novelraw Chapter 332: Cotton Candy
Chapter 332: Cotton Candy
In the urban area of Mya at night, a luxuriously decorated hotel remained brightly lit even late into the night. Inside the warm hall with its doors and windows closed tight, not only were there two Slime girls huddled together shivering, but there was also a white-haired young lady sitting in a wheelchair, constantly reaching out to rub a ring. She looked at her legs, seemingly pondering a question.
"Miss, how about you go upstairs to rest for a while? I will wait here for Mr. Fisher's return."
Just behind her, Heidelin, who had gone to properly put the True Ice away, returned to the first floor with a blanket. After carefully draping the blanket over Valentiina, she looked at the two Slimes and spoke.
But Valentiina shook her head, rested her cheek on one hand, and suddenly spoke to Heidelin,
"No, the Slime sigil is the fourth sigil, and this is very important to us... By the way, Heidelin, have the family send over the historical books from our home. Fisher said they would be useful, and he wants to take a look at them."
"Yes, Miss."
Heidelin behind her respectfully agreed, then left the hall to send a message within the Turan family, making the entire hall quiet down again.
Actually, it wasn't Fisher who wanted to see them, but Valentiina, who had gained the ability of prophecy upon seeing the True Ice. This led her to other speculations about the genetic disease in her body. Perhaps Fisher was right; there really was Phoenix blood in her body. Otherwise, why could she use the Moon Princess?
Thinking of this, Valentiina gently reached out and summoned the wooden box containing the Moon Princess sword. Ever since she was born, this divine weapon hidden within the family had been calling out to her, and no one else in the family had such an ability. This was also why the elders in the family were so surprised when she told them she could hear the calling of the Moon Princess and the Frostwood Sycamore Tree...
If what flowed in the family's veins was truly Phoenix blood, why would the Phoenix ancestors torture their descendants so much, making each of them die young and suffer from disabilities? And why did the Moon Princess sword call out to her, urging her to go to the Frostwood Sycamore Tree instead of someone else in the family?These questions lingered in Valentiina's mind, and there was no one else who could answer them for her. Perhaps because she had gazed at the True Ice today, her legs began to clearly experience phantom pain again. Even though her legs had no feeling at any other time, they sometimes produced unbearable, agonizing pain, making Valentiina suffer miserably.
Gritting her teeth, she withdrew the Moon Princess sword in her hand, then took out the medicine she had previously given Fisher. She casually tapped two pills into her palm and swallowed them whole. After the painkiller took effect, Valentiina weakly felt the pain in her body slowly recede.
Amidst that gradually dissipating pain, no one could notice that her pale silver eyes began to uncontrollably emit a faint, weak light once more. In Valentiina's vision, the mist within the True Ice continuously spread out, eventually forming another scene before her.
However, unlike the scene she saw within the True Ice, the scene she was seeing now was scattered and blurry, looking more like several scenes pieced together.
In the mist, Valentiina vaguely saw a cold, snow-capped mountain bathed in sunlight. She saw a group of blonde Naris people in black trench coats coldly aiming a strangely shaped relic resembling an ostrich egg at her. Then, she seemed to hear the loud bang of a musket...
With the appearance of that loud musket bang, Valentiina instantly snapped out of the prophecy in the mist. She hurriedly clutched her head and knocked on her temples with her fingers. Since looking at the True Ice, her condition had been somewhat abnormal. Although she could see some scattered scenes regarding the future, her genetic disease seemed to have slightly worsened because of it.
Was this considered a Blessing or a Curse?
Valentiina didn't dwell too much on her own issues, as she was already mentally prepared when she left the family.
Ordinary members of the Turan family couldn't live past thirty—and that was only the good fortune of members with very mild symptoms of the genetic disease. For a member like Valentiina, whose genetic disease was unprecedentedly severe, living past twenty would be a miracle.
Therefore, before leaving the Snowflake Fortress, Valentiina had come looking for the Frostwood Sycamore Tree with the resolve to die. She was now more concerned about the information hidden within the scene she had seen.
