“Can you believe the auction house wouldn’t accept my goods?” Aleister said. “She called my potions discounted rejects and of low and amateurish quality! Can you believe it!”

Myra tried to reassure him while ignoring the glances from the random passerby’s and strangers his loud voice brought. “It’s ok, once you get your official alchemist certification, I’m sure they will realize the mistake they made.”

“Obviously,” Aleister said with a sigh. “But I need these potions to sell in the first place before I can even dream of attempting to take the test.”

“Are you sure you don’t want—”

“Stop offering me your money,” he said. “I already told you, I made the gamble and now it's my responsibility to turn a profit from it. Besides, I already created multiple back up plans just in case this happened. The only problem with them is that I’m either going to get ripped off or the generated income will take much longer to procure.”

He took Myra to the open marketplace and wandered along until he arrived at his destination.

“Oh, it’s you,” the wood elf said.

“Yes, it is I, Aleister, your lord and saviour,” Aleister said, spreading his arms wide open.

The wood elf looked at him with squinted eyes as Myra covered her face with her hands.

“This is not an exaggeration nor hyperbole,” he said, still maintaining his grin. “I come to you bearing a proposition of large magnitude.”

“I don’t know if I like where this is headed.”

“Do not fret, my dear friend,” he said, taking out and opening a wooden case. “Gaze your eyes upon this!”

“Not interested,” she said, waving her hand back and forth.

“Wait, wait,” Aleister hurriedly added. “I’m not asking you to buy these, quite the contrary. I’m asking you to sell them!”

Her ears seemed to perk up. “I’m listening.”

“I could sell these to a random alchemist shop, but I’m not looking to get ripped off, which is why I brought them to you to expand your merchandising and business,” he said.

“What’s the cut?”

“In the future, I will still purchase the herbs from you and you will receive a fifteen percent cut from each potion sold,” he said.

“And if I let you use the herbs without purchase?”

“How about,” Aleister rubbed two fingers against his forehead, “Twenty-five percent as a baseline and depending on the rarity of the other herbs, we can negotiate higher percentage cuts.”

The wood elf pinched her nose. “For now, I will agree to the initial proposal, but I will need to see how well they sell before I can agree to anything further.”

“I can accept that,” he said, handing the case over. “All the recommended sale prices are listed on each flask. They are unfinished potions, so I don’t expect most of them will sale for the listed price, which is why I made them higher than normal. Obviously it would benefit us both if they didn’t get too low, but its better if everything goes because even one gold is more useful than ten gold if it doesn’t exist. Oh, and I will bring you another case of completed potions next week.”

“And if there is a problem with these potions?” she asked.

“There shouldn’t be any, but if there is, just tell them I will be here next week, at the same time.”

“You called yourself, Aleister, correct?”

“I do, but don’t attach my name to the products. Although not likely, if some people found out about them, they might buy them on purpose,” he said after a nod. “I don’t think I caught your name.”

“You may call me Phisvaelte,” she said, bringing forth a noticeable elven accent. “What would you do if someone purchases your product, and tries to sell it as their own?”

“For now...nothing,” Aleister said. “On the off chance someone even tries such a thing, I don’t care. What I’ve concocted is nowhere near valuable nor important enough for any action. Perhaps I’ll consider it in the future when I deal with more expensive materials, but for now—it is irrelevant.”

“Understood.”

With a wave, he said, “Great, then see you next week.”

“What if she just takes your potions for herself?” Myra asked as the two of them walked back to the manor. “Or if she cheats you out of your cut?”

“She won’t.”

Myra raised one of her eyebrows. “You don’t know that.”

“I don’t but there are a couple of reasons I’m not worried about it,” Aleister said with a shrug. “The biggest reason is because most of the merchants you see at the open marketplace don’t make even a decent enough amount of consistent income to support themselves. If they did, they would have their own shop, even if it was just a small corner store. Behind that is reputation. It is something that they lack and wish to build. Just one look at me or you, and it is obvious we come from some sort of affluent background. Building a good relation would in turn increase reputation.”

“You think too highly of me.”

“If anything, I’m thinking too highly of myself. Even though you’ve only been training with Master for a short while, some of her etherealness rubbed on to you.”

She said nothing in response and just awkwardly smiled.

“Anyway,” Aleister said, focusing on the topic once more, “Reputation only gets more important with the person. Hard to gain, easy to lose, and even more difficult to get back. Although, that could apply to most things in life.”

“There you are,” Ryellia said as he approached the front entrance.

Mitre popped out from behind her and started to speak in an animated voice. “Hey hey come with me so you can see me sit on the throne and then something is supposed to happen and—”

“Stop,” Aleister said, pushing his hand forward. “Take a second to breathe and try again.”

Mitre pouted but complied with his instructions. “Okay, so—”

“Yeah, I understood everything you said the first time.”

“Then why—”

Aleister yawned. “You were talking too fast for your own good. And it isn’t even a question or not if I will come. Especially since sitting on the Crystal Throne is something everyone just does these days.”