Chapter 186

PHA – Chapter 186 – Kidnapping Scene

“Is this the Seed of Nature?”

Lacey couldn’t help but gasp when she saw the Seed of Nature Alice had handed to her. Unlike when she perceived it through Alice’s pouch, she could now feel the pure and natural mana the Seed of Nature was generating directly with her skin. Meanwhile, just being in direct contact with this mana had smoothened her breaths significantly.

This was also one of the reasons why the Seed of Nature was valuable as research material. The Seed of Nature’s mana generation method was incredibly complex. If one tried to compile all of the formulas used, one could fill multiple books that would typically be enough to record the average taboo. Meanwhile, every one of these formulas could be used to develop new theories and contribute to the development of modern magic. It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to refer to the Seed of Nature as God’s miracle. Though, it was a fact that God had planted the Tree of Nature, so it wasn’t wrong to call it God’s miracle, either.

In the meantime, when Luna saw Alice failing to get her point, she couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated. However, she didn’t have any intentions of refuting Alice, either. She was only Alice’s maid, so she didn’t wish to interfere in Alice’s decisions too much.

Not to mention, Alice had two Seeds of Nature, so it wouldn’t hurt to let Lacey try reconstructing a body for Kristine. On the off chance Lacey succeeded, they wouldn’t have to wait until the Gryffin Kingdom’s alchemist team was done with their project.

Even if Kristine did acquire a new body, she couldn’t regain her full strength immediately. She’d need some time to adapt and train her body first. Meanwhile, the sooner she received her new body, the sooner she could recover her strength and be ready to help out with any unexpected situations.

“What do you want me to do with this Seed of Nature, Lord Hero?” Lacey curiously asked after she was done marveling at the Seed of Nature. She naturally knew that Alice must have her own intentions if she was willing to give her something as important as the Seed of Nature.

The Seed of Nature had many uses. Aside from forging a body, it could also be used to regenerate severed limbs, restore broken nerves, and repair mana meridians. It could be said to be a jack-of-all-trades. Not to mention, this was the real Seed of Nature, not an imitation issued by the Alchemy Association. It should be capable of far more than what she knew of.

“I need you to help me forge a body using this Seed of Nature,” Alice said. Then, she nodded at Luna, signaling her to pass Kristine’s photo to Lacey. “Follow the appearance in this photo and create a body that can operate mana normally.”

“Let me see…”

Lacey nodded. Reconstructing a body wasn’t a major undertaking, and there had been quite a few precedents of people doing so. These people were typically those who had suffered irreparable injuries to their limbs, organs, or both. So, the solution they used was to create a copy of their physical body using the replica Seeds of Nature. Then, they would replace their damaged organs and limbs using the copy’s.

Thus, Lacey had subconsciously assumed that Alice was also seeking to conduct a similar procedure. The only difference was that Alice wanted organs and limbs capable of manipulating mana, and this was where the genuine Seed of Nature came into play.

It was also inevitable for Lacey to have such an assumption. Although everyone was aware that a genuine Seed of Nature could be used to create a body capable of housing a soul, not a single soul in existence had managed to last until their new body was created. So, this procedure existed only in theory even until now, and it was only natural that Lacey didn’t think of such a possibility.

However, when Lacey saw the woman with light-blue hair in the photo, she couldn’t help but get a familiar feeling.

“This person is…?”

“Kristine, the Twelfth… Well, the previous generation’s Hero.”

Alice didn’t bother hiding this information from Lacey since the girl already knew that she was the Hero. Moreover, Kristine’s photos could be found in history books and various other reading materials. So, there was no point in hiding this information.

“Her soul has yet to dissipate, and I am preparing to bring her back to life to help me deal with the Demon King.”

Specifically, Alice wanted Kristine’s help with the Demon King’s Power, an opponent much tougher than the Demon King. However, Alice still did not intend on sharing the truth about the Demon King’s Power with others. Even if she was going to do so, she would only tell people capable of coming into contact with the truth of the world, such as Kristine, Aird, and Luna.

Originally, Alice had thought about altering the appearance of Kristine’s new body to make it easier for Kristine to conceal her identity. After all, Kristine’s face was rather recognizable.

However, Kristine had promptly shot down Alice’s suggestion. If a body looked too different from a soul, it would negatively impact the compatibility between the two. Hence, it was best if the new body created resembled her original body as much as possible.

“T-The previous generation’s Hero?!”

Lacey exclaimed, her hand holding the photo trembling a little. She didn’t expect that not only was Alice trying to resurrect someone, but that someone was even Kristine, the previous generation’s Hero…

“This… Is this really fine to leave this to me?”

Originally, Lacey had only felt a little nervous when Alice asked her to construct a body for her. However, after learning Alice’s true goal, her anxiety instantly shot through the roof.

“It’s fine. Just go ahead and give it a try.”

Alice had one more Seed of Nature kept in her room, so she wasn’t particularly worried that Lacey would mess up. In addition, she wanted to use this opportunity to form a connection with a potential alchemy genius.

Lacey had never received much attention from Celtic because of her status as an illegitimate daughter. As a result, nobody had ever noticed her talent in alchemy until today. So, this was a good opportunity for Alice to make Lacey owe her a debt of gratitude. Then, once Lacey developed her talent, Alice would no longer have to worry about owing others a favor whenever she needed the services of a master alchemist in the future.

“If you fail, you can just become my maid like Luna to repay your debt,” Alice joked.