Chapter 363
Chapter Title: The So-Called Love Potion
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363
A beautiful golden liquid flowed into Leo’s mouth.
The faces of the female students watching nearby hardened.
*Gulp—*
Leo’s throat moved smoothly.
A refreshing scent spread through his mouth.
With it, he felt his body, weary from training, begin to recover.
Just as Leo, feeling much more refreshed, was about to open his mouth.
“Don’t look! Don’t look at anyone else!”
Celia shrieked, covering Leo’s eyes with her hands.
“Hey! All of you, get back! Don’t even think about making eye contact with Leo!”
Celia was famous for never showing a single weakness.
Her motto was that, as a scion of the Jerdinger bloodline, she must always be the perfect model student.
But that very same Celia was now revealing a tremendous emotional upheaval.
“Leo! How could you drink that?!”
Chelsea, too, approached Leo with a thoroughly flustered expression.
“Get away! Shoo! Shoo!”
Celia swung her leg while keeping both hands over Leo’s eyes.
Her actions, reminiscent of someone shooing away a pest, made Chelsea frown slightly, but since Leo was the priority, she took a step back as Celia had ordered.
“Aren’t you overreacting a little?”
“Overreacting? What are you talking about? You’re a direct descendant of the Jerdinger family and our school’s student council president! You can’t do anything strange!”
Celia spoke firmly as Leo tried to pull her hands away.
Watching the scene, Eliza, who had stopped her fight with Chloe, curled the corner of her lip.
“This should be quite a show. It seems interesting, so let’s see just how effective that love potion, or whatever it is, really is.”
“Oh, my?”
At Eliza’s words, Chen Xia covered her mouth and gasped.
It was a graceful gesture, befitting an elegant young lady.
But her eyes were deadly serious.
“Do you find this amusing, Miss Eliza?”
Eliza averted her gaze at Chen Xia’s question.
“Karl, hurry up and make an antidote.”
At Chloe’s words, Karl scratched his head awkwardly.
“There’s no specific antidote. Wouldn’t it be fine if we’re just careful for a day?”
As Chloe stared at him with icy eyes, Karl hastily added.
“How about this? Aside from Eliza, no one here would do anything weird to Leo, right?”
Karl grinned.
“Since it’s come to this, why not just have one person stick with Leo all day?”
“What?”
“I think Chloe would be a good choice. She’s the head of the same dorm, Glory, after all. And you’ve been close since your first year.”
At Karl’s sly words, Chloe’s face turned red.
“Wh-what are you talking about?!”
“From what I know, the effect only lasts for about a day anyway.”
“I can take good care of Young Master Leo, too.”
“I was in the same class as Leo for a whole year, you know?”
Chen Xia and Chelsea also stepped forward.
Watching them, Celia spoke.
“Don’t even dream of it!”
“Hmph, if you’re so unhappy about it, Celia Jerdinger, why don’t you take care of him?”
At Eliza’s words, Celia retorted.
“Don’t say such a terrible thing. Leo and I are cousins, you know?”
“Celia.”
Leo spoke then.
“I’ll keep my eyes closed, so please move your hands.”
At his words, Celia nodded and removed her hands.
They then discussed what to do with Leo.
“Leo, why on earth did you drink something like that?”
In the middle of their discussion, Leo asked for some water, and Chelsea approached to pour him a glass.
“Chelsea.”
“Huh?”
Turning her head to look at Leo, Chelsea felt her heart drop.
His beautiful red eyes were staring directly at her.
“Wh-wh-wh-what.”
Chelsea was so flustered she couldn’t even speak properly.
“Leo and Chelsea made eye contact!”
Karl, who spotted it, cried out in alarm.
“Hey! Chelsea Llewellyn!”
Celia, her eyes blazing, shouted, and Chelsea replied with a thoroughly panicked expression.
“N-no! It wasn’t me, Leo looked at me… Argh! Really!”
Stomping her feet, Chelsea didn’t know what to do.
Just as she was blushing furiously while glancing at Leo.
Leo saw her expression, chuckled softly, and patted her on the head.
At his action, which was no different from usual, Chelsea’s eyes widened.
“It’s not having any effect.”
At Leo’s words, everyone looked surprised.
“Young Master Leo, you don’t feel anything?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Thank goodness.”
Seeing Leo shrug nonchalantly, Chloe let out a deep sigh of relief.
“So you ended up making a dud?”
Celia crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
Karl scratched his cheek.
“Seems like it.”
“Hmph, I feel pathetic for having been even the slightest bit intrigued.”
Eliza scoffed and turned to leave.
As the incident came to a close, Karl burst into a hearty laugh and said.
“Wow~ I’m so glad it was a failure! Hahahaha! Now, let’s go stop the others.”
As Karl tried to casually move past the situation, Chloe reached out a hand.
“Owowowowow!”
“You. Did you really think you could get away with causing a mess like this?”
Chloe pulled Karl’s ear, and seeing this, Celia swept her hair back.
“How are you going to take responsibility for this commotion?”
Chelsea narrowed her eyes as a grisly cracking sound came from her small hands.
“You’re prepared for this, right?”
“Hey! I didn’t know! I really didn’t know it would get this big!”
Karl protested, his face pale.
Watching him, Chen Xia smiled sweetly.
“Everyone, let’s not be too harsh. We can’t punish student Karl on a personal level, can we?”
“Ch-Chen Xia!”
“I’ll raise it as an agenda item to be handled by the student council. Student Karl, you’ve been caught by the student council for manufacturing and selling illegal drugs before, haven’t you? I believe you were told you wouldn’t be let off so easily if you caused another incident like this?”
