Chapter 15: Elven Pharmacist

"Is this where the item craftsman mention I'm Mr. Dagda's letter, Ms. Achlys? The sign on top says that this is a pharmacy."

"Well, the mayor gave me the directions herself, so this must be the place. Crafting magic items and potion making isn't too different, so Dagda used to say."

Mirage and Achlys stood outside of a shop near the southwestern part of the town. The gate they entered the village from was on the northeast, and their new home was toward directly south. This shop was near the border of this town, making it not too far away from their now home.

It wasn't a very large building, but it was still bigger than their new home. There wasn't any other buildings either, making this the furthest one away from the town to the southwestern border.

*knock* *knock*

Not too long after they knocked on the door, an elven man with blonde short hair and glasses came out. He was wearing an annoyed look at first, but it changed when he recognized Achlys.

"Co- Lady Achlys? It has truly been a long time, please come in."

"Yes, it has indeed been some time Dennis."

The two followed the elven man, Dennis inside the building. Unlike how it looked like outside, the inside of the building looked just like the workshops described in books.

"Please don't mind the stuff lying out, I am not normally welcoming people here other than some merchants who I am contracted with. It is a lot easier to have someone else sell your stuff, since I am not familiar with how market works and all."

There were cauldrons and herbs lying all over the place, but there was no bad smell or anything in the air. It looked like Dennis was working on crafting some potions when Achlys and Mirage decided to come in.

Dennis lead them to the back of his shop, where there was a a kitchen and some chairs. The place was a bit unorganized, but not enough to call it untidy. Dennis started to boil some hot water on the counter to make some tea.

'That must be a magic tea kettle? I saw several magic items made by Dagda in the village, and even the cook top and heater in our orphanage was made by him, but it's my first time seeing a kettle. Normally it would be considered a waste to use those materials on a rather specific item.'

"Please welcome yourself, Lady Achlys. And this little friend is?"

"Oh, this is Mirage. He is a child from my orphanage."

"Hello, it is very nice to meet you. You can just call me Mira for short."

"Yes, indeed. Lady Achlys is really good at raising little children, seeing how you are so polite at such a young age."

"Haha, thank you Dennis. We actually came to visit you due to two things. First is to inform you of something, here is Dagda's letter which was written to you."

"Hmm, I see."

Dennis started reading the letter as his face changed to shock, anger, and then confusion. Finally, he set the paper down, and filled a cup of tea for everyone.

"... so, the rumors about Rakia continuing their invasion wasn't false after all?"

"Unfortunately..."

"Haa... I understand, Lady Achlys has also visited the mayor regarding this as well?"

"Yes, I was only able to bring my children from the orphanage with me."

"Ah, I forgot, perhaps our little friend her should stay outside as we speak of this?"

"Please don't mind, Mr. Dennis. I am already aware of what happened at the village, so please don't mind me being here."

"If you say so... Well, so Mirage, Mira here must also be the one Lord Dagda mentioned in his letter, the item about hidin-"

"Ah, Mira can you please go wait in the workshop for a little. This is a complicated matter, so I don't want you to hear it for now."

"... as you wish."

Mirage walked out of the kitchen, and walked to the workshop instead. Since the kitchen didn't have a door, he could easily eavesdrop if he wanted to, but respected Achlys's wish and didn't listen to what they were saying.

With his skill, however, he could easily understand it was about to hiding something related to him. Going from that initial, he was sure that it was an item about his soul, but he was still going to pretend like he didn't know.

Around three minutes after he left, Mirage saw both Achlys and Dennis walking towards while talking about what happened in the village since Dennis last visited.

"So Mirage is Helena's child? Since our village isn't very big, everyone practically knew each other. She was still a young kid running around when I left, so it is a surprise to see that she also has a child now. Then she...

"Ah, let's talk about that later shall we?"

"Lady Achlys, it's not my place to say this but I think that child is already mature enough tk figure out some things. You should also know that he has the right to know about those things related to him."

"I know- it's just that..."

They noticed that Mirage was already standing next to them and stopped talking. Dennis now looked at Mirage, as if trying to remember if Helena also looked like this in the past.

"Sorry for making you wait Mira, I and Dennis were catching up about the past."

"It's okay, you don't have to worry about me."

"Haha, you really are a unique little child. Makes me understand why Lady Achlys is worried about you."

"*cough*"

"Ah, sorry I mean that she is least worried about you. Well, let me see you off."

"Um, I actually had a request before we leave. Could you please hear me out, Mr. Denis?"

"Hm? Go ahead, as long as it's something I can do."

"Can you please let me become an apprentice in your workshop?"