Dear, it’s time for your medicine! 98

Chapter 98: A Troublesome Woman

Athena had a rather tragic past. She was the daughter of a Baron, and because she was born beautiful, her parents treated her as a tool for social climbing.

Her family wasn’t wealthy, but her parents placed great importance on the appearance of nobility. They would even borrow money to furnish their home with expensive furniture, paintings, and porcelain that they never used, even though her parents knew nothing about these things. Their tableware had to be exquisite silver plates, forks, and spoons. Even though their family’s finances were already stretched thin, they still hired a large number of maids and servants. In her parents’ words, only in this way could they be worthy of the dignity of nobles, otherwise, they would be ridiculed.

She also had a younger brother. For a poor Baron in a remote area, the family heir would often choose a suitable woman from the knight families in their territory as a wife. But her parents believed that a knight’s daughter was not worthy of their Baron son. They wanted a marriage of equal social standing, to marry their son to a Baron’s daughter, in order to maintain the purity of their bloodline. They even dreamed of marrying their son to the third or even the second daughter of a Viscount’s family… This would bring even more glory to the family.

And this required a large sum of money!

When she was seven years old, her parents had already found a sixty-year-old Earl for her, waiting for her to marry him as his seventeenth concubine after she turned sixteen. This Earl had given 200,000 Mana as a betrothal gift.

It was a purely transactional arrangement.

This was probably the fate of the daughters of minor nobles.

Athena didn’t struggle. She knew struggling was useless.

Her pure and delicate body would be tortured at will by that old geezer. It was said that the old man was a pervert, and several young and beautiful girls had already died at his hands.

After the Earl died, she would be inherited by the Earl’s son; or she might be driven out of the house by the Earl’s wife and then traded as a commodity by her own parents to a wealthy merchant. After all, she would have been married, and her value would have greatly decreased. However, some wealthy merchants, hoping to add a touch of noble blood to their families, would still engage in such transactions.

But her fate changed on the day she was to marry the old man. The Earl had a powerful mage retainer who saw Athena for the first time at the wedding ceremony. This powerful mage recognized Athena’s talent

***

The mage requested the Earl to give Athena to him, and he would protect the Earl’s family for free for a hundred years… But this request was refused by the Earl.

This Earl would not let go of any delicious morsel that came to his mouth.

That night, the Earl’s family was massacred.

The mage took Athena away.

In the mage’s words, her existence itself was the finest magic potion. Athena’s body was extremely sensitive to Mana. She was equivalent to a human-shaped Mana storage device, able to quickly absorb, purify, and store Mana. When her Mana storage reached its limit, the first person to “harvest” Athena would gain tremendous benefits. As for Athena, she might become depleted, age rapidly, or even die.

Even if she didn’t die directly, Athena, who had lost her value, her beauty, and her figure, would be killed by the mage.

The mage used extremely brutal methods, force-feeding Athena to increase her Mana level. Whether it was magic potions, magic stones, or Demon Cores, he used them all on Athena. In a very short period of time, he forcibly raised Athena’s Mana level to that of a Grand Sage, but he never taught Athena a single spell.

Finally, when Athena was twenty-three years old, the mage was ready to enjoy the fruits of his labor. By absorbing the pure Mana within Athena’s body, he would break through the Grand Sage barrier and become one of the most powerful beings in the world.

Athena faced her doom in despair. She knew that after today, she would die.

She wanted to resist, but she had no power.

Just when Athena was in despair, the First Hero, Jie Luo, appeared. He killed the powerful mage and rescued her from the abyss. From that moment on, Athena knew that Jie Luo would be an irreplaceable existence in her life.

Jie Luo taught Athena magic.

She originally wanted to give her body and all her Mana to Jie Luo, but Jie Luo said, “How can one have a family when the Demon Beasts are not yet eradicated?”

The Hero must have been considerate of her feelings and that’s why he didn’t do it. What a gentle and considerate person.

