12 The Long and Winding Road

Sifting through a stack of papers, I lifted the cup of wine to my lips and took a sip. The wine was fragrant and sweet, it was perfectly refined and a refreshing feeling enveloped my body.

The prana fruit wine was delicious and cool despite not being chilled. It was a strange phenomenon caused by its unique cultivation and I've been drinking this extremely luxurious drink for a few months now.

The main difference between wine or drinks brewed with Prana Fruits is that they are extremely delicious. The main attraction, however, is something that should have been discovered a few years from now.

Fruits grown with prana cultivation can maximize the human body's potential as well as boost the body's synchronization at a higher speed than what would naturally occur.

A hardworking and talented warrior might grow one level if that person practiced non-stop for twenty years. A decently talented person who drank prana wine every single day could do the same thing in a span of five to eight years, depending on their compatibility with prana as well as how often they drank the special wine.

As someone blessed with an advanced form of the prodigy trait, I can shorten the five to eight years gap in a matter of months so long as I continue drinking the prana wine as well as bathing in the dregs left from its production.

I relaxed while reading through the various papers in front of me. The sky felt extremely pleasant today and the weather was perfect for a day out in the open.

I found myself humming in spite of myself. It was an exceptionally pleasant day and I was in an exceptionally great mood.

The reason for this is simple: I have successfully cultivated enough prana fruit to be able to supply a small city for an entire year!

This simple venture started out after I got myself sold out of the Salvador Family. I initially offered to sell the method for prana cultivation to Princess Windsor's family but she declined and instead offered to invest in this venture.

I gave her 30% ownership of the entire operation and she agreed to it nonchalantly. I'm certain that she thinks nothing of this venture as merely the whims of a bored former noble lady but she has no idea that this will eventually become the number one commerce and research topic in the world.

The only reason I know of this in advance is because of my knowledge of the future. It is not a hundred percent accurate nor do I know everything in detail but what I do know does come in short fragments and most of them are directly related to Alagarassi's eventual fate.

The prana cultivation method, in particular, was one of the triggers for this body's original fate but how they affect each other is beyond me.

I licked my lips, savoring the taste of the wine.

I drink the wine like water and bathe in water soaked in the dregs and leftover juices of the prana fruits like it were nothing but the price of a single bottle of prana wine is a staggering $10,000,000!

It was a luxury beyond any other luxurious object in the world but it was worth every penny as each serving of prana wine can increase one's affinity with prana by at least 0.01%.

That might sound like a minuscule amount but when it comes to prana, every single improvement is tantamount to becoming better than the next prana capable individual directly in front of you when it comes to the Guild's ranking system.

The humming of the machinery inside the farm's specialized laboratory echoed in the air. The smell of processed fruit was pleasant and calming.

I could hear the farmers and the researchers talk amongst one another. Some voices were calm while others were excited. Some of the men asked questions while the rest answered with patience and kindness.

It was indeed worth it to invest in this venture. While it did make me stronger and helped secure my eventual rise to rival the authority of that of the Twelve Sword Families, it also felt nice to save these people from hunger.

The memory of the prana cultivation method emphasized two memories. The first one is the actual methodology in handling, processing, and fermenting the prana wine while the second one emphasized the feeling of helplessness of the researcher who discovered the memory in the first place.

A few years from now in the near future, Alagarassi became good friends with the researcher who discovered the secrets to prana farming. That person was a researcher who had grown up in the slums and he rose above poverty simply because he felt that his strength was lacking.

The discovery of the prana farming method was an accidental one as that researcher was thinking up of various dangerous ways to level up his affinities. In short, he was acting recklessly.

The reason for his actions was actually tied to his past. He had a village that was destroyed by poverty and famine and most of the residents were below the Archetype rating. In short, they were all normal human beings.

A few years before the researcher made the discovery of his life, his villagers all died in a mysterious flame and he was the only survivor. Alagarassi always regretted the man's depression but during the time this had all happened, Alagarassi was recovering from her ordeal and had no way of knowing.

Despite all of this, her kind heart broke at the sight of the man who couldn't forgive himself for he was one of her good friends. In fact, it could be said that he was one of the few friends she actually had as no one was willing to stand on her side.

Her kind heart frosted over due to all of her traumatic experiences as well as her inability to cope with her own feelings of insecurities and inadequacies but she still remained noble and kind all the way to her death.

I decided to respect her wishes as well as secure a stable source of income for myself so I partnered with Grander. The organization Grander mainly dealt with information as well as the means to contract with skilled freelancers.

