Honestly, they were more of an entertainment troupe than a serious threat. Even Wolverine found no interest in being around them. Am I complaining? Hell no. But you must be wondering, at the edge of your anticlimactic seat, about the rankings of the magicians. The realms that make them confident in bullying the townsfolk. Oh don’t worry, I asked Wolverine to keep a nose on them. Get it…never mind.

Anyway, I didn’t bother checking. Harmony could probably beat them in a one-on-one situation. My teenage employee…apprentice I guess, stayed up all night practicing and meditating. Now some of you, I know you are, may be wondering why the hell does this guy has a girl as an apprentice. Isn’t that weird? Okay, no one’s probably wondering that, horn dogs. Honestly it doesn’t bother me. It was like having a little sister.

As I rounded the corner with Harmony, I found the shop I was looking for. A place that sold dried herbs, incense, pipes for smokers, and other interesting knickknacks. Sadly, the owner had plans to close shop and leave town. His customers were mostly nobles and with so few left, he wouldn’t be able to survive. I considered establishing a contract with him but doing that without first stabilizing Kyushu felt too risky. Maybe if I had more product to sell to the public.

I stopped, which made Harmony and Wolverine do the same. They called hiding their abilities cloaking. But really what they were doing was a piss poor version of whatever the system did to hide my aura from the world. Great for mortals, bad for other magicians. Seriously, why couldn’t they take my veiled warning to heart. Well the answer to that was simple. Nobles are assholes. Not all of them I’m sure, but let’s be honest. Every fucking fantasy novel we read in the old world spoke of the same thing. Excessive money, boredom, egos, and the desire for power, among other things did that to people.

Now I’m not about to pretend I’m some saint or do-gooder. You already know what I’m about. And if the magicians wanted to get in the way of me helping the town and its people, well, I couldn’t have that.

“Good day, gentlemen,” I said, turning around. Wolverine stared flatly at the pristine robe-wearing magicians. If only I could record the boredom he projected with them. On the left was a tall muscular man with short black hair, likely around or slightly younger than my physical age. The right turned out to be a lanky boy who looked just barely eighteen, perhaps even sixteen, I wasn’t sure. The analysis identified them as Winn and Lou. I wondered if I could use that against them, maybe sound a tad mysterious. Unless they were the kind of nobles that expected the world to know their names.

I almost addressed them by misters, but remembered this world utilized Sir and Lady.

“Sir Winn, Sir Lou,” I said, which gained myself a surprised look. “I’m sure you didn’t travel all the way to this humble town to cause trouble?”

They were likely from the city just four days away. Did the redheaded brat hold some kind of grudge this long? Like the pettiest? She seemed far more flustered this time around, like a kid with their hand caught in a cookie jar.

“Who are you?” Winn asked.

“You don’t get to ask the questions,” Harmony said. “I’ll make sure my father hears of this should you cause trouble in our town. Say what you want about his position, he still served in the Lord Ruler’s army and honorably. If he decided to notify the Lord Ruler of House Wingston’s bullying of—”

“We’re not speaking to you, mortal,” Lou interrupted, aiming a glowing hand at her. He expected Harmony to flinch, freeze, cry, or bed for mercy I’m sure, but my adorable apprentice didn’t budge. In fact, she seemed unamused. Both of the magician men caught onto that.

“What? Expecting me to gravel, kowtow at the presence of two boys who have nothing better to do with their time,” Harmony said, her voice filled with smugness.

“So gentlemen, you were clearly paid by the girl to blindly do a job you didn’t expect to backfire,” I said. “But, really, let me ask you something. Are all magicians like this? Dicks? Assholes? I’m really beginning to lose hope of finding just one decent human among you. If you can still be called that.”

To my surprise, Lou allowed the magic in his hand to cease and let it fall.

“I will not ask questions,” Lou said. It was obvious the arrogance replaced itself with uncertainty, doubt, and perhaps a little fear. “Let’s go, Winn.”

“You noticed too?” Winn said. “A man that doesn’t fear magicians has probably killed more people than we can imagine. You’re either her bodyguard or an ex-soldier just like her father. Or you used to be an assassin.”

I tried so hard not to facepalm, but his words, they gave me an out. There was a chance that they had at least a suspicion. After all, the other guy from last time figured it out damn near immediately, although my little blackmail pertaining to his reputation would keep him quiet. He had something important that he didn’t want to lose, whether a position within this so-called Lord Ruler’s house of asshats or maybe at one of their academies.

“I’m just another man of this town,” I said. “Just a potion maker.”

“I see,” Winn said, but I could tell he didn’t truly accept this explanation, which I honestly couldn’t blame him. Anyone who expected greater would read in between the lines and either guess the truth or fill it in with their fantasies. “We will be around for just a night, Sir Potion Maker.” His voice held not even a bit of sarcasm or mockery, as if stoicism was his only trait. “We’re not a lot of barbaric bandits.”

They started to turn, but I had more words for them. After all, I’m not fucking stupid. I know the game.

