Adonis and the other two companions of Viktor were busy with moving preparation into the Harvort's residence. But it was all processing in secret.
Viktor was still staying in his house because of his duty. He refused to move out that week because he had something very important to do. It was the time of a side story he wrote in his book. A chapter called Malice.
The chapter simply contained a different story from the main storyline of the author's book. It's not related to any main character or any stories.
A crossover character from another book of the author that he didn't even publish. He died before he could even finish the story.
The character is a traveller who travels from continent to continent to search for a flower to cure his little daughter. He's a type of Chinese swordsman who carries both his swords and his daughter on his back while travelling.
Ivon just highlighted this character inside his book to bait his reader to read his another upcoming book.
In the chapter, the swordsman holds a huge grudge against a man who cursed his only daughter and made her crippled. But the man died without leaving any cure for her. So, he went on a journey to search for a cure and faced a lot of difficulties.
On his way, he made a crossover in the reverse harem story of the author's but left right after he came to the capital city. Because there was no cure to fix her curse.
Ivon stopped writing the story on this stage because he was too busy with the current book he was working on. So, he made a crossover and closed the chapter of the book called 'The golden flower'.
I'm not even sure why I mentioned this character inside my story, but it seems like the guardian of the future has some connection with my twin brother whose movement is absolutely unpredictable.
'The Golden Flower ' book had a small outline that tells the whole story in one short line, "A sad ending". So, the guardian of the future knew all alone.
It's a character I made for myself.
Viktor looked into his whisky glass and saw his ice cube had already melted. He was waiting for the swordsman to come inside the commoner's bar.
It was a full moon night, so a festival was held in the commoner's district. The road was filled with people in festive mood simply enjoying their night. A crowd was dancing in the middle of the street full of yellow lights.
At that moment, a man with a straw hat with a heavy bag on his back started to pass through the crowd by covering his face with a dirty piece of fabric. With that appearance, he went inside the bar and looked around to search for an empty seat. But the bar was filled with people.
In that crowd, he found a seat beside a silver-haired man who was enjoying his drink and the dancers with yellow ornaments wrapped around their half-naked bodies. The dancers were trying to catch that man's attention but his mind was on the air. He was lost in his river of thoughts.
The swordsman came closer to him and said, "Excuse me, is this seat taken?"
Viktor looked above and saw the bright red eyes of that man." No, please have a seat."
"Are you a regular here?", the swordsman asked while unpacking his heavy backpack off his shoulder. He was exhausted after carrying the heavy bag so he cracked his neck and leaned back to rest his back.
"Mind if I ask for suggestions?" He took the drink menu and looked at the drinks.
"I'm not a regular, but the blue ocean is best here.", Viktor pointed out the drink on the menu he was holding.
"I see. Thank you, young man."
He seems a little uncomfortable with the dancers. Should I kick them away?
Viktor winked at a long-haired woman with tons of accessories around her body. She came closer to him and said, "Yes, darling? Do you need anything?"
Viktor rubbed his finger from her neck to the middle of her chest and put a gold coin in her golden bandeau. The woman leaned closer to his body but he whispered something into her ears. So, the woman called all the dancers off the table immediately and left the place to dance in another section.
"You don't like being surrounded by women, young man?"
"The urge to hold an unknown woman in one's arm for a night is meaningless to me. What about you?"
"I have only one woman. She's the most beautiful woman in the whole world. No beauty is comparable to her." The man took his ordered drink.
"I see. She must be very lucky to have you." Viktor smiled at his glass and ordered another shot.
"You are a heavy drinker."
"Well, it's not a badge of honour. But thank you for your compliment."
"Young man. Do you know what a golden flower is?"
Viktor stopped talking and smiled a little after hearing a straight question from his mouth. He was so sure that the man was talking about the cure. But he knows the story better than anyone. The golden flower doesn't even exist. The villain made fun of him and spoke of something non-existent to make him suffer even after his death. There was no cure to heal her daughter's curse.
