## Chapter 836 – Winter in the Capital

ㅡGulp.

Risha, having opened the lid, slowly began to drink the elixir.

I was still worried, but Risha had lived her life repeatedly experimenting on herself whenever she made various drugs or potions.

She was a witch with a truly dedicated experimental spirit. Of course, she was skilled enough that there was nothing to worry about. She had done clinical trials before, so it would be fine.

“…”
“…”
“…”

We observed Risha drinking the elixir in silence.

I thought that even teenage audiences who paid a stripper wouldn’t focus so intensely on a woman, as we absorbed every aspect of Risha into our eyes.

Anyway, an elixir.

This was something different from drugs.

It was a kind of panacea that existed in this other world, an oddity that produced effects on a different level from health foods or nutritional supplements, almost like an evolved version of a potion.

It was not a drug.

Unlike drugs, which had fatal side effects, elixirs didn’t have such things. Of course, if you took a poorly made elixir, it would be fatal to the human body, but that wasn’t a side effect, it was just that you ate something badly made and got sick.

Elixirs mainly had effects related to mana.

It was effective for internal injuries or internal organ health, but the reason for drinking an elixir was to increase the mana in the body more easily.

That’s what this thing was.

A permanent ultra-health food that anyone could find if they had money.

To imperialists, the blood of the colonized must have felt like this elixir. Just eating it was beneficial… Especially the cruel King Leopold II of Belgium!!! That bastard even started a company that squeezed the blood of Congolese people alive, put it in bottles, and sold it as souvenirs!!! He amassed a huge fortune from it, so their blood was truly an elixir!!!!

Massacre!!!!!!!!

And you can’t leave out France when it comes to massacres!!! It happened in the 20th century!!! The French, who loved liberty, equality, and fraternity, indiscriminately massacred innocent Algerian citizens, men, women, and children, in order to prevent the independence of Algeria, which was then a French colony!!!!!

They smiled as they massacred boys and girls, raped women, and executed and tortured innocent people indiscriminately!!!!!

Just because Algeria wanted independence, the French shouted for freedom and beat people to death with hammers as if they were playing a fun whack-a-mole game!!!!!!

I covered my face with both hands and pulled down!

Elixir means health food! Health food means red ginseng! My father always got angry at me for buying red ginseng that I didn’t even eat!!! As if he would die if he didn’t drink red ginseng for even a day…! So I always ordered it and filled it up for him!!

ㅡGulp.

Finally, Risha emptied the bottle.

Ah, I was so worried that something might happen to Risha that I felt like strange thoughts were swirling in my head.

I immediately shook my head violently to regain my senses.

“…Haa.”

Risha, who had finished drinking the elixir, exhaled slowly. With that slender finger, she very slowly stroked from her neck to her solar plexus, and then her abdomen, closing her eyes and breathing as if trying to feel something.

“Hoo…”

Throughout that action, small exclamations flowed from Risha’s mouth. My heart was just extremely impatient as I watched it.

What… what kind of effect did it have?
I was going crazy with curiosity.

At this rate, I might go crazy with curiosity and roam around the house in a bridge position like an exorcist.

“Risha? How is it?”

So I had no choice but to ask.

“…Wait a moment.”

Risha, who stretched out her palm as if to stop me, still closed her eyes and stroked her skin with her finger.

“Quite… unique. The cold mana is being absorbed into the body as it is. Without scattering… melting in… Hoo? It seems to be accumulating. It’s not disappearing at all.”

Risha, who said that, opened her eyes.

“I have created something perfect.”

Something perfect?

“Hehehe, as expected, this lady’s skill is incomparable to anything else. To create something like this! It is indeed this lady!”
“Lady Witch? What is it like? Explain it in a way that even a warrior can understand.”

Karin asked anxiously.

“In simple terms, the amount of mana accumulated in the body has increased. Seeing as it doesn’t disappear… it’s probably permanent.”
“Wow.”
“R, really? The amount of mana in the body permanently increases…?”
“Really?”

Karin, Liz, and Winnie opened their mouths wide and stood up from their seats.

The amount of mana in the body permanently increases… This was truly a dream elixir. If I drank it, it meant that I could drastically increase the duration of my sword energy. It was natural to be surprised.

“Hehehe, I can say for sure since this lady just felt it. A very excellent elixir has been created. It’s a natural result since the ingredients are what they are. Now, everyone, drink it.”

Risha said in a confident tone.

“Risha. You’re really okay, right?”

More than anything, I was worried about Risha’s body.

“Don’t worry. Now, hurry.”

Risha smiled and touched my face as she said that.
I felt a little calmer because she said she was okay.

Then, should I drink it?

As I was thinking that and grabbing a bottle, Karin grabbed my wrist and said.

“This is something that this older sister should drink first.”
“What’s that? As a man, I should try it first.”

I had to test it first.

“No way. I’ll drink it first and let you know. You should originally drink these things slowly, one person at a time.”
“Is that so?”

Then I could do it. Before I could even say those words, Karin immediately opened the lid and drank it.

ㅡGulp.

We looked at Karin again.
How much time had passed?

“Oh.”

Karin, who opened her eyes, made that sound.

“Shit.”

Following a positive exclamation.

“Is this for real?”

A positive reaction.

“What is it like, sis?”
“This is the real deal? It’s melting into my body as it is.”
“Mana?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t show any signs of scattering. It doesn’t feel like it’s disappearing either… Oh. Really. It’s as it is.”

Karin said as she touched her body.

