Debuff Master

Chapter 323

“W-What in the world is going on? Didn’t Saintess Janette heal her?” Siegfried was baffled after seeing Brunhilde skinnier than she had been this morning. He couldn’t understand why she was withering away once again when the Saintess healed her.

How was it possible for her condition to deteriorate further afterward?

It was incredibly strange.

“Just what in the world is…” a voice echoed from somewhere. “Her life vessel has cracked. What good will it be to refill a cracked container? It’s only going to leak.”

Deus suddenly appeared and answered Siegfried’s question.

“Master! What brings you here?”

“I have contacted the elder-nim and informed him of Her Majesty’s illness. I could not think of any other solution other than the elder-nim, so…” Michele explained how Deus came to arrive at the Proatine Kingdom.

And it seemed that calling Deus was the right choice…

Why?

He managed to accurately diagnose her condition as soon as he arrived, and it seemed that he could provide treatment for her illness.

“Master… Do you know why this is happening to my wife?” Siegfried asked.

“Do you really think that the answer to that question will elude this great being?”

“As expected…”

“This child turned like this because the baby within her is growing too fast. The mother can only have so much nutrients, but her baby is growing at three times the normal rate at the moment. Won’t it be strange if her condition is normal instead?” Deus explained.

“Ah!”

“Hmm… The baby is instinctively sucking away all of her mother’s nutrients. Even a vampire starved for months wouldn’t be this eager… I’m sure this baby isn’t doing this on purpose, and it’s just her survival instincts kicking in.”

“Is it because… of the Tree of Love?”

“We can’t put it that way since the Tree of Love has provided adequate energy from the Great Nature.”

“Then why…”

“It could be that the baby she is carrying is a High Elf.”

“A High Elf?”

Siegfried tilted his head in confusion at the word he never heard of before. As far as he knew, an elf was an elf, while a dark elf was a dark elf, and a child born between an elf and a human was a half-elf.

However, he couldn’t recall hearing about a High Elf, no matter how much he racked his brains.

“A High Elf being born is an extremely rare occurrence. The chances of a High Elf being born out of one million elves are extremely low. They are incredibly rare.”

“Do they really exist?”

“Yes, they are beings that possess far superior genetics compared to the elves, and they are the closest creature to perfection itself. All of the High Elves in history became a Master by the age of twenty and a Grandmaster by the age of one hundred.”

“What?!”

“But this is certainly strange… The offspring of an elf and a human should be a half-elf and not a High Elf…” Deus muttered while stroking his beard and looking at Brunhilde’s stomach.

“It must be because of the purification.”

“The purification?”

“I altered your genetics by throwing out all of the useless things in you and replacing them.”

“Y-You did?!”

“You had no idea? You fool! The only reason a piece of trash like you managed to become who you are in just one hundred days is all because of the purification process that this great being has done for you!”

Deus strongly rebuked Siegfried for his ignorance before he continued talking about Brunhilde.

“Hmm… It seems that your superior genetics and this child’s superior genetics combined to give birth to a High Elf.”

“I… I see…”

“But forget about being born—both the mother and the baby will starve to death in less than a week at this rate.”

“No!” Siegfried screamed.

‘Starve to death? I won’t let that happen! I refuse to be an incompetent husband and father!’ He refused to let that happen. He still hadn’t even fed his child properly himself, but she was already going to die of starvation? Was that too cruel?

“Master…” Siegfried looked at Deus with desperate eyes and said, “I do not care whether my child is a half-elf or a High Elf. I just want to save both my wife and my child. Master, please teach this fool what he can do to save his wife and kid!”

Siegfried prostrated in front of Deus.

“Keke! You little rascal!” Deus let out a laugh and replied, “You fool! You’re no different from my son! Then what does that make this child and her baby? She’s my daughter-in-law, and she is my granddaughter! Did you really think this great being would just sit around and watch as his daughter-in-law and granddaughter starve to death?!”

“M-Master!”

“Of course, this great being can’t personally get involved, but I shall teach you what to do. All you have to do is listen to my instructions for you to save your wife and kid.”

“Yes, Master!”

“My disciple,” said Deus.

“Yes, Master.”

“Go to the Great Jungle in the southern region of the continent.”

A quest message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

Ding!

[Search for the Devil’s Fruit]

[Go to the Great Jungle located in the southern region of the continent and find the fruit Dragonian Mango, which is also known as the Devil’s Fruit.]

[Type: Time Attack Quest]

[Warning: Both Brunhilde and the child will die if you fail to feed the Dragonian Mango to Brunhilde within one week upon quest acceptance.]

“The Dragonian Mango contains the compressed energy of the Great Nature, and feeding this to the mother will save both her and the baby inside her.”

“Yes, Master! I will go find it at once!”

“Be sure to make haste. Don’t delay,” Deus warned before he added, “I will hold her life vessel together for a week, but even this great being can’t guarantee what will happen after that one week. Do you understand?”

“Thank you, Master! I will go find the fruit as soon as possible!” Siegfried exclaimed. He bowed toward Deus one more time before he got up and held Brunhilde’s hand.

‘Please hang in there just a bit more. I will not let the two of you die.’

It seemed that a father’s heart had sprouted within Siegfried’s heart.

***

“I will be leaving now, Master.”

“Hurry up and make haste.”

“Yes, Master.”

Siegfried left the room to commence his search for the Dragonian Fruit when a servant suddenly appeared out of nowhere and greeted him.

“Please be careful on your way, Your Majesty.”

“Ah, thank you and thank you for your hard work~” Siegfried gave a short reply before rushing to the airfield.

The reason that he was heading to the airfield instead of the Warp Gate was that the Great Jungle did not have a Warp Gate. He was planning to use the gift he had received from the Dragon Lord, the Huracan, on this trip.

