Chapter 19: Did this family meet on Tieba?

His voice was very soft, yet it stabbed into Julius’s eardrums like an ice pick.

Only after the Duke’s figure completely disappeared at the edge of his vision did the boy realize his palm was already marked with four bloody scratches from his own nails.

“Rustle rustle.”

Suddenly, the sound of fabric brushing came from behind.

Julius spun around sharply and saw Helos, who had opened her eyes without him noticing.

Sunlight poured through the skylight, shining on her face and making the tear trace sliding down from the corner of her eye glitter brightly.

Julius’s throat moved as he tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat.

The girl lifted a trembling finger and wiped her cheek haphazardly, struggling to push herself up.

But her arm felt as heavy as if filled with lead; as soon as it rose, it fell back down heavily.

“Help me a bit…”

Her voice was as light as a feather. “I can’t get up.”

“You’re so weak.”

A faint smile tugged at Julius’s lips as he stepped forward and gently lifted her arm.

Helos rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“Do you really have to say that?”

With his help, she finally managed to sit up with difficulty. Her silver hair fell messily over her shoulders.

Silence stretched between them.

Julius looked at her slightly reddened eyes and hesitated before quietly asking, “Did you… hear everything?”

“Hear what?”

Helos tilted her head, her pale purple eyes full of confusion, as if she truly didn’t know anything.

The boy let out a sigh of relief.

“Nothing, it’s nothing.”

He turned his face away, pretending to straighten his clothes to hide the sting in his nose.

“That bastard…”

Helos closed her eyes and flipped through the pages of the Ultimate Alchemy book left to her by that damn goddess in her mind, unable to resist cursing aloud, “One day, I’ll show you what the Black Hand really means!”

Although she was cursing the goddess, Julius heard a different meaning.

A cold father, a deceased mother, a vanished brother, a carefree sister, and a hot-tempered herself.

This family was something else.

But at that moment, Helos didn’t care what Julius was thinking.

She was reading about alchemy, eyes wide open.

The contents of this book far exceeded her imagination.

It even contained some forbidden…

“Smack!”

The crisp slap echoed sharply inside Helos’ Workshop, making Julius jump in fright.

Helos slapped her own cheeks hard, her fair skin instantly flushed with a faint pink.

“Are you possessed?”

The boy’s eyes widened.

“You’re the one possessed!”

Helos took a deep breath, and suddenly two flickering flames ignited deep within her pale purple eyes.

She had discovered an alchemy formula powerful enough to overturn her fate—even if she couldn’t realize it with her current strength yet.

But the other alchemy techniques recorded in the book were already enough to let her take a brand new step forward.

Her gaze slowly shifted to Julius, a sly curve forming on her lips.

“Julius-kun~”

The boy’s hair stood on end at her sweet, cloying tone, and he instinctively stepped back half a pace.

“W-what do you want?”

“Just help me with a little favor~”

Helos lightly jumped down from the wooden box, silver strands tracing sparkling arcs in the air.

She leaned close to Julius, hands pressed together in a pleading gesture, eyelashes fluttering.

“Will you be my lab assistant?”

“Lab assistant?”

Julius’s throat bobbed nervously, his eyes shifting uneasily. “What exactly do I have to do?”

“Just help me record data, carry materials~”

Helos stood on tiptoe, her nose almost touching his chin. “It’s not like patrolling the Duke’s Mansion all day is any fun, right?”

“Let me think about it first…”

“Okay! I’ll give you time to think it over!”

The girl slapped his shoulder hard and gave him a thumbs-up. “I’m counting on you, Assistant Sir!”

“I haven’t even agreed yet!!!”

***

Moonlight flowed like water, quietly streaming through the workshop’s window.

Helos lay in a swaying hammock, her silver hair cascading beside her, gently swaying in the night breeze.

Her fingertips traced the complex alchemy formulas from the book in the air, and her pale purple eyes sparkled excitedly in the darkness.

“Hehe~”

The corners of the girl’s mouth lifted involuntarily. Her toes tapped lightly on the floor, making the hammock sway slightly.

Those once unreachable dreams suddenly seemed within grasp.

Even someone like her, without magic power, might be able to freely manipulate magic through alchemy!

She turned over, the hammock creaking softly.

Outside the window, a Nightjar chirped lightly on the treetop, as if echoing her joyful mood.

Helos stretched her hand toward the bright moon, watching the silver light slip through her fingers, casting broken shadows on her face.

“Just wait and see…”

She whispered softly, her voice filled with unprecedented anticipation.

Those invention blueprints once deemed useless, those ridiculed ideas—now they all had a chance to come true.

One day, she would make everyone who looked down on her fly!

***

At the first light of dawn, Julius was already standing outside the workshop door.

He hesitated, raising his hand; his knuckles hovered briefly over the weathered wooden door before gently pushing open the creaking entrance.

The workshop was filled with a faint metallic scent.

Helos was curled up in the hammock, her silver hair messily spread on the pillow, and a small glistening trail of drool still hung at the corner of her mouth.

Hot.

Julius tiptoed closer and gently poked the girl’s cheek—it was surprisingly soft, still warm from sleep.

“Oh!”

“Mm.”

Helos wrinkled her nose and shrank deeper into the hammock like a disturbed kitten.

The boy sighed, then gently pinched a lock of her hair, brushing the tip over her nose.

“Achoo!”

Helos suddenly sat up, and the hammock shook violently.

She blinked sleepily as she looked around, finally fixing her confused gaze on the culprit.

“Early morning… what do you want?”

“The sun’s already high.”

Julius pointed to the bright morning sun hanging outside the window. “Didn’t you say you wanted to do some experiments?”

Helos blinked, then suddenly jolted fully awake.

She hurriedly climbed out of the hammock, barefoot on the cold floor.

“Right, right, I almost forgot!”

She wiped the corner of her mouth clumsily and excitedly grabbed Julius’s sleeve.

“So, does that mean you agreed to be my assistant?”

The boy was startled by her sudden burst of energy and nodded instinctively.

“Let’s just say you agreed—”

Julius suddenly noticed her messy hair and the drool on her cheek and frowned.

“Wait, at least wash up first. Eat something before we start, okay?”

As he spoke, he placed the familiar lunchbox in front of Helos.

The moment she lifted the lid, a rich aroma immediately filled the workshop.

Helos leaned over to look inside.

Seeing that meat took up most of the breakfast space, her expression stiffened a little.

She looked up, locking eyes with Julius’s intensely serious gaze.

“This is the breakfast I specially had someone prepare for you—you’re so thin you’re barely recognizable. You need to eat more meat to have the strength for experiments.”