Speculations

"Yes, sir. I am the one selling these potions. Will you be buying any, sir?" I maintained my politeness, seeing the knights' uniform the man was wearing.

After twirling the vial back and forth for a few seconds, the man uncorked it and took a swig.

Knowing I might be in some deep shit here, I kept my mouth shut and swallowed the complaints I had.

Not worth it.

In just one swing, he emptied the entire vial.

"Yeah... That is definitely darkness." The man muttered to himself and then turned to me, "How much more of this... stuff... do you have? Wait. Did you say you are marketing this poisonous sludge as potions? Are you... Whatever, I don't care. Give me all of this you have in stock."

Not fully understanding the implications behind the man's words, I nodded and replied, "I have a few liters at home, do I bring them here, or will you send someone to take it?"

As I knew from Ryan's memories — my memories — any type of officials were a pain in the backside. So I just followed along his instructions. Sure, it stung losing a potential few silvers, it was not worth being screwed over by the officials. Especially when we might need some paperwork done for the re-establishment of the eatery.

"Nah, that is fine, I'll go with you to retrieve it myself. Show the way." As he said his piece, all the vials disappeared somewhere unknown, as if they never existed there in the first place.

That... is... fascinating. I lingered on the sentiment for a couple moments before I realized the guy had just poofed a couple liters volume worth of material into thin air.

I grew spooked.

Yeah, let's not mess with this guy. I swore not to try sneak away from him on the way.

Removing the stoppers from the wheels of the trolley, I started walking it back home.

I looked around, but I could not see the man anywhere and thought it was all a dream, but then I glanced down at my empty trolley and the sun that had not even begun to set, I continued to silently walk.

Throughout the walk, I silently mulled over the way in which the man might have gone away unnoticed.

Does he go invisible? That would be counter-productive... Covering my senses somehow? That would require more effort than it would be worth. Or he could have just disappeared and left me hanging.

After a few minutes of slow walk through the bustling streets, I soon reached SilverMoon.

"This is the place? Seems quite rundown." An uninterested voice commented from beside me as I tried opening the door.

Or not. Definitely something else.

—Clunk —Clunk

Locked? I thought subconsciously as I brought out the keys and opened the door.

"You can say so, the ground floor hasn't seen much use in the past year. It used to be an Eatery. We will be re-opening next week though." I explained into the air, surprisingly, it wasn't hard to adapt as I was already used to talking to Codex in the air.

Thinking of Codex, he was awefully quite about this whole ordeal.

[What do you want me to say?]

Never mind.

I parked the trolley near the wall and approached the wooden bucket covered with a half burnt wooden cover, some unknown symbols and lines burned into its surface.

"This is it. This is the stuff."

The same handsome man draped in lavish red clothing appeared beside the bucket and dipped a finger into the potion — or the poison, as he claimed.

Actually, he could be talking about Dia's poison that I used as a base material. But the anti-venom herbs should have nullified the effects? I drank it myself, I am not poisoned, am I? I thought uncertainly.

Taking the finger out of the potion and licking it, the man appeared in thought.

Abruptly, he turned and shot a string of questions at me, "What did you use in making this? Where did you get the main ingredient? How much did you process it?"

At the back of my mind, I could vaguely feel the light beaming in through the window get a little dimmer.

"I..."

Over the course of the next fifteen or so minutes, I explained how I went into the forest, found Dia's predecessor, harvested her venom sac and teeth, made the potion using a few herbs I picked up over the same expedition.

Quite obviously, I omitted the part where I come into this world, and the part that I was the indirect cause of the original obsidian serpent's death.

"Show her to me."

"Pardon?"

"The snake. Do not make me force your scaly companion out of you." He said and nonchalantly added, "Most say that it is quite painful."

[He is bluffing. He can not guarantee you having Dia, you two are not formally bonded either, so her magical affinity would not have been imprinted on you...]

Suddenly, his left pupil turned vertical and started emitting golden hue, the hall seemed to have gain back some of its lost luster.

[...never mind, he has Dragon Eyes. Call out Dia!] Codex's voice became more and more frantic as the knight's left eye continued to get brighter and brighter still.

Come out, Dia. I sighed.

Dia was not someone I wanted to lose, even if the officials stepped in. She was...

She was family now.

A couple breaths later, Dia's head rested on top of mine as she curled around me neck.

"Hisss!"

"Calm down, Dia." I tried pacifying her, knowing that my stressed state of mind caused her to label the knight as an enemy. Which could end badly for both of us.

"Hoh... That's not darkness. Interesting." The man muttered as he rubbed his chin with his right hand, contemplating.

"Sir, may I ask what this means for us?" I asked when I noticed the knight had not spoken anything for a few minutes.

"You may not. But since I am so generous, I shall tell you anyway," He said as he handed me a fistful of coins. "I will be buying your whole stock of... potions... and recruit you for a mission." By the time he finished saying this, the bucket had disappeared, gone to likely where the vials had gone earlier.

I looked at my now weighted hands.

Silver coins.

5... 10... 15 Silver coins. That's 1500 bronze coins. We've hit lottery...!

—Clunk

"Oh my, I didn't know we were having company today."

I turned around to look at my mom dropping a bag of various cookware, but her own line of sight pointed to somewhere behind me.

"Welcome back, Mom." My mouth opened by muscle memory.

"Mhm. So, pray tell, mister knight of the academy, what caught your fancy in this humble abode?" She asked as she approached us.