‘Hmm? Who was that? I’ve never seen that person before…? Is he new?’ he tilted his head in confusion after recalling the face of the servant just now.

Siegfried was a kind king who frequently greeted his servants and maids by name, and he knew most of the servants and maids working in the castle. Well, it was actually because the kingdom was too small that he only had a total of fifty servants and maids.

Thus, he could tell that he had never seen that servant that passed by just now.

‘Hmm… Oh well, maybe he’s someone new. I should hurry up instead of thinking about useless things.’ He shrugged the nagging feeling off as every second counted at the moment.

“Keke!” The servant cackled with a sinister smile as Siegfried left the kingdom. “So you’re running around like a headless chicken trying to save your wife and kid! Kekeke!”

The servant, no, Carlisle, disguised as a servant, laughed at Siegfried.

Carlisle was the knight captain of the Renoma Kingdom, and he was at odds with Siegfried over what happened during the dimensional rift incident. Well, it was more of a one-sided thing since he considered Siegfried as his kingdom’s enemy.

“My motherland’s enemy! I will make sure to repay you for the humiliation!” Carlisle gnashed his teeth and swore to make Siegfried pay.

Carlisle infiltrated the Proatine Kingdom in hopes of getting revenge on Siegfried, but he proved to be quite the strong adversary.

Not only was he strong, but he was also surrounded by powerful people that were no different from monsters. In fact, the man the people called Elder-nim had killed a dragon with just his bare fist.

But that was not the end of it…

Carlisle disguised himself as a laborer and installed explosives all over Siegfried and Brunhilde’s wedding venue, but…

“If I press this button then… What?!”

He was about to press the detonator when hundreds of Cockatrices rained down from the sky. However, the situation quickly stabilized after the legendary being, Daode Tianzun, and another young Great Wizard appeared to quell the commotion.

Carlisle gave up after seeing their might.

“Oh my god… This country isn’t weak at all! How can a country teeming with monsters be weak?!” Carlisle was shocked and despaired at the sight of the Proatine Kingdom’s might. “My revenge… It’s impossible for me to get revenge…! How am I supposed to avenge my motherland?!”

It was then that he suddenly heard the news of Queen Brunhilde’s pregnancy. He also heard that the kingdom was hiring more servants and maids to tend to Queen Brunhilde.

Carlisle immediately went to a black magician and coughed up all of his savings to undergo plastic surgery and change his appearance, and then he bribed the officials to be successfully hired as a servant in the castle.

“Danger always lurks right around the corner. Kekeke! I will be your demise, Siegfried van Proa! Look forward to it!”

Carlisle realized that attacking from the outside was impossible, so he decided to infiltrate the Proatine Kingdom and become an internal threat.

“Just wait and see, Siegfried van Proa! Try and save your wife and kid, but your efforts will only make you fall deeper into the abyss of despair! Bwahahaha!”

Carlisle was ecstatic after thinking of his revenge.

He was confident his plan was half-successful now that he had become a servant in the Proatine Kingdom.

Why?

“Do you know how a beast that lost its young feels, Siegfried van Proa? Don’t worry! You will soon find out! Kekeke!”

Carlisle’s target wasn’t Siegfried but the baby in Brunhilde’s womb.

***

The Great Jungle was a tropical rainforest located in the southern region of the Nürberg Continent, and it was filled with barbarians, beasts, and venomous insects. It was also extremely vast that anyone would easily get lost in it, so most Adventurers avoided it.

Perhaps that was the reason, but Siegfried was currently in a huge dilemma while on board his Huracan.

“How am I supposed to get the Dragonian Mango? It would be great if I could have some information at least…”

“I suggest contacting the barbaric tribes inhabiting the Great Forest once we land, Your Majesty,” said someone from next to him.

“ACK! Holy! You scared me!”

“Kyuuuu!”

Siegfried and Hamchi jumped in fright at the same time and turned around to find Gringore looking at them.

‘Where the hell has this guy been? I haven’t seen him for quite a while…’ Siegfried wondered while staring at the scribe’s handsome face.

“Where were you? I haven’t seen you around recently. I was happy thinking that you died in a ditch somewhere,” Siegfried said after realizing that it had been quite a long time since he last saw Gringore.

“Your Majesty is too mean…”

“Why are you still alive?”

“Heuk…”

A drop of tear fell from Gringore’s eyes at Siegfried’s cold remarks. All he did was work hard as a scribe and foreign currency earner, and he couldn’t understand why he was getting so much hate.

However, it was unavoidable for Siegfried to loathe Gringore as he had written down every single embarrassing event that happened to Siegfried.

“But seriously, where have you been?”

“I went on a continent tour, Your Majesty.”

“A continent tour? You do something like that, too?”

“I-I am a bit famous so… Hahaha…”

“…”

“But is it not good news? As Your Majesty is very well aware, my affiliation is with the Proatine Kingdom, so our kingdom’s coffers will fill up the more I perform.”

The Proatine Kingdom, well, actually Michele, had a fifty-fifty management contract with one of the continent’s hottest superstars, Gringore. In other words, the Proatine Kingdom would earn a ton of money whenever Gringore performed.

“Ah, you seemed to have been working hard. Thank you for your hard work, Sir Gringore. I’m quite fond of people that bring in money these days.”

“Hahaha!”

“Have you heard anything about the Dragonian Mango by any…”

Siegfried was about to ask Gringore about the Dragonian Mango when the Huracan’s system informed them of its descent.

— We have reached the Great Jungle.

— We will now commence our descent.

— Stealth Mode has been deactivated.

Bam…!

A powerful force struck the Huracan’s hull.