Chapter 25 [Mera provides support for Hall's predicament...]
"This is a bottle of invisibility potion."
Mela walked to the cabinet against the wall, reached out, and took down a round glass bottle. As she moved, the emerald green liquid inside the bottle rippled slightly.
"If you drink half a bottle of the potion, no one will be able to see you for the next three hours. This way, you can secretly find Joanne, get her to drink the remaining half of the potion, and then leave with you."
"This is a powerful potion."
Mela turned around again and took out a diamond-shaped glass bottle filled with a deep blue liquid, which refracted an eerie and beautiful light under the kerosene lamp.
"With the strength you've developed from years of hard work, I guarantee that after drinking this, you could even kill a bear with your bare hands."
"Then not only will we be able to get Joanne back legitimately, but we'll also be able to give your heartless brother a good beating to vent our anger, how about that?"
"This..." Hall hesitated, unable to decide which bottle to buy for the time being.
The invisibility potion is certainly a good idea; it can avoid direct conflict with Howard and allow Joanne to be rescued quietly.
However, Hall harbored resentment towards Howard. Anyone who suddenly broke into their home and kidnapped their wife would be furious.
Even brothers are not allowed.
Rather, it was precisely because they were brothers that Hall, who was usually good-tempered, became even more furious.
Seeing this, Lex spoke up, "I think neither of these two potions is suitable for the current situation."
Mela raised an eyebrow, signaling Lex to explain the reason.
“If you can’t completely eliminate the culprit, even if you temporarily rescue Joanne, there’s no guarantee she won’t be kidnapped a second time,” Lex said, looking at Hall.
Even if Hall beats Howard up badly and makes him beg for mercy temporarily, what good will it do to let Joanne go? Howard might still hold a grudge and next time he might not even let Hall off the hook.
Hall's own brother, he should know best what kind of person he is.
"Lex is right, Howard could very well do that."
Hall recalled those years when Howard, taking advantage of being the older brother, bullied him countless times. If Howard took a liking to something, Howard would go to great lengths to break it, even if he couldn't take it from him.
Although Hall felt wronged, there was nothing he could do about Howard. According to the kingdom's inheritance law, Howard was the future heir to the family, while Hall, as the youngest son, could only inherit a portion of his parents' property and would have to leave with that money to start his own household.
Hall and Howard's parents inevitably favored Howard over their eldest son, who would inherit the family house and land in the future.
With his parents' indulgence, Howard gradually grew from a bad boy into a bad boy.
If Howard hadn't later married a businessman's daughter and moved to town, almost completely cutting off contact with Hall, who knows how much trouble would have ensued over the years.
Thinking about this, Hall became increasingly worried about Joanne's situation.
“If that’s the case, I have a bottle of sedative here. Give it to Howard and he’ll never wake up again.”
Mela rummaged around for a while and found a small bottle of pink potion about the length of a finger joint.
Don't be fooled by the fact that this small bottle of medicine contains less than one-fifth of the amount in the previous two bottles; its effects are far more potent.
"...Is there a drug that can teach Howard a lesson so he won't dare to lay a hand on Joanne again, without causing him such serious injury?"
After a moment of silence, Hall spoke with difficulty.
Although he was furious with Howard's actions and wished he could beat him up, he couldn't help but feel guilty about watching Howard drink the drug and never wake up again. What difference was there between that and killing Howard?
Regardless of whether it was his own brother or not, even if it were a stranger who attacked Joanne today, Hall couldn't bring himself to be ruthless.
Mela listened to Hall's words without any surprise. Sigh, she had always known that Hall was a kind-hearted and soft-hearted man.
The difference between good and bad people is that it is harder to get a good person to do something bad than to take their life. Before they even start, a wave of guilt overwhelms them.
“However, I don’t have the kind of potion you’re talking about. What witch makes is never completely harmless? The potions I take out are only slightly dangerous, seriously dangerous, or extremely dangerous,” Mela said listlessly, resting her chin on her hand.
Even the two medications Mela mentioned earlier have some minor side effects.
For example, after taking the invisibility potion, Hall's presence in the eyes of others will decrease for the next week, and he may be completely ignored even if he walks past them.
