anderson now, the kingdom will be stabilized in many ways.
This will also resolve the problem of the succession of the family line.
How can this not be refreshing?
Humming a song lightly while processing the day’s official documents, I heard a knock.
“Knock knock”
“Come in.”
The Duke’s exclusive butler came in and placed two letters on the desk.
“There’s one from Lady Beatrice and one from the Anderson family.”
“Hm?”
There’s no reason for either of them to contact me.
“You may leave.”
After sending out the butler, I picked up the letters to read them.
I opened the one from my eldest daughter first.
“Hmm…”
As my eyes moved down, my silence deepened.
In summary,
she failed to control her excessive magic, causing damage to the owner of Haze’s clothing store.
Of course, she’d have to visit to apologize in person, and the family’s financial support was needed to provide compensation.
The last line read,
“I’m sorry for tarnishing the family’s honor, Mother.”
“So, the incident has happened.”
Ever since she was young, when her emotions intensified, the magic that overflowed from within her would create problems for those around her.
On days when she cried severely, her room would turn into a mess.
Thankfully, the heroes who also had excess magic left control methods for future generations, and Betty practiced these her entire life.
Still, she hasn’t completely mastered the control yet.
“I guess I need to gift the finest cloth…”
This was the store where my own clothes were made. I decided to pay the compensation undoubtedly.
And I opened the next letter, the one from the Anderson family.
Surprisingly, it was about my second daughter, Joy.
What havoc her sold potion had wreaked.
Even the eldest daughter’s letter seemed like a light issue compared to this.
“Joy… this little…”
The Duke crumpled the letter he had finished reading.