Three light blue-colored pills were formed. Alex took those pills and was relieved. The pills were finally done.
He looked at the dumbfounded Alicia and Firia and the lazy Sherry who was currently lying on the couch. He walked to them,
"Wuu! Wuu!" Sherry greeted him, "Wuu! Wuu! Wuu! Wuu!"
Alex giggled, he perceived her intention. Sherry seemed to tell him that Alicia and Firia were loud and might disturb him. He smiled and stroked Sherry gently. "Yes yes, My Sherry is the greatest!"
"Wuu!" Sherry put its paw on its... chest(?).
It was very cute watching her like this. "Oh right, here is your food."
Alex poured out his flame to Sherry. It ate the flame happily, Alex's pure fire was nourishment for Sherry. After he confirmed that Sherry was full, he turned to Alicia and Firia. They were still not moving after this whole time.
"Oi... oi... you two?" Alex tried to wake up the dumbfounded duo.
"Ah, Alex. You finally finished," Alicia embarrassedly said, she couldn't think of anything other than those sloppy words.
She still hadn't fully recovered from the shocking scene she saw just now. She finally knew what Alex meant in Alchemy. She never knew that Alchemy was such an arduous process. It took many hours to make pills like this. She recalled when Alex gave her pills like this or when he brought those many pills to her family. She felt a bit of pain in her heart. It turned out that each pill that he gave away needed this kind of arduous process.
Contrary to her, Firia lamented her own uselessness. It seemed that she still did not put too much effort into her power. If this continued, the gap between her and Alex would be further and further away. At that time, she would only become a burden to him. If that ever happened, would he treat her the same? If there was a more powerful and more beautiful woman than her, would she take Alex away?
"This is the Crystal Pill. It can boost your Ice Element," he gave the pill to Alicia. "Why don't you eat it? Ah, but move to the field first okay? We don't know what will happen after you eat the pill. It might cause a scene like last time."
Alicia nodded, she clenched the pill in her hand. She walked to the field and resolutely ate the pill. When she took the pill, it melted immediately in her mouth. The process was almost similar to the Quenching Fire Pill, the pill's energy started to spread through her body.
The temperature around the field started to drop. Ice crystals started to form around her body. Alex frowned a bit, he immediately made a shield from Mana to cover him, Firia, and Sherry from the freezing temperature. Unlike the usual, he didn't infuse his element into the shield. He was afraid that his flame might disrupt the ice energy from Alicia. After all, his element was a pure fire element. If she failed or even injured because of his carelessness, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.
Alex felt the surrounding temperature was around minus twenty degrees. Sherry would be fine with this, but Firia won't. Firia was still in rank 3, while Sherry was a rank 6 fox. The difference was too big. With her current power, she couldn't resist this cold. She might be fine if she released her fire element, but it might disturb Alicia. So, Alex covered them with his Mana, which was the best solution for now.
Alex continued observing Alicia. The blue-colored crystal ice formed in her surroundings became bigger and bigger. Unknowingly, the ice spread in a radius of 3 meters. After around fifteen minutes, the surrounding ice started to shrink. She would feel pain as the ice kept shrinking.
"Ah!"
Yep, that was right. She started to scream in pain. Alex already explained this process to her, so she had prepared for this pain. But even though she was prepared, she couldn't help but scream when experiencing this kind of pain. Though the coldness numbed her sense of pain a bit, the attack from the cold made her in pain. It felt as if you jumped into a lake covered with ice in the winter. You felt cold, but the most significant thing was that you felt the pain because of the cold.
"This might be the same process as when I took the Quenching Fire Pill," Alex looked at her worriedly. After all, who could watch their own girlfriend calmly when she was in great pain? But even so, he couldn't do anything. If he did anything during this time, the consequences would be more severe than the pain she experienced.
The shrinking process took a full 10 minutes. Alicia didn't feel any more pain after that. She felt comfortable with the feel of her new ice. The ice broke out from her body once again. The blue-colored ice became cyan-colored ice. But Alex, Firia, and even Sherry also felt that this ice was far stronger than her previous Ice. When they looked at this new ice, they were relieved. Because this appearance of the ice meant that Alicia had succeeded.
Two minutes after the ice appeared, Alicia finally opened her eyes. She felt this new power resided within her body. She felt more intimate with her element. She felt she could control the ice far better now. Though not as much as Alex. She looked at Alex who gave her the pill and therefore, gave her this enormous power. Not only to her but also to her family. Alex tirelessly made pills for them. She let out tears unknowingly.
