Looking for peculiarity

"Now then, let's not waste any time. Aina." Calling out the girl's name, Sebian smiled towards her. "I asked Sheeren to prepare a place for you to sleep. It's the room on the far left of the corridor once you go up the stairs."

After a busy day at the shop, there was no reason to keep the girl active. Rather than having her roam around and gawk at anything and everything he would do, Sebian opted to temporarily remove her from the picture. From how she managed to hold on to her job even despite the many surprises she surely went through, her dedication and determination was showing. And given how only more and more surprises awaited for her the next day, there was no reason to keep her through the night either.

"Thank you, master." Only as she nodded her head did the girl realize just how tired she was. 'Now that I think about it, while the last part was physically exhausting, it didn't even tire me that much.' Slightly shocked by the conclusion she reached herself, the girl lowered her eyes on her hands, as if trying to make sense of what just happened over the last few hours.

Back at the shop, she had greater worries than to think about what was actually going on. At first, she had to endure the curious and often pitying looks of the customers who noticed her stall and the prices she was ordered to draw. Even those few who ended up buying the pills directly from the shopping hall ultimately failed to approach her.

Then, after a period of slight judgment, the problems started. From Zan, through Lassla appearing right after… From her master and at Aina's own one ending. The meeting and clashes she went through from that point on were the true reason behind the girl's exhaustion. Never fully capable of coming up with a proper way to tackle those encounters, Aina constantly lived in a fear of doing something wrong.

But surprisingly enough, fate spared her.

'Maybe there is a method to the way master wants me to act?' Struck by this ridiculous thought, Aina almost lost her sense of stability, failing to make one of the steps leading her towards the door. Following her master most recent order, she was moving to the back of the shop where the staircase had to be located.

Seeing the girl's back disappear behind the doors, Sebian turned his attention back to the results of the hard work of Sheeren and his disciples. With the formulas they received, they were both quick and diligent in brewing all sorts of pills that Sebian requested.

Given his alchemist genius, he could easily swarm the market with truly god-like pills and make so much money off them, that greater powers nearby would quickly catch the wind of the news and come to scout him. No matter the world, that was what would happen once someone capable enough were to appear in public. Because the potential benefits of bringing him to his side were too immense to be ignored.

But Sebian didn't want it.

Rather than that, his entire scheme was oriented at making everyone know perfectly well that it wasn't the pills that made him disgustingly rich. That alone would be too easy for Sebian's mental comfort. What he was going for, was far harder and far more complicated.

"How's the progress?" The old apothecary and his students were both too immersed in their work to even notice either Aina's or Sebian's arrival. Standing motionlessly above a huge campfire with three cauldrons hanging over it, they continued to refine the water into a materia prima and secunda, filling the room with a rich aura of the energy seeping out of the mixture in the making. Only Sheeren stood away from the place, opting to observe and oversee the progress rather than directly take part in it.

"Ah, master, I didn't notice you!" Exclaiming softly in surprise, Sheeren hurriedly bowed his head in respect. If he was shocked the day before, now he was simply thrilled by the prospects of following this peculiar man. And under such circumstances, he dared not to slack in fulfilling one of his new master requests. It was just too bizarre for him to finish it so quickly!`

Hearing the answer, Sebian moved forward without a word. Stopping at a huge pile of freshly bought medicinal ingredients, he ended up not replying to Sheeren's report. If his guess wasn't wrong, then the pile of precious herbs in front of him was supplied by a direct request to the old man's suppliers. Given his direct order not to use any other means to stock on materials, Sebian hoped to prevent the spread of the news for a bit.

'Well, everything will be out of the box tomorrow afternoon…' As risky as pushing the entire plan to transpire over just three days, there was no reason for Sebian to stall it for longer. 'As long as I will get a few hours tomorrow to prepare, everything should play out rather nicely.' Thinking about the task that his new underling failed to finish, the alchemist unnoticeably bit his lips. As easy as this task could be, there was no upper limit for how long it would take him to find a herb suitable for the last phase of his plan!

Slightly annoyed by this troublesome matter, Sebian picked a leaf of a familiar scent from one of the boxes, before putting it in his mouth. Once the gentle buzzing of the medicinal substance appeared all over his tongue, the alchemist stopped munching on the herb, giving it the time to fully permeate with his saliva. Only when his own liquid reached a tea-like taste, did he swallow the load.

As the warm feeling of the cheap relaxing agent spread through his body, the signs of exhaustion quickly washed off Sebian's flesh. As weak as the effect was on cultivators, with his entire strenght now gone, the simple herb worked wonders on the alchemist.

"Ah, master…" Suddenly, Sheeren called out with an uneasy expression on his face. Enjoying his short moment of chill, Sebian looked at the man while plucking another leaf from the box. "What's wrong?"

Seeing the alchemist's actions, Sheeren's face darkened out even more. "Sir, it's not as if I dared to stop you from consuming this herb…" Hearing the hesitant opening to the apothecary's protest, Sebian's eyes slightly widened.

'Could it be that this trash is actually expensive?' Figuring out the likely reason behind the old man's uneasiness, Sebian only waved his hand. "Don't worry, whatever it costs, I will cover it." Even if it was on a slightly more expensive side, with the insane haul Sebian made from just a single day of trading pills, there were hardly any limits to what he could buy in this place!

"Master, it's not about the price." Shaking his head without even a second of hesitation, Sheeren finally explained what was going on through his head. "Those herbs are extremely hard to come by. Even with sufficient money, I'm worried it would be challenging to buy another box like that even after scouring both the market and all the shops of the city!"