NOVEL NEXT Chapter 145 Are you still alive? Didn't you sacrifice yourself to save us?_3
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Lance chuckled and rubbed Amelia's head, saying ironically that even as she grew, she would never be as big as him.
He was more than two thousand years older than Amelia.
It's different...
It's really different...
Liar Lance was truly different from how he was a thousand years ago.
A thousand years ago, Lance would never have done something like rubbing the head of a girl. Now it seemed so natural and casual.
The way he spoke, his tone had changed, too; a thousand years ago, Lance had always seemed to speak hesitantly, without confidence.
The Lance of today moved with an effortless charm that was hard to resist.
Just standing beside him gave her a feeling of comfort and ease...
Amelia realized her own mentality seemed to have changed as well.
When she laughed and handed the big snowball to Lance earlier, part of her was arrogantly waiting for Lance to greet her first.
But Lance didn't think twice about it... He just smacked the big snowball right into her face.
It wasn't her fault, really, she couldn't be blamed.
Every member of the Sunspear Squad felt a certain sense of superiority when facing Lance.
Even before Lance chose to sacrifice himself, it's likely that everyone in the Sunspear Squad felt as if they were the ones who had taken Lance under their wing...
They believed that it was Lance's honor to be teamed up with them.
So, when it came to dividing the spoils, they all felt it was only natural when Lance got something of little value.
After all, as a Potion Master, he was just there to support them in fight, without much fighting strength.
Was liar Lance really lacking in strength?
Viscount Lance of Saint Blue City was not only a proficient concocter of potions, but it seemed, a beast master as well...
Damn it!
He was faking it!
The way Lance had been acting around them all these years was an act, maintained over several long years...
Facing the Lance of now, she couldn't muster any feeling of superiority.
Even when she met Lance's gaze, there was a moment when she felt ashamed of herself...
A thousand years later, she was so much stronger than she had been a thousand years ago.
Better than her former self.
Logically, she shouldn't be feeling this way.
Could it be that the Lance of a thousand years later was better than her too?
Damn it!
A thousand years ago, she should have been the one to pat heads.
She should have been the one patting Lance's head, and he should have been happy about it.
But just now, when Lance patted her head, she actually felt it was natural... and even found herself feeling happy...
It was too strange.
This strangeness all stemmed from the Lance of a thousand years later.
"Can you not treat me like a child? The way you spoke just now... you were clearly talking to me like I was a child, don't think I can't tell," she said.
"I'm not treating you like a child; I've accepted you as an adult now," he replied.
"Then why do you still speak to me with that tone?" she challenged.
"I consider myself an old man now, and that's just how an old person talks to a freshly grown-up kid," he explained.
"..."
Where had that simple and honest Lance from a thousand years ago gone?
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"A thousand years ago, you wouldn't have been able to say something like that,"
"Because I was naive and honest,"
"..."
Amelia and Lance's gazes met in the air, and upon seeing Lance's eyes, involuntary memories of how he looked at them a thousand years ago surfaced in her mind...
At that time, she only felt that Lance's occasional glances at them... were odd...
Now she understood: those weren't the eyes of a peer, but rather the gaze one gives to children.
Especially when their team ventured out on quests and accidentally provoked some powerful creatures, a hint of helplessness would flash across Lance's eyes.
Speaking of which, whenever their team carried out missions and encountered terrifyingly powerful demons, they always somehow managed to withdraw safely...
Could it be... that Lance had something to do with it?
"How did you end up in Saint Blue City?"
"I heard that the Red Maple Kingdom was troubled by an Evil Dragon, so I came here. Then I heard that the lord of Saint Blue had built a Dragon God Temple approved by the Dragon God. Curious, I came to see it and never expected to run into you in Saint Blue,"
Amelia adjusted her mindset; she was grown up now and couldn't let the deceitful Lance continue to treat her like a child.
"Swindler, how are you still alive? We clearly saw you sacrifice yourself. How could you be resurrected?"
"You should ask who I sacrificed myself to."
"To whom did you sacrifice yourself?"
"I sacrificed myself to myself."
"???"
Sacrifice to oneself?
Was this the naive and honest Potion Master from back then?
"No, that's not right. If you sacrificed yourself to yourself, how do you explain the enhancement of our power?"
"You were stimulated by my death. I once heard a legend that if you want to make a hero stronger in battle, you must randomly sacrifice one member of the hero's team.
With a try-and-see attitude, I sacrificed myself, and I could hardly believe that as soon as I did so... you and the heroes suddenly bloomed... And the key thing is, you actually managed to cripple the Demon King..."
Although he had secretly cast upon them a Dragon Curse that would enhance their strength and defense while sacrificing himself...
Amelia did not believe Lance's words.
She couldn't believe Lance would sacrifice himself over such an ethereal legend.
Before the "Seal the King, Slay the Demon" campaign began, the naive and honest Sorcerer-pharmacist Lance must have predetermined his own fate.
A thousand years ago, she thought the naive and honest Potion Master was the team member with the simplest background.
And she continued to think so until right before their reunion.
However, mere minutes after reuniting, she realized how hugely she had erred.
The deceitful Lance had hidden far too much.
Fortunately, the deceitful Lance had never intended them harm; as an Elf, she could intuitively sense the good and bad in a person.
Her choice to join the "Sunshine" squad was because its members made her feel secure.
Amelia recalled some of the strange behaviors she had unconsciously displayed before.
For example, when facing danger, she didn't instinctively turn to the strongest hero in the team...
Instead, she instinctively moved closer to the naive and honest Lance.
Having previously noticed this behavior, she concluded that the naive and honest Potion Master was too weak, and her instinct to stay close to Lance was a desire to protect him...
Now, looking at Lance as he stood before her, a new thought suddenly emerged in her mind: Could it be that her past self... subconsciously felt that the naive and honest Lance was more reliable than the strongest hero in the team...
That's why she instinctively moved closer to Lance...
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This subconscious behavior... wasn't because she wanted to protect Lance...
But rather, her subconscious felt that... the naive and honest Sorcerer-pharmacist Lance could protect her...
The more she thought about it, the stronger Amelia felt the possibility was...