After sitting in a mansion that stunk of alcohol fumes and ink for what felt like hours, we wasted no time in leaving the Bellenfort garden. And only once Yua was sure we were out of range of Erika's ears, did either of us speak. Thankfully, her question had nothing to do with Miss Bellenfort's perverted offer this time.
"Are we heading to the forest now?"
"Not yet. You heard that drunk. We need to visit the Apothecary for some Cure Poison potions."
"Eh? But most animals in the forests are weaker than the monsters on the first floor of the dungeon. They shouldn't even be a threat to us."
I shook my finger at her and she pouted, as though my caution wounded her pride.
Miss Bellenfort may have only mentioned the potions as an afterthought, a drunken afterthought no less, but I wasn't about to risk either of us getting poisoned.
"Miss Bellenfort may have been drinking, but she knows enough about the area to draw a map of it from memory. Ignoring her advice would be a risky waste. Besides, you promised to take care of me, but I want to take care of you too."
"… F-Fine. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be safe."
Still pouting and still mildly put off by my preemptive request for caution, Yua pretended to huff. I gave her a pat on her hooded head to prove I meant no harm to her pride. Her cheeks warmed at my touch and the pout faded.
Stopping on an unfamiliar street corner, I opened the new map menu and zoomed in on Amoranth. Thanks to it being detailed enough to show the exact positions of the buildings in the city, I was able to plot out a shorter route, instead on just relying on the streets we already knew. While fast traveling unfortunately didn't seem to work, little numbered map markers did appear when I focused on one point for a second or two. But that was about all the interaction the menu gave me.
"Hmm? What's that?"
Yua's cat ears twitched curiously, but from the looks of it, what she pointed to was my map. Confused myself, I leaned to check behind it and found only more of the cobblestones that made up the street.
"No. I mean the floating glass thingy in front of you."
"Oh, this is… Wait, you can see it?"
"Yes?"
Yua tilted her head cutely and her tail swished.
"Come here."
I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in close to me. She let out a small yelp of surprise, but didn't complain in the slightest when my sudden action forced her breast to press against my side.
"Yua, can you see this?" I said again, pointing to the map.
"Yes. I thought we agreed we weren't supposed to…in public…"
"Focus. How about this. Can you still see it?"
I switched from the map tab back to the main menu. She cocked her head and took a moment to check our surroundings before replying in a whisper.
"No, I can't. The glass went away. Did you put it in your item box?"
"No. What about these?"
I switched again to the Help menu. Then to my Item Box. Then to the other pages in my menu. She shook her head, denying the existence of all, save for both her and my status pages, but I already knew she could see those because of our time in the dungeon.
So, she can see the map, but not the other parts of the menu? I know it had nothing to do with maintaining contact with her, since my hand was still on her waist. But to her, as soon as I switched tabs, the map and the entire menu system just disappeared.
Maybe she can't see the other menus because they are considered private? She did mention before that showing your status page to someone was about as embarrassing as showing them your underwear. Meaning you generally were only supposed to do so with someone you really trusted. Maps you can buy for a handful of coin aren't exactly private. But then why can't she see the item box menu when she already knows about it?
"Something wrong?"
"Oh, uh. It's nothing. Here," I said, opening the map again. "This is another ability of mine. It's a map of the world."
"Really!" her eyes sparkled, as if she were about to start praising me again. But she stopped and raised a brow. "But if you have this, why did you want to buy a map?"
"I kind of just got it. Plus, look at this."
I pointed to one of many blacked out areas of the map and her confusion grew more and more apparent the longer she stared at it.
"The map looks like this because I've never been to this area, so I don't know anything about it. Not even its name. But look here."
"Hmm?"
I moved the map to show the location of our little cabin and how it and much of the area around it was filled with color in an otherwise sea of black. While I've been there long enough to know the general shape of the small forest in our backyard and the surrounding mountains, nothing but our cabin was named. Miss Bellenfort's map was much more detailed.
Before I could decide whether or not the lack of detail was due to me just not knowing their specific names yet, and while Yua's lips slowly converted into a smile of recognition, a man approached us. With the same reflexive speed of a young boy being caught reading a dirty magazine, I quickly dismissed the map menu and faced him with a poorly made and easily forced smile.
Due to how large the window was, I was half sure he might have seen it too, but he showed no signs of surprise at seeing it disappear into thin air. Assuming that Yua could only see it because of how close we were, or simply because she's my slave, I let out some of the tension in a sigh.
The man's thick mustache lifted into a playful smirk before he slowly shook his head at us. Unlike the bearded merchant that gave us directions earlier, he was chuckling to himself as he walked on past us. I only then realized that I was still holding Yua by the hip. It certainly didn't help when I found Yua gazing up at me lovingly, as if she found the appearance of our cabin on the map heartwarming. Nor did it help our case to realize we had stopped in the entrance to an otherwise secluded alley way, where nobody should have noticed a couple hiding away for a moment of daring public privacy. So, I quickly let her go.
