"Ow...it hurts so much ..."

The girl clenched her bedsheets, her fingers trembling slightly.

"Mercedes, hang on just a little longer!"

Lu Lin’s response seemed strained as if he was engaged in some intense physical and mental tolling activity.

"But... ow... I can hardly take it anymore!"

The girl spoke with a crying tone.

"It's almost over! It will be better soon!"

……

Eludi was staring unblinkingly at everything happening in Lu Lin's room through a crack in the door.

Eventually, Lu Lin sat at the edge of the bed, displaying an expression of deep contemplation, then raised his head to gaze at the displeased-looking Eludi.

"Little sister, why are you here watching me instead of watching the pot..."

"I’m just concerned about you, my beastly brother."

Eludi replied expressionlessly.

Instantly, Lu Lin was driven up the wall, "I’ve even let Mercedes have the room and chosen to sleep on the couch to avoid any misunderstandings! What are you still suspecting!"

He had been sleeping on the couch for quite a few nights consecutively, frequently woken up from falling onto the floor in the middle of the night.

"Who knows what else you might do that's out of line."

"......"

As someone reborn, Lu Lin always assumed he would remain aloof...but with his family and potential girlfriend, his image inevitably collapsed.

He was always his true self in front of his loved ones.

"So, it's like my previous life after all?"

Lu Lin sunk into deep thought again as Eludi left, pouting.

His plan to unlock the chain around Mercedes's neck with the original source of the stars failed.

There was an ancient, level-nine prohibition inside the chain-like collar around Mercedes's neck.

Ordinarily, even a level twelve prohibition was nothing more than trash in Lu Lin's eyes. He could easily break it with a swing of his hand. However, just like in his previous life, this level-nine prohibition was integrated with the existing curse in Mercedes's body.

"The curse within you..."

Lu Lin murmured, with his back to Mercedes.

"That...it’s been there since the very beginning, even before I was captured by humans."

Mercedes quietly touched the collar around her neck and answered in a low voice.

Lu Lin knew that Mercedes's memory wasn’t fully intact.

Her memory only begins from when she awoke in a dense forest outside the Fallen Abyss in the Fugutel continent. Apart from inheriting the elves' memory, she hardly knows anything else.

"It hurts a lot, right?" Lu Lin said again, his face showing pain, but because he was facing away, Mercedes didn’t notice anything unusual.

"......"

The girl didn’t respond, as if admitting to it.

The curse within her was beyond anything Lu Lin had ever known, even after he frantically collected all information about curses in his later years, he was still at a loss, apart from using various means to seal it.

The curse, which embodies wilt and decay, erupts once a year, constantly gnawing away at Mercedes's life. During that period of time, Mercedes suffers a lot of pain.

During that time, powerlessness and guilt would creep into Lu Lin's heart.

"I'll help you unlock the collar, as for the curse... I'll find a way."

"Aren’t you afraid that I'll run away once you unlock the collar?" asked Mercedes tentatively.

"That's your freedom. I won't prevent you from choosing." Lu Lin turned to give Mercedes a worn-out smile.

Mercedes was taken aback.

"Let's go have breakfast."

"... Yes, Master."

"I told you, you can just call me Lu Lin."

Despite showing a cheerful front, Lu Lin couldn’t lift his spirits.He sentenced the organization that captures and trains slaves for Mercedes to death in his heart, and what he cares more about now is the issue of Mercedes' seal and collar.

The collar... As expected, it's the same as in his previous life. Does he have to go to the Temple of War God again to find the Blade of Destruction?

He has also examined the curse within Mercedes with his divine senses, which will erupt in a few months, and he must find a way to suppress the curse as soon as possible.

- And the most direct method, that is to refine a pill that suppresses the curse.

......

"What is this?"

Lu Lin looked at the unidentified round object burned black in his plate, with his knife and fork hanging in the air.

"Fried egg."

"Why are everyone else's is normal colored but mine is burned black!"

"That's because I accidentally overcooked yours a bit."

"A bit? This egg looks like it's about to be carbonized! Do you even care about this older brother of yours at all!"

"Eat it or not."

Eludi glanced at Lu Lin with disdain.

"......." Is his resentment towards himself not completely dissipated?

Mercedes was eating cautiously on one side, and then Lu Lin turned his gaze onto Lia.

"By the way, Mom, is the pill furnace you bought before still available?"

"You're talking about that rice vat? It should be fine." Lia thought for a moment, "What do you need it for?"

"Nothing... I'm just suddenly interested in alchemy."

"Huh? You were never interested in alchemy. Do you want me to teach you?"

Lia had a slight tinge of pride in her eyes as she looked at Lu Lin.

"No need... I'll just read by myself."

"Hmph, the knowledge in books are dead. Though I may not have much accomplishment in this area, I should be more reliable than books."

Lia answered unhappily.

"...... To be honest, I feel like relying on the books more than you."

Lu Lin's face was full of black lines, whispering quietly.

In his previous life, he was a legendary pill-refining master, no matter how inferior his magical power was now, he had the confidence to refine the pill he wanted.

As for his unreliable mother... She wasn't refining pills, but making explosives!

Once, his mother, on a whim, decided to learn alchemy and hence, insanely bid for a legendary pill furnace in an auction, and even stole a fire dragon and used its life fire for alchemy in the backyard.

Due to lack of experience and her careless nature, the loud noise from the pill furnace hadn't stopped since she started refining. In the end, their neighbors thought they were making explosives illegally and almost reported them to the Empire.

That was completely a traumatic memory for him and Eludi from their childhood.