The door suddenly opened up as Julia walked into the room with a completely different expression than her usual self. "That person is known as the Goddess of Alchemy. And her name is Julia Onard."
Silence!
For a moment neither Aditya nor Watson said anything. Aditya blankly kept staring at the figure in front of his own eyes. The woman standing in front of him could be described in thousands of ways. Just looking at her, Aditya couldn't describe how shocked his heart was.
The woman in front of Aditya was still wearing the maid uniform that she wore when she had disguised herself as a maid. Now that she was no longer using makeup to hide her face, Aditya finally was able to see the face of the most beautiful woman on the continent of Dying Isle continent. She was the very woman who was his wife.
She had long purple hair that reached down to her waist, her hair is always tied in two messy low pigtails with a square fringe hanging just above her shiny purple eyes, and charming face. Shining purple eyes watched the reaction of Aditya with an amused smile that further enhanced her beauty.
She stands seductively, despite her narrow frame. There's something intriguing about her, perhaps it's her composure, or perhaps it's simply her company.
Just looking at those shiny purple eyes, the young dragon found himself unable to resist her charm. Her beauty is enough to cause wars. All the models and actresses in his previous world started to feel average when he laid his eyes on her.
She had an hourglass figure. It seems her maid uniform couldn't hide her curves. Standing at the height of 5 feet 6 inches, Julia's beauty was enough to give herself the title of Goddess. In his two lives, Aditya has never met anyone as beautiful as the woman who was his wife. At this moment Aditya also realized how lucky he was. He understood why millions of men all around the world envied him.
For the entire 5 minutes, Aditya never blinked his eyes. The more he looked at Julia the more he wanted to keep looking at her. There was no lust in his eyes even though male Dragons are known to have second-most lust after the succubus race.
"Are you done looking?" Julia asked in an irritated tone. Even though Julia sounded angry on the surface, inside she was very happy. Most of the time, Julia would just hide her face because she didn't like the lustful gazes of other men on her body. What made her happy was the fact that Aditya didn't look at her with lust. There was only warmth, and appreciation in his eyes.
Julia has finally decided to reveal her identity. After the conversation she had with Aditya, she was convinced that her man had changed. Julia wanted to give Aditya a chance. Before Aditya's life was all about alcohol but now that he had changed, she wanted to support him for a better future.
Also this morning, she had a small talk with her loyal butler Watson. The current Aditya needs her help more than anything. If her little contribution can help Aditya in becoming a great man, she wouldn't mind doing it.
"I apologize." Aditya looked away while trying to lower his heartbeat.
"I am ashamed to know that Miss Onard has been working as my maid for 2 years now and I couldn't recognize her." Aditya wondered what the people of the continent of Dying Isle would do when they learns that their goddess has been working as a maid for someone low-level alcohol addict.
"There is no need for you to address me this formally. You can call me Julia." Unlike what Aditya thought, even though Julia had revealed her identity, she still remained the same Julia that he knew. There was no change in her personality which greatly relieved Aditya as he also didn't want to deal with some arrogant princess.
"Julia, do you have a way of curing their crippled mana hearts?" If Julia really can cure their crippled mana hearts, then in the shortest time Aditya would have the power to build an army of second-order warriors.
When a cultivator's mana heart is crippled, that person loses their ability to harness Mana from the atmosphere. For internal type cultivators, this would mean the end of their cultivation carrier. But for body-type cultivators, since their main focus was getting their bodies stronger like a weapon, even if the mana heart is crippled, they don't lose all of their strengths. That's why the slaves that Watson bought still had the strength of first-order warriors.
If Julia can cure their crippled mana hearts, Aditya can just buy all the body cultivators with crippled mana hearts from the slave merchant and add them to his army. He won't even have to worry about the slaves betraying him since the slave's contract will prevent the slaves from betraying him.
"I know the method of curing a cripple heart. But the material is the real issue."
"What materials do you need? I am more than willing to invest all of our reserved money to buy the materials."
Aditya won't hesitate to use all the gold coins that he earned as tax today. Having 7 second-order warriors could greatly increase the strength of his kingdom. Even the two nobles who are under him, only have 4 second-order warriors. The weakest of the second-order warrior can easily kill 100 Peak First-order warriors. The difference between having first-order warriors and second-order warriors is like comparing a lion with a dragon.
"Master, the materials that I will need are the heart of wyvern, Phoenix Ash, and Poisonberry flower. Since getting the heart of wyvern will be super expensive, I can replace it with a Master's drop of blood. Since Dragons are superior to Wyverns. The Phoenix Ash has a hidden property that can heal injured organs."
"What about Poisonberry Flower?" Aditya thought Poisonberry was used to make poison.
