"Esma, I'm wondering if the potion you made is really capable of changing a person that much?" Arabel asked, looking at the Hero who was still trying to free himself despite his failures.
"Of course not," Esma replied without thinking.
"Then how did it happen? How did a righteous Hero turn into such a one?" asked Arabel, pointing at the naked Hero.
Esma looked at the Hero carefully, and he looked back at her. She was also full of curiosity, trying to figure out how a righteous Hero could turn into what he became after taking her potion.
"Well... how should I put it… My potion can't change a person that much," Esma said. "It mainly affects libido by increasing sexual desire, attraction, pleasure, or behavior. But this is a temporary impact, and it cannot be permanent."
As Esma looked more and more closely at the Hero, she became more and more convinced that the root of the problem did not lie in the potion. Most likely, the problem was the Hero himself.
"I think the Hero was originally ?" Although Esma's words didn't sound so confident when she said it.
"Every being has a monster inside, a monster that is formed by a part of our unconscious and consists of repressed ideas, instincts, impulses, weaknesses, desires, perversions and shameful fears. He is often described as the shadow side of the psyche. The more we avoid this monster, the more it grows inside us and waits like a volcano to explode at the most unexpected moment."
Then she tore her gaze away from the Hero and, looking at Arabel, said:
"I think it's not the Hero himself who's in front of us, but his dark side, which he's been suppressing all this time. My potion just broke that suppression, and the monster just broke free and took over the righteous side of himself."
The more Arabel listened to Esma, the more she became convinced that there was some truth in what she was saying. As someone who was faced with a different self-consciousness, she understood a little how difficult it was to remain calm in such a situation.
"Does this mean that if I take your potion, I can become like him too?" she asked.
"Huh? Do you want to try and see for yourself?" replied Esma, taking out one of her potions from her storage.
"No way!" Arabel exclaimed, jumping away from Esma.
Esma grinned at Arabel's reaction.
"I can't say for sure that the same thing can happen to you as to the Hero. All this is just my speculation. I am not an expert in this field. But everything that happened to the Hero during this time points to this. And the fact that he's a Hero only confirms my assumptions."
Idan, who had been silently listening to their conversation all this time, was extremely intrigued.
"What do you mean, his Hero status only confirms your assumptions?"
Esma noticed that her words had caught Idan's attention, and decided to think a little before sharing her suggestion. She turned her gaze back to the Hero.
Esma already knew about the plan that the couple was preparing against the Hero, and, remembering this, she thought that perhaps this plan could help to "heal" the Hero to some extent.
"The fact is that the Sacred Weapon does not choose just anyone, but only those whom it considers worthy. And the one chosen by the Sacred Weapon is considered a Hero for a reason. The Hero is the defender of the human race, he must be righteous, just, and so on… To put it simply, all the Heroes were not completely normal people from the very beginning."
As she spoke, Esma recalled the first rumors she had heard about the Staff Hero when he first appeared in Limbo.
"I have already told you about the first rumors about the Hero, that he was a righteous and purposeful young man. And that ungrateful white girl also confirmed that the Hero was just like that."
Idan and Arabel recalled their conversation with Esma and Lucinda and confirmed her words.
"There are no absolutely good people. There is both good and bad in each of us. If you believe the rumors, then our Hero was not very normal from the very beginning, but he was fair. As a Hero, he had to face the dark side of life, to see all the dirt of the world. The fact that he remained fair after all this suggests that he probably hid his bad emotions inside himself. And maybe the monster that lived in him was feeding off those emotions. And so, when he took my potion, this poor Hero let the monster out."
Seeing that Idan and Arabel were deep in thought after hearing her speculation, Esma hurried to add:
— Don't... take my words as the ultimate truth, it's just my guesses. All I can say is that my potions can't change a person that much! What happened to the Hero was most likely his fault!"
"Of course, we are aware of this. We were just wondering if it was possible to return the Hero to his former state," Idan said after hearing Esma's words.
"What? Have you changed your mind?" asked Esma with disbelief in her voice.
"Of course not! His previous achievements cannot outweigh what he accomplished after his transformation, and he must take responsibility for all his actions!" said Idan firmly, stressing that they had not changed their minds.
Idan and Arabel were deep in thought, reflecting on the Hero's condition. To some extent, the Hero's current position reflected how their lives might turn out if they did not take full control of their bloodlines and allow a second personality to form, capable of seizing power over their consciousness.
The couple was curious if there was a way to return to their true selves after they failed and their second personality took over their consciousness.
"So is it possible to return the Hero to who he was before?" Arabel asked this time.
"Of course not!" said Esma decisively.
"The old Hero won't be coming back. If my assumptions are correct, then the part that was the righteous Hero represented his bright, pure side. And the monster and the current Hero are his dark, corrupted side.
Previously, the light side dominated and suppressed the dark side. But after the boundary disappeared, the dark side, which had been trapped inside all this time, burst out, flooded the light part and swallowed him up. Now there is nothing that can separate the light and the dark sides."
Idan and Arabel were worried after hearing Esma's suggestion.
This once again proved how important it was for them to take full control of their bloodlines.