Roy turned to her. Jeanne was bleeding from her heart, but her breath was stable, so her condition was taken as not a big deal by Roy.
“What… do you have to say to me?”
Roy looked like a reasonable man, and he might be willing to listen to her, but even if he weren’t, she would’ve her luck anyway.
“That’s… mine.” She said, pointing at the ring in his hand. “I came out here to throw trash when these bastards… they jumped me. I would nornally be able to put a fight against these thugs with it, but they stole it at the very first second, leaving me defenseless. One hand can’t win against two. That’s especially true for a girl. They took me down easily and were planning to do “that” when you came. Thank you.” Her hands went for the ring he was holding. “But… that’s the last memory of my father. I’m thankful to you for saving me. But please return it to me. I’ll… work for you in return!”
She had a gorgeous face covered in blood, and her hair was of the same color as Amelia’s, red like a ruby, enchanting and dazzling, but although she was deserving of pity, Roy wasn’t just going to believe her.
His inspecting gaze landed on her, and she felt like he had seen through her.
『Ding! You’ve inspected Jeanne. Congratulation. You gained her “Attribute Screen” and “Background Story.”』
Roy found out that she was, in fact, speaking the truth after reading her background story.
She was an orphaned youth.
The owner of the ring was her father.
He had taken care of her after the war, for her mother was not there.
But… he was riddled with injuries, cure of which was known not to them.
They were bound to part pretty soon. Faced with this harsh reality, the soldier desired not to prolong his life but to leave behind enough wealth for his daughter to live a life of ease. He didn’t teach her fighting as he wanted her to live a trouble-less life. He couldn’t fight himself due to his injuries. They would flare up whenever he made a move. Thus, he put his alchemy knowledge to use, creating items that were high in demand. They were easily sold. After taking out the production cost and taxes, he was racking in a good sum.
Yet, good times don’t last long.
Years of senseless endurance took his life. He felled three years ago, leaving behind a great sum of wealth for his prodigy.
He had been a good father to Jeanne but didn’t warn her against her relatives.
Who would want to tell a 13 year old that she shouldn’t trust the sweet smiling aunt next door or her grandparents? That was a good way of helping her develop trust issues in the soldier’s mind. He fed a lot of gold to his relatives before dying, so he thought they wouldn’t harm her. But he thought wrong.
The fake and greedy relatives preyed on her innocent self, looting away her wealth.
Those three years showed her the true face of the vile world and made her realize how great her father was. He had been her shelter on rainy days and her tree in sweltering hot summer, providing her with a place to rest.
After continuous betrayal, she closed her heart and became cunning.
“Isn’t it yours? Take it.”
Roy tossed the ring to her. Redhead’s eyes widened. She was shocked to grab it and even more bewildered to see him leave. He was leaving just like that, without demanding anything from her?
“They’ll be out for a while. Report the situation to the guard. Tell them exactly what happened. If the situation doesn’t work out well, bribe them in your favor. Just place it in their hand, and they won’t dismiss the situation. Get them to lock these drunkards.”
Roy flicked something to Jeanne. It flipped an arc in the air before landing in her palm. She looked at it in vivid surprise. This was a gold coin, equivalent to her one month’s salary.
“I’ll repay you in the future, I promise!”
She bowed in his direction as he left without ever turning to look back.
Roy didn’t know a thing about her as there wasn’t a lot mentioned about the County and its people in the novel. It started with the destruction of the Baldwin Family and the start of the Chaos invasion. These people… these places… they were all set aflame, destroyed, and reduced to rubble in but one chapter. it would be worth fighting to change that future.
『Ding! You’ve altered the fate of Jeanne. She was supposed to die today, but due to her intervention, she won’t. Congratulation. You’ve gained the Beast Core Purifying Recipe, 1× Eternal Weed』
Just as he stepped outside the alley and entered the big wide road that was vastly crowded, Roy’s brows raised. He was taken by surprise by this sudden notification. This system was telling him to fuck up the future. Changing the fates of others could also help you gain a fortune. So why wouldn’t he? He was happy. But then a thought struck him. Why didn’t he gain anything from altering Swift Death’s fate? Or was he still to change her fate?
The rewards were inside the blue screen just like always.
The Eternal Weed was taken out and brought close to Roy’s nose.
It lacked a scent, and he didn’t feel anything special taking place in his body after sniffing it.
So, It looks like only its name and the fact that it was hard like iron was grand.
It was thrown into his subspace.
His eyes then landed on the recipe with visible archaic characters.
『Would you like to learn it?』
“Yes…”
『Ding! Congratulation. You’ve learned the Beast Core Purifying Recipe!』
Roy looked thoughtful for a moment.
Beasts’ cores could be absorbed by humans to increase their stats, but the process was quite arduous.
They have impurities. The more impurities in a beast core, the more painful one would feel while absorbing it. The impurities won’t be vanishing anywhere. They would pile up inside a person’s body. The immune system would kill some of them, but the rest will remain and become a hindrance to a person in the future, making it harder for them to advance or forcing sickness on them.
There were purifying techniques to kill the impurity in a beast core, but there was not a single method that could kill all the impurities.
However, the recipe Roy just learned granted a 100% chance of killing all impurities in a core!!!
It was priceless!