Chapter 2: Baby’s Tummy Is Rumbling
Peiya didn’t rush home. Since the bank was still open, he needed to quickly withdraw his payment.
He walked through the city and went to an alchemy workshop, using his still-warm wages to buy the ingredients he had long wanted.
He had been an abandoned child since he was young, and his body had always been weak. Because of a hidden illness, his magic level was much lower than others his age.
With no other choice, he chose a support role. A job with a high potential, but also a very low minimum level.
Among all professions, it was known as the hardest to succeed in.
The reason was simple. The resources needed to train a top-level support could be enough to train a whole team of holy knights.
And this job wasn’t something you could master just by having resources. If your talent wasn’t good enough, your level would get stuck, you couldn’t go higher, and you couldn’t go lower either.
It was a very frustrating position.
At first, he planned to save money from small jobs to buy medicine for his illness. But by chance, he ended up taking a job as a substitute.
As for how he felt about leaving Anna… Honestly, he didn’t feel much at all.
Instead, he felt strangely calm.
Because he had always treated himself as an employee. It was just a money deal.
He wouldn’t foolishly imagine having any kind of relationship with his employer.
He knew the world was messy, so it was better to focus only on money.
“Sir, here is what you asked for.”
The shop assistant handed the magic potion formula to Peiya. When he got it, his heart started beating fast.
He had waited for this day for a long time. An old lady had given him this formula before.
She said it could cure all illnesses. At first, Peiya didn’t believe it, but after suffering from pain day after day, he decided to take the risk.
Either way, he might die. His life wasn’t worth much anyway.
So what was there to fear?
Let’s do it.
Peiya returned to his home with the potion. As soon as he entered the old, dusty house, he choked on the dust.
He hadn’t been back for a long time. Other than occasionally coming to take something, he had spent most of his time around Anna.
If Anna was the sun, then he was like a lonely star orbiting around her.
Usually, Anna made him learn all kinds of things. Over the years, the “poor” air around him had faded a lot, and he had also kept a calm attitude that many nobles didn’t have.
More importantly, the skills Anna made him learn were actually very useful.
For example, right now, Peiya skillfully prepared the magic potion. His technique was even more practiced than some old teachers in magic academies.
Because in the past, while learning etiquette, cooking, dancing, team building, cleaning, chess, painting, alchemy, drink mixing, and blacksmithing,
he would still find time to review potion-making knowledge. Even his teammates didn’t know how much he had studied just to be useful in the team.
With the access Anna gave him, he had almost worn out all the books in the Adventurers’ Guild. This was also why he could lead his team out of danger many times.
If Peiya went to take certification exams, he could probably get almost every professional certificate in the Adventurers’ Guild.
But things that cost money were not something he could afford. The ingredients in this potion formula were extremely expensive.
After buying them this time, he didn’t have much money left.
One reason he learned so many skills before was to have more ways to make a living after the contract ended.
“Alright, this should be successful.”
Peiya held up the potion, and the standards for checking its quality quickly appeared in his mind.
“The color is clear, no impurities, backup liquid is kept, dark magic test passed, magic power level passed, all other checks passed. It should be safe to drink.”
Peiya held the potion tightly, afraid he might drop it by accident.
Thinking that he would finally no longer suffer from his illness, he raised it and drank it all in one gulp.
As the potion went down, a strange magical reaction began. At first, he was worried it might taste bad, but once it entered his body, he realized his worry was unnecessary. It tasted like strawberry. It was actually quite good.
“It seems… my body doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Peiya moved “her” fingers a little. Now when she made a fist, she felt strong. Even her runny nose seemed to be cured.
This was the first time she could breathe so smoothly.
Peiya greedily enjoyed taking deep breaths, not noticing that, in a corner she didn’t see, her fingers were slowly shrinking like the tide going out.
The thick calluses on her hands, formed from years of turning book pages, disappeared at that moment. In their place was soft, smooth skin like milk.
Her scalp tingled, and her hair seemed to be washed by moonlight, slowly growing longer under gravity.
In the end, it fell down like a waterfall of long silver hair. Under her thick eyelashes, her glass-like blue eyes quietly appeared.
Of course, she still hadn’t noticed that her chest had also quietly grown a little, though not by much.
Peiya took a deep breath again, feeling refreshed. When she was sick before, she always felt weak, but now it was different. She was healthy. It seemed the potion really worked.
She couldn’t help letting out a soft sound, but the moment she spoke, she froze.
Why was there a girl’s voice in the room?
“Is… someone else here?”
Peiya looked around carefully, but there was no one. Also… why did all the furniture suddenly feel taller?
Had her eyes been bad before too?
Peiya quickly ran to the bathroom to wash her face. Soon, a clear, sweet voice like a nightingale came from inside.
“I… you…”
Peiya held her face and looked at the mirror. The person inside looked somewhat like her, but had completely become a girl. She stood there, stunned.
This couldn’t be real, right?
In panic, she touched her body and ended up touching her chest, which had just grown a bit.
Maybe her body hadn’t fully adjusted yet.
A faint electric feeling ran through her body, and she couldn’t help sneezing.
A few strands of silver hair stuck to the tip of her nose, making it itch.
Why did this body feel even harder to control than before? But soon, a new problem replaced her confusion.
Why did a broken red moon appear in her mind? And in the distance, she saw a tree that was bleeding.
Was this a hallucination?
If it were someone else, they might have gone crazy by now. But as a team leader, Peiya calmly bit her finger, using pain to fight against this strange feeling.
Her sense of control slowly returned. She moved her fingers and quickly searched through the memories in her mind.
Within the limits her body could handle, Peiya tried to recall that strange scene. Blood slowly came from the corner of her mouth, but just before she fainted, she saw what she needed to see.
It was a mass of black flame.
In legends, those who could see black flames were called witches. In ancient times, when knowledge of magic was limited, they were even seen as daughters of demons.
“Oh… no… how did I become a witch?”
Drinking a potion and becoming a witch… sure, that makes sense.
Yeah right!
If drinking a potion could make someone a witch, it wouldn’t be so rare.
“And this red-black flame… it seems to be the sign of the disaster in the prophecy…”
The strongest witch in legend…
Peiya collapsed onto the ground, her mind blank for a long time.
She had no desire to become something like that. And she knew that if she ignored this power, it would stay asleep forever.
In history, many people became witches and got carried away by their power, and their endings were terrible.
She didn’t want to repeat that mistake.
But if she refused to become a witch, not only would she be unable to use the full power, her body would also need a large amount of food to keep going. Could she even afford that much food?
Peiya felt full of regret. At that moment, her stomach started to growl loudly.
This hunger came from deep inside her, like her very soul was starving. It felt like she could eat an entire pot.
Peiya forced herself to stand up. She knew she couldn’t just stay like this.
She needed to find food quickly.
She searched through the kitchen fridge, only to find that all the food had already gone bad.
Just as she felt annoyed, she heard a rustling sound outside the door. She immediately became alert. From the sound, it was likely a monster.
In the slum area, monsters would attack every night.
Was she their target tonight?
More importantly… she was really, really hungry.
I want to eat…
I want to eat!!
I want to eat!!!
Wait… can this monster be eaten?