Chapter 63: Scheming
Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Scheming
"Quint, what happened to him?"
Andre shook his head. He didn’t understand why Selena had suddenly brought up Quint. He hadn’t seen Quint at the academy since their trip to the Secret Realm ended.
"He’s... badly injured!"
Selena said, looking at Andre after a moment of hesitation.
"Badly injured? From the Secret Realm?"
Andre immediately recalled Quint’s ordeal in Secret Realm No. 1.
In Secret Realm No. 1, Quint’s aura was despised by the realm itself, so much so that all the Magical Beasts within it would attack him, driving him out of their territories.
’But Quint hadn’t been that seriously hurt in the Secret Realm. How could he suddenly be so badly injured?’
"His Bloodline was attacked!"
Selena took a deep breath and spoke with grave importance.
"His Bloodline was attacked? So you’re saying he really was cursed?"
Andre’s eyes widened. ’Did the fib I told Selena actually come true?’
"I’m not sure, but Quint’s family members haven’t shown such severe injuries."
"So, you suspect that something from the Secret Realm infected Quint’s Bloodline."
Andre finished Selena’s sentence for her.
Selena nodded and continued.
"Only the six of us entered Secret Realm No. 1. Now that Quint is seriously injured, what about the rest of us..."
Selena didn’t finish her sentence, but her meaning was clear. She was worried the other five of them would end up like Quint.
"If that were the case, then why is Quint the only one who’s so badly hurt, while the rest of us are completely fine?"
Andre shook his head, dismissing Selena’s theory.
"That’s what’s confusing me, too. That’s why I came to ask you. Have you felt any discomfort lately?"
Selena tilted her head, looking at Andre inquisitively.
Andre shook his head.
"I’m fine. Except for one thing, everything else is going smoothly."
"One thing?" Selena seized on the key part of his statement.
"I’m already able to construct my own Ladder of Truth, and that’s the very thing causing me trouble."
Andre sighed helplessly and explained his predicament to Selena.
Selena immediately took on a look of understanding and nodded.
"I’ve been facing the same problem recently!"
"So, have Jesse and the others run into this situation too?"
Andre thought of Jesse and Ferguson, who had entered the Secret Realm with him.
"None of the others have. You’re the last one I’m asking."
Selena shook her head, her tone filled with worry.
’I’m the last one?’ Andre nodded, but his eyes were flickering with thought.
He had already guessed why Selena had suddenly brought up Quint.
"If you’ve figured something out, you can’t hide it from me."
Seeing the flickering in Andre’s eyes, Selena instantly understood that he might have discovered something.
"I’m just spitballing here, but could it be related to something Quint ate or drank in the Secret Realm?"
Andre hesitated, then looked at Selena and spoke tentatively.
’Someone as smart as Selena couldn’t have missed that.’
’Since she must have thought of it, why is she still asking me?’
Andre recalled that in the Secret Realm, everyone except him—Selena, Jesse, and Ferguson—had treasure-hunting tools, and his heart tightened.
’Don’t tell me this is still about the Divine Blood I got?’
’If so, I need to be more careful.’
"Water? Food? We all brought plenty of food and water with us."
Selena subconsciously shook her head. The academy had given them Storage Rings specifically to carry supplies.
As for what Andre and the others personally harvested in the Secret Realm, that was considered less important.
"It’s not impossible. If Quint found a rare Magic Plant in the Secret Realm, he might have eaten its fruit, which could have caused his injuries. That’s a possibility."
Having thought of this, Selena looked at Andre questioningly.
The reason Selena was asking Andre was because of his expertise in Magic Plants and Magic Potions. Plus, as someone who was there, his analysis would be far more reliable than her own theories.
"That’s the most likely possibility at this point. In the Secret Realm, we all ate the food we brought and drank the water we carried. Under those circumstances, there’s only one other explanation."
Andre put on a grave expression and continued along Selena’s line of reasoning.
’Since you have ill intentions, I’ll play along for now. When you finally show your hand, I’ll refuse.’
’I’m in the Wizard Inheritance Hall right now; Selena and the others can’t do anything to me!’
At this thought, Andre decided to sit back and enjoy Selena’s performance.
"Does that mean the Honeycomb you gave me could also be harmful?"
Selena’s face went pale in an instant. She pointed at Andre, her body trembling.
"Please. If the honey from the Honeycomb could harm you, you’d have been on the floor long ago."
Andre rolled his eyes, speechless. The entire Purple Crystal Bee Swarm survived on the honey from that Honeycomb.
"If there was something wrong with the honey, the Purple Crystal Bee Swarm would’ve all died out by now."
After rolling his eyes, Andre said irritably to Selena.
Only after hearing this did Selena manage to calm her frantic heart.
’He’s right. If the honey in the Honeycomb was problematic, the swarm would have died, and my body would have shown some abnormalities.’
’It’s been six months since I had the first bite.’
"So, the cause can only be something Quint ate himself."
"Then what did he eat?"
Seline tilted her head, pondering what Quint might have eaten in the Secret Realm.
"Back then, the five of us completed the exploration mission in the Secret Realm in Quint’s place. During that process, did you see any particularly unusual Magic Plants?"
Andre asked Selena after a moment of thought.
"No!" Selena shook her head immediately.
"Less than a month after we completed the exploration mission for Secret Realm No. 1, the academy’s Wizards had already entered and cataloged all the resource distributions inside."
"They didn’t find any poisonous Magic Plants. The only things related to poison were the Magical Beasts, especially the venom of Snake-type Magical Beasts, but there were no signs of Magical Beast injuries on Quint’s body."
Selena refuted Andre’s hypothesis.
"That’s strange. Didn’t you ask Quint what he ate in the Secret Realm?"
Andre’s brows were tightly knitted, the crease between them deep enough to trap a fly. He was now certain of Selena’s true intentions for this long conversation: she wanted him to return to Secret Realm No. 1.