No one dared voice an opinion about anything happening before them.
Loria was being held down, her hair hanging over her face while blood dripped along the strands and from her chin.
Only her mouth was still moving.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say she was preparing something.
Just as the Prime Minister was gloating, she suddenly jerked her head up.
Her eyes were filled with hatred and madness as she abruptly opened her mouth and spat out a cloud of gas.
Caught off guard, Prime Minister Honest dodged, but half of his face was still engulfed by it.
Hiss—!
A piercing sound of corrosion rang out.
Half of Prime Minister Honest's face was eaten away by the unknown gas.
The flesh rapidly festered, and in the blink of an eye, the surface layer of skin had been corroded away.
Then it began eating into the muscle beneath.
The pain, piercing straight to the nerves, drove the Prime Minister—who already had no tolerance for pain—into a frenzy of screams.
"Aaaaargh! My face! My face!"
He thrashed madly like a man wrapped in flames, struggling and struggling, yet unable to escape the bone-deep agony.
Loria smiled darkly.
Seeing the Prime Minister suffer filled her with joy from the bottom of her heart, though she also felt regret.
Regret that even her final trump card had failed to kill him.
The moment everyone saw Prime Minister Honest's miserable state, they were already scared out of their wits, but Loria's appearance was even more horrifying.
That gas had been formed by biting through her back molars and mixing the hidden chemicals inside them.
The moment the compounds combined, they had already taken effect, so she herself had suffered even worse corrosion than the Prime Minister.
Everything below her nose had turned into exposed bone. Her vocal cords had also been corroded away, so although a terrifying, twisted smile hung on her face, no laughter came out.
The agonized Prime Minister swung his arms wildly.
Whether intentionally or not, one of his flailing fists slammed into Loria's face, striking her head so hard that it spun several times around her neck before finally stopping while facing backward.
Her neck tilted.
She died.
The expression on her face remained fixed in one of savage satisfaction, and with her death, this tragic drama of revenge finally came to an end.
Noah observed for a while.
Seeing the situation come to a standstill, he slowly walked behind the crazed Prime Minister.
The guards immediately tried to stop him.
As a result, without seeing Noah make any movement at all, they lost their sense of balance one after another and collapsed to the ground, falling into a strange state where their minds remained clear but their bodies would not obey them.
It filled them with a terror unlike anything they had ever felt before.
"Prime Minister."
Noah called out in the same calm tone he had used from beginning to end, then placed a hand on the man's shoulder.
Prime Minister Honest's screams came to an abrupt stop.
His eyes widened.
He stared blankly at the ceiling, both hands raised in front of him, his fingers curled like tiger claws.
"Huh? It doesn't hurt at all?"
The Prime Minister's mutter left everyone around him speechless.
It did not hurt?
What kind of joke was that?
They were merely bystanders, and even they felt phantom pain just from looking at him.
Because the scene was simply too horrific.
Half the skin on his face had disappeared. Most of the muscle had festered away as well.
His eyeball was completely exposed, making him look almost like a zombie.
And he was saying an injury like that did not hurt?
Had he not been screaming just a moment ago?
Thinking of that, everyone suddenly realized something.
Why had the Prime Minister suddenly gone quiet?
His face had been turned into such a tragic sight that it would not have been strange for him to howl for three days and three nights.
As for that point, Prime Minister Honest himself was also completely bewildered.
But very quickly, following the warmth and weight on his shoulder, he turned to look at the boy behind him.
"Professor… Noah?"
Looking at his shocked expression, Noah calmly ask, "Do you feel a little better now, Prime Minister? Forgive my bluntness, but this is only temporary. Your injuries haven't vanished. I've merely paralyzed your pain nerves for the time being. At most, it will last about twenty minutes. Any longer, and there may be lasting side effects."
"..."
The Prime Minister fell into speechless shock.
He glanced at the mirror nearby and saw his own horrifying appearance reflected within it.
It was unbelievable that he could still remain calm.
No.
'Is this also the professor's doing?'
'Incredible!'
'He can control the human body to this extent!'
