Chapter 652: 102. Cotton candy
Within the Mia City at night, a lavishly decorated hotel remained brightly lit deep into the night. In the warm and tightly shut lobby, there were not only two Slime Girls huddled shivering against each other, but also a white-haired girl incessantly rubbing her ring while sitting in a wheelchair, looking at her legs as if pondering some question.
“Miss, why don’t you go upstairs and rest for a while? I’ll wait here for Mr. Fisher’s return.”
Behind her, Heidlin, who had gone to put the Ice back in place, returned to the first floor with a blanket and carefully draped it over Valentina before speaking to the two Slime Girls.
But Valentina shook her head, one hand propped against her cheek, and suddenly said to Heidlin,
“No, the Slime Imprint is the fourth Seal now. It’s very important to us… By the way, Heidlin, have the family send over the books related to our family’s history. Fisher said they might be helpful; he wants to have a look.”
Heidlin behind her replied respectfully and then left the lobby to send internal messages to the Turand Family, quieting down the hall once more.
In fact, it wasn’t for Fisher to read but because Valentina, after seeing the Ice, gained the ability to prophecy. This made her suspect there was more to the hereditary disease in her body. Perhaps Fisher was right; maybe there really was Phoenix Blood within her. Otherwise, why could she wield the Moon Princess Sword?
Thinking this, Valentina gently summoned the wooden box carrying the Moon Princess’ Sword. Ever since she was born, this Divine Weapon hidden within the family had been calling to her, a talent no other member of the family possessed. This was also why the elders were so shocked when she told them she could hear the Moon Princess and the Frost Snow Phoenix Tree calling to her…
If the blood flowing in the family was truly that of the Phoenix, then why would the Phoenix ancestors torture their descendants in such a way, causing each of them to die young and with disabilities? And why did the Moon Princess Sword call to her to go to the Frost Snow Phoenix Tree and not someone else in the family? Chapters first released on novel⸺fire.net
These questions lingered in Valentina’s mind; nobody else could answer them for her. Perhaps because she had gazed upon the Ice today, her legs started to produce noticeable phantom pains again. Even though they were numb at all other times, at certain moments they caused unbearable agony, tormenting Valentina deeply.
She gritted her teeth and withdrew the Moon Princess Sword, then took out the pills she had entrusted to Fisher. Casually smacking two pills into her palm, she swallowed them whole. Only after the painkillers took effect did Valentina weakly feel the pain in her body slowly fade away.
In the midst of the pain dissipating, no one noticed her pale silvery eyes beginning to uncontrollably sparkle with a faint glimmer. In Valentina’s vision, the mist within the Ice spread out, eventually forming another scene before her.
However, unlike the imagery she saw within the Ice, the current vision was disjointed and blurry, more akin to a collage of several scenes.
Through the mist, Valentina faintly saw the sunlight-covered Snow Mountain, a group of blond Nali people in black coats sternly pointing a strange-looking relic, shaped like an ostrich egg, at her. Then she seemed to hear the tremendous report of a Fire Pistol…
With the echo of that gun’s report, Valentina instantly snapped out of the cloudy prophecy. She hurriedly clutched her head, tapping her temples with her fingers. Ever since seeing the Ice, her condition had been a bit off; although she could see fragmented images of the future, it seemed as if her genetic disorder had also worsened slightly.
Was this a blessing or a curse?
Valentina didn’t dwell on her condition much after all, when she left her family, she was already mentally prepared.
Ordinary Turand Family members don’t live past thirty, and that’s the ‘lucky’ ones with mild symptoms of the hereditary disease. For Valentina, with her unprecedentedly severe genetic disorder, to live past twenty would be a miracle…
Thus, when she left Snowflake Fortress, Valentina was resolved to seek the Frost Snow Phoenix Tree, knowing her time was limited. Now she was more concerned with understanding the hidden messages within the visions she saw.
Those blond men were Nali, and they held no pursuit for the Frost Snow Phoenix Tree, nor had any feud with the Turand Family. Yet they still took up arms against her, the reason clearly because of the Nali-born Fisher.
Valentina already had some understanding of the connection between him and Elizabeth, but clearly, their situation was a bit more complex than she had imagined, complex enough that someone would go to great lengths to capture him alive and bring him back.
Was it because Fisher carried some critical secret vital to the Nali, like his earlier non-human Constitution? Or was he entangled in some domestic political struggle, forcing the Queen to settle scores with him? Or perhaps it was simply a tale of a trivial love affair between the Queen and the scholar?