章節 209: The Doctor

Several months later

"Agghhh!" Meliodas stretched his body as he leaned back on his chair. He sat in the corner of a tavern with an empty mug of ale in hand. Despite the supposed leads he had discovered in Alvarez, he had not found any follow ups on said leads. Meliodas slammed his mug down on the table and walked out of the tavern.

The bright rays of sun beamed down on Meliodas as he walked out of the building. He was in a small forest village in the southern part of the continent known as Ska Village. The gentle spring breeze woke him up and he began to walk around the village. He noticed to his right on a sign post two wanted posters of himself with different images.

[Wanted: The Blond Demon for trespassing on Capitol grounds]

Bounty: 10,000,000 Rupees

[Wanted: Zeldris the traitor]

Bounty: 500,000,000 Rupees

Meliodas sighed.

'These names seem to follow me everywhere I go don't they. "The Blond Demon" and "The Traitor." Guess it can't be helped'

Meliodas continued walking around the village, asking passerby for information about August. One individual in particular said something that got his attention.

"I don't know about Wizard King, but there's a creepy old man who lives just a ways in the forest if you keep going west. Apparently he spends all of his time making potions. But that's just a rumor."

"Thanks for the information." Meliodas said with a smile. 'Finally! A lead! I hope…'

Meliodas left the village, continuing to walk west deeper into the forest. He looked around and saw nobody was near him. Wings of darkness sprouted from his back and he took off high into the sky, looking down at the forest beneath him.

Meliodas continued scanning the forest. It was an almost completely covered canopy of trees. A small trail of smoke coming from his left got his attention. He noticed the shape of a chimney between the leaves where the smoke was coming from. Meliodas flew towards the smoke and landed on the ground.

In front of him was an old wood and brick house with a red roof. Sitting on the porch at the front was an old man staring at Meliodas. The elderly man had slanted dark eyes, many wrinkles on his face, thin eyebrows, and a large nose with a prominent swirl mark in the middle. He had a spotted mustache atop his thin lips and a loose long beard connected to his sideburns.

He wore a dark colored hat with bunny shaped ears and a heart in the center on his forehead along with a white coat donning medical symbols on both sides of the shoulders and a black cloth that covered his lower area.

The man grinned at Meliodas, revealing a few missing front teeth.

"I don't get visitors here very often!"

Meliodas raised an eyebrow at the man. He didn't have an overwhelming magical presence so he couldn't be the wizard king. But there was something else peculiar about him.

"And it's especially not often that my visitors aren't human." The man skipped over to Meliodas.

"Well, well, well. You can tell?" Meliodas asked, surprised. The old man saw through him in one glance.

"Of course! I am simply one hell of a doctor!" The man said with a boisterous laughter. He approached Meliodas and grabbed his hand, shaking it vigorously.

"I am Alice!" Alica said cheerfully before running back.

"Meliodas." Meliodas responded smilingly as he looked at the eccentric old man.

"Oh quite the demon you are. You must be at least 300 years old." Alice said. He scurried back to Meliodas and began to walk around him, looking at his body. He grabbed Meliodas' arm and patted his back before circling in front of him and suddenly put his ear on Meliodas' chest, causing him to take a short step back. Alice took on a pondering expression.

"Oooh! Three hearts! The demons I've met only had one!" Alice exclaimed.

"Well I'm more like 3000 years old.." Meliodas said. Alice's eyes widened for a minute before recovering his usual demeanor..

"Well some stuff happened that kept me from aging properly. Although that's gone and I'm aging again. So I suppose I am technically around 300. " Meliodas said.

"Well, 300 or 3000, it doesn't matter, HAHAHAHAHA" Alice laughed to himself as he continued walking around Meliodas.

"You know here in Alakitasia there's a holiday devoted to respecting your elders. But I guess you're my elder in this situation." Alice laughed. "You must have been through quite a bit. Why don't you come inside and tell me your stories."

"I don't really have the time to tell stories. I need to get information on August the Wizard King. Do you know him?" Meliodas asked.

