—You can't kill me.
If these words had been spoken by someone else, they would have sounded like provocation, even mockery, but in Castorice's ears, they became an incredibly gentle promise.
Since childhood, she had been trained as the 'Holy Maiden of War,' using her own hands to send off the severely wounded, the dying, those begging for death, and even the freshly dead.
Because the nether realm no longer received souls, the dead could not be reincarnated, nor could they find peace. Coincidentally, Castorice possessed the ability to grant true death, which was why she became the Holy Maiden of Aidonia.
Later, after the destruction of Aidonia, Castorice became a wanderer and remained so to this day.
"I'm so glad... You... You really can't die..."
A bright light appeared in Castorice's eyes as she observed Lucian's body closely and saw not a single scratch on him.
Such a revelation made Castorice feel excited and genuinely happy, since after hundreds of years, Lucian was the first person able to hold her hand.
Lucian felt Castorice's grip on his hand tighten even more.
Because those fair, soft hands had not yet been covered by gloves, Lucian got to savor the wonderful experience of holding them. Still, to hold hands so seriously with a man she had just met showed just how much Castorice valued touching someone who could not die.
"Not just holding hands—even if you hug me, I still won't die, y'know? Wanna try?"
Lucian, still grinning, spread his arms wide.
In truth, it was not that Castorice's power had no effect, but rather that Lucian's Abundance power was canceling it out, so there was no visible result.
If Castorice's curse of death had been at the level of an Emanator, Lucian would probably have been like Wolverine—constantly being wiped out and regenerating at the same time.
Fortunately, she was not, so he could hug her as he pleased.
At Lucian's offer, Castorice quickly shook her head, looking a little flustered.
"We don't even know each other yet... and you also did that kind of thing to me..."
Yes, Castorice cared about Lucian's immunity to her curse of death, but she was not foolish or naive.
She still understood the differences between men and women, so to start hugging just after meeting?
Wouldn't that be way too daring?
Besides, she still remembered the feeling of being slapped on the butt, so her vigilance toward Lucian still lingered.
"Well, let's introduce ourselves then. My name is Lucian, by the way. Now we know each other." Lucian smiled calmly, but quickly switched to a serious look. "What happened earlier was not my intention. I know this sounds absurd, but when I woke up, I was already there."
Seeing him so serious, Castorice remained silent for a moment before nodding.
"Alright... I... my name is Castorice..."
Castorice thought Lucian did not look like someone who was lying, and besides, she was also not really good at talking, so she decided not to dwell on it.
*Grrr~*
Suddenly, Castorice's stomach let out a soft, almost cute growl.
In that instant, she quickly covered her stomach with both hands, her face flushing as she turned away and snatched up a fruit from the ground.
"D-Do you want one?"
Castorice shyly held the fruit out to Lucian.
Seeing her like this, Lucian chuckled, then took the fruit and swallowed it in a single bite.
It was honestly sour and not tasty at all.
"Is this all you eat?" Lucian asked casually while tossing the fruit up and down in his hand. "You don't eat meat?"
"Mm..." Castorice nodded softly, looking somewhat pitiful. "I can't catch any."
Lucian blinked, then realized she truly could not catch any.
Because of Castorice's curse of death, the moment she touched any living being with a soul—be it chicken, duck, fish, or even an insect—it would be erased, leaving not a single trace of meat behind, so how could she eat meat?
'What a pitiful woman...'
Lucian suddenly felt a deep sympathy for Castorice.
Perhaps it was because of the Abundance's compassion for all beings that even the usually indifferent Lucian began to feel sentimental.
Sighing softly, Lucian walked to the river and looked around.
He wanted to catch a fish, but they had just caused a commotion in the river, so all the fish and shrimp had already gone into hiding.
Luckily, just then, a plump fish swam down from upstream, and Lucian, who noticed it, quickly grabbed it in one swift motion.
Not wasting time, Lucian immediately piled up some branches and lit a fire, then sat on a stone to clean the plump fish.
Meanwhile, Castorice quietly stood by, watching Lucian from the side.
She recalled how, when she was little, every time she wanted to eat meat, it had always been her foster mother who cooked it for her.