“How can one have a family when the Demon Beasts are not yet eradicated?” What a noble sentiment.

Athena couldn’t forget the way Jie Luo gently patted her head and called her “Little Athena” in private when they were alone.

The title of Hero belonged only to Jie Luo. No one could replace him.

But, since the life of the Second Hero could be used to resurrect Jie Luo, things were different. Athena felt obliged to participate. Although she had no grudge against the Second Hero, she had to sacrifice that man for Jie Luo.

To utilize the Second Hero, she had to have a thorough understanding of him, so that it would be easier to manipulate and control him.

Athena had only heard a little about Qin Chu from Loseweisse, but she judged that the credibility of the information provided by Loseweisse was not high. After all, Loseweisse was full of disgust for Qin Chu, and her judgment of Qin Chu would be strongly subjective.

To truly understand the Hero, it would be more accurate to learn from the Hero’s guards and attendants.

However, Athena didn’t expect to get such an evaluation.

He liked beautiful women with good figures and big breasts… If it was just that, it wouldn’t be a problem, as most men had such preferences.

But, a hopeless maid fanatic?

Maids in the Heavenly Continent were women of low status, only slightly better than slaves. People with a bit of status wouldn’t touch lowly maids for the sake of decency, let alone a dignified Hero?

With the noble status of a Hero, what kind of woman couldn’t he get? How could he possibly fall for a maid?

Athena couldn’t wrap her head around it for a moment. She asked in confusion, “A maid?”

Guard Von patted his chest and said, “That’s right, our Hero is truly a hopeless maid fanatic. It’s said that as soon as he arrived in the Heavenly Continent, he proposed to the Holy Maiden Loseweisse’s maid, Angelica, and publicly declared his love for maids. That same night, he took her home and slept with her.”

It had to be said that rumors always tended to become more and more outrageous.

Athena didn’t know what expression to show for a moment, “Uh… Then our Hero is really a… well, an unconventional person…”

Athena rubbed her temples. She suddenly had a headache and continued to ask, “What else…”

“Well, how should I put it? Our Hero is also a very… philanderous person.”

“Philanderous?”

“Yes, he likes maids, but he doesn’t only like maids…”

“I heard that he’s also quite ambiguous with the Holy Maiden.”

“Ah, right, I heard that the Hero also staged a four-timing drama with the Holy Maiden, Angelica, Miss Ekaterina, and Grand Mage Natia at a restaurant…” Von’s tone unknowingly turned envious, “He’s really shameless…”

That’s right, wasn’t it shameless for one person to monopolize so many high-quality resources?

Didn’t the Hero know that there were many single dogs in this world?

For every girl the Hero had by his side, there would be one more bachelor in this world.

Sigh, if only that person was him.

Athena was shocked. Was this still a Hero? In her mind, she had already labeled Qin Chu as lecherous, promiscuous, a scumbag, and various other things.

Of course, Athena wouldn’t underestimate Qin Chu because of this. On the contrary, she became even more wary of him.

This man was probably not easy to deal with.

Ekaterina and Loseweisse were fine, as they could be said to be deliberately getting close to Qin Chu for the plan to resurrect Jie Luo. Angelica was also fine, as she was a reward that Qin Chu had requested.

But… Natia?

She was a Grand Mage whose strength was no less than her own, extremely powerful. This kind of woman was definitely not some naive and ignorant girl.

She wouldn’t be fooled by a few sweet words from a man.

To gain Natia’s favor meant that Qin Chu must have something special about him, which was worth being wary of.

Athena shifted her long, beautiful legs, her delicate white feet curling slightly.

“Then… what’s going on with Ekaterina?” Athena asked.

Von was already mesmerized by Athena’s lazy and charming appearance. Without thinking, he answered directly, “That was the first day they met. That day, after the Hero finished his training, he said he wanted to go out for some fresh air. Not long after, he carried the drunken Valkyrie back. The Hero was about to leave, but the Valkyrie went crazy from the alcohol and dragged the Hero back, and then they did it…”

The story evolved again.