"The golden flower … Where did you hear the name from?" Viktor asked with a soft tone of his voice.
"I am searching for it. Do you know what it is?"
"I don't know about any golden flowers. But I have rare plants inside my greenhouse. Why don't you come and check for yourself? Maybe it has a different name that I'm not familiar with."
The man accepted his invitation without saying anything and stood up. "Wait, we're heading there right now?" Viktor asked.
"Yes. I don't have much time left."
For his impatience, Viktor paid for his visit and left the bar at midnight. The streets were still crowded at that time.
"Young man, is it common here for women to dance in the middle of the street with that type of clothes? Don't they feel insecure?"
"Oh, those dancers? This street is part of the red light district. And most of those women are from there."
"I see."
Viktor looked at those women and saw a girl with pure black hair dancing in front of a group of men. Her hair was so long and her eyes were pointy like east Asians. Her dance moves were so eye-catching that Viktor shortened his steps to gaze upor her beauty. And at that moment, their eyes made contact from afar.
"Looks like you found your butterfly for tonight." The man said from Viktor's back.
"No, she looked a little familiar." Viktor left the street without turning back but the girl was still staring at his back until he vanished into the crowd.
The house of Viktor's wasn't so big, but the swordsman was surprised to see its size. It was huge to him. "Come inside. My greenhouse is in the back of the house."
The man followed him by carrying the heavy bag on his shoulder and went inside the greenhouse to find out the plant he was looking for. He took out a worn-out piece of paper that has a drawn picture of that flower in order to match with the other plants.
"You have a great collection of plants here. Are you an alchemist?" The man asked.
"Short of. It's my hobby to collect rare plants from around the world."
The greenhouse was big, so it took more than 20 minutes to search for the perfect match. But he couldn't find any plants that looked alike. He became a little frustrated. Because he saw the rarest plants in one greenhouse but still, he failed to find the perfect match.
"Have you found that plant you were looking for?" Viktor asked.
"Young man, you said that you are an alchemist, right?"
"Yes?"
"Will you make a potion that cures any type of curses? If you succeed, I will give you my sword technique."
Viktor was surprised to hear his words because he never wrote that character as an open-minded person.
He was left speechless.
"Um.. yes. I can make potion that heals any kind of curses. But I need to see the curse to make the perfect potion."
"Okay, I will trust you with this."
He removed his heavy bag off his shoulder and opened the knot of its tip. There was a small girl tucked inside like a snail with lots of visible blue veins all over her body. Viktor was shocked to see her condition because it looked like a solid object. It looked similar to Adonis's solidification process in the past.
"I can cure her. But let's take her inside the house. I will ask my maid to prepare a room for you to stay in."
The man silently but quickly followed him inside with a helpless expression on his face.
"Kathryn, prepare a guest room for our fellow guests here. And sir, please follow me this way."
I didn't collect any samples when I saw Adonis at that stage. Because he was totally solid. But she's not on the stage. I can still feel the temperature on her body. Maybe I can collect some blood from her body to do some fun experiment.
Viktor was excited to find a living sample of a rare disease.
Both of them went inside Viktor's laboratory and the man put her daughter on a small bed.
"So, it's a curse right?"
Viktor immediately took some blood and secured it inside his crest of destruction for an experiment. "Yes. A person cursed him and she ended up like this"
Maybe I should tell him.
"There's no cure for her. Not in this world, to be honest."
The man's expression changed and instantly drew his sword to Viktor's neck. But Viktor kept smiling and said, "Old man. I never said that I'm not able to cure her."
"Don't joke around."
"Clam down. Isn't it rude to point your sword to the saviour who's about to heal your child?"
Viktor put his hand on the kid's forehead and a flash of golden light started to pour into her body. The blue lines on her body began to vanish slowly and she became fully healed in just a minute. She became healthy as a horse.
"Did you just use holy magic on her?"
"Yes. She's cured now. And no illness will grow inside her body from now on. It's a blessing."
Viktor winked at that man shamelessly.