The boy's reaction was not beyond Xia De's expectations. Xia De would have been surprised if someone could calmly accept that he was about to drink the "price of growing up".
“What kind of growth do you want?”
Shade asked. The boy who used a toy knife to protect himself was not troubled by this question. He looked up at Shade:
"It's about being carefree, being free, not being bound by adults, being able to do whatever you want, it's..."
Xia De did not continue to listen, but turned to the saint and shook his head. This was not growth. He himself did not understand what he wanted.
God kept that smile:
"When you told this gentleman about your wish, what you longed for was indeed to become an adult."
The voice was still so gentle, but Shade subconsciously felt that His tone seemed a little different:
"Lying and denying your past are not what good kids do."
God said softly, picked up the teacup and shook it slightly, and Xia De was so scared that he almost dodged.
"Child, I want to tell you a truth. When you make a request and a kind person satisfies you, even if you are not satisfied, you should not blame them."
Inexplicably, Shade thought of the story of the witch princess who longed for eternal life that God talked about when he first met God. Then he realized that the boy probably had no other choice.
The young man wearing a funny clown hat walked out of the counter with a cup of tea, bent down and handed it to the boy. He said nothing, just smiled at him. The boy bit his lip and was very unconvinced. He turned to look at the other two children, then raised his head and said:
"There's nothing to be afraid of."
He took the cup and drank the liquid in it. But after just one sip, the cup fell to the ground, and the boy held onto the floor and retched violently.
He vomited more and more, and finally fell to the floor of the toy store. He groaned in pain and his body twitched and spasmed, but his height and body shape were changing dramatically.
After a brief thirty seconds, in the stains on the floor, the young man in adult clothes opened his eyes. He stood up blankly and looked at everything in the toy store:
“I’m grown up?”
He touched his face in disbelief. Shade was surprised by the strange effect of the potion. Seeing that the god had returned to the counter and stopped talking, he took the initiative to say:
"So how do you feel now?"
“I feel I am looking higher and more powerful...”
He touched his body, then looked at Xia De with gratitude:
"Sir, I have really grown up!"
A child is a child. Not long ago, he was hostile to Shade, but now he looks at him with completely different eyes:
“I’ve really grown up!”
He waved his hands happily:
"That's great! I can finally stop being scolded by my dad!"
"No, as long as that's still your father, he can always scold you."
Shade reminded him, and he understood a little bit what he needed to do to fulfill this second wish.
"is that so?"
The grown-up boy looked at him in confusion, but soon became happy again:
"I can finally hang out with my friends at night."
"No, you probably can't. You're grown up, but your friends are still young."
The grown-up boy was stunned again, and then said cautiously:
"Finally, I don't have to learn from a tutor anymore..."
"No, you have to learn. Growing up means you have to move out and make money on your own. If you don't learn, where are you going to work? Mining or working as a laborer?"
The boy looked at Shad with his mouth open.
Xia De also looked at him and stated a basic fact:
"You don't think that when you grow up, you will still live under the protection of others like before, right? Then why do you want to grow up?"
"I... ... "
The grown-up boy pointed at himself, then suddenly picked up the toy wooden sword and held it in his arms:
“I don’t want to grow up.”
"Look, here's the child."
The young man leaned over the edge of the counter and said to Shade that the effect of the potion was wearing off and the boy was changing back to his original appearance. As for the clothes on his body, just like before, under the power of the saint, of course, they changed along with his body.
"Have I fulfilled his wish?"
"certainly."
The saint nodded.
"But he didn't grow, he went back to being what he is today."
Shad pointed out this fact.
"But he did grow, you see."
The young man in the clown hat pointed at the boy, who looked at his hand and laughed happily when he found that it had returned to its original state.
"At least he understands the price of growing up. This is a very good kind of growth. After all, it is really difficult for children to understand this."
"Do you always use similar methods to reason with children?"
Shad asked curiously.
"No, different children have different situations. In fact, I tend to be more gentle."
The saint smiled and shook his head, but Shade made no comment.
After completing the wish for growth, we move on to the final wish for "power".
Xia De looked at the girl who came out from between the shelves again. The girl immediately stopped and looked at Xia De very vigilantly:
"I don't want to drink a weird potion."