Those blonde men were Naris people. They had no pursuit of the Frostwood Sycamore Tree, nor did they hold a grudge against the Turan family. Yet they were still making a huge fuss over her now. The reason was obviously that Fisher, who also came from Naris.
Valentiina had already known a bit about his entanglement with Elizabeth, but obviously, the matters between them were more complicated than Valentiina had imagined, to the point that the other party would travel ten thousand miles to have someone capture him alive and bring him back.
Was it because Fisher harbored some secret vital to Naris, such as his unhuman-like constitution from before? Or did he get involved in some domestic political struggle, forcing the Queen to settle scores with him? Or was it simply a little story between the Queen and a scholar?
Valentiina tapped on the wheelchair under her hand, unconsciously thinking of the scene she had seen in the True Ice earlier. Her face turned slightly red, but she sighed with a headache and softly spat,
"This scumbag..."
In the very next moment, the space in front of Valentiina suddenly warped. She looked up and saw Fisher holding a circular sigil in his hand, followed by the Slime-kin Kexiening, who had a rather strange expression.
"We're back. The Slime sigil is in hand."
"So fast?"
Valentiina's eyes lit up slightly. After Fisher walked up to her, placed the Slime sigil in her hand, and allowed her to carefully inspect it, she looked up at Fisher suspiciously and said,
"So, what conditions did the Slime-kin make you promise before giving you this sigil?"
"Ah, about that, there weren't really any conditions. As an aside, they even gave us a lot of intelligence and help..."
Fisher briefly explained the events in the Borderland, but cleverly concealed the third condition regarding his favor, while also telling Valentiina the clues about the Giant Troll-kin.
From this perspective, the Slime-kin were like the Moon Rabbit-kin, a pitiful species forced to leave their hometown because of the curse of the Northern Border. They also desperately wanted to return to the Northern Border, which was why they provided such help to the Turan family. After all, wasn't it basically the same as not mentioning the first two conditions?
By the way, he also told Valentiina about the arrangements for Kexiening and her daughters. He planned to briefly research Kexiening before fulfilling his promise to the Slime-kin.
Indeed, on the way back, Fisher had already bound Kexiening, one of the six clans. This way, he would soon be able to fully collect the two Tag Sequences of the Northern Border: one was the 'Cotton Candy' tag, which only lacked the Owl-kin, and the other was the 'Snow Mountain Familiars' sequence, which lacked the Snow Fox-kin and the Giant Troll-kin. Claiming the rewards was just around the corner.
"I see. To think that all the Giant Troll-kin entered the entrance of the Sycamore Tree. No wonder many people who wanted to investigate the Sema Mountains mysteriously disappeared before... I heard that you Western Continentals are the most numerous. Wasn't there a treasure-hunting craze for the snowy mountains earlier? Exploration teams from the Witch Research Society in Kadu and the Nazarene Development Company... Countless people perished inside. After we obtain the sigil of the Snow Fox-kin, we will also have to face them. I wonder if it will go smoothly... Why are you looking at me like that?"
Rubbing her chin, Valentiina analyzed all the available clues. Upon mentioning the matters regarding the Giant Troll-kin, her tone became somewhat uncertain. After all, the Slime King had said that the Trolls would kill all living creatures attempting to enter the Sycamore Tree, yet Fisher continuously looked at her with a smile. That gaze made Valentiina subconsciously dodge and chide him.
"I was thinking, since the Slime King chose to hand the sigil over to us, it shows he harbors hope that we can enter the Sycamore Tree. They are shrewdly calculating Slime-kin and wouldn't invest haphazardly."
"Even if you say so... Alright, I understand. Thank you for your hard work tonight. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid not only would the True Ice have been stolen, but the sigil wouldn't have been acquired either... Thank you."
"Mhm. Instead of that, I'm more interested in knowing exactly what prophecy you saw in the True Ice. Can you tell me?"
"No!"
