The Elven Duke Reluctantly Marries The Cursed Lady - Chapter 70
He crossed the courtyard in large strides and approached Violette and Verbena.
Violette appeared to be intrigued by the Barrier Flower and had not left the spot he saw her in earlier.
The total length of the Barrier Flower is about 1 meter and each plant produces one flower.
The stems are thick and can be used to make a wand or staff, while the flower is about the size of an open palm.
[This flower isn’t blooming either, isn’t it?]
“It seems like it.”
Violette patted the Barrier Flower with her paw.
The Barrier Flower was as hard as glass from the flowers, stems, and leaves. Violette’s blue eyes grew wide at the unexpected sensation.
[Shame, I wanted to see this flower bloom too.]
“Should I make it bloom for you?”
[Oh. Hello, Dear.]
If the blossom is bathed in moonlight — or rather, given magic, then it will bloom.
Hydrangea picked one of the buds and blew on it.
When he did so, the petals of the Barrier Flower gradually opened.
[My, how pretty!]
Diamond-like beads of crystals adorned the newly bloomed flower.
“This is crystallized mana. If anyone who is not resistant to magic touches it, they would fall into a coma.”
[In that case, Verbena should step back for a bit.]
“No, you two should be fine.”
Since Violette had a high mana level, she would not collapse even if she were exposed to Hydrangea’s magic. Meanwhile, Verbena was wearing special clothes from the Laudense Ducal House, so there was no problem with her being exposed to magic either.
[Dear, what’s special about the clothes from the Laudense Ducal House?]
“The clothes are enchanted to resist magic so people wearing those would be protected even if they are exposed to high amounts of mana.”
[I didn’t know something so useful existed.]
After a while, the glistening crystals on the Barrier Flower evaporated.
“The mana collected by the Barrier Flower evaporates like this and goes to the barrier that protects the country.”
The sight of the crystals from the Barrier Flower evaporating all at once at dawn is so wondrous that it is hard to believe that it is of this world. Hydrangea thought that it was beautiful despite witnessing it numerous times.
The flower closed as soon as the mana dissipated.
Violette looked down as she peered at the flower that turned back into a bud.
[When you made the Barrier Flower bloom just now, you imbued magic into your breath, didn’t you?]
“I did.”
The ability to manipulate mana at will was a high-grade skill that nobody else in the country could do.
“It’s pretty useful if you could do it.”
Hydrangea’s specialty is coating his legs in mana when executing a spinning kick.
This move exposes his opponent to a high concentration of mana and falls after a single blow.
[So you also do hand-to-hand combat even though you are a mage.]
“I’ve been involved in some pretty wild incidents while doing field work after all.”
I use it mainly to deal with drunkards or back-alley thugs, though.
“In the case of surprise attacks, magic-imbued physical attacks are more useful than purely magical ones.”
However, the opponent will die if too much magic is used in the move since it is difficult to adjust the amount of magic imbued. It is not something that amateurs could easily do.
“Humans are weak, so they are unable to store too much mana in their bodies. In this case, I must use just enough mana to immobilize them.”
[That seems difficult for me.]
“You can use the Barrier Flowers to practice since it will never wither no matter how much mana you pour into it.”
[Then I’ll try it.]
First of all, moving one’s mana within the body is difficult, so it is still to early for her to worry about using the right amount of mana to fight, so—-
[Fuu!]
The Barrier Flower bloomed when Violette blew into it. However, it was not the only thing that happened as large chunks of diamond-like mana crystals were also produced and dropped into the ground.
[Wh-what’s happening!?]
Hydrangea also wanted to know.
There were a total of five mana crystals that dropped to the ground, while the flower was not covered in the morning-dew like crystals that usually accompanied its blooming.
Hydrangea picked up one of the crystals.
It was round and was of a size that could easily fit between a thumb and a forefinger. The mana crystal was beautifully tinged in a light, reddish color.
“Is that Madam’s magic?”
“Indeed. Do not touch it. This is a high concentration of crystallized mana.”
“I won’t.”
Verbena gazed at the mana crystal with admiration.
“It’s very beautiful, isn’t it?”
[But this is a failure.]
Violette’s mana crystals did not dissipate easily and maintained its large form.
But why did it not evaporate? The answer was simple:
“This is complete mana crystallization.”
[Mana crystallization? What’s that?]
“It is a phenomenon where mana becomes too concentrated and hardens.”
Mana crystals were a rare item that mages who have run out of mana were desperate to get their hands on.
[I will succeed next time.]
After making that declaration, she blew on the Barrier Flower again, but the result was the same. She had tried it on a total of four flowers, but she was unable to create small beads of crystals like Hydrangea and ended up creating 20 mana crystals instead.
Since Violette said that she did not need them, all the crystals were given to Hydrangea.
◇◇◇
That night, a letter from the king arrived.
In it, the king mentioned that he had recovered from his illness and was able to get up again. He had also lost some weight by having more vegetables in his diet.
He had also received a strange invitation from the minister who asked to talk to him.
