Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Miss Ruby of the Pharmacy

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Ice Snow City main district, Hundred Herbs Pharmacy (Lv.0)

At night, in a pharmacy lit by two magic lanterns, Tilia Scarlet sat on a small wooden stool, watching a young woman wearing green cloth garments and a pure white veil skirt. The girl stood with her feet on a small wooden stool, energetically grinding herbs on the counter.

The young woman’s clothes were tightly cinched at the waist, with the upper garment tucked into the skirt in a ruqun-style fashion. Her sleeves were rolled up high at the elbows, revealing a pair of delicate arms as she used the pestle to grind several mixed herbs with effort.

Her name was Ruby, the shop assistant and young proprietor of this Hundred Herbs Pharmacy. She wasn’t a player but a resident who had always lived in the city.

“Please wait just a little longer, it will be finished soon.”

Ruby habitually wiped the fragrant sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, fully concentrating on the process of making medicinal herbs for healing wounds.

Tilia had asked her to make herbs that could heal wounds. Unlike ordinary pharmacies, this shop didn’t sell standard HP recovery potions, but instead offered special potions like “Detoxification,” “Mental Clarity,” and “Wound Healing.”

These types of potions were commonly known as “status ailment removal” potions.

If one accidentally touched some poisonous substance in the wilderness or fell into confusion, causing the body to suffer from abnormal status effects that impacted combat, HP recovery potions alone couldn’t remove these effects. Even if HP was fully restored, the abnormal status buffs would continue to exist.

In the game, some players found it troublesome and would simply choose to die once, then respawn in town, which would quickly eliminate all abnormal status effects, as it was equivalent to “death and rebirth.”

But obviously, this method was no longer viable now.

After arriving at the main district of Ice Snow City.

Tilia had taken Cross to the church, where there was a facility called the “Holy Spring Crystal.” There, her injuries were healed to a certain extent, and her HP no longer continued to decrease, maintaining her life and freeing her from danger.

This undoubtedly made Tilia breathe a sigh of relief, and her heart gradually settled down.

But the wounds on her body couldn’t heal all at once. The severely injured status was almost the most serious abnormal state in the game, causing complete loss of action ability. Cross herself was still in a semi-comatose state.

During her time at the church, she woke up once, but soon fell asleep again in Tilia’s arms.

“All done.” Miss Ruby wiped the sweat again with her slender, snow-white arm, then carefully jumped down from the small wooden stool with the mortar in both hands. She poured the healing herb mixture into potion bottles, filling a total of five vials.

Then she handed the “Wound Healing Potion,” which sparkled with green light dots, to Tilia.

“By the way, this isn’t taken orally, it’s for external use.”

Ruby blinked her emerald-like big eyes, one hand propped on her waist, the other raising her index finger, adorably reminding her with particular emphasis, “It’s your friend who’s injured, right? You should apply this to the wounded areas on her body, try to spread it evenly.”

“It not only has the effect of healing wounds but also relieves pain. Only the Hundred Herbs Pharmacy in Ice Snow City offers this. Five potions should be enough, but if you run out, you can come back to me for more.”

“Alright, thank you very much.” Tilia carefully accepted the five green potions.

After storing the potions in her inventory, a notification bar appeared in the bottom right corner showing 【Obtained: Wound Healing Potion x5】.

With this… Cross should recover quickly. Tilia thought.

During this time, Tilia planned to stay by Cross’s side and take care of her until her body fully recovered and she regained her vigor and energy.

Nearby, Ruby touched the blue magic crystal ball beside the counter, and clear water flowed down from it. She washed away the herbal smell from her hands and wiped her small hands with a handkerchief.

During this time, she also occasionally glanced at Tilia, who was standing beside her ready to pay, and couldn’t help but marvel in her heart.

“Miss Tilia, could you possibly… be of the Elf race?”

Having finished her work, Ruby took this opportunity to voice the question she had been hiding, chatting casually with Tilia.

Tilia was checking the quality of the potions. All perfect, indicating that this cute shop assistant had excellent pharmaceutical skills. Hearing this question, she immediately raised her head and asked in return, “Why do you say that?”

Ruby puffed her cheeks, her face inevitably turning slightly red.

As if it was something difficult to say, she rolled her eyes a bit before softly saying, “Because I’ve never seen such a beautiful woman…”

“Ah, ah?” Tilia blinked in confusion, first stunned, then seeming to hold back a laugh.

“What’s so funny! I’m serious, I’ve never seen a girl as beautiful as Miss Tilia before. I thought only elves could possess such admirable beauty… It’s easy for other girls to become your little fans.”

Seeing Tilia laugh at her, Ruby quickly clenched her small fists in protest.

That said, Tilia herself had nearly been entranced by her own beautiful reflection in the lake under the moonlight on the second floor, deeply understanding that she possessed rather nice appearance and figure.

Not to mention that during the closed beta, she had garnered so much admiration. Both men and women were attracted by her outstanding charm. Despite being a Vampire Princess, she seemed to carry some natural succubus attributes?

“So, um… may I hold Miss Tilia’s hand!?”

Ruby revealed her true intention, while her watery big eyes showed a pleading look that was hard to refuse, “If possible, the price of today’s potions and processing fees will be charged at a 10% discount from now on.”

“Hold, hold hands? That’s fine… it’s not a difficult thing to do.” Tilia blinked with slight surprise.

Eh… so this is how to get a discount?

The cute Miss Ruby was quite the fangirl, though her processing fees were indeed very expensive…

So Tilia raised her delicate jade-like hand. Ruby’s eyes seemed to instantly sparkle with delight as she eagerly reached out with both small hands to cradle Tilia’s hand in her palms, squinting her eyes in satisfaction, with happy bubbles almost visibly floating above her head.

“Ah… so beautiful.” Ruby sighed softly.

Tilia’s smooth and snow-white hand made Ruby feel as if she was holding a piece of cool, smooth jade. Her fingers were long and graceful, and as Ruby gently stroked them section by section, the joints also emanated a moonlight-like clarity.

Such delicate fingers inevitably led girls to drift into improper fantasies.

Unlike Tilia’s imagination of hand-holding, Ruby seemed to be admiring a pristine work of art, gently caressing it, which made Tilia feel somewhat ticklish. The fingers intertwining with hers gave a subtle feeling of being playfully toyed with.

“That’s, that’s enough for now!”

After a while, upon sensing that slightly ambiguous feeling, Tilia quickly withdrew her hand, the ear tips hidden in her snow-white hair quivering with a faint blush. It was just hand-holding, yet somehow it felt a bit indecent.