“It’s not that much of an increase for me, but this is groundbreaking. How hard is it to increase mana? And this just accumulates like this?”
“I’ll drink it too!”

Liz, who saw Karin’s reaction, immediately emptied a bottle.

“Hoo… This is… real? Mana is melting into my body. I’m sure of it.”

It was truly a series of surprises.

“…We have to eat all of this and get rid of it.”

Liz, who had been touching her body as if trying to feel the energy for a while, opened her mouth in a serious tone.

“If it becomes known that we have this high-quality elixir, it will definitely become troublesome. And if you have something precious, you shouldn’t sell it, you should eat it all to help your body.”
“…Liz is right. We should drink all of this.”

That’s right.

We can’t export this anywhere.

Logically, if you drink it, mana just accumulates raw in your body, so why would we give this to anyone else? We should all share it among ourselves.

It was literally a treasure-level elixir.

I heard that there are nobles who don’t have mana, and those are the ones who are obsessed with elixirs and other elixirs. Not only that, there are bastards who resort to pagan rituals or crimes to obtain mana, and there are those who sell their souls to the devil.

Mana was the source of power to be reborn as a superhuman.

The difference between those who have it and those who don’t is very big. So various folk training methods are somewhat widespread in the market. The nobles are keeping their cultivation methods secret, trying to use them only among themselves.

“Then let’s drink it too!”
“Yeah… we should.”

Following that, Winnie, Hilde, and Ari also drank the elixir.

“Ah…! It’s real! It’s melting into my body…!”
“Hmm… This is a unique feeling!”

Winnie and Hilde jumped up and down and were happy. Winnie especially liked it a lot, she was a mage after all. She was feeling great joy in increasing her mana.

What was unique was Ari, who drank it and stayed still for a while.

“Ah…! M, my body…! I feel strange…!”

She looked back and forth between me and Risha with trembling eyes.

“What, Ari! Are you okay!”
“Yes…! It’s not dangerous… just…!”

Could it be a side effect…! It couldn’t be!
Risha immediately put her hand on Ari’s face.

“It seems that she is reacting more sensitively because she is an Alraune. Of course, I expected it, so there is no need to worry. But let’s go down for now. If she absorbs the proper power, she will probably be able to awaken magical authority.”

As expected, it was a difference in race.

Now all that was left was me and Claudia. Claudia carefully grabbed a bottle and looked at Risha’s face.

“Body improvement?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s possible.”
“…Okay.”

Claudia had told me herself that half-elves were inherently infertile, and that there was a limit to how much mana they could accumulate. Being weak to the cold was just inheriting the dark elf traits.

ㅡ…

Claudia, who had been looking at the bottle for a while, drank it.

“Heeung… Heuht? Th, this? This is how it turns out?”

The reaction came soon.

“C, Claudia. Why? What does it feel like?”
“It’s increasing… the amount of mana in my body. This is… a strange feeling…”

She seemed to be embarrassed, which was rare, so I immediately sat her down.

“Sis? Are you okay? Do you feel anything strange?”
“Take a deep breath!”

Winnie and Hilde asked as they grabbed Claudia’s hands, and she, who had been staring with wide eyes, slowly nodded.

“Yeah… I’m okay. I was just a little embarrassed… It’s a strange feeling. More mana than usual is spreading through my blood vessels.”
“Claudia, are you really okay?”
“I’m actually feeling energized.”

Claudia, who said that, smiled.
She really seemed to be okay.

“Hehehe, I’m glad it seems to be working well for your body. If it’s this much with just one bottle… of course, the efficiency will drop significantly if you take it again, but it seems okay to keep drinking it if you’re okay.”

There were still several bottles left.

“Then now… I should try it too.”

Was Kim Kat about to power up again with this? I grabbed the bottle while calming my pounding heart.

“Drink slowly. You might get sick.”
“Ah, sis.”

Karin said as she grabbed my shoulder.

“Don’t be surprised and take it with the feeling that you’re melting the mana into your body. Okay? Got it? Don’t panic… with the feeling that you’re wetting your esophagus and stomach as they are.”

Liz also said that.

“No, why are you so worried? You just drank it all.”
“I’m still worried. You’re just being careless, Karin.”
“Agh, this bitch, really.”

They were both worried about me.

“Hehehe, I know. I’ll drink it slowly.”

With that, I opened the lid and slowly drank the elixir made by squeezing out the heart of Elthron.

“…!”

The taste… I’m not lying, it tasted like Bboongbba. It was slightly blue, so I wondered if it would taste like Powerade, but it was Bboongbba. It wasn’t 100%, but it seemed to taste about 50% similar.

Above all… it was cold.

A cold chill went down my esophagus, and it felt like it was spreading through my body before it even entered my stomach. At the same time, my sharply honed senses told me that the mana from the elixir was melting into my body.

ㅡTsureureureut…!

The liquid vaporized as it was, and it felt like it was scattering throughout my body along the walls of my internal organs and blood vessels. That cold feeling lasted for a moment, and then warmth returned. The amount of mana accumulated in my body was increasing.

“Ooh…!”

I didn’t have that much mana, and I had been accumulating it through daily training and combat, but this was the first time I had gained this level of mana at once.

My mana capacity increased this much just by drinking one bottle…?

Fierce joy began to envelop my whole body.

“Surging energy…!!!!”

After consuming all of the elixir, I had no choice but to scream and jump while overwhelmed with pleasure and joy.

“SwooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!!!!!”