Chapter 136 Pain
“Achoo!”
In the cold room, Owen Green sneezed, rubbed his frozen hands, and couldn’t help but reminisce about the beautiful dream he had just moments ago in bed.
How real that dream was, as if it were within reach. But the more real and beautiful the dream, the harder it was for Owen Green to accept his current situation.
He glanced at the manuscript filled with red circles, and a headache began to form.
There were too many corrections to make, so much so that he entertained thoughts of giving up.
Owen Green simply tossed his quill into the inkwell, stood up, stomped his feet, and shouted, “I’m not writing anymore! Whoever is willing to write such filthy articles can go ahead!”
It was too cold; even with the windows tightly shut, the cold wind wafted in through the cracks, stinging his fingers.
Owen Green shivered for a moment, starting to regret spending money too quickly. In a moment of impulse, he had bought a travel horse, and now he had to buy feed, rent a stable, pay someone to take care of it, and then he treated himself to a big meal.
Fifty gold coins were quickly spent, leaving him without even enough to buy charcoal.
Shaking, Owen Green walked around the room a few times, staring at the manuscript on his desk marked with red circles, filled with vicious and nauseating words.
The thought of having to revise it all made his head hurt, yet he had to force himself to sit down and continue editing.
For every thousand words, he could get half a gold coin, which is five silver coins. He had only been venting his frustration; under such a price, with low demands, if he were to publicly recruit help in the marketplace, he feared the threshold would break.
Outside his room, on the roof.
A faint white mist emanated from the air, which was the invisible demon Jima.
“I’m so happy…”
Jima’s desireful eyes peered through the window, catching a glimpse of the white pain in Owen Green’s heart, and the power of that pain nourished her. In the cold winter, Jima felt a warmth akin to spring and a pure, genuine joy.
As long as happiness isn’t built on someone else’s suffering, it doesn’t feel real.
Jima’s lips curled as she spread her invisible wings against the cold wind.
At the same time, she opened her personal system to record in the text area.
“The hypothesis has been validated; relying on the forces of pain from bleeding and death simply won’t work, after all, I’m a succubus, not a chosen deity of blood.”
“…As expected, pre-manipulating the dream of the test subject, allowing them to have beautiful dreams, then bringing them back to the cold and cruel reality. The pain produced by the test subject manifests more powerfully and tastily.”
Of course, this amount of pain power was merely a drop in the bucket and wouldn’t allow Jima to become stronger.
Jima’s golden eyes narrowed, recalling her rarely used extraordinary ability to distort dreams on a large scale.
“I have an idea; I can distort the dreams of many people, making them have nightmares and harvesting the power of their pain.”
She suddenly connected the dots, recalling historical records of a village, a town, or even a city where, one day, everyone was plagued by nightmares, unable to sleep; they looked lethargic, with panda eyes, like walking corpses, yet stubbornly refusing to sleep.
Because once they fell asleep, they would surely dream of nightmares that ordinary people could hardly endure, leading some to self-termination to escape their suffering.
It must have been the doing of a senior succubus; since it had been done before, it meant it was feasible.
However, Jima merely entertained the idea briefly before abandoning the tempting method of leveling up. The consequences were too much for her to bear; she was sure the Chapel had already packaged and sent information about her extraordinary abilities to the Empire, just in case she caused any more trouble.
If she dared to act, she would surely be caught.
Jima took another glance at Owen Green’s room and licked her lips.
Now, all she could hope for was that “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” would become popular, allowing her to suddenly “turn green and feed on dung,” harvesting the pain power of a vast number of readers.
Therefore, she had to be stricter with Owen Green’s manuscript.
Jima flapped her wings and rose against the wind, as light as a feather in the cold breeze.
Meanwhile, Owen Green was still shaking his feet, desperately trying to use his proud writing skills to depict JoJo’s wonderful life in another world.
…
…
The cold wind howled, yet the warm breeze expected to come from the vast ocean in the Kingdom of Knight Bartow lightened the chill with a bit of humidity.
In this damp and cold weather, Eve Frostleaf, however, wore thin clothing, her long legs encased in silver threads, with complex silver patterns embroidered on her stockings.
The damp cold wind could only make her long, pointed ears and the ends of her silver hair shiver, but it couldn’t make this high elf feel the slightest chill.
As a transcendent being and a high elf, Eve Frostleaf had long been unaffected by temperature changes; she could wear summer clothes, yet considering everyone else was dressed for winter and the disdainful looks she received, she complied with the trend and dressed thicker.
But even if Eve Frostleaf could lay bare in the Arctic snow, sleeping next to an ice block, she now felt a profound chill within.
Thus, her oval face grew colder as she looked at her elven maid and asked:
“Really?”
“Really, Your Majesty has already separated from the King,” the elven maid said in an effort to sound joyous, “The next Queen is already being nurtured in her womb.”
“Hehehe.” Eve Frostleaf’s hands were cold, and she let out a chilling laugh. “No wonder I just teased her a bit, and she agreed to let me out… turns out she was already pregnant then.”
“Lady Frostleaf, that’s not the case. Her Majesty has always favored you, and she will continue to do so in the future.”
“Favoring me, a roadside foundling?” Eve Frostleaf rarely lost her composure, speaking more with her elven maid, “Isn’t she just worried I would poison her real daughter?”
As a child born out of wedlock, Eve Frostleaf had been raised by parents who couldn’t acknowledge her, knowing well that her biological mother was the elven queen, while her father was certainly not the elven king.
Most of the high-ranking individuals were aware of this, which was not considered a disgraceful scandal, but it was something that couldn’t be brought to light.
After all, the marriage between the elven queen and the elven king was originally politically motivated; both parties were eager for the elven queen’s belly to grow quickly, hoping under the blessings of the elven goddess, the next elven queen would be born soon so they could separate and live their own lives. In some respects, the elves are far more open than humans.
Originally, Eve Frostleaf should have been the next elven queen; anyway, as long as the elven queen’s belly was big, it didn’t matter who the father of the child was.
Unfortunately, when the elven queen’s belly grew large, the elven king had been absent from the palace for two years due to other matters. Any high elf with a normal IQ wouldn’t be able to ignore the green hat on the elven king’s head.
Therefore, the elven queen had to “find an abandoned baby on the roadside” to bring back to the palace, giving everyone a decent explanation.
Eve Frostleaf’s heart was filled with bitterness; now that the real elven princess was born, what was left for her?
“Lady Frostleaf is not a roadside found scrub,” the elven maid said. “Please do not give up on yourself; no one dares to deny the noble blood that flows in your veins.”
“Whose noble blood?”
Saying this, Eve Frostleaf returned to her usual cold demeanor, turning and leaving quickly, stirring the leaves behind her.
“Lady Frostleaf, where are you going? We can go back now.”
“I’m going to find George, to his room.”
“What?!”
The elven maid displayed an expression of disbelief, almost recklessly grabbing Eve Frostleaf’s wrist, saying, “Lady Frostleaf, what are you doing? How could you go into the room of that inferior race?”
Eve Frostleaf felt an inexplicable rebellious joy in her heart; she shook off the elven maid and laughed, “What’s the hurry? I’m just going to discuss some matters with him.”
“I want to go too.”
—
Thanks to the wise and powerful Bear for the support.
