Chapter 203: A Curse Broken, a Soul Restored
The visit to Mrs. Mignole was an unexpected addition to Lann's agenda, and the result was surprisingly good.
After leaving the room where Mrs. Mignole was recovering, Lann resumed the discussion with Triss about their initial goal: breaking the Toad Prince's curse.
They mounted their horses and rode away from the bustle of the city, soon arriving at the shore of a quiet, secluded lake.
Lann stood aside and watched the sorceress begin to prepare for the magic of removing the curse.
Although Lann has now mastered the [Artefact compression], his skill proficiency is only level 2 after all. Prince of Ofir is not as tough as Olgierd. If something unexpected happens during the process of removing the spell, Lann's previous efforts will be in vain.
Sure enough, Triss's subsequent behavior made Lann realize that the process of perfectly removing the [Artefact compression] is many times more complicated than he imagined. This is far from being solved by chanting spells.
First, the sorceress asked Lann to dig a hole in the ground, then she drew water from the lake, forming a small pond into which she threw the jade statue.
Triss then arranged eight symbols representing the elven zodiac around the pond. She lit candles at the symbols. Inside the zodiac ring, she used river pebbles to form a small circle, adorned with magical symbols and a pentagram.
This done, he took out three metal tripods, which he placed next to the candles. On each tripod he placed a glass whose shape perfectly matched the structure of the support, ensuring that there was no margin of error in its placement.
As the incantations echoed through the clearing, the candles began to burn brightly, and the crystals emitted powerful rays of light that converged on the Toad Prince statue, causing its surface to rapidly change from green to gold, and then to transparent.
The jade statue on the ground slowly trembled, and its hard shell melted. Its size, similar to that of a human head, began to expand at an astonishing speed, contorting and vibrating, as its structure and shape transformed.
Until it became a huge creature.
The candles began to smoke and the light from the crystals faded. Triss lowered her arms, flexed her fingers, and wiped the sweat from her brow.
The spell was broken, but pain soon gripped the giant toad's nerves.
However, before the monstrous creature could utter a scream, its body began to emit a dense black mist. Like worms, these shadows emerged from its skin and dissipated into the air.
Those black shadows were the work of Olgierd's dark magic.
Under Lann's gaze, the giant toad that had just been freed of a spell once again emitted a magical aura, and then began to wriggle its flesh and blood in a painful way, and an astonishing amount of mucus was constantly discharged from its body.
Amidst screams, convulsions and gagging, the huge toad finally took human form.
He was a thin young man, covered in multicolored filth, with a cloudy and terrified look.
"Hey, do you remember who you are? What's your name?" Lann shouted loudly.
Triss on the other hand, after completing the spell, caused a green glow to emanate from her hands. She took out a bottle of alchemical potion and poured its contents into the small pond in front of them.
It was a healing spell accompanied by magic potions.
After Lann repeated the question three times, the man seemed to finally regain his hearing, or perhaps his brain was beginning to process information from the outside world.
He opened his trembling eyelids and shrank back at the majestic blond knight and the simple but beautiful sorceress in front of him.
"I am... the prince of Ofir, who are you, where is this place... I should be in Oxenfurt..."
Triss nodded upon hearing his coherent words. "Very good, his brain is not broken, and the most troublesome situation has not occurred."
The Prince of Ofir looked at Triss with the same dazed expression, then looked down at his own body, fixing his gaze on his legs submerged in the water.
"I seem to..."
"This is normal." Lann interrupted him. "You should check for any internal bleeding, because the process of breaking the spell might have damaged your internal organs."
The prince, almost like a puppet, obeyed Lann and carefully observed any changes underwater.
"No blood..."
Triss was satisfied. "The curse was successfully removed."
The sorceress began to collect the instruments used in the ritual, while Lann tried to continue talking to the Prince of Ofir.
"Think carefully, you may not have the memory of being sealed into a sculpture, but those years of confusion should still have some impressions left, right?"
The prince in the water began to think.
Intense pain gripped his head, his pupils slowly dilated, and he began to tremble violently, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying.
With more retching and trembling, he fainted into the small pond.
