Eate Enid.

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[1250 - Evening - Outside Brugge City, Brugge - 4 Months and 1 Weeks.]

"Uhmm… Wait here. I'll go talk to her."

Observing the retreating figures of his two heavily invested first subordinates, who have now decided to find a way to break Fate Binding abilities, Zefron sighs and sits on the ground, waiting for Keira to arrive through the portal they had just left.

Turning to face Nappy, who is currently lazing around on the ground, basking in the evening sunlight with an unconcerned expression, Zefron addresses the big cat, saying, "It seems my plan to marry Calanthe and Meve is back in action. And you, my boy, will have your own subordinate."

After standing there like a statue on the hill overlooking Brugge City for two hours, Zefron finally hears a loud sound of space being ripped apart in front of him – a phenomenon he recognizes as the distinctive sign of a portal being opened. Based on the seven iterations of Future Fate that he has witnessed, he knows it is Keira who has arrived.

"How well is she faring?"

Shaking her head and sitting down next to Zefron, Keira replies to the emotionless man, "Not good. Even the way you handle being a knight-errant is hands down like a villain. And the fact that you have not told her anything about this, even though we meet every week, is making it worse."

'Well, attaining the paper representing ownership of an establishment in the Temeria kingdom in just a few days and a bit of selflessness is not that big of a deal in my mind. But…'

Sighing again at the thought that Triss would be proud of his achievement, which in turn would make her more enthusiastic about finding a trustworthy person for the business, Zefron thought to himself, 'Do I need to kill her now to open up my slot and find another person with the same characteristics?'

Shaking his head again over the bloodlust that turns him into a moron, preventing him from thinking clearly about the consequences of such actions—like the crumbling of his goal to no longer be indifferent, which would further decrease his betting chances, or the numerous adversaries that would hunt him down, triggering a chain of enemies due to her importance in Aretuza, unlike Gimpy who is just a regular bandit on whom he can freely unleash his bloodlust.

And many other things, such as loss of her beautiful mind that will help him enthusiastically research magic unrelated to destruction, as he hopes, since destruction is easily attainable—like altering the properties of the smoke grenade to create real poison and making it larger that he deduces it could potentially eliminate the entire population of Novigrad in one go.

This is why he loathes the bloodlust that constantly irritates him, every hour of the day, non-stop. It makes him unable to think properly, and everything feels like a blur. If not for his ancestral luck that plot armored him from the consequences of the slip-up he committed, he would have been buried six feet under long ago.

"Don't worry, Triss will come around. I am sure of that."

Nodding at the uncertain statement, now that Keira has another ally to make the task of finding a way to break Fate Binding easier, Zefron simply replies, "I hope so."

"..."

After two minutes of constant silence, Keira suddenly asks out of the blue, "Zefron, why don't you just show an emotionless face if that's how you feel about everything?"

Looking at her with a strange expression, as if she was supposed to know the answer to this basic question, Zefron still explains, "There's nothing good coming out of it. Everyone can easily tell I am a villain or hero who is not something you can't mess with. Which makes them fear. And fear only delays the inevitable."

"Even simple folks who have been oppressed their entire lives as slaves from birth will find a way to break free from the constant fear. Because it takes just one moment out of septillions of possibilities, one thing among quintillions of different kinds of weapons, and one person among billions to wield it to target what that folks fears."

Nodding in agreement with the valid reason why he chose to display emotion instead of maintaining a stoic expression that she could easily tell that face means danger, Keira changed the subject, "Oh yeah. I've already found the perfect animal guardian for myself, and I've already purchased it. Will you keep your promise to Fate Bind it to me?"

"Sure, Keira. Bring the animal next week when you come to teach me. I've already invested everything in you, just like with Triss. Let's just hope that you guys find a way to break my abilities when I am already bored exploring and balancing my irritation."

"..."

"..."

"So, Keira. How is the business going?"

Shaking her head as she came out of contemplation, Keira said with a smile to the handsome man, "Couldn't be better. After our intense training session..."

Wink, wink.

"I can easily create 5 grades of Beverage Enhancer that I sell separately to the nobles and common folks. It's graded at 25% to 50% for common folks and 50% to 80% for the nobles."

"As for the last grade, I carefully fiddle with the percentage to create a tradition similar to wine tasting, and I call it the premium grade. And this premium can only be purchased through connections, contracts, or publicly made pacts."

Chuckling over Keira's brilliant mind, which is always fully throttled with anything related to money, Zefron asked the blonde, "What about the different product? Has anyone complained about your decision in court?"

Laughing and remembering the clueless and naive expressions of everyone in the Temerian Royal Council who remain oblivious to the fact that Beverage Enhancer Water, Syrup, and Sugar are essentially the same thing but with different packaging, Keira replies to the man amidst her enchanting laughter.

"Clueless. The Beverage Enhancer Water that I call Blathan Aevon comes in different bottles. I mix the higher percentage with a normal bottle and the lower percentage with a fancier design. And not only that, since we still can't experiment with different types of fruit except raspberries and blueberries, I decided to add food coloring to the water and include the normal juice of those fruits. This gives them the impression that I made everything separately."

"As for the Syrup, I informed everyone that each jar can only be purchased by one person, tailored to their specific request. If the buyer is merely wealthy, I 'personally create' and sell them the 50% and below version. If the buyer is a noble, I offer them the 80% and below version. I manipulate the percentages so that when people taste it, the experience is distinct even though they've spent the same amount of coin. It's similar to when someone orders a custom weapon from a blacksmith. Sometimes it doesn't meet the standard, and sometimes it exceeds the standard."

"The Sugar, however, is unique; unlike Water and Syrup, it comes in only one type, and I call it Aedd Gynvael."

Raising his eyebrows, intending to ask why they only sell one type when two different kinds of berries are used, Zefron is cut short by Keira's continued explanation, which makes his eyes widen in surprise with a hint of genuine pride.

"Yes, we managed to combine the raspberries and blueberries into a single product. I must say, that was the most stressful research I've undertaken in my entire life, given how complex it was to create a spell just to combine those two sugars."

"While it didn't become as popular as Blathan Aevon the Water Enhancer or establish a new tradition of Eate Enid testing in Vizima like the Syrup, I am satisfied with just that."

Looking at her beaming innocent smile that has genuine cheerfulness, Zefron recognizes that she is often unfairly compared to being a dumber version of Triss at Aretuza, due to her lack of original spells that do not catch the attention of the Council of Wizards.

With that, he stands up and says to the potential new mother of Nappy, "Come, let's enjoy a week of sex at the inn in Brugge city."

"But. Hiya!"

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