"What are you talking about?", Rudra tries to intend as if he didn't know anything
"Don't try to play an act, I heard you inside asking about the spiritual Somna fruit.", That girl said as if she had caught Rudra.
"so, tell me, do you want to buy it?", she repeated her question.
After thinking for a moment, Rudra understood that this woman somehow got a spiritual Somna fruit and she was now trying to gain profit through his helplessness to get that fruit.
"what would be the prize?", Rudra inquired.
"It's simple, a little bit higher than the market, six iron shillings", that Woman said straight forward.
Previously in the shop, Rudra had got to know that the initial price for the Spiritual Somna fruit was five iron shillings, but here this Woman was asking for six iron shillings in exchange for the Spiritual Somna fruit. He didn't care because even if the woman would profit, Rudra would profit too. Thinking this, Rudra agreed.
"fine then, we will complete the deal tonight at the broken tree spot near the hills", the black-robed Woman said and walked away.
Rudra just shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the mansion.
This was when Jahnvi ran out of the shop with a box in her hands. She searched around and her Gaze spotted Rudra walking back towards the mansion. She ran towards Rudra, and using her speed, as a practitioner she was able to reach him in just a few seconds.
"Umm, Hey Jahnvi! As a true friend, can you do me a favor!", Rudra called out to Jahnvi but he still seemed to be nervous about asking her.
"What?", Jahnvi asked back with a smile.
"Can you lend me six iron shillings for a few days?", Rudra hesitantly asks her.
"What for, to buy the 'Green line flower'?", Jahnvi asked.
"No, I need them for some other reason!", Rudra said in his try to hide the real reason.
Jahnvi frowned a bit, as if she doubted him but still, "Okay, let's meet in your clan's garden this evening!", She then ran away, as if she was in a hurry.
Rudra just sighed and walked back to the mansion, but his steps stopped as he thought and entered an Ayurveda shop. When he came out of the shop, he had a medicine bowl in his hands. Now after buying this thing, he didn't even have a single penny.
Rudra looked upwards to see that the evening sky was rising as the sun already hid behind the horizon. He ran towards the mansion as fast as he could. After running continuously for a few minutes, he arrived at the mansion.
He was panting in front of the gate, but he composed himself and calmed his breath. Then he carefully entered the mansion, trying to hide the bag of ingredients in his hands, somehow he was able to get to his room and hide the bag in his cupboard.
He then walked towards the garden of the mansion, as soon as he entered the garden he saw many people who were extremely tired of practice were here to relax their minds. Rudra just found a bench below a tree and sat there silently.
After sitting there for a few moments, he saw a beautiful girl in a pink dress enter the garden. The atmosphere changed suddenly as most of the gazes were now spectating that girl. That girl elegantly walked through the garden as the wind weaved through her long hair which fell to her waist.
She was looking towards a specific person and a little smile appeared on her face, and as her lively smile widened, and with her smile the dimple formed on her cheeks made her look cute and beautiful as well. But everyone's expressions changed into irritation as they saw the girl go near a specific bench and sit right beside Rudra.
"You look beautiful!", Rudra couldn't stop himself from admiring her. Jahnvi just blushed with her flushed-out face, due to Rudra looking at her, she normalized her expressions.
Jahnvi then took out a special kind of sack bag, it seemed as if it was made from a special material, and had weird intricate designs on it, making it look attractive.
"Here, have your iron shillings!", Jahnvi handed that bag to Rudra with a smile.
The bag's fiber was weird, it was flexible but felt like a metal with touch. With just one view he understood that it was a low-rank spatial sack bag. Spatial bags are made with specific fibers and then some specific mantras are drawn on them by a mage or a saint, providing the bag with its own space of a particular size.
It looked small from the outside but had much more space from the inside. Rudra opened that bag, inserted his hands inside, and took out six iron shillings, that Jahnvi had kept in them. Rudra then handed that sack bag back to Jahnvi, but she refused, "This space bag is a gift for you!"
"Umm, okay I will keep it since you didn't meet me for six years.", Rudra said as he kept those coins inside and ran towards his room in a hurry.
But little did he forget that Jahnvi was left there alone. Rudra didn't think of anything else, as the time decided to meet the black cloak the woman was enclosing. Rudra wore some black clothes and a mask for security reasons so that no one could recognize him.
Rudra had decided to hide his face for security reasons so that no one could identify him at night.
Rudra just jumped out of the window and stealthily got into the path to the broken tree spot.
Silently, walking through the streets he arrived at the broken tree spot near the hills. The broken tree was a well-known spot in Kashvyagiri. The broken tree's trunk was quite huge, and below it were placed some benches, people came here to enjoy the clear skies at nighttime. At a little distance were lanterns hung on poles.
Rudra then spots a Woman's figure, wearing a black cloak and hiding her face with a mask, sitting on a wooden bench. Rudra approaches her and sits on the other edge of the same bench. There was a clear distance between both of their positions.
"So you arrived at the right, did you bring the money?!", The Black Cloak Woman asked.
"You have the fruit?!", Rudra asked as he saw the main topic came on track.
"I have it, but did you bring what I asked for?", the black cloak woman replied.
"yeah, I have it, now let's do the exchange, I give you the coins and you give me the fruit, hand by hand.", Rudra explained.
Both of them took out their things, Rudra took out six iron shillings and the woman took out the spiritual somna fruit, and then exchanged them. Rudra got his fruit and the woman got her iron shillings.
At first, both of them took a look at their items and confirmed it was real. They ensured that their exchanged items weren't fake.
"So this isn't fake right", asked Rudra.
"Do you really think I would do such a trick?", the black cloak woman said.
"I don't think like that but since the world is like that we have to be conscious."
Rudra then got up and ran towards the mansion.
Rudra came back to the mansion and in his room, and he kept the spiritual somna fruit in his bag, but then he felt something, it was like a wooden box. He then slowly took out that box-type thing out, and started to examine it, 'What is this box? Should I open it?'
With this thought, he opened the box to find something wrapped very carefully, protectively in a red cloth. He also found a letter and opened it.
"Dear Rudra, this is a gift for you, but I would suggest you unwrap that cloth carefully. -Jahnvi"
'So this is a surprise.', Rudra unwrapped that cloth to find a flower inside it. But it was not an ordinary flower. It was the 'Green line flower' that Rudra had been searching for.
'Jahnvi! Such a favor, This is my promise I will return this debt to you as soon as possible!', Rudra promised himself.
Rudra had now collected all the ingredients for the spiritual pill, he was ready.
But then a thought struck his mind, 'What if I do not succeed on the first try?', this made him panic as he had only one set of ingredients so he couldn't try another time. Where would he bring another set of ingredients from, as he had very hardly obtained some ingredients for his first set?
After thinking a lot an idea struck his mind but then,
*Knock*knock
But suddenly all his thoughts were disrupted by a knock on his room door. Rudra hid all the things in his sack bag and hid that sack bag under his bed and went to the door. He opened the door to find his sister, "Mayra?!"
Mayra stared at Rudra as he said, "I met Jahnvi today, and she was sad that you didn't even talk to her when in the garden, you made her upset."
"Okay, so I will Apologize later! Hehe", Rudra said as he laughed nervously.
"I knew you were like this, here have this potion, it will help your body energy to increase.", said Mayra and she sounded so strict that out of fear Rudra accepted the glass flask at once.
With her work done, Mayra walked out of Rudra's room.
Rudra was carefully looking at that flask with a hint of sadness, because what could he use that flask for, if even after that his body energy would be sucked out, but still he kept that flask in the cupboard.