It was hard to properly compose myself when I was suddenly confronted with a goddess like this. Although I had managed to maintain my calm around Irena, that was also when I had specifically prepared to call for her. Here, I was expecting it to take several days before Scarlet responded to my request to meet.

“So? What did you want to discuss?” She asked, walking over to sit at the chair in front of my desk. “I imagine it must be fairly important if you included it in your trade proposal.”

“That’s right.” Nodding, I took a deep breath. I had to get through this in order to return to Julian. “Did Queen Saruko mention the pills that I was offering?”

“She did. Otherwise, I would not have made the trip here myself.” Scarlet confirmed, red eyes staring at me. “A way for my people to prosper, without the need to form a pact with a monk. As well as a pill to cure the dying blood. I believe those were the contents of what you were offering?”

Seeing that my message had been properly relayed, I retrieved the sample pill I had prepared from my storage ring. “This is the prototype pill that I am developing for the first item in the trade. It is a pill which contains pure spiritual energy. It should be fine for you to consume it, or directly transform it into a martial spirit. I am… admittedly not too familiar with how your people reproduce, aside from the energies involved.”

Scarlet waved her hand, and was suddenly grasping the pill that I was holding. Inspecting it, she hummed thoughtfully. “The spiritual energy here is weak. Ten… no, it would take twenty of these to form a humanoid child.”

I gave a slight chuckle at that, shaking my head. “I’m still refining the formula. Ever since the Boundless Caravan opened up the services of the Greater Pantheon, high-quality medicinal materials have become more expensive to purchase. I want to balance the formula so that it is as cheap to produce as possible while still being effective.”

Scarlet gave a small, understanding nod. “How expensive would this pill be, according to the current formula, then?”

“Let’s see…” I ran some quick math in my head, referencing the market values I had seen when performing my research. “Three tokes of Tryval, and sixteen tokens of Leowynn are enough for me to get the materials for a batch of one hundred pills. If I purchased them purely through gold, and found a supplier at market price, I could make that same batch with a hundred and twenty gold.”

“So one pill is a little more than a gold coin.” Scarlet nodded her head, seemingly understanding so far. “And what is your target price, before you consider the formula completed?”

I gave a somewhat bitter smile at that. “If possible, I would like each pill to be less than one gold, while being at least as effective as that one in your hands.” Paying with the tokens of faith was dozens of times more expensive than paying with simple gold, but it was hard to find a supplier for certain materials.

Shaking my head, I let out a long sigh. “That pill is just a token of good faith, to let you know that I will live up to my end of the deal. The second pill will require the cooperation of your people, as I need to test the various formulas that I have devised to find the most effective remedy.”

“That is understandable, and in line with what the queen of this country mentioned. However, that is not why you wanted to speak to me, is it?” The Empress of Bloodhaven looked at me with half-lidded eyes, as if she was growing bored. “She assured me that you had a special reason for requesting an audience.”

I cleared my throat, offering a quick nod. “That’s right. I have something that I require your help with, and only you can do it. If you have additional requests of me to fulfill my wish, I would happily oblige. But… I will be needing your ability to read karma in the future.”

“You want to form a pact with me?” Scarlet asked, eyes going wide in surprise before I shook my head rapidly.

“No, no. I don’t need your ability to read the karma of others. I will be needing you to read my karma specifically. I’ve made a deal with the Goddess of Justice, as well as the management behind the Realm of Eternity.” I briefly went over my deal with Julian, and then the one that I had made with Irena only after I descended.

“I see…” Scarlet considered my request, pinching the pill between her fingers. “Reading your karma is no more difficult than sparing you a passing glance. However, if I allowed everyone in the world to request this of me, I would never have any time to myself. Thankfully, if what you say about these deals are true, there will be less people hounding me to read the karma of themselves or others.”

“But, before I agree to this, I want you to answer a question of mine. If I don’t like your answer, you can forget about me ever reading your karma for you, regardless of what deals you have made.” I felt a cold sweat dripping down my back as Scarlet’s eyes focused on me.

“Of course… ask whatever question you want…”

She nodded her head. “Why are you so desperate to return to the afterlife? There are countless ways to obtain eternity as a living being, and you may even become a god. What drives you to so desperately return, to the benefit of everyone but yourself?”

That was… not a question I had been expecting from the First Blood. I thought her question would be a bit more… morbid, or something related to the pills. Instead, it was something far easier for me to explain.