Alex was dumbfounded when he saw the tears in Alicia's eyes. At first, he was happy when she opened her eyes. But when the tears rolled down from her eyes, he was shocked. He immediately ran to her and asked anxiously, "What happened? Why are you crying?"
Alicia shook her head. She raised her hands and hugged him.
"Alicia? What happened?" He was too surprised by Alicia's reaction.
"Alex... thank you. Thank you very much!"
When the words came out of her mouth. All the words in his stomach stuck on his throat. He slowly raised his hand and hugged her back.
On the side, Firia looked at them with a smile on her face.
"Wuu! Wuu!" Sherry complained with a feeling of jealousy. She said, "I won't lose!"
Firia turned to her and smiled, "Yes. We can't lose to her!"
***
Meanwhile, in the Zircodina Kingdom.
'Bang!'
The door was opened forcefully. A soldier came in, he seemed to be very rushed.
"Your Majesty, there is emergency news!"
The soldier entered the palace grand hall. Sitting on the throne was the king of Zircodina Kingdom, on his left was his trusted minister, his right-hand man, the one who usually helped him with all of his work.
"What is the emergency?" The king frowned.
"We got information from our spy in the Acacia Kingdom. They... they said..."
"What is it? Explain it fully!" The king said with a stern voice.
"They said that Alexander Sirius who was on our top observation list got the first rank in the grade ranking competition in the academy."
The king frowned, he was displeased with the news that was not as important as he thought might be, "I know his power, nothing is surprising for him to do that. You don't need to report this kind of news to me."
"But his score... his score is 24,972 points."
When the guard said that. The king immediately stood up, flustered, "What did you say? His score is... is 24,972 points?"
"Ye-yes, the report stated that. He killed the forest king, a rank 6 ape. He also wiped out all of the rank 5 monsters in the forest and killed half of the rank 4 monsters population, which gave him that score in the end."
"What... what..." The king stumbled. Even the minister beside him was dumbfounded with the news.
After a moment, the minister backed to his senses, "Your Majesty."
With the wake-up call from the minister beside him, the king recovered and immediately said, "Send my daughter to the Acacia Kingdom immediately. We will arrange an engagement between her and him."
"Your Majesty, how about the hero?" The minister asked him, after all, the princess, Rieze, was still engaged to him.
"Why do you even care about that trash? That Archmage and that Sage had already escaped from here, although we managed to find them. The Archmage must find protection from the Holy Kingdom. After all, that priestess was her childhood friend.
While the Sage is still missing, we won't know what will happen to her when the hero goes mad. It will be better for my daughter to get engaged with him than stay here. She will be more useful that way. Now, with his women gone, the hero will only think about seeking revenge and he needs the power to do that. We can still use him for now, if he wants power, he can level up while killing those damned demons. With that, our soldiers' morale will be increased."
Because of Alex's abnormal performance, the king immediately decided to set up an engagement between her daughter and Alex. The Acacia Kingdom used that tactic as well, but the difference was that Alicia and Alex already became friends even before they planned to set them up, which made it more convenient.
"As expected of Your Majesty. The Wise King."
"Make sure to keep her engagement with 'him' a secret."
The minister nodded, "I will immediately inform her."
***
(Side)
Sandra finally decided to escape with Ayaka. They couldn't take John's beating anymore. After he became a eunuch, John turned into as cruel as a demon. Being a cruel and merciless man, he kept beating them again and again. Because of this, they wanted to seek protection from Maria who was in the Holy Kingdom, but they somehow separated on their journey. Sandra managed to reach Maria in the Holy Kingdom, and of course, with their previous relationship, Maria took her in happily.
When they escaped, they were pursued by some bandits. They were separated because of that. After months of journey, Sandra arrived in the Holy Kingdom. When she told the whole story to Maria, she was enraged. Her perception of John had crumbled away.
"Maria, was I wrong this whole time?" Sandra cried to Maria. "Was I wrong when I did that to Alex?"
Looking at the distressed Sandra, Maria couldn't mutter any words to console her. However, she felt very angry when she found out that her childhood friend betrayed her boyfriend, Alex. But, Maria was still Sandra's childhood friend after all. She couldn't say anything to her and only hugged her back.