The Prime Minister did not understand science, nor did he understand alchemy.
Nor did he need to.
All he needed to know was what those techniques could accomplish.
Right now, he had completely misunderstood this ability as one of a scientist's methods.
"Professor…"
As though he had grasped a life-saving straw, the Prime Minister's eyes burst with astonishing light.
He stared straight at Noah, even grabbing his arm in excitement.
"Professor, you can help me, can't you? You can heal me, right?!"
Prime Minister Honest, who normally enjoyed boundless glory and stood above all but one in the Empire, was now no different from a drowning man who could not swim.
The heart-rending pain from just now had made him never want to experience it a second time.
Even knowing it was an impossible fantasy, he still wanted the boy before him to heal him within twenty minutes.
Until now, he had never cared about other people's feelings.
Even if he gave his subordinates impossible tasks, after they failed, he would still punish them harshly.
Because all he needed to do was give orders.
As for the difficulty of the task, or why they had failed?
None of that had anything to do with him!
Doing whatever he pleased, acting however he wanted—that was the creed by which he lived.
No matter how absurd the reason, if killing someone made his body and mind feel comfortable, he would kill them.
Even if it was a woman who had spent the night with him, if she delayed him from reaching for his clothes after he woke, he could strangle her to death without the slightest hesitation.
Such an absolute egoist and tyrant, now that he was at his most helpless, had actually returned to common sense.
In his understanding, an injury this severe could not be fully healed in twenty minutes.
Forget twenty minutes—even two years might not be enough
After all, he had turned countless people into this same state before, so he understood that very well.
And so, at this moment, he actually began to "pray."
He prayed that the boy could turn decay into miracles.
Noah looked at the Prime Minister, who now resembled a devout believer, and secretly laughed inwardly.
He gently helped the Prime Minister up, then took out a gift box and explained.
"Originally, this was meant to be my gift for today. I didn't expect something like this to happen. In that case, let it prove its value immediately."
Noah opened the gift box.
Inside were two identical potions.
These were Recovery Potions: Modified.
They were created with the power of the Forest Dragon Jewel.
Super recovery items with effects comparable to an elixir.
As long as Noah had the extracted essence from the Forest Dragon Jewel, he could produce them continuously.
Noah removed the stopper and poured the potion directly over the Prime Minister's face.
In the next moment, an unbelievable sight unfolded before everyone's eyes.
The Prime Minister's terrifying, corroded face began regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His muscles swelled back into place.
His veins and nerves were repaired one after another. His skin, too, rapidly grew anew and reformed itself.
"A… a miracle…"
"It's healed!"
"By the gods, the wound on the Prime Minister's face actually healed just like that!"
Amid the shocked cries of the people around him, the Prime Minister seemed to realize something.
With a mixture of expectation and nervousness, he turned his face toward the mirror.
At a glance, he saw a familiar face reflected in it.
It was him.
Or rather, it was the him from before.
Prime Minister Honest gently touched his face with his hand, and the emotions in his eyes gradually turned into wild joy.
"Ha… hahaha! Unbelievable!"
He whipped his head toward Noah, strode forward, and embraced him.
"Professor!"
"Professor!"
"Professor!"
While patting Noah, he kept cheering "Professor" again and again.
Noah patted him on the shoulder once more.
"Prime Minister, calm yourself. Didn't we agree to talk afterward? Please settle this disturbance first."
Pushing the Prime Minister away in distaste, Noah found an excuse to turn the man's attention back to the scene.
As for everyone else present, they had probably never experienced such a dramatic rise and fall in their lives.
To be honest, when they saw the Prime Minister lose his mind, they had truly feared that they would be implicated and die here today.
If it was that Prime Minister, he absolutely could have done something that insane.
But they had been saved.
All thanks to that miraculous young man.
And that young man was far too incredible!
He had actually performed such a miracle, healing the Prime Minister's face in an instant.
It was practically like a dream.
But seeing the Prime Minister's attitude toward him, everyone suppressed the thoughts in their hearts.
They did not want to offend the Prime Minister.
