Chapter 1302: 60. Strong Medicine

"Nonsense. This question has absolutely nothing to do with my illness! And the relationship between Muen and me is completely pure!"

Within the silent sea of flowers, her cold rebuke rang especially clearly.

Hamreign's hair danced in the air, seemingly displaying her anger at having been misunderstood. But when her golden pupils met Mela's amber eyes, which carried a hint of teasing, she suddenly calmed down again.

She seemed to realize as well that her current reaction had been a little too intense, and hurriedly explained in a tone completely opposite to the one from a moment ago, one that was extraordinarily calm:

"I'm not agitated. I'm just... just a little angry because you're talking nonsense. After all, I sincerely came here seeking your help, yet you're steering things in a completely meaningless direction. That's very impolite."

"Meaningless? You mean that useless disciple of mine?"

"That's right."

"Oh my, I see. You're right. There really was no reason for that fellow's name to appear here. But..."

Mela stared at Hamreign and sneered:

"From beginning to end just now, did I mention even a single word about him? Wasn't it you who brought that fellow's name up?"

"......"

The atmosphere completely froze just like that.

The two stared at each other, one looking at the other, then the other looking back.

"You didn't mention him?"

"Did I?".

"...It seems... you didn't."

"What a wonderful confession without being asked."

Mela suddenly leaned backward and floated into the air. Her little feet lifted slightly, her snow-white soles slowly turning toward Hamreign:

"Oh my, oh my. Back when we were at the Shattered Sea, when I saw how close the two of you were, I was only joking around with you. After all, you're already a thousand-year-old fossil, while my useless disciple isn't even a fraction of your age. By normal logic, there couldn't possibly be any special relationship between the two of you..

"But how long has it even been since we last met, and you've already been bewitched by him to this extent? What, after a thousand years of loneliness, you finally couldn't endure it anymore and decided to find yourself a pretty young man to soothe your empty heart?"

"I haven't!"

Her fiery-red hair danced once again... but this time, Hamreign quickly reacted. Her anger vanished in an instant, leaving only an extreme coldness that seemed capable of freezing someone into ice:

"I came here only because I wanted to talk to you about being sick. Don't drag unrelated people into this!"

"Wasn't it you who dragged him into this?"

"I only misspoke by accident."

"Pfft. Who would believe that? Do you take me for a three-year-old?"

Mela beckoned with one hand.

The surging sea of mercury returned to calm, and the enormous cold gears beneath their feet sank back into the depths.

All the rumbling and sealing vanished. Setting aside the thousand or so bewildered faces throughout the academy, at least within this sea of flowers, new soil appeared, time began to flow, and blossoms opened once again.

This time, they were roses.

Every single one was the brightest shade of red, competing with one another in beauty, forming a magnificent sight.

Mela personally made a round through the sea of flowers, picked the one she considered the most beautiful, then returned and gently placed it on Hamreign's chest:

"As for your illness, I've finished my diagnosis. It isn't Demon God Pollution, and it isn't damage to your soul... It's a sickness of the heart. Nothing more."

"A sickness of the heart?"

"That's right. You harbor certain wicked thoughts toward that adorable disciple of mine, which is why you're so restless and irritable."

"You mean... I have... so-called love for him?" Hamreign's golden pupils gradually blazed brighter, anger once again flowing through them.

"That depends on how you understand it."

Mela showed no fear at all. She even extended a finger and poked the soft springiness in front of Hamreign's chest:

"But broadly speaking... more or less."

"Impossible!"

Hamreign immediately denied it.

Terrifying pressure swept out with a boom. Every flower across the sea of flowers was torn away by the violent wind, rising from earth to sky and then falling from sky to earth like rain.

Standing amid that "rain," Hamreign resembled a volcano that could erupt at any moment.

"I only regard Muen as my companion. A companion who can walk beside me forever, who fears neither pain nor danger, who can always stand at my side no matter what we face. We are connected by a covenant of blood. This relationship absolutely cannot be compared to something as trivial as love!"

"Trivial?"

"What else would it be?"

"Well... compared to saving the world, destroying Evil Gods, or deciding whether my next lollipop should be strawberry or orange... love really is nothing more than a trivial matter."

Mela pulled out a strawberry-flavored lollipop and deftly tore open the wrapper. Her little pink tongue curled around the equally pink candy and drew it into her mouth as she spoke indistinctly:

"But I don't think this so-called companion relationship of yours is all that noble either."

"Nonsense!"

Hamreign became even angrier.

It was no longer merely anger.

It was killing intent.

She felt that coming to this fellow had been a mistake. Although this person was the only one in the world who came from the same era as her, even a thousand years ago, all she had ever done was oppose Hamreign at every turn.

How could she possibly have expected this woman to genuinely help her?

This fellow was as irritating as ever!

With a pop, Mela pulled the lollipop from her mouth. Her deep amber eyes seemed to see through everything.

"Just take that long string of complicated things you said a moment ago—so complicated that even I couldn't memorize all of it at once—and replace the word 'companion' with 'lover.' Tell me, is there any difference?"

"......"

Hamreign froze again, because those words sounded so familiar.

The old man in the forest had said something similar.

And now, hearing almost the same thing for a second time, she actually began automatically replacing the words she had just spoken inside her head.

—I only regard Muen as my lover.

A lover who can walk beside me forever, who fears neither pain nor danger, who can always stand beside me no matter what we face.

A lover connected to me by a covenant of blood, one who absolutely cannot be shaken so easily.

