[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke-Chapter 174: The End Of The Holy Book

It had been a week since they left the Marquis estate. A week of quiet travel. A week of Xion’s silence.

It wasn’t as if anyone paid much attention to it. The others assumed he was simply preoccupied with his alchemy.

How could they not when Xion had pushed himself into the endless pit of experimenting with new potions?

Thus, the entire retinue avoided him more than ever.

However, Allen, who was well-versed in alchemy, could tell that something was off.

His teacher wasn’t experimenting at all.

The potions Xion kept refining weren’t new discoveries; they were merely existing formulas that he was tweaking in his free time.

Sure, he was perfecting the potions and improving their effectiveness, but in the end, it was all just a meaningless distraction.

Why, though? What weighed so heavily on his mind that he needed such a distraction?

Allen didn’t understand, but he chose not to dwell on it.

Instead, he focused on brewing healing potions. They needed a lot of them, apparently. As for why ... Allen still had no clue.

But he didn’t have time to figure it out either. Not when that little brat, Noxian, had somehow managed to produce one more potion than him!

Allen gaped at the row of bottles, his eye twitching.

Noxian clapped his little hands smugly while dusting off his hands.

"Brother said that since I’m so intelligent and learned this potion so quickly, he’ll reward me with another of his precious books," after saying so Noxian shook his head with a helpless smile.

"It’s such a pity that only I can get it." He emphasized "I" while staring right into Allen’s honey-brown eyes.

It was certainly a rare delight to see the normally expressionless Allen frown.

Allen gritted his teeth. This was all Raymond’s fault!

If that knight hadn’t pulled him away earlier, he wouldn’t have lost his lead.

Now, the great alchemist of the empire had been matched by a mere child.

It was simply unacceptable.

With renewed determination, Allen resumed his work. That was how the alchemist and the little purple-haired boy resumed their silent race.

Xion watched them from behind as his fingers absentmindedly toyed with a dried herb. Both of these people were his students in a way.

One was ready to accept him as his master and could only settle for "teacher" while the other had already started calling him "brother".

One tall, one short, and yet both moving in perfect sync.

As he watched them, a soft smile curled at his lips.

This could very well be the last time I see them like this, Xion chewed over the words that left a bitter taste in his mind.

But it could very well be the truth. After all, he had read that holy book until the last page.

Even someone as sharp-minded and manipulative as Sakura Mei could not escape this world unscathed.

She had often mentioned how Prince Valaria and Duke Nocturne pestered her, and in the end, she truly fell for the prince. Hence, breaking the heart of the duke, she finally decided to settle in this world.

Who would have thought that on the wedding day, the first thing the prince did after the vows was to put Sakura under his own protection?

It sounded nice, but in reality, he was merely keeping her under surveillance. Without his permission, she could not even step outside her chambers, let alone help the poor as she was used to.

Her connection to the church was broken, and the most heinous thing was that when she was still immersed in the rose-tinted life of love, the prince had already wedded a princess from the neighboring country.

Up until then, Sakura had convinced herself that the crown prince was merely possessive, keeping her inside for her safety.

Even the news of marriage only reached her after a few months.

When she asked the prince how he could break his promise to be loyal to her, all he got in response was that as a woman she did not understand his troubles.

The marriage was very important to tie the two nations, and Sakura with his immature thinking was hindering him.

If that was not all, Sakura soon heard that the newly wedded princess was pregnant at the same time as her. There were many open and hidden fights between the two.

However, the worst happened when the delivery time was near. Sakura Mei ended up poisoned and the result was the loss of her unborn child.

"I only had one wish — to hold my child, to cherish him. It was a boy, you know.

A beautiful boy with hair as dark as the night sky. At least he took after me, not his father.

His equally dark eyes were even more pretty than the shining stars. But they were lifeless, they had lost their luster due to the cruelty of the world.

I saw my "dear husband" consoling that princess. He was afraid that he might not see his other child as well.

He had promised that there would only be me and him, and I stupidly agreed. Say, reader, am I not the biggest fool?

People were never loyal. Especially the ones who were born in riches. For them. power was all that mattered.

Even now, all his grief was only that he had lost a boy. If my child were a girl, would she not suffer even more injustice?

All those transmigration novels were indeed just that. Useless novels. And I ended up believing the lies uttered in those novels. I believed the lies fell from his highness’ lips and treated them as rare treasures.

But... You know, I did not let him see my child. Not even when he was begging on his knees.

I know I am not a good person. I am not a good wife because I could not understand why my husband had married not just one but two more princesses.

Is that the only way to stabilize the empire? If it was then why must he lie to me?

Now that I think about it, it must be due to the influence I have on the church.

I am not a good lover. I want to hit him, but I am unable to. I am exhausted. So, so terribly tired.

Although I was never a good woman according to the standards ... I wanted to be a good mother.

But even that had been snatched away.

Tell me, reader... If I die now, will he mourn my loss? Or will he grieve only for his lost possession?"

Then, there was no more. Xion had flipped the rest of the pages in an almost fanatic attempt to find another word.

Yet, there was no more ink covering the yellowish parchments.

Xion, like a little kid, ended up crying.

Was it for Sakura Mei? Or was it for her unborn child? Or was he looking at himself in her shadow?

But I don’t deserve to compare myself to her, Xion muttered as he traced his fingers over the last inked page.

Sakura Mei was really a good person. She was humorous, witty, and above all, she was still gentle.

Time was the cruellest of all. It could let even the gentlest person become a heinous monster.

Even someone like her could not withstand the test of time.

Her lover betrayed her, and her trust.

And in the end, she lost everything. Perhaps that was what had led to the unleashing of those orcs on the land.

It must be that the protective barrier Sakura Mei had used from her devotion system was broken after she died, and that ended up causing that theory of the angel’s anger spreading the darkness.

In a sense, it really was the anger of an angel.

Xion sighed. After reading about her tragic end, he was even more determined to stay far away from anyone from the higher nobility.

Forget the nobles — he would not even go near their servants.

That was why he had been fiddling with healing potions. He needed a lot of them for his next plan.

Just to be on the safer side, he wanted to use these potions as a basic medicinal bath.

These bottles were really tiny, just the size of a pinky finger. They also had to spend more time on them for better quality.

Thanks to the genius alchemist Allen’s magical hands, this problem was solved.

By his calculations, he needed at least thirteen to fourteen more days to gather the necessary amount.

He had gathered the herbs all the way, and some were directly bought from the system, making the childish A.I. very happy.

He planned to begin the herbal treatment tonight. With each passing day, he would use his mana to temper with his grace’s body until it would become familiar to him.

Then, he would start his final step.

But as he had said, time was the cruellest of them all. So, how could Xion just leave unscathed?