Ronron watched the sand spill away, and with perhaps 20 seconds remaining, came to a decision to tell part of a truth without revealing the whole truth.
"I have eaten the fruit of one of the three Demonic Trees," she said in the end.
Tailwind tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"You are aware of the three Demonic Trees, aren't you?" she asked. "I've consumed the fruit of one of those three."
Tailwind blinked for a few seconds before sitting straighter. The gems on his headband glowed indigo now, as his emotions had definitely been touched by her. However, he couldn't quite e to accept that at all.
"What Demonic Tree bears edible fruit?" he asked. "As far as I know, the World Tree only had a single fruit when it was culled, and even that had already been used up by the demons, leaving behind just the seed, which we got. You could not have eaten that."
Ronron shook her head. "I do not believe I have to explain myself, do I, Senior Brother?" she asked. "I have told you the truth, after all. I have eaten one of the fruits. As for which tree, you may decide for yourself."
Tailwind tried to wrap his mind around the fact and fully failed. It was simply impossible for someone to have eaten such a fruit. And yet, Ronron wasn't lying.
The man slowly nodded. "I see. You must be mistaken about something and believe it to be true," he said in the end. "That's fine."
The hourglass emptied, and the time was over. The color on the crystal never went past indigo.
Ronron stared at the crystal with a sigh before standing up. She bowed.
"It was nice to meet you, Senior Brother," she said, handing back the rod.
One hundred stars flashed before her, which wasn't a small amount at all, but it wasn't the 500 both her grandmother and Battlesage had received.
That was a little annoying, but she had been dealt a bad hand, so there was nothing she could do in the end. She had told a powerful truth, but her senior brother had ended up not accepting it as the truth.
While Ronron was very much disappointed by the oute of her turn, the crowd outside did not share her emotions at all.
Two violets and one indigo, all three in a row, was the greatest run of colors the crowd had seen in the time they had been there, and there wasn't anything that had e close to it yet.
The colors on the crystal slowly reversed in a few seconds as the man on the platform controlled his emotions and brought them back down to a level where they didn't affect him. After some more time, it became clear that he wasn't going to be replaced with anyone else this time around.
"Looks like it's my turn," Liz said as she walked on ahead. She patted Ronron as she walked back. "You did well."
Ronron nodded and joined back with the group.
Helen put an arm around her. "That was good. Don't be disappointed."
"I'm not disappointed," she said with a sigh. "I'm just annoyed. I got unlucky."
"Unlucky?" Alex asked.
"That man there is one of my senior brothers. His name is Tailwind, and he happens to know a lot about me. I simply had nothing to say or do that could surprise him at all," Ronron said. "In the end, I could only tell him I ate a fruit from one of the Demonic Trees. Master is going to find out soon now."
She looked toward Alex. "I'm sorry, Father. I couldn't think of anything else that could work. He even knew about your Half-God status."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Well, then this is going to be difficult. Depending on how much your master has told him, I might not have an easy time either."
"I'm sure you can do something," Ronron said. "You have a million things you can do, after all."
Alex chuckled and patted her on the back. "What's done is done now. You got 100 stars, and that's more than fine. You did better than many others did."
Ronron breathed out a sigh and turned around to watch what Liz would do.
Liz walked up to Tailwind and bowed in greeting before sitting down on the chair. She was handed the rod and explained its purpose before being told she only had two minutes to surprise him.
Liz nodded in understanding, and the man flipped the hourglass.
The sand began spilling.
Liz brought out a cauldron from her Soul Space and placed it before the two of them.
"Have you made pills before, Senior?" she asked the man.
Tailwind tapped on the side of the chair, curious to see how she was going to surprise him by making pills.
"I have tried a few times to make pills for myself, but they don't ever e out good," the man answered with a light laugh in his words.
"Did you test whether you had any alchemy skills?" Liz asked, bringing out a set of ingredients at the same time.
"I never really gave myself a true chance to see whether or not I was good at it," he answered.
"Oh, if you turned out to have talent, would you have bee an alchemist by now?" Liz asked as she finally finished setting up everything.
"I doubt so," he said. "Are you an alchemist?"
"Oh, god no," Liz said.
That caught the man off guard, enough so that the crystal changed to yellow.
"You're not an alchemist?" he asked. "Then why are you doing this?"
Liz grinned. "It wouldn't be as exciting if I gave away the answer right from the start, would it?" she asked.
She took out a talisman and handed it over to him. "This is the recipe for the pill I'll be making. I'll ask that you check it afterward to see how it has e out."
The recipe turned out to be for a Divine pill.
"…okay," the man said, now more curious than ever. "Go ahead."
User Comments
0 comments from readers