Chapter 342 Dark Green
Emilia and the others didn't have to wait outside for long. Soon, the wooden door opened again. A man, his figure concealed by a cloak, quietly stood in the shadows behind the door, startling everyone.
"Please come in, all three." The dragon knight said calmly, but Emilia inexplicably sensed a subtle dissatisfaction from him, and it was directed at the three of them. She didn't know if it was an illusion.
Charlotte couldn't help but grab Ethan's wrist. She could feel her companion's heartbeat racing like a drum, and her own was too. She was even a little nervous and felt like vomiting. That was a ghost! The leader of the People's Party, controlling the western border of the empire, a legendary revolutionary leader whose every move would make the entire empire hold its breath. And he even achieved this as an ordinary person.
Emilia took a deep breath, feeling uneasy. Four years later, she finally saw the black-haired young man who was as pale as a ghost again in a simple stone house in a dilapidated town.
… He didn’t seem to have changed at all.
The kerosene lamp beside the table had burned down to its lowest point, leaving only a murky, sticky residue within. The lingering flame licked the pitifully short wick, seemingly having burned all night. The weakly flickering flame illuminated the pale, slightly tired face of the black-haired young man.
Time had barely left a mark on him. He remained thin, the documents on his desk nearly drowning him, and the faint dark circles under his eyes betrayed the exhaustion of long hours. But the smoky gray eyes that gazed up at the newcomer were as bright and astonishingly sharp as ever, like boiling iron or a tempered blade, as if they wanted to dissect a person's soul and examine it.
He looked... so tired, as if he had been up all night. Emilia couldn't help but feel a little sad and worried.
"Good day, Mr. Nova." She took the initiative to step forward, lifted the hem of her skirt and knelt to greet him, and sighed sincerely: "It's been a long time since we last met. I hope everything is going well for you."
"Good day, Miss Carleton." The black-haired young man put down his pen, stood up, took off a glove and held out his hand to her: "It seems that the journey was smooth?"
Emilia was stunned for a moment, then instinctively reached out and shook his hand, subconsciously replying vaguely, "Yes, Lord Azuka arrived just in time and took good care of us along the way."
——At least I’m not dead.
The professor nodded slightly and withdrew his hand, ending the brief greeting. Then he realized that in this simple temporary shelter, apart from his own wooden chair, which was considered to be intact, there was no place for guests to rest.
So he simply dragged his chair out from behind the table, and then prepared to pull out two large, upside-down wooden boxes from the corner. The boxes seemed a bit heavy, so the black-haired young man grabbed the edge of one and tugged hard. He only dragged it a short distance, and the bottom made a harsh scraping sound on the floor. The dragon knight beside him snapped his fingers helplessly, and the two wooden boxes suddenly levitated and landed neatly next to the wooden chair.
"Thank you." Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Ghost nonchalantly shook his aching hand. He thanked his subordinates before choosing a wooden box to sit on, offering the only chair to Emilia, who was wearing a long dress. "Everyone, please take a seat."
Charlotte and Ethan: "..."
This person seems a little different from what they imagined.
Charlotte wanted to say that she could just stand, but she didn't dare. She had to subconsciously obey the ghost's instructions and sat on another wooden box with Ethan tremblingly.
"Miss Carleton—perhaps I should call you Countess Carleton, inventor of the 'Dark Green Potion.'" The professor's calm eyes slowly glided over Emilia Carleton's face. She was no longer the frightened, tearful little girl who had visited him late at night four years ago. Her fully grown features had given her the pale, delicate beauty prized by the upper aristocracy.
But if you put aside the rumors and contempt, you'll discover that Countess Caledon's past is anything but delicate. The family title had always been a distant possibility for a woman, but not long ago, at the age of eighteen, the same year she invented the "Dark Green Potion," all the male heirs in the Caledon family died overnight.
This bizarre tragedy immediately alarmed the Royal Court. A healer's investigation revealed a rare genetic defect, passed down to males but not females. At a family dinner celebrating Emilia Caledon's engagement, an ingredient on the table coincidentally triggered an acute allergic reaction, while the daughters of the family escaped unscathed. Ultimately, the earldom and family estate fell to Miss Emilia Caledon, who had lost all her father and brothers overnight and remained the only unmarried woman.
The investigation was suspicious and forced, but the greedy nobles didn't care. A Countess with no male relatives and immense wealth was undoubtedly a highly sought-after prospect. After all, a single marriage would instantly carry the entire Caledon family fortune. Furthermore, there was the promising recipe for the "Dark Green Potion"—a potion that could be made by ordinary people without the need for a sorcerer. It possessed miraculous efficacy against festering sores and could reduce fever in a comatose patient in just half a day. Anyone with a discerning eye could see what this meant, especially in the event of war.
What's more, Emilia Carleton is young and beautiful.