Lann glanced at Triss. "Is this a normal reaction?"
"There is no precedent, but I guess it is." Thinking of what Prince of Ofir had suffered in the past few years, Triss nodded sympathetically. "That experience was too terrifying. His brain has generated a blackout as a self-defense mechanism. I wouldn't be surprised if he loses his memory afterwards."
The sorceress took a step back and looked at Lann, indicating that she was not going to rescue the prince from a pool full of mucus, vomit and excrement.
Lann could only shrug.
...
Three days later, Temple Island.
During those three days, the Prince of Ofir's sanity came and went, accompanied by extreme reactions. He feared darkness, humidity, and even women.
This prevented Triss from getting close to him to administer treatments, leaving Lann to deliver the potions to him.
However, something else, apart from Triss's potions, surprisingly helped the prince's condition: the Eternal Fire.
The Prince of Ophir, who was afraid of the dark, showed impressive enthusiasm for the flames. Even when Chappelle sent a priest to recite the scriptures and teach him the doctrine, his condition stabilized.
But on the third day, when the prince finally regained his sanity, that situation changed.
Sitting across from Lann, the man looked weak and exhausted, but there was a dignity embedded in him, almost to the point of rigidity.
Prince of Ofir. It was hard to imagine that he was still a man-eating toad a few days ago.
He said to Lann sincerely: "I want to thank you, you saved my life, Prince of Cintra."
Lann smiled back at the prince's gratitude. "I am not a prince, Your Highness. You can call me Earl Lannister."
"If possible, I would rather call you Lann, okay?" Prince of Ofir smiled. "You can't imagine how grateful I am to you. When I think of the terrible things I have encountered, I tremble with fear."
"And I have heard a lot of wonderful stories about you these days. Witcher, right? There is no such magical profession in our place. I also heard about your encounter with me. In that situation, it doesn't matter even if you kill me, and you will even be praised."
The Prince of Ofir sighed and continued: "But you finally chose to spare my life and found a way to help me lift the curse. It can be said that you have saved me more than once. How can I thank you?"
Lann kept his smile and replied: "I think the most important thing at this stage is to help you contact your kingdom first, after all, you have lost contact for such a long time."
The Prince of Ofir nodded in agreement. "I need to get back to Oxenfurt. I have a communication device there that my royal mage left me; I hope it is still in place..."
"Oh, sure." The Prince of Ofir's eyes lit up. "When I speak to the magician, I will ask him to bring a gift from Ophir as a token of my gratitude to you."
"Lann, do you prefer a zebra or an elephant? Oh, you might not know what I'm talking about. A zebra is a horse with black and white stripes, and an elephant is a huge creature with a tail on its face. They are rare creatures that we often use as gifts in our trade with the southern continent."
Zebras and elephants? Perhaps the people of the North had never seen one, but Lann, in his previous life, was more than familiar with them. However, what he desired was not those things.
However, Lann still pretended to be thinking to conceal his true purpose. He had to wait for the other party to speak out.
"Zebra? It's a horse, right? How does it behave on the battlefield? What is its strength and carrying capacity? As for the elephant… you mentioned it's a giant, is it possible to tame it? How effective is it in a military charge?"
The prince of Ofir was momentarily taken aback by Lann's pragmatic words. "The zebra is not a war horse… As for the elephant, in our kingdom we do have war elephant units, but they are usually used as part of ceremonial processions and at royal banquets. They are mainly rare gifts to impress guests and show the power of the host…"
Lann showed a smile, a little embarrassed, as if regretting his lack of knowledge.
The prince of Ofir slapped his forehead, his face showing regret. "I'm sorry… I forgot a crucial detail. I heard that your kingdom is facing difficulties, which is why you want power so much, right? I assumed that someone of your worth would need something befitting your status, but I forgot that what you really need is power."
The prince remained thoughtful for a moment, until an idea illuminated his face.
"My position does not allow me to offer you military support directly, but I know an alchemical technique unique to our kingdom, called 'Magic Infusion'. It is a different skill from the 'runes' you use, capable of adding new energies to weapons and armor, greatly increasing your power in combat. I'm sure you'll love it!"
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