CHAPTER 73: MAD SCIENTIST

If the air between the two of us back before our visit to the tea-shop was tense, then right now...

It was still tense, but for a lot different reason than before.

A reason that could be derived from Selia’s behavior, given how her hand would continually move up to her mouth and her fingers would gently rub on her lips. She would then steal a quick glance at my face before blushing and then looking away.

’Ha-ah...’ I internally sighed. ’Was that really a good choice?’

I closed my eyes and thought back to just before we left the tea-house. To when I leaned in and...

Selia’s lips tasted like the cake and the herbal brew she drank, mixing the cake’s sweetness with the brew’s refreshing, citrusy flavor.

Yet, at the same time, the taste of her lips was many times better than even the most perfect mix of that cake and that brew.

They were soft, squishy, and perfectly warm while boasting just the slightest hint of wetness from her saliva.

And by all means, even though it was just a simple, surface kiss...

It felt many times greater than even the times when I made out with my girlfriends of the time back on Earth.

’Was it because of how shy she was about it?’ I thought, stealing a glance at Selia’s face, only to catch her stare and cause her to quickly look away while only further reinforcing her blush.

’Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter,’ I shook my head before blinking my eyes a few times.

The kiss was now in the past. And if I wanted to survive in this world, rather than looking back into the past, in a bid to secure my present, I had to focus on the future.

And due to how relatively small this town was - at least when compared to the towns and cities I knew from back on Earth - it only took us a few moments to go from the tea-house at the center of the city to a fancy workshop-slash-villa located in its most expensive district.

"I didn’t expect to see workshops in this part of the town," I said, genuinely taken aback by the sight.

What wasn’t even popular but pretty much a standard in the poorer parts of the town and even in its lively center, turned out to be rather rare in the part of the town taken in by the richest of its population.

I could understand the logic of it, though.

When people still had to care about money, earning would always be at the forefront of their minds. And with that said, turning the ground floor of one’s home into a workshop was simply a practical solution to this simple problem - in doing so, they didn’t have to waste time on traveling to and from work, had everything stored right where they needed it, and could either work or serve their customers whenever a need arose.

"They are here for the exact same reason why they are in other parts of the town," Selia shrugged her shoulders, treating the topic as something obvious. "Given how few customers she ever gets, it would be a waste of time for her to get a whole separate workshop just to spend entire days doing nothing there."

With her mind now focused on the task ahead, Selia finally managed to process our kiss... Or maybe all she did was stuff it in the back of her mind, opting to deal with it later instead?

Either way, she didn’t bother knocking on the workshop’s doors but grabbed the handle and then pushed the doors in instead.

"Vivil, you here?!"

Silence was the only initial response to Selia’s call.

’Is it empty?’ I thought, only to then watch Selia conjure a ball of water atop her palm before tossing it in a seemingly random direction.

"WAH!" a small cry of surprise filled the room as what I took to be just a bunch of ragged clothes stacked on a chair moved. And after the initial panic passed...

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Vivil, a middle-aged woman of absolutely no noble grace or elegance, rose up in her now wet clothes, throwing furious stares back at the Saintess. "What if you got water on my papers?!"

Only now, with the rags no longer obstructing my view, did I see an actual table hidden behind the chair, one stacked to the brim with various papers and folders.

’A researcher?’ I thought, instantly projecting the vibe given off by that desk to its owner.

"You have a customer. And it’s not good to sleep on the job," Selia, unbothered by her acquaintance’s outburst, merely shrugged her shoulders before pointing her hand at me.

"A customer?" Vivil asked, turning her eyes to me and giving me a quick sweep. Then, her body shook with a short chuckle. "As if he could even afford my consultation fee, not to speak about..."

Before Vivil could vocally express her opinions any further, I reached out to bring out my sack of golden coins I’d received from Greg, only for the Saintess to be just a tiny bit faster, slamming her pouch on Vivil’s table before I fully took hold of my own.

"And who are you to judge who has money and who doesn’t?" Selia countered, the small twitch of the corner of her lips making me feel as if this wasn’t the first time she had to deal with this woman in particular. And by all means, she clearly wasn’t happy today she had to add another meeting to the list. "I’ve told you a thousand times. If you didn’t agree to move your business here, you would be getting customers hand over fist, not like right now."

This remark induced quite the expression change on Vivil’s face. And while it also made it obvious there was some kind of story connecting those two women... I honestly neither had time nor desire to learn more about it.

"What I do with my skills is none of your business," Vivil snapped back, proving that contrary to most of the townsfolk, she didn’t really revere the Saintess.

’Maybe that’s why she’s so warm towards her?’ I thought, easily seeing past the mask Selia put on her face when interacting with this herbalist woman.

She sure acted strict, but deep down below this layer of pretend, I could feel just how much she enjoyed the interaction.

’It had to be rare for her to have anyone to talk on equal terms with,’ I thought, taking a mental note and then adding three exclamation marks to it.

"Anyway," Vivil shook her head before locking her eyes on me. "You are here with a request and you clearly have the money to pay my fees," she added, her eyes inherently drawn to the purse Selia left on her desk, "what is your ask, then?"

I stared back at the woman for a while before pulling out my prized coffee box from within my clothes, opening it up and then, with extreme care, passing over one of the few intact seeds.

"I need to grow this and ensure it won’t die. There are only a few seeds of this plant in this entire world, so I need you to understand - the stakes here couldn’t be any higher."

That remark finally appeared to snap Vivil out of her boredom, leading her to gently pluck the seed out of my hand before leaning in as she brought her palm up to her eyes.

And with a strangely intense look on her face, all she now needed was an oversized lab coat and some glasses to take on the most accurate "mad scientist" look.