After Cindi had left, Rizaneth went to look for Gaur. She found him writing a letter.
"Gaur, eh? … Why are you writing a letter and to who?"
"Don't worry about it, Lady Rizaneth. Is there something you need?" he asked, looking up.
"I need help with an investigation. Is Dithar still around?"
"Yes, of course. I'm sure he's at the usual spot. What's the investigation about?"
"I'll tell you once I meet him", she replied with a wink.
Gaur looked worried. "Please, try not to cause any mischief, Lady Riza."
"Okay okay. See you around", and with that, she left the room.
Reeve arrived at the shop. He was actually surprised that he didn't get lost. Well, who could get lost while asking for directions at every turn? Either way, everything turned out alright, by his standards that is. The shop was very small, and it looked like it had been around for centuries. There was a dingy sign that read, "Cyrla's Herbs" in large text.
"I wonder how I can read and understand this text", Reeve thought aloud.
There was something else that caught his attention when he came closer to the shop. When he arrived in Sky City, he could see a lot of the specks of light. These ones were white; it was like looking at a fluorescent bulb. However, right now, he saw many specks of light and they had different colours.
Thinking that he was hallucinating as usual, he went inside. The inside of the shop looked even worse than the outside. It was gloomy and dark. If someone saw this, they would think they were inside a witch's lair or something like that. Then again, magic was real, so the person might really be a witch…
"How can I help you?" asked a voice.
Reeve turned to see where the voice had come from. Instead of an ugly, old dirty woman, he saw a beautiful young woman with golden brown hair. His jaw dropped while his eyes widened in amazement. A witch huh …
"It's rude to ignore someone when they are trying to initiate a conversation, do you not think so?" said the owner of the voice.
"My apologies. You must be Cyrla", he said, extending his hand.
"Well, no. That's my grandmother. What herbs do you need? We have all sorts of …" her words trailed off. When she had first spoken, she hadn't seen his face clearly. Now she had. What had she seen? Red glowing eyes, a pale face with multiple stitches. No, she was not mesmerized. It was more like … eh … fear.
"Do you know that it's also rude to stare?" asked Reeve, with a smirk.
The girl regained her composure, before responding, "My apologies. So, what are you looking for?"
"Do you have Valerian plants?"
The girl was surprised. However, she did her best not to show it. "Well … yes we do. Can I ask, why you need them?"
"Why would you be selling something if you don't think anyone is going to buy it?"
"…"
"Anyways, how much do they cost?"
"Twenty copper coins per plant."
Reeve fumbled through his pockets and came to a stunning realization. He was broke! One would ask, why would he visit a shop without checking his monetary situation? Well, there's something called impulse. When he was told about the shop, he simply took off on impulse. Now that he was here, he realized that he had been too impulsive.
"Hold on. I'll be back in a moment", he said, before leaving in a hurry.
The girl was left visibly stunned. Was this … guy … penniless? Well, it was none of her business, she decided. Her business was minding the shop for her grandmother.
Reeve arrived at Jaen's shop, and after an intense bout of begging and praising, Jaen gave him a silver coin. With that, he returned to the shop and bought five Valerian plants, which he took back to Jaen's shop. The girl smiled and treated him like royalty. She thought he was an idiot who didn't know anything about herbs and plants. What kind of an idiot would spend a silver coin to buy such smelly plants?
Anyway, without knowing that he had made an impression on the girl, Reeve resumed his work. He extracted the essence from the flowers, until he had five vials full of a colourless liquid. Now that he had the samples, he needed a test subject. While he was still pondering where to get the test subject …
"I told you I wanted the portion urgently! Why haven't you finished it yet?" said a rough, feminine voice.
"B-but I-I told you t-that…"
"Enough excuses! I'll wait until you're done! Hmpf!"
"You … at least give me a week. No, four days is enough…"
In a matter of minutes, two people entered the room that Reeve was in. One of them was the old alchemist, Jaen. The other one was the fat middle-aged lady that he had seen back when he came with Riza. They were still arguing. She looked at the portions on the table.
"What do you mean by you need more time? Eh? Aren't those my portions?" she asked, snatching one of the vials from the table.
"Umm no … those are …"
"Those are what?"
"They're incomplete. We don't know what their effects are! Please put t…"
"I'm taking this with me!" she said, throwing two gold coins towards Jaen, who hurriedly caught them. "If this doesn't work, I'm going to make sure you're thrown into the dungeon! Hmpf!"
"B-but Lady Severin, I just told you that it's an incomplete product! How can you threaten to have me thrown in the dungeons when you stormed into my shop and took an incomplete portion? I've been too nice to you recently. I had forgotten my own background! Leave my shop!"
"W-what! How can you…"
Jaen dragged the flustered lady out of the shop, and threw her outside. He even made sure to throw her money at her.
"My husband will hear about this! Hmpf! I'll make sure you'll never open another shop in Sky City again!"
"Oh, is that so? I'll thank you when that happens. I have suffered enough at your hands. Now, don't come here ever again!"
With that, he closed the door.