For example, after Hall drinks the Power Potion, once the effects wear off, he will feel completely weak and can only lie limp on the bed like a limp noodle until the side effects disappear on their own.
"That serious?" Hall's eyes widened.
“I’m not a god who can perform a miracle without any cost. Of course, you need to pay a price to unleash these miraculous effects,” Mela replied confidently.
Isn't this fair? After all, there's no such thing as getting something for nothing in this world.
"Then, what are the side effects of those transformation potions you gave me?" Hall asked, his tone urgent.
He was so focused on buying the medicine from Mela that he never considered the potential side effects.
Moreover, he had personally witnessed Joanne drinking the transformation potion for so many years, and it seemed that no problems had arisen.
Mela tilted her head, a shimmering smile in her eyes. "Don't worry about that. The side effects of the transformation potion are very minor. It's just that if you look at that unfamiliar face in the mirror for too long, you'll eventually forget what you really look like."
However, since he has already used the transformation potion and drunk it for so long, he probably doesn't want to go back to his original form, right?
"So that's how it is. Thank goodness." Hall breathed a long sigh of relief, clearly feeling that the side effect was still within an acceptable range.
"But are you sure you still have time to dwell on this with me? There's not much time left before sunrise. Once it's light, your older brother might take Joanne to see the lord. If you want to rescue her then, it will take much more effort."
Mela steered the conversation back on track, urging Hall to make a decision quickly.
At this point, Lex spoke up again, advising Hall that since he was unwilling to buy the stun potion, he should buy the invisibility potion and the strength potion instead, and then go to meet Howard to try and get information out of him to find out why he suddenly wanted to get the bounty from the lord through Joanne.
After all, according to what Hall said before, Howard married a businessman's daughter and moved to town, so his life should be quite good.
Unless he was facing some serious financial problem, why would he suddenly return to the village to find his long-lost brother, Hall?
The purchase of the Strength and Invisibility Potions was also a precaution. If Hall and Howard's talks broke down halfway through, Hall, after drinking the potions, could knock them unconscious and then secretly take Joanne back to the cabin to find Mela.
Upon hearing this, Hall agreed with Lex, wrote an IOU to Mela, and hurriedly left with the two bottles of potion.
He needed to get to town before dawn and stop Howard.
After Hall left, Mela, who should have been sleeping but had stayed up all night, yawned lazily as sleepiness surged up, and even a little moisture slid out of the corner of her eye.
She glanced at Lex, who was standing to the side with his head down, seemingly lost in thought. "I have a feeling that what you said to Hall just now had an ulterior motive."
It seems that Lex is giving Hall advice, but then again, his relationship with Hall is only slightly better than that of strangers. Why would he be so considerate as to even plan out Hall's escape route?
"At least one of the reasons is to sell those two bottles of medicine. If that's the case, won't my debt be a little less?"
Lex looked up, a slight smile playing on his lips. He didn't deny Mela's accusation that he had ulterior motives, but he remained tight-lipped about what those motives were.
Anyway, Mela didn't really want to know his purpose.
However, Mela approved of Lex's suggestion to use the sale of potions as a way to offset the debt, saying, "Then let's take one-tenth of each of the two potions, and consider it as you repaying me six silver coins."
She hadn't quite grasped the situation yet; she was only thinking of giving Hall a choice between two options, but she hadn't expected him to simply buy both bottles of the potion.
She must not have been sleeping well, which is why she is so listless.
Mela couldn't help but yawn again.
"By the way, if every medicine has its corresponding side effects, what about the healing medicine?" Lex suddenly asked.
"Hmm," Mela had already lay back in the rocking chair, rolled up the blanket, and answered Lex's question vaguely, "As long as it's not taken long-term, there aren't any major side effects, after all, it's a life-saving drug. It's just that if someone drinks too much, they'll probably prematurely deplete their remaining life force and die young."
"Like a flower, if it blooms early, it will naturally wither early as well."
After saying that, before Lex could ask anything else, Mela closed her eyes completely and fell asleep.
However, in her sleep, Mela vaguely had a thought: she looked forward to Hall bringing Joanne to the cabin the next day so they could talk properly about what happened after he met Howard.
I always felt that something that Lex was so concerned about must have many secrets worth uncovering.
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