Chapter 8: Chapter 8

The cloak was wrapped securely over my head as I headed into town. The villages were still incomplete. The road is still coarse, and some houses were still made out of wood. Still, the marketplace is as good as any other kingdom. The residents here all know how to gather and dry natural herbs used for various spices and healing. Although this kingdom was newly built, it had a lot of trade because of the fine works of the villagers.

As I walked around town, my eyes started to wander around. All of the residents here are accompanied by their contracted spirit partners.

I smiled as I watched all the happy smiles of the villagers as they interacted with their partners. I still couldn’t believe it. The progress of this kingdom was going great thanks to Ace’s leadership and Rose’s ability to restore their essence as a tamer.

I headed for the nearest stalls and began to look through the various herbs lining the table. “There’s a lot of new herbs here,” I observed and picked up a strange purple root with green orbs growing at its branches. “What is this called? I have never heard of it, nor have I read it in books.” I asked the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper smiled at me. He was an old man in his middle ages. Even though I was a regular in his shop, I still didn’t know his name. It was because I was afraid that he would ask me for mine. “It’s a sea root. Our country has just established trade with the Atla Kingdom. It’s salty and would go well in making herbal soups. You can also remove those round things and dry the root by itself. It makes an excellent tea.” He told me.

I pursed my lips and placed the root back on the table. It can’t be used for healing, so there’s no reason for me to buy it.

A lavender leaf caught my eyes, and I pointed towards it. “What about those?”

The old shopkeeper smiled. “The stems contain a few droplets of alcohol that some of the pubs use to strengthen the alcohol content. As for the leaves, I heard that it has an antibacterial property.” He took one and handed it to me to see.

I took it and took a little sniff at its fragrance. My nose immediately wrinkled at the familiar scent. It does smell like alcohol. Maybe I can use it and make a potion to fight off bacterial infection.

I rummaged through my bag and handed him a small pouch. “4 grams of those.”

The shopkeeper nodded. “That will be two copper coins.”

I handed him the payment and received the bag of herbs from him. Afterward, I decided to restock on the fundamental healing herbs I usually buy from him before going to the other shops. At another stall, I bought a few bottles of containers to store the potions and have them shipped out to other kingdoms.

I let out a scream when a snake appeared in from of me, hanging from one of the apple stalls. Its forked tongue flickered in and out as it offered me an apple.

“Manta!” The girl watching over the stall scolded the snake with both hands on her hips. “What did I say about jumping out of nowhere and scaring customers?” She lets out a sigh before turning her attention back at me. “I’m sorry about that. Please take the apple for free as compensation.”

I pulled the cloak tighter around me to make sure that none of my hair slipped out. I didn’t want to offend her, so I took the apple out of courtesy. “Are you sure?” I asked her.

“Certainly!” She nodded. “And I can guarantee you that it’s the juiciest of all. Manta is really good when it comes to picking apples. Try it.”

Taking her word for it, I took a bite out of the apple and immediately tasted the light sweetness of the apple. “It’s good!” I sounded more surprised than I thought. I used the sleeves of my cloak to wipe out the excess juice from my lips. “Thank you for this! Next time, I’ll be sure to buy one from your store. But only if Manta will be the one to choose for me.” I raised a finger and caressed the side of the snake’s face.

The girl laughed. “Sure thing.”

I waved her goodbye before looking through the rest of the stalls along the road. For some reason, there seemed to be a lot of commotion going on in one of the stalls overhead. A lot of girls were hastily making their way in that direction.

Maybe there’s a new dress shop that opened or a new dessert stall? Those were the guesses that I could only think of for girls to go crazy.

Nonetheless, I should avoid that spot if I don’t want to get caught in that commotion.

I turned in the other direction and headed for the nearest flower shop. As I was walking, I noticed that the sun would set any time soon, which is why I had to wrap up my shopping spree as quickly as possible.

“A bouquet of those lavender and sunflowers, please,” I asked the florist guarding the stall. The man nodded and handed me what I asked for. I handed him a silver coin and told him to keep the change. With all the materials that I bought, the bag was starting to weigh me down. And with all the walking that I did today, my feet were getting tired.

But still, I wanted to visit one last place before heading back to the castle.

I went past the town all the way to the back of the village. While the sun was still up, I took that opportunity in order to visit the cemetery. It wasn’t as eerie compared to the graveyard of the other countries. The kingdom was still new, and with the medicines that I am making, I am proud to say that there are only little dead rates as of the moment.

I know that the number of deaths, no matter how big or small it is, shouldn’t be celebrated. But no one should stop me for being proud of the low late rates thanks to a certain someone.

I stopped in front of the largest tombstone in the cemetery and smiled. “Your research really saved a lot of lives. And I hope that you would be glad to hear that I have been expanding your research to make other potions as well.” I placed the bouquet of flowers on top of the tombstone. I bit my lower lip and traced my hands along with his engraved name on the headstone.

It has been years, but thinking about him still makes me tear up. And I do believe that no matter how much time passes, my sister and I will never recover from his sudden death. The death we caused when he pushed us out of the way to save us.

And the worst part was, we didn’t even get to say goodbye or attend his final wake.

My breath hitched, and silent tears fell from my eyes as I spoke, “We miss you, uncle Luke. I wish you could have been here to see all of this.” I whispered and used my cloak to wipe the tears from my eyes before I straightened up. “Aunt Elizabeth sure is having a lot of vacation in the other world. She even sold the school to another family. I wanted to go and look for her, but she was always out of reach. And with all the accounts on her social media, I don't even know how to contact her. Seriously, she needs to write down her email and password so she won’t have to make new accounts every time.” I laughed at the thought. The number of people named Elizabeth that I added to my social media account is almost as much as the friends I have online.

A snap of a twig made me look back to my uncle’s tombstone with a sad smile. “I would love to have another long chat with you someday, but with the amount of homework that I have to do and with all the research, I feel like the hours of the day don’t seem enough. Rose says that I am overworking myself. To be honest, I think that she’s right.” I shifted my bag on my shoulders so that I could move comfortably. “And, about your alter ego’s son Kellar, I finally decided to give up looking for him. They were right. I don’t have to waste my time looking for him just because of our past. All I can do for him now is hope that he is well. And pushing that thought aside-” I stopped to turn around and release a massive gust of blizzard all around me, blowing away the countless arrows that were headed in my direction. I looked towards the foggy area by the trees where a group of men suddenly appeared. I dropped my bag on the ground and lifted my sleeves. Cold air emitted from my hands as I readied myself to fight. “Who the hell are you guys to disturb the area where my uncle and the others are resting?!”