"Your excellency. I will obey your orders!" Abel bowed.
Grand Duke Edwina nodded with satisfaction, "In order for you to live a more comfortable in Angstrom City, I will grant you the title of an aristocrat, a title of a Lord. As the payment for the elven perfumes you are giving me, I'll give you your own villa. You are not going to decline, are you?"
"Yes, your Excellency!"
It's normal that Abel didn't argue with Grand Duke Edwina for these things. He was no longer an ordinary man. Being a lord was not that important to him anymore. As for money, it's always nice to have some, but it's not important to both him and Grand Duke Edwina.
Duke Albert watched as the maid walked Abel out of the dining room. He turned to look at Grand Duke Edwina, "Edwina, do you really want to marry your daughter to a human?
Grand Duke Edwina replied, "Are you saying that we should lock up our daughter after telling her that she can't be with her lover? What if she fails her training because of
that?"
"Yes, that's what I'm saying!" Duke Albert replied, then sighed, "She's just the same as you, won't she? You are both so stubborn!"
Grand Duke Edwina said with a smile, "Twenty years. It will be a test for both of them. Time will dilute everything. Their bond might be strong now, but we'll never know what happens in the future."
Duke Albert still had more questions, "Okay. So, if twenty years have passed, and their love for each other is just as strong, will you bless them from the bottom of your heart?"
"If they can wait twenty years for each other, what else can stop them? You know, I actually like Abel. If he was a real elf, there wouldn't be anything wrong with him."
Grand Duke Edwina continued, "Master of blacksmith, knight commander, third-level wizard, and a talented alchemist. Judging from the data we have on him, he might just be equal to us in twenty years."
There was something very important that Grand Duke Edwina didn't say. She didn't talk about her psychic ability, which allowed her to sense what other people are thinking.
From her mind reading, Grand Duke Edwina could tell what kind of person Abel was. While he was human, he truly considered elves as his equals. This was true even when he was being served by an elven maid. If a man like him could rule the human world, it would be good for the entire elvenkind.
That was why she was so good to Abel. She almost didn't do anything that would trouble him. If she could help him, she even offered opportunities for him to improve himself.
As he returned to his residence, Abel took out his seclusion circle and opened up the "Akara's tent." For tonight, his mission was to make as many refined elven potions as he could. While the other potion masters would need a "flash of light" to do it, he planned to make forty blue quality bottles in one run.
Abel didn't know how likely it was for an intermediate alchemist to have a "flash of light," but judging from the way Loraine talked about, it must be very, very unlikely. He was different, though. By using the "Akara's alchemy bottle," he would have a 100% success rate when he tried to turn white potions into blue potions.
If Abel wanted to impress Grand Duke Edwina, he would need to use both his Horadric cube and the "Akara's alchemy bottle." Fortunately, there were enough materials in Akara's tent. Besides, he was already very familiar with the "elven perfume" after enhancing his soul with the soul potion. In other words, he was already a better alchemist now.
Finally, fifty bottles of the blue-quality 'elven perfume' were refined before dawn-forty for Grand Duke Edwina, and ten more for Carrie as presents. Since Carrie was Loraine's older sister, Abel knew she was going to be good to her. Yet, he thought if he could impress her with his presents, she might just be a lot nicer to Loraine once they were in the Closed Land.
After opening the seclusion circle, Abel took out a bottle of "ration potion" and fed it to Black Wind. He was still really worried about how much it was sleeping. He even told the maid to feed it barbeque yesterday, but it just slept again after two bites.
While Abel was thinking to himself, he was disturbed by the sound of someone stepping on the floor tiles. He was a little annoyed by that. Normally, no one should come in without his permission.
Abel stopped getting angry when he saw that it was Carrie. She was the owner of this place, after all, and he wanted to ask her a favor.
Abel greeted with a bow, "Good morning, Madam Carrie!"
Instead of showing any attention to Abel's gesture, Carrie just looked at Black Wind, which was still lying on the ground. "You need to provide your mount wolf with some magic gemstones," she said with a blank look on her face.
"What might've happened to Black Wind, Madam?" Abel asked in surprise. He didn't know that an elf like Carrie would know how to treat a mount wolf.
"So its name is Black Wind? Well, isn't it ranking up too fast recently? Look how sleepy it is. This is what happens when you don't give your spiritual beast enough time to adapt to its changes. It gets stronger when you rank it up, but it's going to lose a large amount of energy from inside its body. When that happens, you have to provide it with some magic gemstones. Remember, the stones have to be in the same element group as Black Wind."
Carrie was surprisingly articulate when she's explaining something. It was almost like she was a completely different person. She didn't like to talk, but when she did, you could understand a lot from listening to her.
Abel turned around. As he patted Black Wind's neck twice, he said to Carrie, "Thank you so much for the advice, Madam Carrie!"
"You're welcome. Here, this is what Loraine asked me to bring to you," Carrie said, then she gave Abel a book with a sheepskin cover. She just left after that.
"Please wait!" Abel called Carrie quickly.
"What's wrong?" Carrie asked. As it turned out, she only talked a lot when she was trying to be informative.
"Here are fifty bottles of elven perfume. Please, help me to give forty bottles of them to Grand Duke Edwina. The remaining ten bottles are for you!"
"Sure," Carrie replied. Without trying to be polite about it, she inserted all fifty bottles of the elven perfume into her portal bag. Again, she just left after that.
After Abel got up and sent Carrie to leave, the first thing that he did was to open up the sheepskin book that he received. The first page of the book was an alchemy recipe. From the descriptions that he read, he noticed that this was an upgrade version of a basic recipe. Basically, it was a recipe for an intermediate alchemist.
"She just knows what I need, doesn't she?" Abel murmured as he turned to the second page.
The second page of the sheepskin book was titled "skin lotion." According to the text, a "skin lotion" was a skin cleansing medicine for women. Once used, it could make the skin smoother and more elastic. It's also good for whitening the skin.
Abel had a bad feeling at this. As he immediately turned to the third page, he could see the page is titled "hair conditioner." The "hair conditioner," apparently, was for keeping the hair healthy.
The fourth page was titled "beauty potion." According to the text, it could maintain one's facial appearance regardless of age.
This was basically a women's beauty encyclopedia. Apart from the "beauty potion," everything else was just beauty care products. Hair conditioner? Skin Lotion? They're just like the elven potion!
Did Loraine actually pick this for Abel? Abel was starting to have some serious doubts now. Wait, maybe Carrie added some contents when Loraine handed her this book.
Was that it?
....????