The next morning.
The weather in the royal capital was as gloomy as ever.
A light rain fell beneath the thick, overcast clouds, creating a heavy atmosphere.
Loran, holding a monocle, was reading its corresponding instructions.
Happily, she wasn’t ambushed by a succubus last night.
At most, the milk forgotten in the bathroom was all drunk.
And she had her ‘tofu’ eaten a few times during their chat.
However, Loran, whose heart was still that of a good man, wasn’t particularly sensitive to the latter.
She was quite careless and let Kariel succeed several times.
As for Kariel, she bid farewell to Loran early in the morning, returning to handle affairs at the Pink Harbor.
She left behind a gold-rimmed monocle enchanted with [Elemental Sight].
According to the instructions, this thing could allow her to use a weakened version of [Elemental Sight] through the lens.
For Loran, who only had adept-level mana, it was just barely usable for short periods.
It was sufficient for observing mana pollution.
As for the price, it was probably around two thousand gold coins.
One could only say that having a wealthy female friend was truly a pleasure.
…
After studying the monocle, Loran activated the skill [adept-grade stabilizer].
Instantly, a messy formula for 32 different materials popped up.
It made her dizzy, and she had to go to the market to buy them on short notice.
Fortunately, although the materials were varied, their grades weren’t high, making them relatively easy to obtain.
But it still wasted a fair amount of time.
She could only barely manage to brew one batch before the morning assembly, filling five round bottles.
This was largely thanks to the [Revival Furnace] that the wealthy Kariel had gifted to Loran.
Otherwise, she would have faced her first brewing failure since transmigrating.
…
After the church opened, Loran was indeed greeted by a group of commoners seeking help.
After all, there were so many people in Lawrence’s group yesterday.
Upon returning, they would surely spread the word to their family, friends, and fellow workers.
Loran put on the monocle and looked at the crowd below.
She saw that these people, to varying degrees, were shimmering with chaotic elemental light.
There was even a little girl with a lame leg who was practically about to become a big fireworks display.
In total, there were about twenty people.
All of them had dragged their bodies here after hearing the rumors.
“Lady Loran, please, save us.”
“Lady Loran, please save my child.
He’s so young.
I’m willing to give everything I have.”
“Sister…
“Bear with it, Renee.
Augustus said Lady Loran can heal you.”
Loran’s brow furrowed slightly.
The people at the front were decently dressed, while those further back were in a rather pitiful state.
Most of them had no formal jobs, earning a daily wage of only a dozen or so copper coins.
They ate black bread and lived in communal shacks.
Malnutrition made it difficult for them to resist mana pollution.
Their meager income also left them unable to afford medicine.
They huddled in the back, not daring to come forward.
On one hand, they feared offending the ‘citizens’ in front.
On the other hand, they worried they couldn’t afford the consultation fee.
Yet, driven by the desire to survive, they still hoped for Loran’s charity.
This scene actually had quite an impact on Loran.
Before this, she was just an ordinary graduate.
She had never been looked at with such hopeful gazes by a group of people.
At the same time, she had never seen such wretched lower-class people in real life.
Their clothes were tattered, yet they tried to keep them as neat as possible.
Hoping to leave a slightly better impression on her.
Their faces were sunken-cheeked; some had half-drooping eyelids.
Seemingly dizzy, or perhaps feverish.
They might not even realize this was caused by mana pollution.
Or perhaps they had caught a cold from washing themselves with cold water to tidy up their appearance.
Loran wasn’t a saint.
But this group at the back was a powerful source of faith points.
She waved her arm, signaling for everyone to quiet down.
“Everyone, please be quiet!
Don’t rush!”
“Mana pollution is an extremely difficult problem to treat, as I’m sure you’ve all heard.”
“Currently, I only have one experimental potion, and it needs to be tested first.”
“Is anyone willing to try it first?”
As expected, the respectable ‘citizens’ quickly stepped back, creating a large empty circle.
In this world, ‘test subject’ was not a good term.
It was said that more people died at the hands of alchemists each year than were killed by demon wolves in the Demon Beast Forest.
Only the people from the Slums in the back stepped forward, some even kneeling and pleading.
They were already at a dead end; even a sliver of hope was something they wouldn’t give up.
Loran looked through the monocle at the little girl with the lame leg.
The girl looked about eight or nine years old, with black hair that felt strangely familiar and comforting to Loran.
Her face was thin, her gray eyes filled with unease, her pale little hands tightly clutching her sister’s pants.
In Loran’s [Elemental Sight], she was the person suffering the most severe mana pollution.
…
The black-haired girl’s name was Renee.
On the surface, she was an orphan girl struggling to survive in the Slums.
Dependent on the sister who found her.
But in reality, she was the Undead Witch—Renee.
A Witch!
In this world, a being hunted by the alliance formed by the righteous gods.
After the Goddess of Death fell, she, as a former sage of the church, absorbed a trace of the Goddess of Death’s remnants.
Thus, even when she was completely incinerated by the Supreme Flame, she managed to be reborn and escape.
But the pursuit by the Church of the Fire God forced her to die frequently.
Finally, she could only choose to completely disperse her mana.
Becoming an ordinary person, she hid in the Slums of the royal capital for thirteen years.
Originally, as the loopholes from her rebirth slowly vanished, she could have tried cultivating mana again.
But some bastard had to go and dump poison in the sewers.
And her shack just happened to be right next to an outlet.
When she went out, she slipped and got drenched head to toe.
This was mana pollution!
Even in her six hundred years, it was an incredibly troublesome problem.
Just as she thought she’d have to prepare for another rebirth…
Her cheap sister in this life actually dragged her to this little church.
Saying that the nun here could treat mana pollution.
What a joke!
How could a mere little nun have the ability to treat mana pollution?
A measly adept-level, where would she get the mana capacity to dilute the pollution?
And was this woman with the indecently large chest in front of her really a nun of the Church of Light?
Wearing such shameless clothes, practically flaunting her curves for everyone to see.
She didn’t look reliable at all.
Renee scoffed inwardly.
But seeing the worry in her sister’s eyes, she complied.
Having struggled together in the Slums for thirteen years, even small animals would develop feelings.
If she died, her cheap sister would be very sad, right?
And according to her observation, her cheap sister was also suffering from pollution…
But she dared not cultivate mana.
Every time she was reborn, her body would feel a sense of disharmony on a mana level.
This disharmony could only fade slowly with time.
If she cultivated prematurely, the hounds of the Church of the Fire God could easily find her through this loophole.
“Sigh…”
Renee sighed in her heart.
Even a Witch could feel powerless sometimes…