Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 548 - 18 Bewilderment_1

Chapter 548: Chapter 18 Bewilderment_1

Vivian’s mind was in a state of chaos. She stumbled and stumbled down the spiral staircase that led to the basement. Familiar footsteps rang out behind her. Even without looking back, she could tell they belonged to Pannis, unmasked and clear. Vivian ignored Pannis’s trailing and ran all the way down to the second basement level, where she opened the hidden door in the wall that led to the third and fourth levels.

Entering the small, familiar space, Vivian was about to close the door when Pannis floated in like a Ghost, silent and weightless, hovering behind Vivian. She shot Pannis a furious glare, but he seemed not to care and busied himself examining the walls of the elevator as if they were covered in exquisite frescoes. After glaring at him for a while and realizing that he was determined to follow her, she sighed in resignation, closed the elevator door, and the machine vibrated with a low hum as it began its slow descent.

When the elevator door opened again, they had arrived at Vivian’s private floor in the fourth basement level. Abandoning her efforts to drive Pannis away, she walked out of the elevator alone, stood in the Circular Corridor for a moment, then pushed open a nearby door and walked in.

As soon as she entered, a strong herbal scent filled her nose, mixed with a hint of flower and a faint stench. Inside was a circular space of about thirty square meters. The room’s walls were lined with eight long tables, each carrying a multitude of wooden racks, neatly filled with various sizes of Transparent Crystal bottles and cups. Apart from these, on each table was a small Crystal Energy furnace for heating, a small sink, and a cabinet with numerous drawers to its right. Each drawer contained different ingredients, but surprisingly, none of the drawers were labeled. It was a mystery how Vivian could differentiate the content of nearly five hundred drawers in eight cabinets. Besides the eight long tables, several peculiar medium-sized machines were placed in the center of the room around a load-bearing column, their functions undetectable from their varied shapes.

Vivian entered this lab, followed by a dutiful Pannis. She shot him another glare but didn’t say anything and went to grab a loose robe from a coat rack by the door. She put it on and tossed a similar one to the stunned Pannis who stood beside her. Then, biting her lip in thought, she placed the goblin Code Disk – her excuse – on a low cabinet by the door, cluttered with assorted clothing and items. Without a word, she approached a long table, quietly retrieved a pile of crystal cups and bottles, and started to wash the containers using Water-attribute magic by the sink. Washing containers with magic was very convenient, especially for someone like Vivian, who had strong control over magic. She could mold the Element-formed magic water into the shape of the container to clean every corner thoroughly and quickly. After cleaning, she would pour the water out, and dispel the Elemental Energy within the container, causing the damp inner walls to become dry again without needing to be air-dried. Having cleaned hundreds of small containers, Vivian lowered her head and thought for a while. It seemed like she had finally made up her mind, and she set herself to work.

This was the first time Pannis had seen Vivian busy at work in the lab. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against the lab door, admiring Vivian’s rhythmic movements as she deftly cleaned up, much like a dance.

In reality, Vivian was hardly moving at all. She wasn’t even standing. There was a roller-equipped chair in the lab, and that’s where Vivian sat. The chair was soft and comfortable, perfectly fitting Vivian’s body, enabling her to half-lie on it. Several straps were attached to the chair where Vivian sat, then used them to secure herself to prevent her from sliding off.

Once settled, Vivian’s body obviously went limp. Without the straps, even her head would have sagged. But the restraining belts solved all those problems. While she had given up control of her body, it didn’t necessarily mean that she had become immobile. If you intensified your vision with mana, you might see numerous mana threads, invisible to the bare eye, emanating from Vivian’s body. Each thread moved like a tentacle, performing different operations.

And so, the lab bustled into activity. Drawers kept opening up, containers filled with different Alchemy materials kept moving across the tables, a mortar and pestle automatically ground solid magical beast teeth. A cutter whirled, cutting chunky ravengrass roots into small pieces. Liquid from the refined fat of silver mouse heated on a Crystal Energy furnace. Several unidentifiable materials were mixed with half a bottle of clear water and placed on a machine at the center of the lab. The disc on the machine started to vibrate, spinning at high speeds and causing the few bottles on it to rotate rapidly as well. The roller chair played an important role. Whenever a visual confirmation was needed, a mana thread would slide the chair to the location in question without skipping a beat.