I checked the man's info box just to be safe and found nothing to worry about.
Need to be more careful. We got lucky he misunderstood, but I was already painfully aware of how strange it must look to others to have me staring at them through a window only I could see. Let's not have Yua suffer that same embarrassment.
"Let's just go buy some potions…"
"Okay!"
Thanks to the new map menu and the aerial view of the city it offered, we made it to the Bubbling Cauldron where it stood at the back end of the merchant's district in record time.
As usual, now that the morning rush of Adventurers were done plundering her wares for any and all sorts of potions they'd need to tackle the dungeons, the place was mostly empty. Even some of the planters hanging in the store front were emptied, likely picked clean once their plants were ripe enough to concoct who knows what sort of potion.
On our way in, the only other people we passed were a pair of what looked like housewives from how they were dressed, but upon a glance at their info boxes, I saw that they were merely a couple of teenagers. One of these girls, the one whose cheeks were flushed, was carrying a glass bottle filled to the brim with a pink liquid before she slipped it into her shoulder bag. Her friend giggled to herself, clearly enjoying the other girl's embarrassment.
When the embarrassed girl's cheeks heated up twice fold after noticing my presence, she held her bag protectively to her chest and whipped her face away, as if to deny the fact that she'd been seen. Her giggling friend had to stop in the doorway for a moment to hold her ribs as she begged for the one-sided hilarity to end.
The ruckus she made not only made sure her friend would never forget this moment, but it drew the attention of the shop's owner on us. For better or worse, she recognized us instantly.
"Welcome back to the Bubbling Cauldron, dear customer."
The Apothecary Madame Turquesse brushed her frizzy hair back over her shoulder as she greeted us with a tired, yet oddly bright smile. Wearing just a black, skin-tight dress that showed off way too much of her nearly non-existent cleavage, she looked like she was trying, and failing, to cosplay as a seductive older woman. Only, everything about her was so petite that nobody without direct access to her info box would have been fooled.
As if noticing my thoughts her appearance, Madame Turquesse leaned over her counter, touched a finger to her lip and smirked up at me from beneath the brim of her large witch's hat.
"Dear Customer, are you back for more stamina recovery potions so you can keep entertaining your sex slave there?"
"That's not why we're here!"
Feeling my face heat up, I forced myself to ignore the semi-truth to her question and relaxed. I'd accidentally and unintentionally insulted this tiny potion-fanatic's work a while back and ever since, she's gotten back at me by hitting me with a provocative joke each time I walked into her shop. It was better than her glaring or outright banning me from her shop, but she really liked to hit me where it hurt.
I guess a month wasn't long enough to help her forget the things I said.
"Oh, but we do need more stamina potions, Master," Yua said matter-of-factly. "You used the last one this morning."
"Hahahaha! Oh my. Oh my.~ "
Yua… Why have you betrayed me, Yua?
Clearly not understanding the reason for the tiny witch's laughter, Yua's eyes flitted from me to her, trying to eke out some sort of understanding. I, however, slapped my palm over my face while Madame Turquesse completely failed to hide her laughter behind her hand.
"Oh, don't be so embarrassed, Dear customer. Young men come in all the time asking for stamina potions. Women too. They're my best-selling product!"
Yea… Knowing that people in Amoranth favored potions that helped them to keep their bedtime antics going, instead of ones literally capable of saving their life doesn't make me feel any better.
Though Yua didn't seem at all bothered to be called a sex slave, I don't want the only other apothecary I know to think I'm a massive pervert. I mean, I did notice her revealing dress before the bags under her eyes. But what man wouldn't?
"Anyway," I said. "We are here for Cure Poison potions."
Her laughter stopped almost immediately. Frozen mid-breath before uttering so much as another Ha, her brow furrowed and her face twisted with the sort of sadness you'd expect to find on someone attending the funeral of a long-time friend.
"Oh, no. I'm so sorry, but I don't have any more of those."
Looking as though she wanted to take off her hat to offer condolences, rather than apologize for running out, Madame Turquesse's lips quivered. I breathed slowly through my nose before I could let myself say something stupid.
"Then could you at least sell me the ingredients so I can make it myself?"
Handling it myself would be no problem. I was by no means a master apothecary like this woman, but in our down time this last month, I did manage to prove that my own Apothecary class was no joke. Thanks to the innate knowledge that came with it, I managed to use the ingredients we found in the dungeon to brew us up a sizeable batch of smaller health potions to add to what we already bought.
