Chapter 110: Another Eye - V

Clementine dreaded the return to her family’s compound.

—Creak.

Walking into an unkempt, overgrown courtyard, the chilly air of the City of Spires made her already-cold blood even colder. Without the herbal pill she’d swallowed earlier, her body would have been sluggish and weak.

She would have joined her parents in their slumber, hibernating for the years to come.

"Sigh,"

Looking around at the silent, stagnant waters of the pond and the dried-up fountain, Clementine felt the melancholy of her childhood return.

She used to linger around this garden, thinking to herself, ’What a nice, relaxing place.’

But then, she grew up and faced the disdainful gazes of the other Snakespawn. She realized then that the beautiful garden she loved so much...

Was trash.

So she never came back.

She never frolicked around the overgrown shrubs and watched the colorful butterflies flutter about.

The frogs and the crickets.

The water sprites that would turn the stagnant pond into their home, seeing that she was around to help.

As well as the singing fruits and berries that would grow from the most random of vines—appearing even in the compound itself. Inside abandoned rooms and dusty cabinets.

All of those things had been thrown far behind her, becoming nothing more than a sad memory she’d never find ever again.

She was capable of managing her own garden now, and it brought her great joy.

"Hm?" Taylor’s voice sounded in her ear all of a sudden. "This setup feels familiar."

Lillie let out a beguiling laugh. "That’s because it’s nearly identical to the one Miss Clementine has in the Soulless City."

Then, the High Snakespawn’s eyes flitted over to her.

"...I did indeed model it after my family’s garden. It was one of my dreams as a kid to clean this place up... But I never did get to it."

Lillie just widened her smile in reply and walked up to her side. "Let’s begin then. That dream of yours is still unfulfilled, yes? Fufu~ What a treat. I’ll use this chance to rid myself of rust."

—Snap.

Clementine felt a surge of immense magical power boiling within Lillie’s body. Unlike the swordsman that she was, this High Snakespawn seemed to be a Mage. Glancing at the Third Circle human mage nearby, she noticed that Taylor had goosebumps all over his body.

His back was probably slick with a cold sweat.

After all, despite sitting comfortably at B-Rank, Clementine could barely move.

That pressure that Lillie had unsealed all of a sudden. It was surely at the peak of A-Rank.

Maybe higher.

A brief moment passed before Lillie’s surging aura vanished. In its place was a warm breeze that seeped into the surroundings.

A chartreuse haze washed over the garden, commanding all aspects of nature within its jurisdiction.

It was the 6th-Circle Nature Magic spell, <Vitality Domination>.

Under the influence of such a spell, all signs of overgrowth vanished. Vines writhed and recoiled, forming into patterns that spanned the entire garden. The surrounding trees all readjusted their posture, raising their branches into the sky to create more space beneath their canopies. Bushes crumpled into themselves, becoming dense barriers that served as walls and sculptures that decorated the lawn.

The pond’s stagnant water swirled as various microorganisms within were forced into overdrive. With the aid of Lillie’s mana, they devoured all pestilent existences, cleansing the turbid water and devouring unwanted moss on the rocks.

—Swish.

With a flutter of her sleeve, Lillie waved her hand and cast another spell, allowing the fountain to return to its glittering glory in the sunlight, allowing a faint mist to surround its cascading design and feeding the pond with flowing water.

Clementine’s eyes sparkled with the fountain’s gleam.

A part of her heart felt empty all of a sudden. But it wasn’t an unwanted emptiness, no.

It felt as if a part of her regrets had vanished, cleansed in the same way this garden had been. Although she felt conflicted with the fact that her greatest childhood dream was merely the swish and swash of a High Snakespawn’s sleeve...

Seeing this place restored brought her a sense of catharsis.

’Now, I just need to wake those old bastards up.’

The ones who had summoned her had probably fallen back into their respective hibernations. No one had managed the estate since then, and they clearly had no capacity to have it done by others.

Their Vielour Family had long fallen from grace, after all.

’...That’s why I’m here now.’

Clementine had received one of her family’s legacies. With it, she had restarted the production of her family’s medicinal specialties.

Although she still needed a bit of practice, it was enough that the products worked as intended.

Slowly but surely, her business in the Soulless City was bearing fruit.

More and more people were passing by her residence to make various purchases. Her assistant, Taylor, no longer blew the lab’s glassware to pieces.

Furthermore, another human named Aventine helped her with funding.

Ever since the formation of the team a few months ago, everyone had begun wondering the same thing:

"Why was this D-Rank adventurer... So suspiciously rich?"

When they asked him, the man in question would answer with:

"I always know where the treasure’s at. Those commissions that get sent straight to me earn more than you guys think. I get cuts from their excavations, and it’s been very lucrative so far."

Even Lillie’s eyes sometimes sparkled when they heard the jingling sound of Aventine’s wealth.

It was also because of such jingling that the High Snakespawn had noticed the ruby ring on the human’s finger.

It was a spatial storage.

And not just any spatial storage, no—it was not a random box or pouch enchanted with spatial expansion and weight reduction.

It had a complete sub-dimension inside it!

Such an artifact was worth human kingdoms! Only the Imperial Nobles of Walvaskaz had enough wealth to purchase spatially-enhanced jewellery.

What more, a piece with an entire world inside it?

When Clementine learned about that fact, she couldn’t help but grow even more suspicious of the person she was currently collaborating with. At the same time, she also felt amused.

After all... her lab’s funding no longer faced too many issues all of a sudden.