I approached the organization a few weeks ago and commissioned them to bring in this village of normal people in the guise of hiring them as my primary workforce. Since they were hungry and in need of stable financial assistance, their representative readily agreed and moved over in the span of a few days.

Princess Patricia provided for their transportation and I oversaw their initial training.

"Heehee." I giggled to myself when I remembered their faces of awe and worship and soon as I walked into the room where they were all seated in a circular townhall style.

"A goddess?"

"She isn't the empress?"

"Her red eyes are so beautiful"

In short, they all fell in love with my appearance, and the carrot and stick approach I initially wanted to take became unnecessary. Instead, all of the villagers became spirited and all bowed and thanked me for saving them from dying from hunger.

I cherished the memory of our short time together and since they were all fired up, they learned their relatively simple tasks well and are now independently producing prana fruits with ease.

I smiled to myself as I poured more wine into my glass. Picking up the glass of wine, I twirled it around as I brought it up to my nose.

"Mmm. Sweet."

I closed my eyes to savor the taste.

[Knock knock!]

I pursed my lips as I adapted my usual neutral expression. "Enter."

"Miss, I'm coming in."

The door slowly opened to reveal a boy in his teens. He was delicately handsome but he seemed like he would break if I were to suddenly grab at him or something.

He bowed at the sight of me and smiled. "Do you always drink this much miss?"

I'm not an alcoholic, ok? I just wanted to increase my affinities as fast as possible.

I shook my head, "This much isn't enough. I need at least a bottle an hour."

His eyes widened in surprise as his mouth started opening and closing like a fish. It was quite a funny sight.

"A BOTTLE AN HOUR? ARE YOU CRAZY?" He started babbling on about how my body might implode due to the overabundance of prana but I paid him no heed.

The intake of this much prana wine might be dangerous for normal people but due to Alagarassi's natural disposition as an overpowered motherfucker kind of character, this much was fine. In fact, her body demanded even more. It was just a gut instinct, a gut instinct I say. I'm definitely not a hedonistic alcoholic.

I licked my lips as I peered at him. I tucked my hair behind my ear, "Besides, shouldn't you simply appreciate the sight of a beautiful woman drinking wine?"

I smirked at the child in front of me. He's too young to understand what love is anyway.

Red in the face, he stammered, "How you look like is beside the question! Besides, everyone already knows how beautiful you are, goddess – err I meant miss!"

"Ara, thank you, child."

I gave him a gentle pat on his small head.

He clenched his little fist as he stared at me resolutely. "I will do my best to speed up the production of prana fruits but…"

Hesitating, he took the glass of wine from my hand and earnestly said, "Please take care of yourself, miss."

He took my hand and gently kissed it.

I sneered at his honesty. "Honestly, you're too cute Renard." I took the wine glass from his small hands and emptied its contents into my stomach. "But you're too young for my tastes."

I poked his head and quipped, "Maybe when you're a little older, little one." I ruffled his hair as I laughed.

Gently removing my hand from his head, he bowed while all red in the face as he excused himself from my presence.

"What a cute kid."

Looking at his departing body, I immediately put into perspective my immediate goals. It's relatively simple, really. I already have all of the rights and patents to the prana cultivation method and all of the important documents were hidden away in the Windsor Family safe.

All that's left is establishing a global chain of trading and transportation for the finished prana wine product. For that work, I would need a partner who could operate on a global scale as well as the backing of a few influential individuals.

I refuse to partner with private corporations or even other members of the Twelve Sword Families. This has to be a venture I start on my own so I can set the pricing and control and demand as I saw fit.

While it would be to the benefit of the human race to strengthen every single prana-capable individual, I should first create my own foundation and for that, the best way to approach this problem was to cultivate my own forces from the ground up.

Time is no longer an issue as I removed the most pressing debacle with the power of money as well as by selling my body to the princess.

While I do cherish her, the feelings I have for her are not entirely pure as I see her more as a trusted business partner than as a lover.

I do have an idea on where to start but everything else is something that I'm working on as I go along.

There are a lot of other things to consider but at the very moment, I have already taken my first steps into becoming a global superpower with this small prana production facility.

The path ahead is filled with thorns and it is reminiscent of a long and winding road.

But again, I have already taken the first step. There is no turning back.

I offered a toast to the silhouette who summoned me into this world.

I muttered to myself, "To the future."

The Long and Winding Road – End.