However, in the end, after she had set out on her journey to seek the Death Titan and wandered from place to place, she could only eat meat once she reached a city. Out in the wild, all she had were wild fruits, and sometimes she even went several months without tasting meat at all.
Just like her current situation, she had been surviving on wild fruits for three months, so when her eyes fell upon such a plump fish, she was honestly more than a little tempted.
Soon, Lucian brought his hand down in a single chop, severing the fish's head from its body. He then skewered the body on a stick and set it over the fire to roast, before pulling out a white bandage from who knew where and wrapping it around the severed fish's head.
"What are you doing?" Castorice asked curiously, not understanding what he was doing. "Is this some kind of burial ritual?"
"Nope, I'm just trying out my new ability." Lucian grinned with pride as he gazed at the white bandage.
Needless to say, the white bandage was something he had made from his own life force by using the 'Godly Bandage.'
Godly Bandage consumed its user's life force to create miraculous bandages, where anything completely covered by them—whether living or non-living—would be 'restored' to the 'prime state' as recognized by the user.
As an Emanator of Abundance, Lucian could grant blessings and self-healing to living beings, but these bandages could even restore non-living things, making them far more versatile than the power of Abundance itself.
Of course, the bigger the thing to be restored, the more bandages and life force it required.
Anyone else would have been troubled by this, but Lucian simply ignored it, for an Emanator of Abundance like him was never short on life force—he even had more than enough to restore an entire planet.
Surely he wouldn't be asked to restore a galaxy, a universe, or even the Imaginary Tree someday, right?
Before long, the fish head wrapped in the bandage began to swell, and the bandage expanded with it, gradually returning to the complete form of the fish.
*Pa!* *Pa!* *Pa!* *Pa!*
Following a crisp sound, the fish's tail slapped up and down, signaling that it was clearly alive once more.
Lucian immediately unwrapped the fish and saw that it appeared exactly the same as before.
Even so, Lucian felt both half satisfied and half disappointed with the result.
'So, the prime state isn't just limited by what I think, but also by the target's own limits, huh...'
Earlier, Lucian had wished to restore the fish to the state of an Emanator-level existence, yet the result was merely a restored, plump fish—its own limits could not be surpassed.
In any case, Lucian now had a clearer sense of how this ability could be applied.
"How can its body be restored and... even come back to life?" Castorice leaned in with surprise, her beautiful eyes fixed on the fish that had just returned to life. "Is this... alchemy? Are you an alchemist?"
In her eyes, only alchemists could bring back the dead or restore flesh.
Yet what shocked her even more was that this revived fish was exactly the same as the one Lucian had just skewered—even the wound on its tail was identical.
Rather than healing, it seemed more like resetting the fish's time back to before it had been killed.
"Nope, it's not alchemy." Lucian shook his head and curled his lip. "I wouldn't use that stuff even if you paid me."
Alchemy was about equivalent exchange—whatever you gained, you had to lose the same amount.
But look at him—what had he lost?
Just a tiny bit of life force, nothing more.
In the next moment, Lucian brought his hand down and chopped off the fish's head again.
"If one isn't enough, just tell me." Lucian said casually. "I can restore the fish again, so you can eat as much fish as you want."
Upon hearing this, Castorice couldn't help but shiver.
At this moment, she felt as if the Death Titan was nothing more than a rookie compared to Lucian.
"N-No, it's enough!" Castorice quickly waved her hands, looking flustered. "One is plenty already."
Seeing her so flustered, Lucian chuckled, then ate ten fish in one go.
Of course, the ten fish were still the same fish—in other words, the same fish was killed ten times and restored ten times.
At last, on the final restoration, Lucian restored the fish and put it back into the river, granting it freedom.
"With just a dozen rounds of suffering in exchange for its life, the fish totally comes out ahead." Lucian nodded like a wise sage. "If that fish ever gains sentience, it'll owe me big time."
"Uh... is that so?"
Castorice was at a loss for words.
What Lucian said did not sound quite right, but on second thought, it made a strange kind of sense.
Trading suffering for life—it really didn't seem wrong.