In the Caretaker's home, Owen noticed that inside it were huge piles of paperwork.
He could smell the scent of various herbs coming from the garden.
It was like he entered a house of medicine.
"Put the lady here." He pointed at the bed.
Owen did as he said. He carefully placed Rina on the soft bed.
"Listen carefully, young man. Death is inevitable and no human can escape from it."
"What you want from me is help. The help to revive a loved one. You simply want a miracle." He added.
"Miracles are predestined. If such thing is destined to happen, then all we can do is wait and rely on fate."
"Are you saying you can't revive her?" Owen anxiously asked.
"Of course. I can't. I'm too far down to do something like that." The old man laughed. "But. Like you said, it is possible with magic."
"Then-!"
"I'm not sure how, but you. You may be able to do it." The Caretaker drank his bottle of wine.
"What?"
"I mean, you're a magician right? I can sense alchemy around you."
"Yes, I am. Please, teach me." Owen knelt in front of him.
"...."
"...."
"Okay, I will. I'm old and am about to go down to my grave so might as well have a bit of fun." The old man smiled.
"Thank you. Really, thank you."
.
.
Three years later...
.
.
Time passed quickly than expected.
Owen still remembered the time when he first brought Rina to the Eastern Country.
And he met the Caretaker who helped him find out Rina's situation.
It's been three years since then.
Owen is already twenty-one and Catherina's nineteenth birthday is approaching the next two days.
"What's eating up her pure mana?"
Currently, Owen is in the North. He built a large residence somewhere in the mountains using magic. The place there is ice-cold and he was staying there for Rina's sake.
The Caretaker taught him how to use magic in medicine but it was only for a short moment.
Everyone is destined to die.
The old man died after two years from a lung and liver disease. And within that year before he died, he taught everything he knew about magic and medicine to Owen.
Owen became his successor and he thanked the old man for that.
But his problem wasn't still solved.
He still couldn't figure out what made Rina like this.
"Filth. It's eating up her pure mana before she died." Owen muttered as he sensed Rina's inner core.
She put Rina's body on an ice bed and it looked like she was only sleeping.
Owen noticed that as three years went by, Rina's body continued to grow. Her body continued to develop.
It was more like she was in a state of coma rather than dead.
Her hair grew longer as years passed by and he never dared to cut it. It was beautiful on her and he could never ruin that picture.
He didn't have any immoral intentions towards her and it will remain that way til she wakes up. He respects her too much to have any intentions like that.
"Wait for me Rina, I'll definitely bring you back." Afraid that he would destroy her fragile skin, he only kissed her forehead lightly.
Three years. Owen grew powerful as a magician. His knowledge in medicine increased as he kept studying.
For straight three years, Owen never stopped searching for the thing that made a stain on Rina's pure mana.
He was sure that a certain poison must've been made. Except, from which plant? What type of herb? Is it perhaps a fruit?
And Owen has yet to find that out.
"Owen."
Owen slightly heard the fairies' voice for a moment.
He wondered why he started hearing things.
Ever since Rina died, he cut them off, thus never communicating with them once again.
But a blessing since birth cannot be cut off.
Using his subconsciousness, Owen started to look for the fairies' voice.
Owen considered talking with them once again. Because, maybe they have the answer that he's looking for.
"Oweennn!!!"
"Damn it! Why did you suddenly cut us off?! We're your guide you know!"
"Yeah! You're our master since birth and you just cut us off like that?"
"For three years, we saw what happen in your subconscious realm."
"I can't believe Rina died."
"She's not dead." Owen growled.
*Gulp*
"Right. We're bringing her back alive."
"Yes. We need to."
"We can't live without her."
"She's Owen's fated partner after all. Without her, everything is useless."
All four of them agreed at some point.
"And your magic's gotten stronger."
"Yeah. Maybe we can kill the empress now."
"!!!"
Owen suddenly remembered something when the empress was mentioned.
"It can't be..."
Owen was in the North. A totally cold place.
Though out of topic, the West was a country of drought. If the East's expertise was medicine, and the South for its vast lands, then the North was known for its wide and massive distribution in books all over the world.
"Rina, I'll be back."
...
Owen teleported in the Northern Country's most known and largest library.
He came to search for information.
"How can I help you?" The librarian asked at the newly-arrived Owen.
"Where can I find a book about The Blue Dragon's tears?"
"It's found in the second floor, the tenth row of the fifteenth shelf in section C."
"Thank you."
Without further delay, Owen teleported right away.
"It's here."
The Blue Dragon's Tears
Found in the deepest caves of the South, it was absolutely rare to find.
The book stated that a false news regarding the plant aiding a beauty was spread throughout the whole world in the last decade.
Five years later, a young prodigy botanist found out that it was lethal poison.
It's symptoms were like an unknown disease. In fact, no one ever named a disease after it.
Once its extract was applied daily, it would result into nosebleeds, fatigue, tiredness, and its last symptom before the host dies was coughing up blood.
'Where is it.'
Owen was still looking for an answer.
As he flicked through pages, he stopped at some point.
Filth in mana. Blue Dragon's tears are active stains that eat up a host's pure mana.
Owen finally found it.
He finally found an answer.
He finally found the answer, but he wished that he never knew.
He lost the strength to hold the book and he sat helpless on the floor.
"There's this flower called Blue Dragon's Tears. I heard that if someone drank this flower's nectar, that person wouldn't age and beauty will remain. It's found in the Southern empire, deep within the caves inside the jungle."
He suddenly remembered the empress' order towards him.
"It- It was me.
I killed Rina."