"Sound barrier! I need to make a few of those!" Gerald suddenly remembered.

It was a quite useful spell, but it was quite a hassle to make it into a spell scroll, although the principle was simple.

The sound was just the vibration of molecules moving through a medium like air. To prevent sound from escaping you just had to freeze a layer of air around yourself and that's pretty much it.

Although holding gasses in place was not easy, the energy required to do that was minuscule. It just required a bit of imagination.

While he racked his brain on how to make it work, he decided to make the spell scrolls more user-friendly.

Currently, they were just a mess of runes, completely unrecognizable if you didn't know what they meant.

So, for the sake of convenience, he drew a symbol for each spell on the other side of the scroll. He used white paint on the slightly brown paper, making it stand out and be easily recognizable.

He also made his own book with the blueprints for the spell scrolls he created, in case he wanted to teach it to the girls later. Although he had a lot of work, he enjoyed it a lot. A whole bunch of new discoveries were made in just the last week and his knowledge of magic deepened substantially at the same time.

Sebas brought him more resources today, and Gerald now had chests full of all sorts of monster body parts and herbs for potions. It was great.

"Mn~" Gerald performed a few stretches for his neck and arms that were feeling tight and uncomfortable from sitting in the same position for hours while doing the repetitive task. "I need to take a break…" It was only just late morning, the warm sun was shining bright and it was a perfect day to go for a walk.

"Hey, I was thinking about it and we never went to explore the city together, who's up for it?" Gerald asked the ladies who were lazing around in the back garden.

"We finally get to do something? Count me in!" Sera immediately jumped up.

Elly lifted her hand and quietly said, "I never saw much of the city… I'll go too!"

"Wah!" Qiona looked at him in excitement, "Can we get some candy too?"

Gerald squinted his eyes, gave her a warm smile, and patted her head, "Sure! Today we get to have fun! You can get any candy you like, you deserve it!"

Needless to say that Xilia was also excited to finally get the opportunity to properly explore the city with her sister. They were all smiles as they chatted and left the front gates. But then, just as they went past the guards, a man wearing the Auction House servant attire came running.

"Young master Gerald!" he called after seeing his target.

"Hm?" Gerald turned to the man, still with a smile on his face.

"Young master Gerald, master Arthur is requesting your presence! He said it's important," the man said.

Gerald's expression fell and his mood soured, "Bruh… Are you fucking serious?! How do you people find the exact worst moment to disrupt my peace? This was my only day off in the last I don't know how many months! Are you psychic or what?!"

The servant lowered his head after getting berated and apologized, "I'm terribly sorry, master Gerald, but the master insisted that it is really important. He even appeared more troubled than usual!"

"Ugh!" Gerald groaned and rolled his eyes. He looked at the people behind him, "I feel like ignoring him, what do you girls think?"

"It's okay, I don't mind! As long as you buy me candy, big brother!" Qiona immediately smiled.

"As long as it doesn't take too long..."

"Yeah, I agree with Sera."

Elly also shook her head, "I don't mind, I always wanted to meet more people."

Gerald rubbed his chin and nodded, "Alright then. Let's see what he messed up this time…"

"Young master?" The servant looked at him sideways. 'Why does it feel like this guy looks down on master Arthur?'

Just like that, the plans changed. Although, it shouldn't take too long to do business at the Auction House, and Gerald also wanted to buy another one or two Golden Space Pouches. He was already running out of space, so it was not all that bad.

As they arrived at the Auction House, the atmosphere appeared to be a bit heavy. That's because Arthur was sitting not far from the reception desk and was making the workers feel nervous, while he himself gave off a sense of...restlessness.

"Gerald!" He jumped up as soon as he saw him enter and ran to him, "You are finally here!"

"Yeah… What's up?" Gerald lazily replied.

"Let's go to my office," Arthur replied. "Do you want the long version or the short one?"

"Be short."

"Well…" Arthur spoke after he closed the door behind them, "The King wants to speak with you."

Gerald blinked a few times, and so did the girls behind him. They looked at each other with wide eyes.

"That's too short," Gerald calmly said after processing what he just heard.

Arthur took a deep breath and sighed, "It's like this: After we started selling the Potions of Focus, the King naturally found out about it and wanted to buy a big batch. I was invited to the royal court and had a talk with the King…"

"One thing led to another and the conversation somehow shifted to the topic of your master and the Stamina Potions… It appears that the King tasted the Stamina Potion and also wanted to buy a few thousand of those…"

"And you blabbered all about it, didn't you?" Gerald interrupted him with an unkind gaze.

Arthur made an apologetic expression and defended himself, "I had no choice! Lying to the King is a capital offense, I could lose my head for it!"

"Seriously?" Gerald frowned, "This was supposed to be my day off, you know?"

Arthur smiled wryly, "I'm sorry, but it's the King's order. I'll make it up to you, I promise! But please just come meet him with me, it won't take long!"

Weighing the pros and cons, Gerald really didn't want to meet the King. There was nothing good that could come from it in his opinion and he would probably be forced to give up his potion recipe.

Also, he wasn't sure of the true power structure in the nobility circle so he wanted to avoid meeting anyone important for at least a few more months while his strength grew.

But on the other hand, he felt like the trouble would come to find him even if he avoided it. A King was someone you couldn't refuse, and if he wanted to have relative peace in Auralba, he would have to go.

"Fine…" Gerald eventually capitulated to Arthur's nagging. "But they are coming with me," he pointed at the girls that came with him.

"Oh, um… I guess that's okay…" Arthur stammered. His job was to get Gerald to meet with his Majesty, nothing else. In the worst case, his friends would just have to wait outside.

They went back downstairs where a group of warriors was crowding around the entrance. A few of them gathered around the front desk, seemingly there to buy something.

"Oh, how can I help you, young sir?" the receptionist asked.

"I'm here to buy a few Potions of Focus for my sister over here…" the young man answered. A young girl stood by his side, dressed in a flowery dress and adorned with sparkling jewelry. She had a pretty face, and a nice figure, though her chest was somewhat lacking.

The receptionist quickly reacted and pointed them in the right direction where they could get what they wanted.

"Oh, Tabbris Northendark! What a coincidence! Welcome to my humble Auction House," Arthur stepped forward and loudly greeted the leader of Phoenix Knights. "What brings you here at this time?"

As Arthur spoke a few words with Tabbris Northendark, Gerald casually scanned the room with his gaze, and his eyes landed on the young lady beside him. The girl also looked at him and their eyes meet for a moment, but then she turned away, uninterested.

"Huh…" Gerald lifted his eyebrows in surprise, "What a coincidence indeed!"

Aster Northendark heard his casual comment, and she suddenly turned to look at him again, this time with an expression of disbelief. Her eyes opened wide and she pointed at him with her finger, shouting, "It's you!"

"What's happening, Aster?" Tabbris asked his sister after hearing her shout.

"Brother it's him! He's the one I told you about, the one that attacked me!" she said through gritted teeth, pointing at Gerald with visible anger.

Tabbris looked at Gerald, from top to bottom, and frowned, "Are you sure it was him?"

"Yes! I remember his Mana signature! I don't notice it at first, but now I'm 100% sure!"