Commerce Emperor
Chapter Eighteen: Interlude: The Alchemist

The next page was caked with dry blood and stained with purple powder.

The next page was scribbled, as if the writer had struggled to find his words. The next entry skipped an entire day.

The handwriting’s quality decreased considerably from then on.

The next entry didn’t show a date. It was only a single sentence long.

I stared at the page for a few seconds before continuing. Spilled ink stands between every feverish word.

The handwriting improved from now on. The words were sharper, clearer, filled with greater purpose.

The next page showed traces of liquid and a small glass shard embedded in the paper.

I closed the journal and stared at Colmar. My friend sat near the open window, observing the stars shining above Snowdrift.

“Almost a century and a half,” I whispered. “You’ve been saving lives for so long…” Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“I could have saved more,” Colmar replied gloomily. He shook his head. “The rest will bore you, my friend.”

“I’m not certain.” I had only read a small part of the journal and of Colmar’s long, long journey through the ages. “She would be proud of you.”

“Whom?”

“Liliane. I think she would be proud of you.”

Colmar said nothing for a moment. He hardly has any body language to speak of, but I knew he knew that I was right.

“I cannot rest until I have purged this pestilence from Pangeal, Robin,” he said. “Medicine has advanced enough to reduce the harm the Purple Plague causes, but it has yet to be eradicated.”

I set the journal on my desk and join my hands. “Did you find other gardens?”

“Two more,” he confirmed. “All marked with the same symbol. Which, from what you tell me, represents the Demon Ancestor Belsara, the Beast of Sloth. I have destroyed them both, but it seems another has eluded me.”

My jaw clenched on its own. “The outbreak fifteen years ago was no accident.”

“I do not think so either.” Colmar turned to face me, his glass eyes reflecting the moonlight. “The civil war, the chaos we’re dealing with today… our foes planted these seeds years ago.”

Countless innocents perished from the Purple Plague, including my parents. If the Knots indeed unleashed it against Archfrost, Florence and her ilk would have much to answer for.

We have to find these plants and destroy them, I thought. The more we learn, the bigger our task becomes. “The bones you found,” I whispered, putting two and two together. “They were the first beastmen. The first attempts to create them.”

“I supposed as much.” Colmar shook his head. “I originally did not understand the purpose of this exercise, but if your theory about the Demon Ancestors being former heroes is correct… then I can see an explanation.”

As did I.

The Ranger class can only control beasts. Never men.

So Belsara blended both.

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