The Princess' Harem
Chapter 106: The First Bloom

Chapter 106: The First Bloom

"The core essence," Rissa murmured, her voice filled with a quiet triumph. "Now... the next step. The texts are not perfectly clear here. It must be mixed with a pure, light-absorbing liquid. But it must be done in a precise, controlled way."

She moved to another section of her lab.

She had a large, clear glass container filled with a strange, silvery liquid. It looked like liquid moonlight, shimmering softly.

"This is a rare extract from the Moonpetal Flower," Rissa explained, her voice gaining speed as she spoke of her work. "It is one of the few liquids that can absorb pure light without diluting the essence. But it is very sensitive."

She began to drop the green, glowing dust, grain by careful grain, into the silvery liquid. Each tiny grain dissolved instantly, sending a ripple of green light through the liquid.

It was a slow, agonizing process. With each drop, the silvery liquid began to take on a faint green tint, growing stronger with each addition.

The air grew thicker, almost humid, as the green light filled the room. Viana could feel a strange energy building, a hum in the air. It was a silent, tense wait.

The fate of Elysia, of Valendale, and perhaps even wider lands, rested on this.

Rissa’s hands moved with practiced skill, yet a nervous tremor was just barely visible. She was putting everything she had, every ounce of her knowledge, into this moment.

The room remained silent, thick with the weight of hope and fear. No one dared to speak, to break Rissa’s focus.

The light from the vial grew brighter, casting long, dancing shadows on the walls. Rissa’s face was slick with sweat, her brow furrowed in deep concentration.

She slowly added the last few grains of the glowing dust. The liquid in the vial now glowed a vibrant, clear green, pulsing with a faint light of its own.

Rissa took a deep, shuddering breath and slowly put the vial down on the table. She looked at the glowing liquid, then at the waiting faces of Viana, Rayne, and the others.

Her eyes, usually so confident, now held a deep uncertainty. The hard part was done. Now, they waited to see if it would work.

***

The silence in the laboratory stretched, thick and heavy. Each breath taken by anyone in the room seemed to echo. The vibrant green liquid pulsed softly in the vial, a tiny heart of light.

Rissa stared at it, her mind already racing, thinking of the next steps, the ways it could go wrong.

"How do we know?" Viana finally whispered, her voice barely audible. The question hung in the air.

Rissa finally looked up, her gaze sweeping over them. "We must test it. On a blighted sample. We have several here."

She turned to a small shelf, pulling down a clay pot. Inside was a small, withered sprout, its leaves brittle and covered in black spots, a clear victim of the blight. Its tiny form was barely clinging to life.

She placed the pot carefully on the table. The contrast between the dying plant and the glowing green vial was stark. Hope and despair sat side by side.

"This is a newly infected sprout," Rissa explained, her voice steady now, driven by purpose. "Its roots are already showing signs of decay. If the reagent works, we should see... a change."

She picked up a small, thin dropper, made of glass. With trembling fingers, she dipped it into the glowing green liquid in the vial. A tiny drop of the vibrant essence filled the dropper. Everyone leaned forward, holding their breath.

Rissa hovered the dropper over the blighted sprout. Her hand was steady, but Viana could see a slight tremor in her wrist, a hint of the immense pressure she felt.

One single, sparkling green drop fell from the dropper, landing precisely on one of the blighted leaves.

The drop shimmered for a moment, then slowly began to spread, absorbing into the withered leaf. For a long moment, nothing happened. The black spots remained. The leaf stayed brittle. The silence grew heavier, filled with unspoken anxieties.

Viana’s hope, which had flared so brightly, began to dim. Her shoulders slumped. Rayne’s jaw tightened even further. Joel and Reyes exchanged glances, their earlier expressions of quiet triumph fading. Even Arden looked troubled, his brows furrowed. Kaley let out a soft, shaky breath.

Then, a tiny flicker.

The black spot where the drop landed seemed to... soften. The brittle edge of the leaf, once dead and cracking, subtly smoothed. It was so faint, so slow, that for a moment, Viana thought her eyes were playing tricks.

Rissa gasped, a sharp, quick sound. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the leaf. "Look," she whispered, her voice barely a thread.

Slowly, almost impossibly, a faint green blush began to spread from the spot where the drop had landed. It pushed back the blackness, inch by agonizing inch.

The brittle texture of the leaf seemed to relax, becoming less stiff, more pliable. It was not a sudden burst of life, but a slow, careful reclaiming.

A tiny, new bud, so small it had been unseen before, seemed to swell, a fresh, almost imperceptible green.

A collective sigh, a soft murmur of wonder, passed through the room.

Viana felt a warmth spread through her chest, pushing back the cold despair. A single tear tracked down her cheek, unnoticed. It was working. It was actually working.

Rayne stepped closer, his stoic face now showing a profound sense of relief. He placed a hand on Viana’s shoulder, a silent gesture of shared triumph. "By the gods," he breathed, his voice rough. "It truly works."

Joel let out a low whistle, a hint of his usual smirk returning. "Well, I’ll be damned. The little green plant really pulled through."

Reyes, usually so disciplined, allowed a small, tired smile to touch his lips. He looked at the sprout, then back at Rissa, his eyes full of respect. "Your skill, Alchemist, is truly unparalleled."

Arden, trembling slightly, leaned over the sprout, his eyes shining with pure intellectual joy. "The legends spoke true! A counter-agent that reverses the blight’s decay! The knowledge... it is magnificent!"

He pulled out a small notebook, already scribbling furiously.

Kaley just stared, his mouth slightly agape, a look of pure, unadulterated wonder on his face. "Magic... true magic," he whispered, feeling the subtle pulse of pure, restorative energy now flowing from the treated leaf.

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