Let's start over, Your Majesty.

Chapter 14 New Anri, Genius Medicine, Abnormal Magic Fluctuations

"Little Casey is so cute!"

"Yes, she's so pretty, just like a girl."

"Yumeria, what do you usually feed him? You're so good to him."

Exclamations of praise rang out around him, but Caesar, with a cold face, was being hugged and petted by the aunties and mothers around him, who kept kissing his little face.

Meanwhile, his young elf was laughing foolishly on the side.

"Hehe, I'm not that amazing. It's just that little Casey is naturally very pretty," Yumilia said shyly, scratching her head.

"Can't you do something about this?! I'm being suffocated by these women!"

Caesar screamed and flailed his arms and legs, trying to break free.

Today is a lively day. In the Kingdom of Fein, the 160th day after a child's birth is called Xin'an Day, similar to a full moon. It is an important and memorable day. On this day, an elderly and respected elder will bestow blessings upon the baby, wishing him peace and safety throughout his future life.

This custom existed when Caesar was young, but back then he and a bunch of other children were simply blessed by the nuns in a perfunctory manner, like an assembly line.

But today is definitely different. Everyone in the village came to help early in the morning. Several long tables are now set up in the yard of Yumilia's cabin to entertain the villagers who came to participate in Caesar's New An Day.

The men were tidying up the yard outside, while the women were helping prepare the feast inside, and groups of children were running around and playing.

The person in charge of blessing Caesar was Chief Kevin of White Leaf Village, a short, sparsely white-haired but very energetic old man who didn't need a cane. Today he was wearing a priest's robe that dragged on the ground.

Although it wasn't the first time he had given a blessing to a baby, the village chief was in exceptionally good spirits today, with a rosy complexion, and he greeted everyone he met warmly.

After all, this was one of the few times that the village chief of this quiet village was remembered.

Mrs. Bell, our neighbor, baked a lot of cookies and dried fruit, filling the whole room with a sweet aroma.

While Caesar was being played with by his mother and aunts inside the house, a lady walked in, accompanied by a four- or five-year-old girl carrying a beautifully wrapped little gift box.

“Mrs. Winnie!” Yumilia quickly stepped forward to greet her.

This is Mrs. Winnie, who lives in the bakery in town, and her daughter Nana. Yumilia often patronizes her shop, and they have become acquainted over time.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Mrs. Winnie said warmly, then took the small, exquisite gift box from the girl beside her.

"This is just a small token of my appreciation. I wish your Caesar good health and peace in the future."

"Thank you!" Yumilia happily accepted the gift and was about to put it away when Winnie said:
"Hey, open this first. My husband brought this back from the capital. I'll teach you how to use it."

Upon hearing this, Yumilia opened the gift box as well. Inside was a small box that looked like a foundation box.

"This is."

“This is a genius drug,” Winnie said with a smile. “Many wealthy families in the capital are taking this now. It can improve children’s IQ in childhood and give them a head start. My husband went to great lengths to bring back a few boxes. Nana has almost finished it, and there’s one box left, so I thought I’d bring it to you.”

“I saw it in the newspaper. Lots of experts in the city are researching this. It’s so fascinating.” The mothers also gathered around, looking curiously at the small box in Yumilia’s hand.

"Can it improve intelligence?" Yumilia opened the box, and instantly, a strange, somewhat sweet smell filled the room.

The small box contained a pale pink, semi-solid liquid.

"smell good"

Everyone was surprised.

"What's that smell?" Caesar, who was about to close his eyes and rest for a while, smelled this scent, frowned, opened his eyes, and looked at the box of "genius medicine" in Yumilia's hand.

"The taste... seems familiar?"

Caesar searched his memory for the origin of this flavor and soon found its source.

"Sweet flower snake venom?"

This made him shudder. The sweet flower snake, a snake that can release its venom with a sweet smell into the surrounding air, will produce a euphoric effect on the creature that inhales it. The snake will take advantage of the creature's relaxed state of mind and inject its own highly venom into its body. In this situation, the poisoned person will not even realize that they have been bitten and will die within minutes.

Caesar remembered it because the pleasure produced by its venom was so wonderful that many underground places kept these snakes and extracted their venom to make hallucinogens for people's amusement. Caesar almost fell for it himself.

After the empire was established, he listed this snake venom as the number one prohibited substance in his laws. Apart from special alchemy workshops, it was a capital offense for a private individual to possess even a small bottle.

"Use a small spoon to scoop out a tiny bit of this every day, mix it with warm water to make a small cup, and then give it to your Caesar to drink. It works really well."

Mrs. Winnie was still demonstrating to Yumilia. She patted her daughter Nana's head and said with a smile, "My Nana is an example. After drinking this, she has more energy for everything she does, and her studies have improved too."

"How could you not be energetic after all that kneading and rubbing?" Caesar was speechless.

Caesar looked at the little girl beside him and could see that although her face was no different from that of an ordinary child, her eyes seemed to be covered by something, dull and lifeless.

Unexpectedly, after all the effort he put into eradicating it, this harmful substance still exists hundreds of years later, and is even packaged as some kind of genius drug and sold to children.

“A bunch of beasts who deserve to be beheaded,” he said angrily.

Following Mrs. Winnie's instructions, Yumilia brewed a cup and tried to feed it to Caesar with a small spoon.

Caesar, of course, refused to drink it, keeping his mouth shut.

"She probably didn't have an appetite after drinking milk," Yumilia said with a helpless smile, and put down her cup.

“It’s alright, just a small cup like this every day is fine,” Mrs. Winnie said.

“However, Caesar is already very smart. He can read books now, and he reads the newspapers very carefully every month,” Yumilia said with considerable pride.

"If he can read books now, he'll definitely be a great scholar in the future," one mother joked with a smile.

They took Yumilia's words as a joke, of course.

"But Yumilia, your Caesar is definitely more obedient than most children. He's quiet and doesn't cry or fuss. How did you raise him?" one mother asked.

She pointed to the two boys in the yard who were imitating dogs fighting and said with distress, "Look at my two boys. Every day when I come home, my biggest worry is whether they will destroy the house."

"Well... I'm just like usual. Nothing's different," Yumilia said after thinking for a moment.

“It’s good for the child to be quiet when he’s young, but when he grows up, a quiet and reserved personality can easily lead to his downfall. So it’s better for him to be more lively,” Mrs. Winnie said.

"Your child is quite lively, but it's a pity he never grows up," Caesar thought to himself.

He looked at Nana, a girl who was idly playing with her braids. She didn't know many of the other children in the village and could only stay with her mother.

Suddenly, Caesar seemed to sense an unusual magical fluctuation emanating from her.

"Ok?"

(End of this chapter)