Lover lover lover lover lover lover lover... the one I love.

He is the one she... loves...

"No!"

Yet Hamreign still shook her head.

She still denied it.

Her face had gone slightly pale. Over the course of this long thousand years, this might have been the first time she had failed to immediately refute the irritating words of the white-haired fellow before her.

But she still spoke as though clutching onto a final lifeline:

"Love and my companion are absolutely not the same thing. Fundamentally, there is an enormous difference between the two."

"Oh? What difference?"

"My companion and I are pure, noble, innocent, and absolutely free of even the slightest improper thought. But so-called love is something that extends from human instinct. It is filthy, vulgar, unsightly, something born because males and females cannot control their own instincts!"

"There is absolutely no comparison between the two!"

Hamreign was panting.

It had clearly been nothing more than a simple rebuttal, clearly something she had already firmly decided in her heart long ago, yet actually saying it aloud felt even more exhausting than fighting a remnant of an Evil God.

Not only that, she felt as though something deep within her heart—something that had been forcibly suppressed all this time—was beginning to stir...

"My feelings for him aren't that kind of thing... They aren't!"

"You make it sound convincing enough."

Mela planted her hands on her hips and said disdainfully, "But are you sure what you're saying is actually correct?"

"Of course it's correct!"

"On what basis? What if I say you're wrong?"

"Then... Hm?"

Hamreign suddenly thought of something. She narrowed her eyes and stared at Mela.

"You sound as though you're extremely knowledgeable about this sort of thing."

"What else would you expect? I am, after all, the renowned Grand Sorcerer Mela Domir, the most learned person in this entire world. A tiny question like this is child's play for me." Mela raised her little head proudly.

"In that case... you must have a great deal of experience when it comes to relationships as well?" Hamreign raised a brow.

"......"

Mela's little face immediately stiffened.

Only after several full seconds did she force out a smile that did not reach her eyes:

"Of course. I have... a great deal of experience."

"That sounds like a lie."

"Whether it's a lie or not, so what?"

Mela bit down on her lollipop, as though countless black lines were twitching across her forehead. Crunch, crunch.

"Is something like that important?"

"Of course... it isn't."

In the middle of the sea of flowers covered in fallen petals, the two thousand-year-old relics stared at each other.

Almost simultaneously, they realized that if the topic they were discussing required "experience" as a prerequisite, then the conversation simply could not continue.

So they decisively changed the subject.

As though none of it had ever been said.

"Ahem."

Mela placed both hands behind her back once again, recovering the composure and calm of Grand Sorcerer Mela Domir.

"All this talk is actually pointless. If we really want to determine which of us is right and which is wrong, wouldn't we know by proving it?"

"How do we prove it?"

"Isn't that simple?"

Mela's eyes rolled, and the corner of her mouth suddenly curled into a wicked smile.

"If you want to prove whether the feelings between you and that brat contain anything filthy, then just use a slightly filthy method to test them. I imagine you should at least understand that much."

"I see. I know what you're trying to say..."

Hamreign's face was expressionless.

"But I've already proven that sort of thing before."

"You've proven it?" Mela blinked, somewhat surprised.

After Hamreign's speech just now, she had thought this fellow was truly all theory and no practice.

"Of course I've proven it. Do you think I'm like you, hiding in a place like this your whole life and entertaining yourself by peeping at other people?" Hamreign sneered.

"Oh my, oh my. If the entertainment right now weren't far too delicious, I'd already be making you experience whether this person who supposedly does nothing but peep can pin an old mother dragon like you to the ground and beat you senseless."

Mela snorted. "So? How did you prove it?"

"I..."

Hamreign suddenly grabbed her own arm and unconsciously fidgeted. Then she turned her face away, making her expression impossible to see.

"I touched him."

"...Huh?"

Mela froze. During that brief 0.01 seconds, she even wondered whether she had misheard.

"How did you prove it?"

"I touched him. In the most intimate way possible, beyond the boundaries of companionship."

Hamreign kept a stern face.

"At the time, I felt nothing abnormal, and I had no wicked thoughts whatsoever. The facts prove that the feelings between us contain nothing dirty or filthy!"

"If merely touching him is enough to prove that, then you're really just a complete **..."

The corner of Mela's mouth twitched... No, considering the reputation dragons had a thousand years ago, that actually might be possible...

At that thought, Mela looked the Calamity up and down. Hamreign currently seemed somewhat awkward and was still putting on an affected display.

Then a wicked spark of inspiration suddenly flashed through Mela's mind:

"How about we make a bet?"

"Hm? Bet on what?"

"On whether the feelings between you and that disciple of mine really are pure."

"......"

"What? Scared?"

"Who's scared? My conscience is perfectly clear!"

Her fiery-red hair once again danced in the wind. Hamreign's expression was cold and stern, without the slightest trace of retreat or cowardice:

"How do you want to bet?"

"The method is simple..."

Mela floated over and whispered into her ear for a while.

At first, Hamreign's expression remained normal. But as Mela continued chattering at length, her expression abruptly changed.

"You... how can you..."

"Now, now. Of course I know this method of mine is a little too strong."

Mela crossed her arms over her chest and nodded to herself.

"But in your current condition, truth and falsehood, falsehood and truth, all those emotions are tangled together like a ball of yarn. If we don't use some strong medicine, how are we supposed to actually get to the bottom of it?"

"So no matter how you look at it, this dose of strong medicine is necessary."