Karl’s face went white.
“Karl made it and was definitely going to report it to the student council. He may have started this commotion, but you can’t say he’s the root cause. Don’t be too hard on him.”
“Leo! You’re really the only one!”
Karl looked as if he were about to cry as he saw his friend defending him.
At Leo’s words, the girls’ expressions softened to ones of reluctant agreement.
“Still, I wonder why it turned out to be a failure?”
“Because it’s Karl.”
As Chloe tilted her head in confusion, Chelsea replied with her arms crossed.
And so, the incident was resolved.
Leo muttered to himself as he returned to his room.
‘Karl made it properly.’
Leo looked down at the potion bottle.
‘People think the same way now as they did 5000 years ago. To think they’d assume it was for drinking.’
Leo let out a small laugh.
The love potion made by Dweno.
It wasn’t meant to be drunk.
Leo recalled the events of 5000 years ago.
***
*Click—*
That day, a meeting about future plans had just concluded in Gardsrone.
With only the five Great Heroes sitting in the meeting room, Dweno placed a small bottle filled with a golden liquid on the table.
“What’s this?”
Lisinas asked with a curious expression.
“It’s a love potion.”
Lisinas, Ar-on, and Kyle stared at Dweno with dumbfounded expressions.
“Some fool kept pestering me to make it, so I gave it a try. The duration is only a day, but the effect is guaranteed.”
At Dweno’s serious tone, Ar-on’s eyes widened as he asked Kyle.
“Who on earth would do that?”
“Beats me. Who the hell would have such a half-baked idea? If you like someone, you should just confess.”
“Kyle, I completely agree with your sentiment, but coming from an idiot like you, I can’t accept it.”
“Why are you suddenly picking a fight, you damn dwarf?”
Kyle scowled.
Lisinas stared pointedly at Luna.
Luna looked away, feigning ignorance.
“I’m surprised you’d put so much effort into making something so strange.”
At Lisinas’s comment, Dweno replied.
“I had no intention of making it. But on second thought, isn’t love a truly beautiful emotion? As a bard who sings praises of beauty, it’s an emotion I simply cannot overlook. That’s why I made it.”
“I don’t even want to imagine through what kind of perverted lens you interpreted it.”
At Kyle’s words, Luna shot up from her seat.
“Since we’re at it, let’s test it out, Kyle.”
“Why.”
“Drink it.”
“…”
Kyle’s face soured as he looked at Luna.
“Why should I have to drink this weird, mysterious potion?”
“Because you’re perfect for it.”
Luna grinned, grabbing the bottle and approaching Kyle.
“Come on, say ‘ah’!”
“Get that away from me, you idiot.”
“I said, drink it!”
“As the leader, I can’t let a party member consume something so strange. Luna, throw it away immediately.”
“Hmph!”
Luna opened the bottle and tried to force Kyle to drink it.
Kyle snatched the bottle from Luna’s hand and forced it into her mouth instead.
“Oof? Mmph?”
Her eyes wide, Luna struggled to break free, but Kyle wrapped an arm tightly around her back and held the bottle firm.
Luna, held in Kyle’s embrace, struggled at first, but soon, her ears turning bright red, she went limp.
Lisinas’s mouth hung open, and Ar-on’s eyes widened.
“You drink it. Don’t try to force it on others.”
“Hnngh—!”
Letting out a strange moan, Luna squeezed her eyes shut and broke free from Kyle.
“How could you make Luna drink something like that?!”
“So I should just stand by while she tries to force me to drink it with magic?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
While Lisinas and Kyle bickered, Luna, her eyelashes fluttering, cautiously looked at Kyle.
Her face was somewhat tense.
But with a slight flush, Luna looked at Kyle.
Kyle approached her and leaned his face in close.
“How is it? Feel like you’re falling for me?”
“Kyle…”
“Luna! Wait…”
Just as Lisinas urgently tried to stop Luna.
“What do you think you’re doing, you damn bastard!”
*Thwack—!*
Luna headbutted Kyle squarely in the face.
“This wildcat, really…”
Kyle clutched his face and groaned.
Leaving Kyle behind, Luna confronted Dweno.
“What gives? Nothing’s happening! It’s a complete failure!”
At Luna’s words, Dweno gave her a pathetic look.
“The word ‘failure’ does not exist in my dictionary. Especially not when it comes to art.”
“What?”
“To think you’d try to make someone drink it. How remarkably low-level. Of course, drinking it does have the effect of restoring a weary body, but the true use of the love potion I created is something else entirely.”
“What is it, then?”
As Luna narrowed her eyes, Dweno’s own eyes widened.
“You spray it! The moment that potion is sprayed on a body, it returns to its state at birth!”
“…”
Luna, failing to understand for a moment, looked dazed, and Lisinas also wore an expression of utter confusion.
Ar-on, who had been listening, blushed and asked.
“You mean if you spray that potion, all your clothes melt away?”
“You got it! Ar-on!”
“What kind of perverted potion is a love potion!”
Luna, red up to her ears, screamed.
“You don’t understand! Imagine a handsome man and a beautiful woman in a room, looking at each other’s beautiful forms! And in a state where everything they’re wearing has melted away for an entire day! Wouldn’t love naturally blossom?”
“You made such a vulgar potion and called it a love potion? You perverted dwarf!”
Luna shrieked.
“As I thought, you have no understanding of art whatsoever.”
Lisinas clutched his head and let out a deep sigh.
“And these are the ones supposed to be the hope for saving the world.”
***
‘Well, I’m the only one who knows about its effects.’
Leo shrugged.
‘Karl probably won’t try to make it again either.’