Chapter 18 : Transaction and change of mind

During the the days off, the Academy had given Hektor for his good performance in the yearly tests, a lot of things happened.

Arianne after waking up the next day, rushed to Hektor's door and knocked as if the world was in an impending danger.

Hektor wake up abruptly and ran to the door while screaming words of curse going from her parents to 7 previous entire generations.

"What the hell could it be this early in the morning ? Do you want to die ? Who is it ? Arghhh motherf*ck- Ahhhh.... Arianne, how are you ? Did you have a good night's sleep ?" Hektor rumbled as he opened the door abruptly to see with stupor that Arianne was the one banging on his door.

Arianne came in without his permission, visibly completely overwhelmed by something.

"You...Maximus... Do you know what you have done ?" She asked, panting.

"No idea. Now, tell me what have I done and let me sleep a bit more, ok ?" Hektor said in a irritable tone. Who wasn't a bit irritable when woke up this suddenly ? Nobody.

"You gave your words, you won't be able to change them now, right ? If you go back on your words, you and me will cease to be friends from now on ! I promise that I will make your life a living Hell, IS IT CLEAR ???" Arianne, still shocked and panicked began screaming.

Bernard, hearing strong voices outside of his guest room couldn't help but panick. 'What's happening here, stop screaming. Wait, what are they saying ? My God, they are even screaming that they will make Master's life a living hell. They must be really angry at him. What are they doing doing here ? A theft ? I can't let master be harmed. No way in hell !" Bernard still a bit groggy, sooncame to a conclusion and got out of his bed and run out.

"Master Maximus, are you alright, don't worry master I'll protect you - !" Bernard said as he opened the door. H ewas greeted by a stressed Arianne, looking at him weirdly and an angry Hektor, trying somehow, to calm his raging emotions.

"Go back to sleep, Bernard, I have to talk to her but don't worry I won't let her scream again." Hektor said as he looked at Arianne with a reproaching gaze.

Bernard soon realised he had made a mistake and just went back inside his room.

"Forget what you've seen there, okay ? Now calm down and tell me what do you want ? Oh and please, quick because I wnat to still sleep after this." Hektor said in a serious tone.

"Well you promised me a bunch of things after you came banging at my door the day before the yearly test, don't you remember ? I want to talk about it now. I was really groggy and didn't listen properly. I want you to sincerly tell me what benefice I received by being your test subject and if I can receive more benefices by continuing ?" Arianne said, greed flashing in her eyes.

"What I promised you was limitless access to the product. Meaning that, must you want to purchase the product, can you do it whenever, wherever you want. Well you'll still have to pay, but the second benefit was that you would have a 70% reduction for every products you buy, forever.

I wanted to thank you, by the way. Even though these benefits are way higher than what you have done, it was still a dangerous gambling I won't retry anytime soon. I have been selfish. I just though of how I wanted to finish the product I had spend a entire week, almost without sleep, to create, to think of what could have happen if my formula wasn't correct. For that, I'm sorry." Hektor recited the beneits promised and presented his excuses.

"You know 'Maximus', you are really refreshing. Most nobles are stuck up who think of themsleves as superior being, but you would present your excuse to me without any problems. Surprising and refreshing, indeed..." Arianne said as a smile slowly appeared on her stressed face. She relaxed and began talking more comfortably.

"You know, this product will be extremelly appreciated by the nobles women. Also, what you have done is completely unheard of. From what I understand, you have used herbs, I think, to make this cream ? Really impressive. That's a first." Arianne said.

"There really isn't anyone who managed to make a concoction ?" Hektor asked, still doubtfull.

"A concio- contiou- concion-concoction ? I it how you call it, a concoction ? Well, the use of herbs has been banned a long time ago because the presumed death of the Pope, at that time, was linked to a concoction I think." Arianne replied." But don't worry, if you present this to the Empire's nobles, they will soon be able to see its potential and won't just be afraid of the possible dark side of the concoction."

"You must know that I intended to make a fortune out of it. I won't stop myself with just the nobles. Every single person in this Empire will be able to enjoy my creations. But first I suppose you want to make a transacation ?" Hektor as passion lighted his eyes.

"Yes, I want to have the product everyday. With the reduction I don't think it will cost that much anyway." Arianne said.

"Well, I will give you an amount worth thirty days, and you'll pay me 3 gold coins and 3 silvers coins. The base cost is ten gold coins for 30 portions but since you have a reduction, it'll cost you 3 golds and 3 silvers coins." Hektor said in a business like voice.

Arianne paid and received her goods. She was extremely excited and didn't know what to do as she wanted to talk more. After all, she still was only 14 years old. She wasn't really able to control her excitement from escaping and affecting others.

"Now get out of my room and let me sleep !" Hektor said as he was still tired.

"OK, ok, see you tomorrow." Arianne said, laughing.

*****

5 hours later, Hektor woke up refreshed and attended to his morning routine. Breakfast, morning's shower, tidy his room, etc...

He soon went back to his room and trained in The Way Of Death. He had, just before the first class of the year, began to train in his technique. He had saw some improvments as he begna to see his breathing froming a faint snake.

After spending a week without training, thanks to his new invention, he had to go back to square one. Fortunately, he still ahd memories of what he had done, and could still easily go back to his previous training achievements.

Hektor closed his eyes and focused his insight on his breath. There, a faint snake could be seen slowly moving up and down, following the rythm of his breathing. Hektor, in order to improve his control over his body had decided to make this faint snake to change. He was no snake. Even though it could be seen as a foolish idea as he had absolutely no idea of what he was doing, Hektor couldn't bear to have the breath of a snake. The snake represented, in most of the legends and myths of his past life, cunningness and evilness. Hektor tried all his life to bring peoples happiness, solutions or help but received nothing but hate, disdainfull gazes and means words. What snake ?No one want to be a snake !

Hektor looked again a the small snake and reflected a bit on it. The small snake was in fact the power of his breath from his lungs to his trachea and to his mouth. How can breathing only affect these part of the body.

Hektor knew that blood carried the oxygen to his muscles and organs in order for them to acte to his every thoughts. But what would happen if he could increase the flow of his blood ? What if he could increase the amount of oxygene carried by his blood ? All these things could only be done by training. And do that, Hektor had to give up any form of space consciousness. How could he train peacefully and completely when he was constantly on his guard, always ready to repsond in case somebody would knock on his door or something else happened. Now that Hektor had a clear goal in his mind, he would let himself be distracted.

He called Bernard and made him take notes. He send a message to his grandfatehr with a sample of his concoction, telling him to try it on his mother. That there was nothing to be afraid of as he had already tested it on someone else and that after confirming that the product worked they could start talking business. He also told them that he would go into seclusion for some time and wouldn't be available for some day.

He also prepared some concoctions for Arianne and told Bernard to give it to her, ifshe came asking for more.

After a-having all that done, Hektor went back to his training and focused on his bretah. There, he could see all his respiratory system but he wasn't satisfied anymore. Before he had been eager to increase the clarity of the snake, but now that he understood that it was going agaisnt what he wanted he changed his mind. Hektor spread his insight to all his body and looked around. It was quite the peculiar feeling as he wasn't really looking around but more feeling with his fives senses. All of this was quite confusing as his brain wasn't yet ready to receive all this informations.

Hektor soon experienced an headache he didn't felt before and just rested for some time in order to let the headache pass. One hour passed and Hektor continued to 'look around' his body with his insight causing him to have endless headaches. Fortunately, the amount of time he coudl stay in the {Insight State} increase as he felt himself.