For several days, Lan Qingyou had essentially been staying in Ursula's shelter, conducting research alongside her.
During this time, Chu Yuan had been sending materials to Lan Qingyou in a continuous but frustratingly piecemeal fashion.
This was testing Lan Qingyou's patience.
After all, she was currently researching the freckle-removing liquid and was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Yet, this guy kept bothering her for no good reason.
Ultimately, she told him that the Supreme Council should gather all the ordinary materials together before giving them to her at once.
This allowed the entire Supreme Council to breathe a sigh of relief.
With the witch's guarantee, they at least didn't have to worry about being doxed.
Even Daniel, whose photo Chu Yuan had sold out, felt the same way.
Well, in reality, Daniel didn't know his photo had been sold by Chu Yuan, but it wouldn't have mattered even if he did.
Lan Qingyou had no intention of acting as Chu Yuan's hired thug.
That guy was quite devious; he had given her the names and appearances of his enemies, hoping that if she ever lost her temper, she would go after them.
If that happened, that bastard Chu Yuan would probably wake up laughing from his sleep.
She wasn't about to work for him for free.
“How is it? How is it?!”
Sitting on a soft mushroom meat sofa, Lan Qingyou looked with slight nervousness at Ursula, who had a large piece of gauze taped to her face.
“Wait, it's not time yet. Just a bit longer.”
Ursula didn't look up at Lan Qingyou this time; instead, she stared intently at the small brown tea table between their sofas.
On it sat a five-minute sandglass.
The golden sand inside trickled down grain by grain, marking the passage of time.
Click!
As the last grain of sand fell, Ursula impatiently peeled the large piece of gauze off her face.
“How is it? How is it?!”
This time, it was Ursula's turn to ask Lan Qingyou.
She leaned forward, bringing her face close to Lan Qingyou's, her voice trembling with excitement.
“Mhm, while it hasn't completely vanished, it's much better than before. It’s changed from black to a brownish color.”
Lan Qingyou also excitedly pulled out a mirror for her to check.
Indeed, the moment the final product was finished, Ursula had used her own face for a clinical trial.
Five minutes—that was the time required for the skin to absorb the ointment after application.
That was why she had been staring so intently at the sandglass.
“It's true! It really lightened!”
Looking at herself in the mirror, Ursula touched her once-hideous face with trembling hands.
The birthmark was massive.
Although Lan Qingyou had heard about Ursula's situation from Diana before, she never imagined that 'massive' meant it occupied nearly half of Ursula's face.
Furthermore, it wasn't a solid color; it was mottled with brownish spots in the middle.
It made her entire face look 'dirty.'
It was no wonder she chose to hide it behind a veil.
No...
It was more accurate to say that Ursula's ability to endure until now was a remarkable feat.
If Lan Qingyou had to live with that face, she doubted she could have made it through her teens, let alone her twenties.
Drip... Drip...
Just as Lan Qingyou was admiring Ursula's fortitude, Ursula's tears silently fell onto the tea table.
“Thank you... Thank you, My Lord. If not for you, I might have had to continue suffering the pain this curse brought upon me.”
Ursula grabbed Lan Qingyou's hand, weeping as she bowed and pressed Lan Qingyou's hand against her forehead.
The heartache of being despised by her family and the pain of being shunned by outsiders all erupted at this moment.
Though Lan Qingyou found being called 'My Lord' a bit awkward, the atmosphere was so heavy that even she, the 'Lord,' couldn't bring herself to break it.
She could only let the other woman let the waterworks flow.
Still... it was normal to vent at a time like this.
It was good to let out all the bitterness and pain stored in her heart.
As for the 'curse' the woman mentioned, it was likely just a way of describing it.
“Sob... Hic...”
“By the way, didn't you say before that the results you researched couldn't be maintained? Although some of the color has been removed this time, there's no guarantee there won't be a rebound. We'll need to observe it closely.”
Seeing that she had cried enough, Lan Qingyou reached out with her other hand to pat her shoulder, warning her not to celebrate too early.
“Hic...”
The reminder snapped Ursula back to her previous experiments.
Back then, she had also managed to lighten the color, only for it to rebound shortly after.
She hoped the ointment made this time wouldn't suffer the same fate, especially since it was made together with the Clan Leader.
In truth, no one knew better than Lan Qingyou whether it would rebound.
Was it a joke? As an Origin Witch and an alchemist, could the ointment she helped develop and produce be some shoddy product?
Of course not.
She only said that to get Ursula to stop crying.
Crying was for venting, but doing it for too long wasn't good for the body.
“Tha... Thank you, Clan Leader.”
Phew—
Finally, the address had switched back from 'My Lord.'
Lan Qingyou breathed a sigh of relief and handed over a handkerchief for her to wipe her eyes.
After about three minutes, Ursula's emotions finally stabilized.
Since the freckle-removing liquid had been successfully developed, the two of them finally had some ample rest time.
They lay back on the sofas, letting their minds go blank or snacking on small treats.
“Clan Leader.”
“Mhm?”
“Clan Leader, your talent skill is Weight Control, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
Since this wasn't exactly a secret among the management and the Witch Group, Lan Qingyou answered without a second thought.
“Nothing, I just wanted to ask... have you ever considered that your talent might not actually be Weight Control, but Gravity Control?”
Ursula asked as she folded the handkerchief in her hand.
“Ah... you think so too? Actually, I've been thinking about that for a long time.”
Slumped against the sofa's backrest, Lan Qingyou stared blankly at the pure white, clearly textured mushroom ceiling.
She wasn't just making that up.
In fact, she had noticed this when she was collecting stones to use as weapons.
While the talent description said she could control objects within a certain number of tons, actual practice revealed that while she was indeed manipulating weight...
She could simultaneously feel the gravity in the surrounding area changing.
This was most apparent when she used it on herself.
Her body would become light, as if she had no weight at all, but it was also highly possible that she was directly turning the force field around her body into a zero-gravity zone.
That was why, before she had her Magic Broom, her movements looked like someone moving in outer space.
It looked comical, but there was something deeper operating behind it.
Now that even others could see that there might be something more to her talent, she only needed to upgrade it to find out the specific details.
Therefore, Lan Qingyou wasn't worried at all.
Bang! Bang!
At that moment, a knock sounded within the shelter, and it sounded quite urgent.
Rate on N.U.