"Don't worry, I don't have any potion that can give ordinary people powers."
The girl then came to the counter with confidence, but still did not dare to approach him.
Xia De already had an idea before this, but before he really started, he asked:
"Ahem, here's the thing. Before I grant your wish, can you please tell me how you understand the word 'power'?"
"I can protect myself and what I want to protect."
The girl said and the other two kids nodded.
"Okay, next question. Do you think wisdom is a power, besides the power to split rocks and move mountains?"
Shad pointed to his head again.
"Of course!"
The boy who was hungry for stories and the boy who was hungry for growth said together, but the girl was hesitant, she understood how Shad wanted to give her power.
"To be honest, wisdom is certainly power, but sir, what I desire is my own... the ability to achieve... the ability to..."
She hesitated to express her thoughts, but couldn't find the right words for a moment.
Xia De understood what she meant. The girl agreed with the power of wisdom, but she wanted a more realistic power.
"Why not, listen to me first, and then think about what kind of power you want."
Xia De suggested, and the girl nodded:
"No problem, sir."
The saint behind the counter watched this scene with a smile, and He had no intention of interrupting.
"Have you ever seen hot water boiled?"
"Yes, sir."
"Have you ever seen the hot steam push the lid off a kettle?"
"Of course, sir."
"So, have you ever thought about the possibility of using this power in other ways?"
The girl tilted her head and looked at him, while the other two boys looked a little confused.
"She is the only one who can understand you now. This is her wish."
God reminded him, and Shade nodded, giving another example:
"The hot steam from a small kettle can push open the lid; what can the hot steam from a huge kettle push open?"
"this... ... "
Judging from her exquisite little skirt and shiny black leather shoes, the girl must be from a high family and have received a high level of education. But this question is still too difficult for the child.
Xia De wanted to change the way he put it, or ask the saint to make some small parts to facilitate his demonstration, but he didn't expect the girl's eyes to light up and she said something that surprised Xia De:
"Are you trying to tell me how to use heat to convert into power to create machinery that ordinary people can use?"
Her eyes were shining, and it wasn't an exaggeration. Those bright eyes were really glowing.
Xia De moved aside cautiously:
"What's going on?"
This is not the power of the Ringmaster system, nor even the relic. I have felt a similar power in Miss Carina.
"That's about it."
Xia De agreed with the girl's point of view and glanced at the saint. The latter was listening to the conversation between the two and didn't seem to say anything.
"But this is just a tool, sir. I can make similar tools, but others can also make and use similar tools. Such power is not forever at my disposal."
The girl looked at Shade, eager for an answer.
“This is just technology, you also need systems.”
"system?"
"Except for gods, humans and other creatures walking in the material world cannot avoid needing help from their own kind. Once you have technology, you must use the system to manage people, use the system to distribute your gains, and use the system to spread your losses. Although you are only one person, the system can make you a hundred people, a thousand people. Technology and the system can make you stronger."
The light in the girl's eyes became brighter. Seeing this, the little boy holding the toy knife didn't know what he was thinking about. With a look of horror on his face, he pulled the youngest boy and hid between the shelves.
"But sir, even if I construct a perfect system, it will eventually decay because people change."
The girl asked.
“You need culture.”
"culture?"
The condition of her eyes was close to that of Mia the cat in the dark night. The girl herself began to glow, and some wind was surrounding her. If it weren't for the fact that this was the Saint's shop, any extraordinary power would be suppressed. Shade believed that this phenomenon would become more obvious.
The unusual way of thinking seemed to give her some inspiration, but the girl herself did not notice her condition.
"You need people to identify with you, believe in you, and adapt to the system you have constructed and the technology you have created, so you need to assimilate them with culture. Festivals, writing, accents, common stories, similar behaviors."
“Technology, system, culture...”
The girl pondered, then suddenly looked up at Shade:
"Sir, this is what you call power?"
"Yes, are you satisfied with this power?"
What Xia De said was actually very simple, or he didn't say anything practical. These words were actually a train of thought. He was prepared for the girl to not accept it, and was going to talk about basic physics, but the girl nodded:
"I am very satisfied. Wisdom is indeed the greatest wealth of mankind. It seems that even men are not completely useless."