In this way, Vivian, incapable of moving on her own, could perform tasks that required multiple Mages, and execute over a dozen different operations simultaneously. There were no conflicts between the operations; each move was executed perfectly and without error, as if she had developed multiple brains.

Pannis observed Vivian’s movements, and a silent sigh escaped his lips. He was conscious of the sacrifices hidden behind this ability, which many mages would die to possess. It encompassed excruciating headaches caused by frequent Vitality overdraft, the oppression of incapacitation, save for blinking, the pain of having to constantly split her attention to control her own body lest she trip or become paralyzed, and most importantly, the fear of an impending death. How many of those who envied her were prepared to pay such a heavy price for such power? Especially given that it took her over a decade to master this ability, simply to stand up again on her own.

"Don’t be amazed. This is nothing," Vivian said, misinterpreting Pannis’s sigh. Though she should’ve lost her ability to speak, she managed to talk, signifying that the tasks at hand did not require her full attention, "I can make up to fifteen potions at once during my peak performance, which is three times harder than what I’m doing now. The complexity of what I’m doing now is nothing compared to when I try to move forward, haha."

Pannis laughed lightly behind Vivian and asked in a soft voice, "Do you need my help with anything?"

"Did you come all the way down here just to ask if I need help?" Vivian continued her alchemy operations, but swiveled her seat to face Pannis, rolling her eyes as she spoke, "Let me guess, you came down here to soothe and comfort me, right?"

"But, do you need someone to soothe you? Do you need someone to comfort you?" Pannis countered lazily, crossing his arms, "If you really needed someone to do these things, you wouldn’t be Vivian."

"And what do you think Vivian should be like?" Vivian asked, "Unfeeling? Cold? Numb? Arrogant? Always living in her own world, always taking others’ care and affection for granted?"

"Is that how you see yourself? Because I certainly don’t." Pannis smiled slightly, his mouth curling up at the corners as he spoke, "In my eyes, Vivian is steadfast, self-reliant, possessing a perseverance and resolve uncommon to others. She holds a confidence that surpasses that of others, and she has the strength to uphold this confidence. In my heart, Vivian will always be the girl who smiles and calls herself a genius while achieving the results that align with that claim, not the sensitive and suppressed fool who is currently afraid and panicking, but does not dare to show these fears and suffering to her loved ones."

Vivian remained silent, continuing the operation she’d been working on. She finished handling the dozens of bottles and cups that were floating in the air, but didn’t move onto the next step. Instead, she sighed softly: "It’s not that I’m afraid to show my pain, I just don’t want you all to worry about me. These fears and pain, it’s enough for me to bear them alone, there’s no need for all of you to share in them."

"Remember, just twenty minutes ago, you were questioning why we didn’t tell you about the plan to treat you. You were blaming Catherine for keeping secrets from you, you were demanding that she share her stress with you, arguing that, that was how a family should be." Pannis mockingly retorted, "Yet when it comes to your own troubles, you think it’s enough to bear it all alone? When we kept secrets from you, you felt hurt. You told Catherine that she should consider you as family and share her pain with you, but have you considered how Catherine might feel, watching you endure your pain while you keep her in the dark? You know, out of all of you girls, Catherine is like the big sister, carrying everything on her shoulders, but, ironically, she is also the most sensitive and soft-hearted of you all. Have you considered her feelings?"

"But, these are the things I can only face by myself." Vivian bit her lip, "Even if I were to tell you, you all couldn’t help alleviate my pain right now. It would only increase your stress, so why bother?"

"Indeed, maybe we can’t help you relieve your pain and fear for now." Pannis nodded, "But by voicing out these thoughts, you can at least relieve your own stress and sadness, and perhaps it could help you relax mentally. And also, you should think about Catherine. If you voice out these thoughts, at the very least it could make her feel that there are no barriers between the two of you, and that you haven’t shut her out. What do you think?"

"I don’t know, I really don’t know." Vivian blankly looked at Pannis, lost in confusion, "Are you saying that my actions have hurt Catherine’s feelings?"

"Think about it, didn’t you feel upset when Catherine and Lina kept secrets from you, despite knowing that they meant well?" Pannis countered, "The way you feel is exactly how they feel. Your actions are the same and the results are also the same. So, why do you need to hurt each other within a family? Maybe it’s because only family truly cares about each other." (To be continued. If you like this work, I welcome you to vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users can read on m.qidian.com.)