As a result, many admirers came to her, and soon Emilia Carleton's name was known throughout the aristocratic social circles. She became the noble lady that young talents most wanted to marry. Her beauty and arrogance were also well-known.
This put Emilia Carleton, who was hiding at Evergreen Academy, in a situation far more dangerous than the rumors. She was nearly kidnapped and raped by a "suitor," but was saved by teachers and classmates. The man just yelled with red eyes that he just loved her too much.
At the same time, the Caledon family's pharmacy business suffered an unprecedented blow. Traditional pharmacy companies united and ruthlessly suppressed the "Dark Green Pharmacy," a disparate group. The entrenched and complex pharmacy guilds and their backers would never tolerate a potion that could be mass-produced by ordinary people with minimal training, without the involvement of sorcerers, impacting the already monopolized pharmacy market. This would cause already high pharmacy prices to plummet, leading to countless bankruptcies.
Rumors spread everywhere, and the raw material supplier they had finally agreed upon was threatened and intimidated, refusing to supply the Caledon family's workshop before they even began working together. The workshop was even vandalized by unidentified thugs, and workers received death threats. Before they could even establish the "Deep Green Pharmacy" brand, the family business was already shaky and its funding chain was on the verge of collapse.
Just as Emilia was devastated, a series of seemingly elegantly worded, heartfelt "love letters"—those actually laced with threats and murderous intent—arrived at her desk. Almost everyone around her told Emilia that the only way to protect herself and her family was to immediately choose a more reliable husband from among her suitors, preferably one from a noble family in the traditional pharmaceutical industry.
But Emilia Carleton didn't want to.
Regardless of how long she can live after "marriage", if a casual word "get married" will completely wipe out her reputation and ambition, then what will Emilia's struggle and resistance along the way, the blood debt Emilia bears for killing her own family, and the dream that Emilia loves madly and is willing to sacrifice her life for mean?
So Emilia decided to contact the man who had once pulled her out of her family's quagmire. She knew it was crazy, a gamble that was almost a loss of all, putting her future and the fate of her family on a rebel leader wanted by the Empire.
But she didn't come seeking protection; she came to negotiate. Countess Caledon brought leverage, enough to tempt any faction—she needed an ally, someone powerful enough to completely disregard the rules of the nobility and the wealthy, and to resolutely stand against those behemoths, thereby creating a breathing space for herself and the Deep Green Potion to survive and thrive.
"Yes, it's me." Countess Caledon said calmly, and carefully took out a small glass bottle wrapped in layers from her small cloth bag.
Ethan's eyes were glued to the small, crystal-clear glass bottle—just like its name, the clear, dark green potion rippled with mysterious light.
It doesn't have the near-instant effects of a high-end healing potion or healer, but it's cheaper, easier to get, and doesn't require a warlock.
The professor took the small glass bottle and observed it carefully, gazing out the window at the sunlight. On Earth, it had a very similar blood relative: penicillin, also known as penicillin. It was a milestone in medical history, having saved the lives of countless soldiers in World War II.
But in this other world, perhaps due to the different growth environment and the presence of magic, the method of its creation undergoes even more unpredictable variations. As a time traveler, the professor naturally once attempted to create classic penicillin through a home-grown method, collecting moldy fruit from everywhere and piling it in his lab. His colleagues and students nearly thought he was crazy—but it failed. As if cursed by Sir Fleming, no matter how he adjusted the culture conditions, the spore activity of the key mold remained pitifully low.
Later, he was extremely busy and running around, so the penicillin plan had to be put on hold temporarily. He only mentioned it briefly to a few therapists he was close to at Evergreen College - until now, when he saw the otherworldly version of penicillin and its inventor, who was destined to go down in history.
The professor placed the small bottle of dark green potion on the rough surface of the wooden box, making a slight clicking sound.
"Miss Carleton, I must say this is a great gift," he said slowly, but Emilia's heart nearly jumped into her throat. "Because of your trust and sincerity in coming all the way to see me in person, I need to confirm this with you once again."
"You should know that the Deep Green Potion not only represents immense fame and wealth, but also that whichever faction obtains the recipe for it will ultimately secure victory." Those smoky gray eyes gazed silently at Emilia's tense face. "The royal family hasn't had time to react yet—but when those in power discover this, you will be presented with unprecedented opportunities."
Charlotte and Ethan, standing by, wished they could disappear right then and there. Was this something they could hear? Were they going to be murdered and silenced soon?!
"I know." Emilia pursed her lips slightly, looking extremely rational. "But if I hand over the Dark Green Potion to those people, what will reputation and wealth have to do with me? They won't let a woman control something so crucial. I'm afraid the only thing that awaits me is being forced to hand over the recipe and then die."
"But I don't want to die yet," she said with a wry smile. "I still want to continue my research—but now I don't even dare to trust the teachers at Evergreen Academy."
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