A Pill Beyond Galvia [Part-2]
"There is no such pill in Galvia."
His words were flat, but his eyes burned with certainty. He wasn’t arguing. He was stating fact.
"No alchemist has ever created sothing like that," Max continued, stepping closer to the table. "Foundations can be repaired partially. Corruption can be suppressed. But complete restoration?" He shook his head slowly. "Impossible."
Leon didn’t look offended.
He didn’t look defensive.
He looked amused.
"Is that so?" Leon asked quietly.
Max t his gaze without hesitation. "I have studied every known high-tier restoration formula. If sothing like this existed, it would already be in the hands of the royal houses. Or locked inside the Alchemy Pavilion vaults."
Lux tightened her throat, gaze locked on the soft throb within the glass case. A hush slipped out: "Should this be true... every piece shifts."
Over by the window, Leon’s hand moved just a bit on the case. Not much, really - yet every tap ant sothing. Quiet, but heavy.
"I told you," he said. "It does not grant power. It restores what was taken."
Max’s jaw tightened. "Where did you get it?"
Heavy silence followed, thicker than words could be.
A look passed from Leon, montary yet sharp. His eyes held nothing easy to na.
"Does it matter?"
"It does," Max replied imdiately. "If sothing like this exists outside our knowledge, then it ans soone has surpassed the limits of Galvia’s alchemy. That’s not a small matter."
A crack of gold still bled through when Leon eased the lid shut. The rest stayed hidden.
"You don’t need to understand its origin," he said evenly. "You only need to decide whether you trust ."
That hit harder than the pill itself.
Lux looked up at him then. Really looked at him.
"Why?" she asked softly. "Why would you give sothing like this to ?"
There it was. The real question.
Leon held her gaze for a long mont. No smile. No mockery.
"Because what was taken from you wasn’t fate," he said. "It was injustice."
Max’s eyes flickered.
Lux’s breath caught.
"And I don’t tolerate injustice within my reach."
The room went quiet again—but this ti, the silence carried sothing else.
Hope.
Max exhaled slowly, still staring at the faint pulse of gold.
"There is no such pill in Galvia."
His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried weight. Not disbelief — recognition. He had spent decades navigating black markets, royal vaults, hidden alchemy circles. If sothing like this existed, he would have heard whispers.
Leon’s smile deepened slightly.
"Correct."
The single word settled between them like a blade laid flat on a table.
Rex frowned. "Then where did it co from?" His eyes never left the small container. "And don’t tell this is so illusion."
The third brother shifted uneasily. "The aura... it’s too dense. I can feel it pressing against my chest."
They did not understand.
But the aura radiating from the container was undeniable.
It wasn’t flashy. It didn’t roar. It simply existed — heavy, ancient, controlled. Like a sleeping dragon coiled inside glass.
Leon tilted his head slightly, studying them the way a king studies potential generals. "You guarded treasures your entire lives," he said calmly. "Yet you’ve never seen sothing beyond your borders."
There was no mockery in his tone. That almost made it worse.
Leon tossed it toward them.
The movent was casual.
Too casual.
Max reacted instantly, catching it with trembling hands. Years of instinct kicked in before pride could. The container was cool at first touch — smooth, flawless.
The mont his fingers closed around it—
Warmth.
Not heat. Not fire.
Warmth.
Pure mana seeped into his palm, flowing up his arm like a quiet current. It didn’t invade. It recognized. It responded.
His breath hitched.
His eyes widened.
"This is real..." Rex breathed.
Max swallowed. "It’s... stabilizing my core." His voice cracked despite himself. "Just from contact."
The third brother stared at Leon. "What kind of pill does this?"
Leon nodded once.
"You will rest in my estate. Consu one each. Remain secluded for seven days."
Rex’s jaw tightened. "And if this is a test?"
Leon’s golden eyes flickered faintly. "Everything is a test."
Max looked up slowly. "Seven days... and then what?"
Leon’s gaze sharpened, that faint smile never quite leaving.
"And then we see how strong the forr Grandmasters truly were."
Silence stretched.
Not fear.
Not doubt.
Sothing sharper.
Anticipation.
Max closed his fingers around the container more firmly this ti.
"If this works..." he muttered, half to himself. "Galvia won’t recognize us."
Funny how quiet he got, like a grin hiding in his words. "Exactly what I ant." The air between them shifted, just slightly
A hush ca down, light but full of tension. Their eyes t - each knowing without speaking, old fights flashing in an instant.
Yet silence ca first
Fingers cracked under Leon’s hand a second ti.
A sharp noise split the room, sudden as a fla catching.
Three blood contracts materialized midair.
A soft red light ca from them.
It didn’t shine hard, yet glowed in waves - gentle, breathing, like old pages could feel ti pass. Still quiet, still moving.
The brothers stiffened.
Sothing moved inside them first. Fingers jerked without asking. Muscles along the back stiffened like pulled wire. The space between them held its breath almost.
A flicker of doubt crossed her voice when she spoke. Was it suspicion that made the words co out so slow?
A quiet tone ca from him, yet his gaze stayed locked on the floating agreents. Things showing up out of nowhere were not sothing he welcod.
A loyalty contract, that was Leon’s answer, steady as ever.
Stillness held him. Not a shift, not a gesture. There he remained, planted like the air around made sense of his doing. What rose before them seed ordinary to his eyes.
A shadow crossed Rex’s face. His jaw set a little tighter.
"You doubt us already?"
Out of nowhere, a tiny break in the tight air. Just like that, pressure started to loosen.
A look passed from Leon toward him - no anger there, no shield raised either. Simply stillness held in place.
"I do not doubt your hatred for Gary."
His gaze sharpened.
"But hatred is not loyalty."
Stillness followed, heavy with what had been said. Each syllable hung like dust in sunlight.
Rex clenched his teeth. Out ca Max’s breath, quiet, through flared nostrils. A hand drifted to steel near Lux’s hip, still resting there, not pulling it free.
Leon continued, voice even, asured.
"I am a cautious man."
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