“Oh and do ignore her orders to go find my fiancée,” I said. “You know, the beautiful woman with the green hair. If you felt danger from me, you’d definitely feel it from her. And I don’t think she’s as kind as I am.”

I waited for them to leave, mostly so they wouldn’t try a sucker punch of magic, forcing my hand. People were watching after all. I decided to humor them.

“I’ll be frank with you all, I long since forced myself to no longer be afraid of their kind,” I said. “I took care of myself, faced beasts, and travelled this far. I didn’t come here to be driven out by bullies.”

The people accepted this, nodding and returning to work. I lived with them for a couple of months after all and they didn’t see not a single display of magic or anything from the stories. Also, according to their history books, I wasn’t the only one who stood up to the magicians, though not everyone of those stories ended well. Adventurers, soldiers, assassins, and even crazy people sometimes grew fed up and voice their mind, picked fist fights. Plenty of them unfortunately were blown to bits. That was the reality of this world. Mana and magic were nothing to fuck around with, period, whether one felt emboldened or not.

Honestly, I needed to prepare for when the day came that the townspeople found out that I’m one of them. I looked at Harmony, who nodded. I didn’t need to say anything. She knew she’d have to prepare too. Despite living here her entire life, the townspeople could suddenly become terrified of her.

Honestly, my display of being fearless held a double-edged, perhaps a triple-backfiring effect. People may do the same thing and get themselves killed, began to truly wonder about me and how I produced such high-quality potions, or even brownnose me, hoping for favor. I’ve already heard a few rumors of some nobles and even well-off merchants and peasants holding discussions in regards of arranging marriages between me and their daughters.

Talk about what the fuck and little shame. Fortunately, the public affection of Milia and I snuffed that rumor away quickly.

As we entered the shop, Harmony following because she’d be working soon, the smell of lit incense greeted my nose. It was mostly dim in the place but neatly organized and labeled. Honestly, a shame that he planned to leave soon.

A man with a shaggy beard appeared at the front counter. He grinned at us.

“If it isn’t Nate the potion maker, well met lad,” the older man said.

“Fuji, Fuji, well met,” I said as I entered, clasping hands with him.

“Ah, Lady Harmony, didn’t expect to see you here, I assume you’re getting the rundown from your boss? Everyone’s still surprised at your sudden interest in potion making,” Fuji said.

Harmony seemed flustered for a bit but managed to get out a reply. “It’s more interesting than you think.”

I had to hand it to her. She answered and dodged his question using the truth. She may just survive this ordeal after all.

“I see,” he said, nodding. “I agree with you, but it’s not very often potion makers allow anyone to see their craft. If he wasn’t marrying Milia, I’d think you were there because of a silly schoolgirl crush. Not that I’d ever accuse our town’s pride of being like that, but human nature is human nature.”

“It’s human nature to want to learn too,” Harmony deadpanned, though it almost seemed as if she was trying too hard to cover up her embarrassment. Honestly, it was fun to watch. And sure, I considered the possibility of the cheeky teenager growing a little attached, but I’ve never been a guy to let that kind of ego blind my eyes.

I cracked a few more jokes with my fellow business owner before purchasing the ingredients. It was time to try out the new things, starting with the skeleton king’s bone dust. Fortunately, Beakwing awaited us out the door. I hopped onto his back with Wolverine. Harmony climbed on using the ropes and then we were off. I scanned the town of course to make sure the three-idiot crew weren’t causing trouble.

The first thing I did was get the new ingredients to the lab. Really, it was just a room with small metal bowls, a few large ladles, giant spoons, poles, and other things I use to stir the potions with.

“Do you mind setting up the shop with Milia?” I told Harmony. “I’ll start the first batches in an hour or so.”

The blue-haired girl nodded. When she left the room, I grabbed an empty mid-sized bottle, added some of the skeleton king’s bone dust, water, and then mixed, just to see what would happen. Nothing. Big surprise there. Magical bone meal and water did jack shit alone. I heated up the liquid with just the tiniest application of mana. Now this made it dissolve after a while, but what could I do with magical skeleton king bone meal water? I sure had no plans to drink it. Maybe the plants. Maybe, but not now.

With a pestle and mortar, I turned a few herbs into paste then tossed them into the solution, gave it a spin and waited. This didn’t look promising. I was right to not be optimistic because nothing happened except a little bubbling.

Moments later, the bubbling settled because I removed the heat. What I basically had was bonemeal water spiced up with herbs. To the trash! I mentally marked that down as a failure, cleaned out the jar, and filled it halfway with more of the skeleton king’s bone dust. We had plenty of it anyway.

Four failures later and I gave up. I sat the bone dust to the side, deciding it was either a waste or plant food for hopefully a unique plant. Yeah right. With Milia, I needed no such things.

“Are you going to start the first batch any time soon? It’s well over an hour,” I heard Harmony say. I turned to the glaring girl with her arms folded across her chest and sighed.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” I told her. “I’ve got two more potions but they’ll likely be for our use only. Just in case. We can’t have them getting into the hands of the military.”