"The name rings a bell. But I don't know him directly. However, stick around for a bit. Relax. And maybe…just maybe we can fix that problem that's been affecting your body." Alice laughed again. Meliodas' eyes widened as Alice turned around and began walking towards his house.

"You can tell?" Meliodas asked as he followed after Alice.

"Of course. I've been a doctor for over five hundred years. Although I haven't had patients in the past twenty, I'm not rusty or anything. I know my stuff. That's not the kind of injury that comes from a normal fight." Alice responded.

Meliodas followed Alice inside, sitting on a chair next to an old dining set. Alice put a chair in front of Meliodas and sat across from him.

"Care for a drink?" Alice asked, pulling out a conspicuous bottle shaped like a flask and filled with a strange fluid.

"It'll heal you." Alice snickered.

"Sure?" Meliodas smiled and accepted the drink before gulping it down. He didn't sense any vile intentions from the goofy old man. As soon as he finished the drink he looked down at the bottle, It said "ALICE'S MYSTERY POTION, EVEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT DOES."

Soon Meliodas felt as if the ground was slowly getting farther away. He could see his torso and realized his neck had grown by 6 feet and his head was hitting the ceiling. Meliodas was surprised since poisons did not work on him.

He looked at Alice who was laying on the ground with his hands on his stomach, laughing hysterically.

Meliodas' eyes twitched, suddenly feeling the urge to beat up this crazy old man. However, Alice suddenly got up and donned a serious expression on his face before handing Meliodas another potion. "That was just a trial, this one will truly help you."

Meliodas was skeptical but drank it nonetheless. Meliodas sighed before realizing the old man had played him again. The old man was already dashing out the door laughing.

Meliodas noticed his torso was getting larger and his stomach protruded out. However, his legs and arms remained the same size. In the end Meliodas' torso expanded by 6 feet and his belly sticking out. Clothes shredded, Meliodas angrily ran out the house breaking the door and a good portion of the wall around it as he ran through it.

"Get back here, damn it!" Meliodas yelled as he dashed towards the old man.

Alice dashed into the forest, trying his best to evade Meliodas. He turned his head to glance at Meliodas. His eyes widened with shock as he saw a tall, long necked pot bellied blond young man running through trees and breaking them as if they were not even there.

"W-what a monster I've created!" Alice laughed nervously.

"Alice!" Meliodas shouted as he lunged forward at Alice with blinding speed, tackling the old man to the ground.

"Alright, turn me back this instant.: Meliodas said as he continued pinning Alice to the ground.

"Okay Okay, I am sorry." Alice said with a saddened expression.

Meliodas looked at the old man's expression before reluctantly backing off.

"Okay old man, we had our fun. Now change me back." Meliodas regained his composure.

Alice looked at him and smiled. He tossed Meliodas a small bottle. "You're a good guy, here, take this."

Meliodas looked at the small bottle. It read "Alice's Recovery Potion." Meliodas drank the potion. A few moments later, his body began slowly retracting back to his original form. Furthermore, it seemed that

"Now then, about my injury. " Meliodas said, getting back to the subject.

"Let's see if I have something brewed up for that weird issue of yours."

"What exactly is this issue?" Meliodas asked.

"Normally the potion I just gave you should be sufficient for most injuries, however, something or someone damaged your magic container. Have you ever heard of a third origin? It's like that was opened up and forcefully closed, causing you to lose almost all of your potential. You've been slowly regaining it back over time but at this rate, it will take you another decade or so." Alice said.

"I don't know what a third origin is but I know someone who tried to open my second origin and said it was impossible for me." Meliodas commented.

"That. Exactly that. Can't open a door if there is no door to begin with." Alice stood up from his seat and went back to the cabinet in the back of the room.

"To fix this kind of problem…I don't know if there's even an ingredient that's available to me…the baseline would have to be something that could possibly restore the magic of someone with magic deficiency illness…but finding something of that is-"

"Oh you mean this." Meliodas interrupted, pulling out a golden seed from his requip inventory. Alice immediately ran up to Meliodas to inspect the seed. Looking at it closely, it had a faint glow to it.

"What is this?" Alice asked.