“If you had asked me that right after I got here… it would be because I didn’t want to lose the people precious to me again.” I admitted, lowering my gaze to the floor as I thought about the day Julian fell from the palace. “I didn’t want my friends to lose themselves to the luxuries of paradise, only to fall to the deepest depths of sin. Only to see their faces greeting me every day, mere shadows of their former selves created by some higher system.”

I took a deep breath, lifting my head to meet her gaze. “However, after learning the truth from Irena… I want to return. Not just for the deals I made, I want to return to see her again. I want to tell her what she means to me, the words we never had the chance to exchange.”

Scarlet listened to me talking, a small smile forming at the corner of her lips. “Love drives a man to many things. You could walk through a valley of flames, or tear through a horde of fearsome beasts.” Saying that, she briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them, there was a different light in her gaze.

“Currently, you walk the border between light and shadow. Specks of darkness have taken root amidst the light of your soul, showing that some of your decisions since returning have had negative karmic impact. However, it is far from beyond hope. Most of your soul has yet to be filled, and the darkness may yet be driven out.” After saying that, the light in her eyes returned to normal, and I offered her a thankful smile.

“Thank you, empress. I’ll let you know when I have a better formula for the pill.” I cupped my hands together, offering her a small bow. However, she did not appear done.

“I have been around a very long time, Thane Lorient. Long enough to learn many skills. Although I do not dare to claim to be your equal in alchemy, there are advantages to being the Empress of Bloodhaven. Certain plants grow within my domain that you cannot buy from Tryval’s exchange. These plants thrive under the bloody aura of my kin, as well as my own divine power.”

“I’ll send a shipment of these herbs to you in the coming days, so that you can study them for compatibility with your formulas. If you can replace a critical ingredient, the production cost of the pills should lessen considerably.” Only after saying that did she stand, clutching the pill in her hand.

“Thank you for your generosity, empress.” I gave a sincere smile, happy to have her help. These pills were ultimately prepared to benefit her people, so for materials to be grown in their area would make it easier for them to be produced in the long run. Although that would take some of the production power out of the hands of Hanbei, that did not matter to me. If she had asked for the complete formula, I would have given it to her without a moment of hesitation.

I watched as the Goddess of Ki stretched out a thin hand, grabbing at the air. She tore downwards, ripping a hole in space before calmly walking through. After she had left, the gap in space was quickly repaired, until there was no sign of her previous presence here. Nothing but the lingering scent of copper in the air.

Thankfully, it seemed that she had agreed to my proposal. Most likely, she had asked about the production price for the pills in order to negotiate a fair trade for bloodforged equipment. Still… it seemed like I had more work ahead of me.

Sitting back in my bed, I let out a deep sigh. There were numerous ways to solve Scarlet’s problem with spiritual energy, even without the use of a pill. After all, it was simply condensed spiritual energy housed within an herbal container. Any half-talented summoner could open a small gate directly to the underworld to harvest a similar amount of energy.

If I knew this, Scarlet surely did as well. A simple card from Deckan would likely solve her problems in the long term far more appropriately than these pills, which meant two things. One, I was taking a gamble on her personality. If she was a more pragmatic individual, the pill would have meant nothing to her, and she would have refused me outright.

And two… I need to show that the pill can be improved. The one I gave her was simply a prototype, and I told her as much. That was why she gave me her own estimate… twenty pills to create one full martial spirit. That was the goal she set for me to reach. Not simply making it cheaper, but multiplying its effect nearly two dozen times.

I had to admit that the Empress of Bloodhaven had been around long enough to understand many things. The only ruler older than her would be the Eternal Princess… If I did not manage to improve the pill to meet her goal, she would probably cut off our arrangement.

My alternative was to give the pill an effect that could not be replicated simply by harvesting spiritual energy from the underworld. A way to increase its value in the eyes of the empress. Previously, I had considered this method impossible, as there weren’t any known herbs that had the necessary characteristics. But, she had said that she would be providing me with materials that grew within the bloody aura of her kingdom.

I felt my lips tugging into a wide smile, knowing that my plan for this pill had evolved far beyond its initial stage. Now that I was going to have access to these materials, it was time for me to expand my ambitions.

If it wasn’t enough that I could give them access to the spiritual energy to produce a martial spirit, that was fine. With these materials, it should be possible to open the path for two martial spirits to naturally give birth to their own children.

That was Scarlet’s final hint to me. She told me how far love could push someone. I let out a laugh as I realized how deeply she had directed that conversation. Giving me subtle choices, trusting me to catch on to vague hints. She definitely knew who I was in my last life before she came here, and had prepared herself accordingly.

Well played, Empress of Bloodhaven. Well played, indeed…