Harmony shuddered. “The Lord Ruler would probably force you to make potions for an eternity. That or give over your recipes.”

“I’d rather just hand over the recipe than become somebody’s pet,” I said with a chuckle. “It’d suck for the magician team he forces to do his bidding.”

Milia shrugged. “Perhaps. But I like the part where the Lord Ruler never finds out about you, and we live happily in peace.”

Wolverine strolled in, Cheetara behind him. It looked quite comical, as if he was giving the kitten a tour. I watched them for a bit before returning my full attention back to the potions. When I finished the shop’s batch and an extra batch for our own stockpile, I took out the scroll containing the new recipes. After reading them over, the system gave me the prompt I was looking for.

[New special potion listings added, Potion of masking and eagle sight.]

[Current potion available: Health Potion, Energy Potion, General Medicine Potion.]

[Special potions: Night Vision, Mana Core, Water Breathing, Masking, Eagle Sight.]

[Masking hides your presence. Eagle sight enables you to see very far.]

[Item grades range from F and max out at S. Item quality types are: garbage, awful, poor, okay, average, good, very good, excellent, amazing, incredible, superior, extraordinary, and Exotic.]

I’d eventually tell the system to stop showing me all of that at the same time. If the list got too long, the prompt would become a hazard. I couldn’t imagine a multi-page prompt suddenly appearing into my head as I attempted to concentrate on a risky potion. Kaboom? Probably a goddamn kaboom, a fire, or if in the middle of battle, a kick to the jewels or a stab.

I started another cauldron off to the side for the masking and eagle sight. I did not have ingredients for the water breathing. You know why? Because they were fucking ridiculous.

[1 herb of any kind, 1 mermaid scale, angel-purified water or holy water, 3 fish tails from Lesser Dragon ranked spirit fish. Do not boil these until a sap, just boil for 2 minutes. Let cool for 1 day. Boil for another 10 minutes, add more angel-purified or holy water. Let sit. Then add a touch of water mana or three handfuls of pure mana.]

A potion like this was beyond awesome, but holy fuck did the level of difficulty shoot through the roof. It made me want this potion even more, but where the hell would I begin to look? As much as I didn’t want to bug Milia about my shenanigans, I had to hear her opinion. Also, distract myself. Harmony wouldn’t appreciate any public displays of affection from us. Not that we did so in front of her. She walked in only once.

With ink and feather, I wrote the list of ingredients on a blank section of the scroll. Paper was too valuable to waste on this nonsense anyway.

“Milia, what do you think of this?” I asked. “These are the most absurd ingredients I’ve ever read for a potion.”

Milia read over the list for a bit. Even her eyes widened.

“What potion is this for?” Milia asked.

“Water breathing,” I answered, which brought both women’s eyes onto me, eyes lit with stars and surprise.

“I didn’t know such a thing was possible,” Harmony mused.

“Now I understand the need for mermaid scales,” Milia said. “But…well, mermaids are another seductive bunch of female-only beings. They’re selfish and depending on who you are, they’ll make it seem like your fault for their problems.” She shook her head. “They could attack, often with water mana that may rival some of your strength.”

“So much for mermaids being the sweet kind beings from the fairy tales,” I muttered.

“Perhaps you should consider listening to the fishermen tales,” Milia quipped. “You’d get either an accurate detailing of a love-starved spoiled brat or if he’s unlucky enough, a kraken summon.”

I laughed. “You don’t like mermaids very much, do you?”

“I’ve had a few run-ins in the past,” Milia said.

“Did you fight any?” Harmony asked, her eyes lit with eagerness. Cheetera hopped into the dryad’s lap as she sat and snuggled into her. Milia smiled at the adorable kitten like a loving mother would her daughter. She gently stroked her head, which earned her a purr.

“You could call it that,” Milia explained. “It was more of a battle of opposing wills. I’ll have to give her credit for the attempt.”

I chuckled, imagining auras clashing between my fiancée and her fish-tailed foe, like a Dragonball show of power.

After finishing the new potions, I made everyone tea while we waited for customers to arrive. Milia had set aside a few advanced orders, those we only accepted for friends like Tom, Big Ham, and even Tom’s daughter purchased general medicine in advance.

The mermaid scale ordeal still bummed me out. How would a water-breathing potion even work? I’ll never get to know!

Abruptly, approaching voices caught my attention. Customers! Making gold would certainly cheer me up. Until I heard Mandi’s voice.

“Is this the potion shop?” she snapped at someone. “What a fine house. I guess his handsome looks aren’t wasted after all.”

“Should we burn it down?” Lou asked.

“No, idiot,” Mandi snapped. “I want an energy potion. Maybe he’ll choose to marry me if I pay double the gold. I’d be a better wife than that green-haired woman ten times over.”

Milia smiled and while it appeared to be normal, a vibe I’d never felt erupted around her like an invisible cloud of dark aura.

Uh oh, she could actually be a frightening woman if she wanted to be.

**