"I won't come back here ever again!"
The next morning, Victoria shouted that before I opened a portal to grab Celestine so we can continue our journey to Arturo. Most the hallucination that we tested on her, made her so embarrassed that she needed to be spoiled after all that.
By the way, Spot had a great laugh.
About the hallucination gas, or what Victoria called Hallucinogen gas, there are several colors of leaves that we found. Each color has different effect. And when we found leaves with same color but in different location, they have the same effect.
Here's the summary of the experiment.
Pink Leaves:
"Roy! Hill! Don't do that! Please do that! Don't do that but please let me see if you're doing that!"
That's what Victoria shouted. I don't want to delve deeper into what she means. But from her reaction, it seems that the pink leaves gave lewd hallucination. And that's also depend on the person since I took a sniff a little, and see what I want to see. Not between boys, but between me and my lovers. It means that what we've seen depend on the person who smelled it.
But I quickly cure myself from the hallucination with my air magic that I improved while I'm here. I have clearer image to cure each condition the leaves give now.
…though there's one thing that bothers me a lot. It's Victoria.
"Roy! If you have completed researching this gas, let me sniff it! It's a good source for my book!" Victoria said.
Her books were quite popular with… same-minded people. And she was quite successful as an author. I keep saying that she can write whatever she wants as long as she doesn't use me as reference of her characters in her story. Though I doubt she follows my rule.
Though we ended up agreed on it since I told her to experiment on my magic once I can produce them later. Let's just hope that I won't get popular for the wrong reason.
Then the experiment continues.
Red leaves:
"You Motherf***ing, F*, F*, F*!"
…there were a lot of F words in her sentences that I have to censor them in my mind. But the one that start with mother, doesn't that just mean a father?
Whatever the case, red means rage. Those who smelled it will feel extreme rage that they will shout curses. And Victoria even transformed into her human form and fought me. But since she's angry, her moves are predictable and I can stop her.
Yellow leaves:
"Don't come near me! Aah! AAAH!" Victoria scream in fear.
That's right. Yellow is fear. Victoria seems as if she's extremely afraid of something and want to escape from that scary hallucination that scares her.
Green leaves:
"No way! Really!? I won the best-selling author award!? Thank you very much!"
Green leaves gave people who sniff them happy hallucination. Victoria in her human form has a huge smile on her face.
Blue leaves:
"No way… I shouldn't have done that. I'm much more useless than a pebble. It's best if I lock myself in a room and never come out ever again…"
She looked very depressed. So, I thought that blue leaves mean depression. It's scary in a way.
White leaves:
"Aaahh… it's so peaceful. I wish every day is this calm…"
…me too. I want everyday to be calm as well. I guess white leaves give calmness. This is also useful for me as a doctor. And probably when I want to escape from reality. Using this with sleeping gas might make people sleep more easily. Probably they will have good dream as well. I'll try it later once I succeeded in producing this calming gas.
Then the last color of the leaves that I found. It's also the most dangerous one. It was because the location where I found it is filled with corpses. Animals, monsters, and even humans, all of them are just corpses here.
When I ask if Victoria still wanted to continue, she asked if I will stop her no matter what if it's something dangerous. Of course I agree. And then she sniffs on the area under the tree with black leaves.
Black leaves:
"DIE! DIE! KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL!"
Victoria attacked me with the intention to kill. This black leaves is the scariest of all. It makes those who sniff it to attack other people with the intention to kill. And using my curing gas also takes a lot of time, so I need to dodge Victoria's attack for a while.
This time, she's using her technique without anger. She's trying to kill me by using strategy. Unlike that time with red leaves. This just makes it harder to stop her, but I did it in the end since the effect of the hallucination is gone.
In the end, the result of the experiment was amazing.
These gases that were produced by the leaves, able to control people. It's no longer just hallucination.
From Victoria's explanation, she always sees something that is not real, but she thought very real. That's what triggered her emotions.
So, if I can produce these types of gases, I could create chaos anywhere I want. If I could produce the same gas as the black leaves and spread it in the middle of the enemy ranks, they will kill each other as a result. Probably the black leaves are the reason why the forest is dangerous.
I will return here some time in the future to improve my air magic. But for now, I need to focus on the mission.
So, I called back Celestine who was being hugged by her sister so we can continue our journey.
"How was the experiment?" Celestine asked.
"It was enlightening." I said.
"It was embarrassing." Victoria said.
"That was funny!" Spot said.
Confused that each of us gave different answer, Celestine asked Victoria who refused to answer.
"In summary, the leaves produce different types of gas depend on their color. That's what we learned. Though one color is both amazing and dangerous at the same time." I explained to Celestine the effect of the black colored leaves.
"Isn't that amazing? You can destroy the cult from the inside if you can produce the same gas. What about other color?" Celestine asked.
"I'll explain it later when Victoria isn't with us. She's already helpful with the research, so I can't say something that will embarrass her. Though it's good to keep this as blackmail material." I said as I teased the sulking Victoria.
"Don't do that! If you ever tried to blackmail me, I will hate you for the rest of your life!"
The rest of my life she said. Then after I die, she won't hate me anymore, right?
I guess the reason she can't say that she will hate me for the rest of her life is because that's too long.
"Let's go. We should save the king of Arturo as fast as possible. We have delayed our journey for a while." I said.
"Yeah, right. If you hadn't meet Spot, you wouldn't even get to Varadis at this time. You might have crossed the sea, but you won't reach the capital yet. It's all thanks to Spot we can travel fast." Celestine said.
"Yeah! I'm very fast!" Spot said proudly.
"But we need to be really careful this time. We will stop at every city we passed. If there are any report telling that they've seen us, they will just think that we're wind mages who can fly fast, beastform mages, or summoner or tamer who ride on the back of a flying monster. We'll call ourselves as travelers who want to see the world as our disguise. Is that okay?" I asked Celestine.
"Let's say that we're a couple on our honeymoon to see the world. I think that's more believable than just travelers." Celestine said, to which I agree.
I haven't even married anyone yet, but already went on a honeymoon? Other girls will be jealous.
We continued our journey and stopped at every city we see for a day or two. We continued that way until we reach the capital of Arturo Kingdom.
In every city, there are a lot of people who have explosive devices in their mouth. As expected, this whole kingdom has fallen to their clutch. Though there are some who don't have explosive devices, I don't know if I can trust them or not.
Celestine also see many people she recognizes as her worshippers. Good thing she's wearing flattening underwear. No one will think that she's the same Celestine as the one they worshipped.
"Finally we're here. What do you think, Roy?" Victoria asked me as we can see the capital within our sight.
"…I'm currently doubtful that the king is still alive. Probably they keep him barely alive. Victoria, can you transform into him again?"
Old man Henry, Lynn, and Albert has told me about the king's appearance. And Victoria mimicked how he looks like. The three told me that she's the exact replica of the man, so I know how he looks like.
I can see some areas around the entrance of the capital, but I haven't seen anyone with similar appearance as the one Victoria mimicked. There's also a chance that he's not being held in this place. Maybe he was brought to the base of the cult. Or he has died.
"In each city we enter, we haven't met any expert level mages. But this is the capital, so we need to be careful. If anyone sensed someone suspicious, don't react. Act as if you don't know they are looking at you." I said to everyone, in which they nodded.
Now, let's enter the capital.