"Extra Heal! Lord Harold, are you alright? I was thinking of having you use a skill to power me up one more time for the finishing blow on the True King..."
I use recovery magic to get Lord Harold back on his feet, but it seems he won't be able to activate his skill again.
"Come on, give me a break — if I do it again, I don't think I'll survive. Still, for you to go and order around a prince of a kingdom... you might be the only person who could get away with that, Alan."
"Well, putting that aside — I guess there's no helping it. Fine then, [Slow Life]!"
I activate the magic toward Yulian.
A transparent clock with rapidly spinning hands adhered to Yulian, who had only just been turned into an ice statue.
Then, gradually, the rotation of the clock's hands slowed before vanishing into Yulian's body.
"What did you do, Alan?"
"Lord Harold, anyone sealed in ice by [Permanent Frost] is bound to die, but...
j
u
s
t
...a little...
time remains."
"No... way..."
Perhaps he had predicted what I was about to say, because Lord Harold's face turned pale.
"Yes, I forcibly extended the time until death using [Slow Life] from [Spacetime Magic].
That said, Yulian was strong enough that I could only manage about a hundred years."
If Lord Harold were to enhance me, I feel like I could probably last about a thousand years, but that's not really the kind of thing he'd do.
"What kind of cruelly overpowered skill is that... Will it at least let me die in peace? What even is Slow Life?"
Marquis Round, who had been listening to the conversation from the side, was shivering as well.
"So, the [Benevolent King] is active while I'm frozen like this, meaning I've been continuously spewing out recovery aura for the entire duration that Slow Life extended. If I died, the aura might stop flowing, so there needed to be a way to buy more time."
◇◇◇
(Cold— it hurts— my body won't move at all... What in the world has happened to me?)
Those trapped inside [Permafrost] would normally die within a few minutes without exception.
Yulian, whose body had been super-enhanced by [Royal Grudge], could survive for several hours at most. But even so, once that time elapsed, he should have died.
On top of that, his eyes had been forced open while his body remained fixed in place.
So even when his eyes grew dry, he couldn't close his eyelids to moisten them, and the pain was a constant, miserable burden.
Before long, through his hazy consciousness, he became aware that he was being carried somewhere.
That destination was the grand temple of the Cruzel faith in the town of Forsthrough.
He was placed next to the Pope, whose body was already deceased but still preserved in a beautiful state.
(What exactly is Alan's purpose in doing this to me...?)
Inside the grand temple, there was no way to tell day from night.
All he could discern was that when the lights went out, it must be nighttime — and he had no idea how long this near-death state would last.
His field of vision remained the same as when he had been entombed in ice, with nothing new to see.
His hearing, too, remained unchanged.
Before long, voices that sounded like alchemists or apothecaries could be heard.
"Ho ho, so this is that white aura I've heard about. My, my — this could be used to brew some truly fine potions."
"Yes, yes. According to the new king, this white aura, which is specialized for recovery, will continue to seep out for about another hundred years, and he wants it to be put to effective use for the people's benefit. Of course, it will be provided by the state free of charge, so you can use it as much as you like for experiments."
"How wonderful! The new king is a truly compassionate ruler — nothing like the previous king at all."
"From what I can tell, it's not just potions — it can also be used to make medicine that cures diseases. You won't even need rare materials that you'd normally have to commission adventurers to collect. I'd say it could potentially save around a hundred thousand people over the years to come."
That was the same number of people Julian had tried to sacrifice at the Temple of the True King.
*(Stop it — don't use it for something like that! That aura was something I obtained by enduring decades of humiliation, after all!)*
"Still, doesn't this face look scary? It's filled with resentment and looks like it could lunge at us at any moment..."
"Apparently there's nothing to worry about. Death has already been confirmed for it, but through a special kind of magic, they've been stretching out the time until death so it can still be of some use to people. In other words, this wretched test subject can't do a thing."
*(You filthy commoners — taking advantage of the fact that I can't do anything and doing whatever you please!)*
"Oh, and there was that king who kept saying his authority was granted by God, and then turned around and quintupled the taxes. Didn't he think God would punish him for that? What an idiot king~"
*(Do I have to keep listening to this forever?!)*
…………………….
*(I can't take it anymore — when will I finally die? Someone kill me quickly! I won't ask for luxury anymore, I swear...!)*
*(No can do. You need to savor the slow life a whole lot more.)*
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Skills: [Reverse][Divine Eye][Sword God][Fist God][Spear God][Scorching Magic][Frost Magic][Tempest Magic][Stone Iron Magic][Holy Magic][Dark Magic][Spacetime Magic][Thunder God Sword][Gentleman Thief][Ninja Master][Seeker of Truth][Supernatural Power][Swift as the Wind][Pain Attenuation][Complete Status Ailment Resistance][Dark Spirit's Protection][Super Intuition][Heaven's Gate][Abyss Contractor][Magic Hand][Treasure Search][Temptation][Incitement][Tele-Mesmerism][Eloquence][Great Fortune][10× Growth Speed][Growth Limit Breakthrough][Afterimage Magic][Dark Stalker]
Rank: Orichalcum
Thank you for reading!