“Later, when the Valkyrie woke up, she thought the Hero had taken advantage of her while she was drunk. She took her weapon and went straight to the Holy See. If Pope Augustus hadn’t stopped her, the Hero would have definitely been killed…”

“Haha, that’s hilarious…”

The surrounding guards burst into laughter.

But, a sharp glint suddenly flashed in Athena’s eyes. Her vision overlapped, and various images appeared before her eyes. She saw a young girl dressed as a maid standing by the window, gazing in their direction.

“You’re saying that Ekaterina went crazy from the alcohol?”

“Yes, that’s right. Many people saw Miss Ekaterina drag the Hero back to her room.”

“Ekaterina went to the Holy See to look for the Hero when she woke up?”

“Yes, early the next morning, the Hero took his maid to the Holy See, seemingly to undo Angelica’s seal.”

Athena lowered her eyelids, covering her chestnut eyes, but a hint of coldness could be seen through the slits of her eyes.

This seemingly ordinary conversation had given Athena a lot of important information.

There was something wrong with this Hero!

Athena was intelligent, cunning, and meticulous. In the first playthrough, she had acted as Qin Chu’s military advisor, but Qin Chu didn’t know everything about her. Athena hadn’t revealed everything about herself to him.

She was like a careful observer, watching everyone around her.

She knew the members of the Hero Squad even better than they knew themselves.

First of all, it was absolutely impossible that Ekaterina would get drunk, go crazy, drag the Hero into her room, and force herself on him.

Everyone in the Hero Squad knew that Ekaterina was a heavy drinker, but… she never went crazy from alcohol. Ekaterina would only fall into a deep sleep when she got drunk.

For a warrior of Ekaterina’s level, the numbing effect of alcohol was quite limited. Even during the period after Jie Luo’s death, when Ekaterina drank herself into a stupor every day, she had never gone crazy. This woman had considerable self-control even when drunk. It was impossible for her to suddenly lose control when it came to the Second Hero.

Moreover, Ekaterina loved Jie Luo deeply. This feeling was obvious to anyone who wasn’t an idiot. Ekaterina would never do something like forcing herself on Qin Chu when there was a chance for Jie Luo to be resurrected.

Even if she was drunk, it wouldn’t be possible, unless she was influenced by some other force.

The second suspicious point was that Qin Chu immediately went to the Holy See after waking up.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Qin Chu was just going there to do something.

In Athena’s eyes, Qin Chu was going to seek refuge. He knew that Ekaterina would go berserk.

Although the outside world rumored that Ekaterina was powerful and had a carefree personality, at most, she was just a bit wild.

This level of rumor was not enough to make Qin Chu go straight to the Holy See without hesitation, unless Qin Chu knew that Ekaterina loved Jie Luo deeply, and that when she woke up and found that her chastity was gone, she would lose control and frantically attack and destroy everything around her. As the person involved, Qin Chu wouldn’t have any chance to explain himself and would be killed directly by Ekaterina.

So, how did Qin Chu know Ekaterina so well? Did he learn it from Angelica? Impossible, Angelica and Ekaterina didn’t interact much, and all she knew were those rumors.

Or was it really just a pure coincidence?

The suspicious Athena didn’t believe in so-called coincidences. Behind all coincidences, there was a hand manipulating everything in the shadows.

It had to be said that Athena was indeed a very difficult opponent to deal with.

Although she was suspicious, Athena didn’t show it at all and continued to inquire about Ekaterina.

When she heard that Ekaterina had been rejected by Qin Chu again and again, and then shamelessly pestered him again and again, Athena’s brows furrowed even more tightly.

How could Ekaterina, with her proud personality, act like a stalker? Even for the sake of resurrecting Jie Luo, Athena didn’t think Ekaterina could endure it to this extent. The Valkyrie she knew would have probably exploded and slashed Qin Chu to ashes with her sword.

Could it be…

Ekaterina had already been controlled by Qin Chu?