"Oh, right. Hahaha, I really must apologize, Professor Noah. To think I allowed you to see such an embarrassing sight. Goodness, truly…"
As he spoke, the Prime Minister turned his face toward everyone present.
In that instant, his expression changed completely.
His face became incomparably gloomy and furious, frightening everyone so badly that none of them dared raise their heads.
"All of you, go home. Now."
The Prime Minister, now in a terrible mood, even abandoned his surface-level courtesy and directly issued an order to leave.
"As for you…"
The Prime Minister looked toward the trembling guards nearby.
"You lot can crawl into the prison yourselves. If you don't want your families implicated, don't even think about running."
"..."
Thud.
As though all their strength had been drained from their bodies, several strong men dropped to their knees, even pressing their heads to the floor.
They had failed to protect the Prime Minister and allowed him to suffer such treatment. Their fate could easily be imagined.
They did not dare to flee.
Because even if they escaped, the Prime Minister had ten thousand ways to find them again.
When that happened, their entire families would be put to death by the cruelest methods.
For a man with any sense of responsibility, there was no other choice except to pay with his own life.
This was what made the Prime Minister so terrifying.
Finally, the Prime Minister glanced at Loria's corpse kneeling there, his gaze icy as he called over a few servants.
"Hey, you there. Throw this woman into the hound cage. Hmph, lowly thing. I was originally generous enough to let you be buried with your mother, and yet you dared do something like this. Honestly, I made a mistake killing you by accident. Otherwise, I would have had enough entertainment for the next month."
Looking at his regretful appearance, if Loria had still been alive, she would definitely have been made to endure a month of living hell, unable to live and unable to die.
Even now, with her corpse being thrown into a dog cage, perhaps that was already a relatively decent end by comparison.
...
As agreed, Noah and Prime Minister Honest spoke for a long time.
Noah revealed a portion of his methods, leaving the Prime Minister extremely shocked and expectant.
Noah was confident that his value now surpassed any peerless beauty or rare treasure in the Prime Minister's eyes.
From ancient times to the present, even across countless parallel worlds and other realms, for emperors and powerful ministers, longevity had always been their supreme pursuit.
Noah had first used Falna to prove that lifespan could be extended, then displayed the ability to heal wounds and illness.
With those two things combined, Prime Minister Honest had already developed an enormous dependence on him in his heart.
Lifespan and illness.
Two of the greatest pains.
The Prime Minister clearly understood that in order to enjoy everything he possessed, he needed a healthy body.
Yet no matter how much one trained, if one contracted an incurable disease, one could only wait helplessly for death.
For a Prime Minister who possessed such overwhelming power, death meant the end of enjoyment.
How could he possibly tolerate such a thing?
The deeper his desires were, the greedier he became.
The greedier he became, the more unable he was to part with everything he had now.
The more unable he was to part with it, the more he wanted to live longer—and the more he needed Noah, the professor.
Sitting in the carriage on the way back, the corners of Noah's mouth lifted slightly.
The events of today had gone almost too smoothly!
He had never expected something like that to happen, allowing his original plans to produce results far beyond what he had anticipated.
For everything to proceed so well, he truly had to thank the orphaned daughter of the former Prime Minister.
Although this had been the first and only time he had met Prime Minister Honest, the man had left an extremely powerful impression on him.
So this was how far power could twist a person.
As long as he still existed, the Empire would never develop in a good direction.
Its destruction was likely already an inevitable conclusion.
At present, the rebel forces scattered across the Empire were actually mostly bandits and some gangs using that name as a front.
However, as more officials within the Empire fled the Imperial Capital, if they joined hands with the rebel army, they might quickly gather momentum.
That would be when the Empire's true crisis began.
The storm was already brewing.
There should not be much time left before it erupted.
Gozuki's thinking was still far too naive.
Trying to suppress this wave of rebellion through decapitation strikes could only be effective for a short while.
In the end, the will of the people would overthrow this feudal dynasty.
Starting from the recent string of incidents, Noah had already seen the Empire's ending clearly.
But that did not have much to do with him.
"The fall of a thousand-year empire… Now that should be a spectacle worth seeing."
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