"The blood of a dragon has a lot of vitality, even a single drop of blood contains lots of energy. I need that energy to restart the mana heart. While the Phoenix Ash when mixed with the blood of Dragon, the hidden healing property will be activated which will heal the crippled mana heart. But the process is over."
Julia looked at Watson who also looked astonished. "When a cultivator's heart is crippled, their body starts accumulating lots of impurities. These impurities will block the mana pathways. When the poisonberry flower is used in a proper ratio, it will give us a substance that can clean all the impurities."
"Well, Watson what are you waiting for? Take the money we earned today and buy all the materials."
"Young master, poisonberry flowers are not cheap and each flower can cost up to 15 royal gold coins. Also, it might take a few days to get all the needed materials."
"No problem, we can wait a few days." It's not like Aditya was going to attack the nobles tomorrow. He had others things to be taken care of.
Watson was about to leave, but then Aditya stopped him. "Before you leave, make sure to buy at least 100 slaves that we can train to become our soldiers." Now that Aditya had 7 ex-body cultivators there was so much he do could with them. Those 7 could use their experience to train the new young soldiers.
After Watson left, Aditya and Julia walked together. "Master, why do you need slaves to become your soldiers? You could always recruit new soldiers."
"Please stop calling me Master. You can just call me by my name." Aditya felt uncomfortable knowing that his wife was calling him master. Even though Aditya still hasn't developed any feelings for the woman walking beside him, she was still his wife in name. Aditya wanted to give her the respect that she deserved.
"As for your question, the salary of an average soldier is one gold per month. We are already paying 100 gold coins to our 100 soldiers. In our current financial situation, I don't want to invest in recruiting soldiers when I can just buy slaves and train them to become soldiers."
Aditya already hasn't paid the salaries of his remaining 100 soldiers for 5 months now. By recruiting more soldiers, more money will be required. But if the salaries that he is going to pay to his new recruits are used in resources for raising the power of slaves, Aditya will receive more benefits. Also once their situation gets better, Aditya is planning on giving even the slaves a small sum of salary each month.
"But master.....I mean Aditya, it might affect your reputation if people learned that you're using slaves as soldiers." Every king cared about their image more than anything so they never used slaves to become soldiers.
"Julia, I don't care about my reputation. It's not like I had any good reputation. I don't understand why the others kings don't use this cheap method." Aditya already had a negative image because of being an alcohol addict. He wasn't the type of person who cared about his reputation or image. What mattered more than anything was the power. In this world power was everything.
"Well, if you're in need of money then I have something for you." Aditya raised his eyebrow and looked at Julia.
"As long as you buy me the needed materials I can make one-star healing potions that can completely heal any first-order cultivator. The healing potion that I am talking about is much cheaper than the ones available on the market. The ingredients needed to make the potion will cost only 50 silver coins per potion." Julia had no knowledge about the market or economy. But whenever she needed money in the past, she always used her Alchemy skills.
"Julia, are you really sure?" Aditya tried his best to not show his emotions on his face.
"Well, the Kingdom does need funds to rebuild everything. If you're okay with it, then I can tell Watson to buy the materials." Julia wasn't sure if Aditya was going to agree with her suggestion. There was still a hint of hesitation in her voice.
"Julia I thank you enough." Suddenly the Goddess of Alchemy widened her eyes when Aditya bowed his head.
"There is no need for you to bow your head." Julia quickly replied.
"So, how are we going to divide the profits. How about 50/50?" Aditya asked after calming himself.
"I don't need the profits as long as you promise me something." Julia with a tone of hesitation.
"As long as it's within my powers, I will promise anything."
"I was planning on building my laboratory in the castle. I want you to help me with the funds that I will need to do my alchemy research." Julia was known as the Goddess of Alchemy. Back when she was living with her parents, Julia always had the needed materials for her research. But after coming to Azure city, due to the lack of funds she was unable to continue with her alchemy studies.
Seeing Aditya thinking so deeply, Julia felt that she had asked too much. "If you want we can postpone....."
"No, I was thinking where we should build your lab." Aditya replied while thinking. The previous Aditya has never explored the Castle.
"We can build the laboratory next to the library. There is an abandoned building next to the library." Aditya never knew if his castle had any library.
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After that, both future husband and wife discussed how the healing potion production was going to take place. Aditya didn't wish to share the production method with anyone. So the production of the healing potion, for now, was going to take place in Julia's laboratory. Julia also had asked Aditya to buy some female slaves who can help her with the production.
Scene change to the training grounds
The training ground that once used to be filled with soldiers' training, was now empty. Standing in the middle of the training ground, 7 slaves that Watson previously bought was standing before their lord.
"Hello, everyone my name is Aditya."