"Some seed from a fruit I got a few years ago. The fruit can heal magic deficiency illness without a problem." Meliodas said.

"Yes the fruit…but that's a seed! How long does it take to grow?" Alice asked.

"Uh…I think it was ten years…" Meliodas answered.

"Hmm…that is indeed a problem…" Alice began to walk towards his cabinet filled with strange vials and flasks. He pulled out a flask filled with a bright blue liquid.

"BUT! I, the GREAT ALICE, have the solution!" Alice said with a hearty laugh. He gestured for Meliodas to follow him and the two walked out front to an empty patch of grass. Alice crouched down, scooping up the soil with his hands and putting the seed in the hole. He covered it again and began to pour the contents of the flask over the seed.

"What's that?" Meliodas asked.

"It's a potion that I created about two years ago. One that exponentially increases the rate that a plant can grow and even bypasses the climate conditions. I needed this to grow certain herbs that can only be grown in tropical or arctic areas since the weather in this area is relatively mild." Alice stood back up and took several steps back.

'This old man might be a bit crazy, but he's definitely a genius.' Meliodas thought as he stared the plant.

Light suddenly shot up out of the ground up into the sky and the ground began to shake. Alice immediately hung on to Meliodas.

"WOOO! What a ridiculous way to grow! What the hell kind of fruit is this?!" Alice shouted in surprise.

"I think it was called a fruit of eden or something." Meliodas said. The rumbling suddenly stopped and a small sprout emerged from the ground, growing larger and larger until it was the size of a small oak tree. One shining golden flower bloomed from one of the lower branches, eventually sprouting a fruit over the course of thirty seconds.

"Well, well, well. That was fast." Meliodas walked underneath the tree and jumped up to the fruit, grabbing it in his hands.

"So we can use this right?" Meliodas asked. He looked at Alice who was in a trance and mumbling to himself.

"That fruit of eden is supposed to be a myth…why does it exist…that fruit has the power to heal all illnesses and…" Alice's mumblings became faster and faster until they were nearly incomprehensible. Meliodas lightly tapped Alice on the forehead. Alice looked back up at Meliodas and smiled his amicable goofy grin.

"Let's make you that potion!"

—

Hours passed as Meliodas lounged around Alice's house while Alice made the potion. During this time, he had drunk from multiple glass containers of what Alice said was booze, but were actually Alice's potions.

"How did you like that potion!" Alice asked as he crushed berries in a mortar and pestle. "You smell lovely now don't ya! Like a field of flowers!"

"Well, it's a lot better than the ones I had over the past few hours." Meliodas sighed. Over the course of the few hours Meliodas had gone through several transformations. One had turned his arms and legs into octopus tentacles. Another had turned his entire body into that of a puppy, leaving only his head the same.

"And why do you keep all these weird potions in your house and not a single ounce of booze." Meliodas continued.

"Those are failed potions! I keep them for reference!" Alice exclaimed, mixing the concoction in front of him vigorously. "What I'm surprised about, though, is that I had a few potions mixed in there that were supposed to make you hallucinate or mess with your senses. But those didn't work at all on you! Even the transformation potions wore off quicker than anticipated."

"Well maybe you're just not as good as you think you are." Meliodas said with a cheeky grin.

"Hmph! I'll make you eat those words! My masterpiece is now done!" Alice shouted in excitement. In front of him in the cauldron was a clear glowing liquid. He poured the glowing liquid into a flask and gave it to Meliodas.

"So I just drink this and I'll be back to my peak?" Meliodas asked. "And this won't make me grow eight eyeballs or something?"

"Nope! I'm completely serious with this one!" Alice declared with utmost confidence. Meliodas took his word for it and put the flask up to his mouth. He stopped as he noticed Alice start to twiddle his fingers.

"Well…maybe…with the combination of ingredients I used…there's the smallest, teensiest of small chances you instantly die." Alice said with a nervous smile. "Although seeing how you reacted to all of my other-"

Meliodas immediately gulped down the potion, much to Alice's surprise. Alice's eyes widened as Meliodas collapsed on the ground.

"Meliodas!" Alice shouted.