Fisher looked in surprise at Valentiina beside him, who had seemingly bristled up and decisively refused, unable to follow up for a moment.
Valentiina seemed to feel her tone was a bit harsh. Blushing and tightly pinching the ring on her hand, she quickly continued,
"That prophecy isn't of much help for the future, and even if I told you, nothing would be gained, so forget about it. Tomorrow, I'll have the Owl-kin demi-human you wanted brought here. Better focus on researching your demi-human. By the way, you need to prepare for the negotiations with the Snow Fox-kin afterward too."
Fisher clapped his hands, looking as if he suddenly realized something, and marveled at Valentiina,
"So that's how it is. Using the research on the Owl-kin demi-human to divert my interest in Miss Valentiina? Truly a clever method. However, if Miss Valentiina has the bloodline of the Phoenix-kin, your value is unfathomably higher than these other demi-humans."
"This guy is truly a terrible Naris person!"
Valentiina became even more certain in her heart that what she saw in the True Ice wasn't a prophecy at all, but a hallucination!
"Hmph, think whatever you want. I'm going back to rest. Later, I'll have Heidelin arrange rooms for these Slimes. Goodnight."
"Don't you need me to push your wheelchair for you?"
Valentiina's body stiffened slightly. She tentatively placed her hands on the wheels of her wheelchair and pushed forcefully, only to find she had advanced a tiny distance. Then she looked back at Fisher, coughed awkwardly, and said in a small voice,
"Then you should push me back. Heidelin went up to notify the family to send the Turan family's books over, and she still hasn't returned... I reckon they must be annoyed with constantly sending people to deliver this and that."
However, Fisher behind her crossed his arms and, as if he hadn't heard, looked down at Eimhart in his embrace, then suddenly turned to let Kexiening and her daughters onto the elevator. He looked extremely detestable, nearly making Valentiina fume with anger. She glared fiercely at Fisher, and after seeing his expression, tentatively asked in a small voice,
"P-Please?"
"As you command, Eldest Miss Valentiina."
Seeing that it was late, Fisher couldn't be bothered to tease this young lady who had just come of age. So, smiling, he walked behind her, gently gripped the back of her wheelchair, and prepared to push her back to rest. However, this form of address seemed to have flipped some switch, jolting Valentiina with a start.
Because, in the hallucination from the True Ice, Fisher had also called her this while biting her hair.
Blushing, she looked back and pointed a finger at Fisher, saying in an agitated manner,
"You're not allowed to call me that."
"Not allowed to call you that either? Then what should I call you?"
"Valentiina is fine, and Eldest Miss is fine too, but you just can't put them together!"
"No problem, Eldest Miss."
Valentiina was pushed into the elevator by Fisher. Listening to him call her 'Eldest Miss' sounded strange no matter what, so she looked back and whispered to Fisher again,
"You'd better just call me Valentiina normally."
"You really have a lot of issues."
Fisher sighed and said this, making Valentiina, flustered and exasperated, grip her dress, close her eyes, and shout,
"You're too loud, leave it at that!"
And in the elevator, Kexiening and her daughters, who had witnessed the whole process, looked at Fisher, then at Valentiina, blinking blankly.
Didn't Zu Zu say during their conversation earlier that there was a tiny probability this mixed-blood from Naris might strike up sparks with the fledgling Phoenix?
A tiny probability?
There was still some time before the Snow Fox-kin in Mya arrived. Early the next morning, Fisher set out to prepare without stopping. First, he needed to research Kexiening. He roughly checked the progress in the Completion Handbook and found that the main issue was the biological research progress.
[Slime-kin Biological Research Progress: 4%]
[Slime-kin Social Research Progress: 21%]
[You have unlocked Phase 1 Reward for Slime-kin Social Research Progress]
[Constitution +1, Observation +2]
After having breakfast, Fisher was preparing to head to Kexiening's room for some research to fill up the remaining biological research progress. However, halfway there, he suddenly saw Heidelin in the elevator, leading a tall figure draped in a cloak into a hotel room.
