Julius stared at the vial that shimmered with a jade-green glow in the light, hesitating to reach out.
“What is this?”
“It’s an antidote.”
Helos answered matter-of-factly, holding the bottle up in front of his eyes and shaking it gently.
The liquid inside created a faint halo on the glass, reflecting the slight upward curve of her lips, as if boasting about some incredible achievement.
“An antidote?”
Julius paused for a moment, his brows gradually knitting together. “Are you sure? The poison in that young man’s body— even Miss Eleanor’s Holy Light magic couldn’t touch it.”
“This tiny bottle of yours… can it really work?”
His tone wasn’t deliberately sharp, but the doubt in his words was unmistakable.
After all, if the poison couldn’t be purified by Elinor—the candidate for Saintess—how could something Helos whipped up casually possibly fix it?
Moreover, it didn’t even look like something an antidote could handle.
“Hey, what’s with that look?”
Helos immediately frowned in displeasure, puffing her cheeks and glaring at him. “I went through a lot of trouble to make this! Don’t underestimate it, okay?”
“Whether it works or not, we won’t know until we try. Besides, how bad could it really be?”
Sensing the youth’s hesitation, the silver-haired boy’s gaze hardened with determination. “Anyway, you don’t have any other choice right now—might as well try the last resort.”
“But—”
Julius wanted to say more but swallowed the rest of his sentence when he saw the stubborn expression on the girl’s face.
Helos shrugged lightly. Her tone sounded casual, but her pale purple eyes betrayed a trace of nervousness.
This was a rare experimental opportunity!
She couldn’t just let it slip away.
Julius fell silent.
He had no words to refute her.
Indeed, what else could he do besides grasping at straws?
Everyone had basically given up on trying to get clues from that person. Things couldn’t get any worse than they already were.
Julius looked at Helos in front of him—although she usually acted carefree, this time she was clearly serious.
The boy took a deep breath and finally reached out to take the vial.
The cool touch of the glass came through his fingers, the liquid inside gently swaying with the movement.
…Alright, I’ll give it a try.
He said softly, his tone tinged with reluctance.
Helos seemed to exhale in relief, humming triumphantly:
“That’s the spirit! If it doesn’t work, I’ll help you come up with another plan.”
Julius shook his head helplessly. Seeing her smug expression somehow eased the tension in his chest.
“Shall I try now? Want to come along?”
The youth carefully pocketed the antidote and looked up at Helos.
“Me? Better not.”
Helos quickly waved her hand, turning her head away. “The East Side is my father’s territory. I’m not in the mood to say hello to him.”
“Fair enough, then I’ll go on my own.”
Just as Julius was about to turn, Helos suddenly called out:
“Wait, wait!”
She pursed her lips, her expression unusually serious. “I should say this upfront—there’s no guarantee this thing will definitely work.”
She paused, then glanced at him sideways.
“So… you get what I mean, right?”
Julius turned his head, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already prepared for the worst.”
His voice was calm, but beneath it lay a hint of steadfastness.
“All we can do now is pray… that a miracle really happens.”
The moment Julius left Helos’s workshop, he set off without pause toward the private dungeon on the East Side of the Duke’s manor.
He barely stepped through the dungeon’s gate before a familiar voice reached his ears:
“Hm? Julius?”
Selena tilted her head from the shadows, her light gray eyes filled with confusion. “Didn’t you just leave a little while ago? Why are you back so soon?”
Julius caught his breath, but his tone was unusually firm:
“I came to try… to see if I can save him.”
“Save?”
Selena tilted her head again, as if hearing something unbelievable. “How do you plan to save him? Kyle said that guy’s beyond help—better to just give him a quick release. That’s a kind of mercy.”
“…Bitite.”
The boy pulled out the emerald-green vial Helos had given him.
He glanced at the two guards nearby, then asked resolutely:
“Could you two help me hold him down?”
Selena immediately leaned closer, curiosity sparkling in her eyes as she looked at the vial in Julius’s hand.
“What did you bring?”
“An antidote,” Julius admitted. “Miss Helos gave it to me.”
“Ah?”
The Vampire girl’s face instantly showed disbelief upon hearing Helos’s name.
“That thing… can it really work?”
She couldn’t help but ask.
After all, in the Duke’s manor these past days, she had heard plenty about Helos’s various Legendary Deeds.
Because of that, she was highly skeptical about the effect of the antidote Julius held.
“We tried antidotes before back at the Western Parish…”
Selena reminded him, looking at the boy’s serious expression before adding, “They didn’t work at all.”
“Last resort, then.”
Julius shook his head and retorted to her, “Do we have any other options?”
“That’s true.”
Selena rolled her eyes but finally relented. “Alright, you can try.”
The two guards exchanged a glance, nodded, and promptly opened the private dungeon’s door.
The young man was curled up in a corner, trembling all over, emitting beast-like growls from his mouth.
When the guards moved forward to hold him down, he struggled wildly, his nails scraping against the stone floor with a harsh screech.
“Hold his head down!”
Julius shouted, and seizing the moment the guards suppressed the young man, he stepped forward in a swift motion, grabbing the other’s chin and pouring the entire vial of emerald-green antidote down his throat.
“Cough… cough—ugh—!”
Not long after swallowing, the young man began coughing violently, his body curling like a shrimp.
He retched painfully as thick black blood spewed from his mouth, pooling on the floor in a foul-smelling stain.
Julius instinctively took a step back, and Selena tensed up, alert.
But after that disgusting scene, the young man’s breathing gradually steadied.
He lifted his head in a daze, the bloodshot, crazed eyes slowly clearing.
“W-Where am I?”
The young man asked weakly, his hoarse voice barely audible, but the madness was gone from his tone.
Selena’s eyes widened in shock, her ears twitching involuntarily.
“Th-This can’t be…”
“The antidote from Miss Helos… it actually worked?!”
Its !magic in a bottle