It wasn't much and I only managed to level up the class once, but who knows, maybe if I level enough, I'll be able to make us some super overpowered potions someday. The sort that, once drunk, could heal all your wounds instantaneously and keep them healed for weeks at a time. Or some sort of strength-boosting potion that would let Yua lift up an entire castle. Or maybe even ones worth so much gold that just selling one could cripple Amoranth's economy.
However, Madame Turquesse shook her head, dismissing my child-like wonder with a lazy flap of her hand. The smile she wore at my expense was gone and replaced by a look so sympathetic it almost hurt.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have those either. King DeGarmo is sending some his men to fight off some big demon in the east. It's supposedly well-known for its poison breath attacks, so they bought up all my stock on their way through the city. I'm completely out of the main ingredient."
Demons again, huh? I'd heard something about some ancient demon king that may or may not have existed, but I marked it off as nonsense and avoided pressing for more details, just in case I accidentally started some new questline I didn't want to be a part of.
Guess this at least means demons, if not demon kings, are real in this world.
"Then would you be willing to tell me where to get the ingredients, then?"
If they were in the dungeon like the others we found, we might be able to hop back in, pick a few and get out in no time. Assuming they weren't on one of the deeper levels, of course. I'm sure Yua would enjoy the chance for a quick fight after a month of sitting on her hands. Madame Turquesse, however, shook her head.
"Normally, I'd keep quiet about where I source my ingredients, but this one isn't exactly a secret. They're imported from Dragma. However, those jerks put an embargo on all their potion ingredients, which means I have to collect them myself here in Vierre. But these days, I don't have time to leave my shop. That's why I sent a request to the Adventurer's Guild this morning to have some gathered for me… Geez, first sugar and a few veggies and grains, and now potion ingredients? Apothecaries over in Dragma must be cackling behind their cauldrons right about now. How depressing."
"A request? By chance, do you mean this?"
I handed her the quest slip we'd taken and a small smile made its return to her lips before handing the slip back.
"That's it. How lucky that it was you that accepted it. Must have been your inner Apothecary that made you want to take it, huh? You just had a hankering for some ingredient harvesting, didn't you? Tell you what, since you want to be an Apothecary too, I'll make you a deal."
"I'm listening…"
"Bring back as many Connefery Flowers as you can and give half of them to me. Do this and I will not only tell you the recipe, but I'll give you the other ingredients needed to make the Cure Poison potions. And if you use the other half of the flowers to brew some Cure Poison potions, I will buy all of the potions you make at their normal selling price on top of the reward for finishing the quest."
I nodded along with her every word, but kept quiet. My Merchant class was telling me that this was an amazing deal, but that it was also too good to be true. And it was easy to see why.
"But wouldn't earn more coin by making them yourself?"
"Not at all," she said, puffing out her tiny chest. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but DeGarmo's men are still requesting more Cure Poison potions. Apparently, they've received reports that there is more than one demon out there causing trouble. And they're willing to pay extra just to get my potions faster. So, with you helping to brew half of the potions, I will be able to sell even more."
"And you wouldn't be offended by a newbie passing their work off as yours?"
"Pfft. Dear Customer, if you managed to screw up a simple Cure Poison potion, you might as well toss your dreams of becoming an Apothecary out with the rubbish."
While my Merchant class was screaming at her for giving away the details of such a lucrative deal, common sense still won out. Knowing about their need for potions would have given me a chance to compete with her by trading directly with the king's army, but I knew I didn't have the connections or name to actually do so. And because I was still a low-level Apothecary, I surely couldn't manage the same kind of deal she got anyways.
"Sound like a deal?"
I looked to Yua for her thoughts and to make sure agreeing now wouldn't act as some sort of magically-binding contract, and all I got from her was a safe smile and a nod.
"Sure. It'll be good practice for me anyways."
I offered her a hand and she all but leapt off her stool to shake it.
"Great! Please remember that I need the flowers in no less than a week's time. The officer in charge of procuring supplies will arrive in the city sometime after the weekend is over. So, we have to be ready by then."
"I'm sure I can handle that."
With my Dimensional Step ability and my new map, getting to Guerraway and back should be a breeze.
"Fantastic," she said, clapping her hands together, "Now that that's been settled, how about I get you those Stamina Recovery Potions? How many would you like? Ten? Twenty? Or maybe fifty? Or should I be asking your sex slave there? She seems strong enough to handle at least thirty."
Having been mostly left out of the conversation, Yua's ears perked up the moment her strength was complimented. Even if for the wrong reasons.
"…Thanks."
I sighed at my past self. That damn bastard screwed up with this tiny witch so badly that not even my offering to help in her love for making potions, as well as making her money, was enough to mend the wound my words caused. I pulled out my coin purse all the same.