"Please come this way. The specific arrangements are exactly as I mentioned just now... Ah, what a coincidence. The scholar who wants to research you is right over there."
Heidelin smiled and pointed at Fisher standing in the distant corridor. Then, she turned to the tall, cloaked figure beside her and introduced him,
"Let me introduce you. This is Freya, a senior officer from the Mya Police Department and an Owl-kin. You must be careful during your research."
"An Owl-kin?"
Fisher turned his head to look at her. He saw the lady named 'Freya' gently place a hand on her cloak. Her hands weren't fair, five-fingered human hands, but bird talons with black nails. As she slowly lifted the cloak, the first thing to enter his sight was a thick, scarf-like collar of white down. The down grew from her chest and wrapped entirely around the back of her neck in a full circle.
It turned out to be a lady with short white hair. However, her head shape was somewhat rounded, making her aura feel much more approachable amidst its sharpness. On her back grew a pair of small, down-covered fleshy wings, speckled with blue and white feathers, resembling crystalline adornments.
That soft, fluffy appearance made Fisher swallow hard, but after just a second, he quickly averted his gaze from the down-wrapped body.
"Nice to meet you. I am a scholar from Naris, Fisher Benavides."
"Officer Freya. Nice to meet you."
Fisher shook her warm bird talon, only then noticing that several long white feathers grew from her ears. Her pale yellow irises constantly refocused, as if she were also simultaneously observing the scholar before her.
"Mr. Fisher, the Eldest Miss instructed me last night to go to the city this morning to find an Owl-kin demi-human for your research, and it seemed like she was quite angry when she went to bed last night... I want to ask, just why did the two of you, an unmarried man and woman, go to the second floor where the True Ice is stored last night?"
Fisher cast a somewhat guilty glance at Heidelin, who wore a fake smile. He couldn't say it was Valentiina who wanted to see the True Ice, because that would expose the Phoenix bloodline triggered by the True Ice within her. But he didn't panic; instead, he retorted,
"Miss Heidelin, speaking of this suddenly reminds me of what you said to me last time regarding how Miss Valentiina is disabled, so there would be this and that issue, and you hoped I could be tolerant of her little actions... Then, have you ever considered that it's precisely because you all keep treating her as a disabled person and accommodating her that she feels increasingly sad? Even if she's angry because of what I said yesterday, that anger will quickly pass. Otherwise, she wouldn't have instructed you to bring this Owl-kin lady to the hotel, right?"
Heidelin froze slightly, looking at Fisher, who gently knocked on Kexiening's door while speaking,
"Rest assured. Miss Valentiina is not an idiot; I can't just trick her with a few words. We didn't talk about much last night either. It's just that you've treated her as a disabled person for too long. That meticulous care reserved for the disabled makes her feel suffocated, which is why she does small things that step out of line, like wanting to go see the True Ice with me late at night?"
Fisher multi-tasked. While dealing with the troublesome Heidelin, he simultaneously bound the newly brought Owl-kin. The Demi-Human Girl Completion Handbook in his embrace grew hotter, and lines of illusory text appeared simultaneously before his eyes.
[Owl-kin]
[Available for Binding and Research: 0/1]
[Freya, Adult Female Owl-kin]
"Bind!"
As a familiar yet accustomed intense pain radiated from his chest, Fisher narrowed his eyes, simultaneously feeling a burst of dazzling, colorful light erupt from the void. It was a light Fisher had never seen before, as if he felt the excitement of the person who wrote the Demi-Human Girl Completion Handbook.
[Congratulations, you have fully collected a brand new Demi-Human species Tag Sequence: Cotton Candy!]
[Contributor's Note: Ahaha, please be sure to give their fur or feathers a good rub during your research. These are rare treasures in this world. By the way, let me privately rank the softness of their fluff... Hmm, ahaha, as expected, they are all so soft I can't rank them. It can't be helped, you all tie for first place.]
[(‾ω‾)]
Fisher's face instantly darkened, unable to speak for a long time as he stared at that row of bizarre symbols.