The whole night, they were all so busy concocting a myriad of potions and tonics for different purposes.

    Although what Nathalie did at first was to create a surprise for Charles tomorrow; it went fast and quick to perform with Arnold''s guidance.

    Much to his surprise, she was rather quick to tweak its potency, rather in subtlety, without compromising the whole brand of the potion crafted.

    Her eyes darted at the glistening blue potions, lined up in the rack that was on the countertop from the far right of the room.

    Keith started to monitor their condition while he lifted off several sacks and some wares to their respective places.

    ''Aww, look at him… Such a reliable man…''

    The luminescence was still bright, and the heat it gave off seemed that it has yet to cool down, albeit it wasn''t much of a problem for they have a couple of hours before the sun rises once more.

    Even so, the night was still young and she had a few more tasks to finish before she called it to adjourn.

    Right now, Nathalie opened up the topic of an alternative use to protect herself from harm and possible dangers that came her way.

    After what happened to her earlier, she didn''t want to get so complacent about her safety. For the very least she could do was to protect and steer clear from danger, even if she was alone for the time being.

    Foremost, she pondered about creating a magic scroll

    While the mechanism was no different from a magic scroll, the versatility of convenience it gave off was several notches higher than a one-time use of parchment.

    Not a good idea to stack, especially when most of the magic scrolls unfurled and had a fixated effect, depending on what was inscribed and imbued inside of it.

    Although she also had another way to manipulate this kind of idea, she started to open it up with Arnold''s wisdom regarding wizardry and witchcraft.

    She may have written the brief part of the magic system; however, there was something more to it, for sure, that was out of her perspective.

    [What do you think about this, father?] She tapped on the diagram that she scribbled a few minutes ago as she mused.

    "Hmm, that is indeed a complicated magic circle; although, I''m impressed as I haven''t had that much of an inkling if it would work without a hitch."

    Arnold was skeptical of her idea; but with her sharing a part of the knowledge she learned, he started to ponder deeply and give it so much of a thought.

    He had been pouting the whole time, well more so sulking how it couldn''t get any better than the first part of it.

    [Because of these drawings that relate to the magic output it requires or the inadequate materials used to construct this scroll?]

    "I suppose it would be of the former, Mysti." He then tapped on a few of the jars that were in front of them: from the blood and core of magic beasts to the variety of herbs and crops. "I prefer, as I somehow understand better, with regards to the latter."

    [Oh? I thought the problem lies with the former?]

    When Nathalie tilted her head, Arnold smiled and patted her.

    "Have you forgotten about the similar potion you made for His Highness already?"

    [I do…] she then trailed off her voice, staring at the materials in front of her and back to her parchment.

    "We''re of a grand noble descent, Mysti. Resources aren''t much of a problem to us so we have to make use of it, yes?"

    [Indeed.]

    "So regardless of the magic output, with the materials here— which none of it are cheap, to begin with— it would be enough to compensate, come what may the kind of spell that you would''ve to inscribe here."

    [Father, we have to be resourceful. I can''t waste them like this.]

    He sighed, kneading his temples. "What a frugal lady."

    Athan also had a similar curse like her, a similar mechanism but not as worse as hers; this wasn''t the first time Arnold taught her something mischievous, and he wanted to stain his hands as an act of vengeance for what happened to Mystique.

    While Nathalie did know about the materials used, she believed that it was very expensive— only because the probability of the successful effect and potency must be enough to take on a strong individual like Athan.

    But then, not all enemies of hers were worth using a consumable.

    Until Arnold takes so much time to craft a better grimoire, she isn''t at the level to create a masterpiece. Now that her grimoire became inaccessible, she needed to find an alternative.

    The grimoire was a conduit of her magical powers: to minimize the time for a spell and to avoid using her mana as a source of energy.

    Her reasoning alone alarmed Arnold, and it wasn''t that difficult to understand. Though she was well aware of using her powers from within her body, that would''ve only hastened her monthly curse, after learning the mechanics of it.

    She was but a stained witch, instead of falling for the woes, she needed to strive for the better.

    Upon staring at Arnold, Nathalie wondered if it might''ve been too much for him— it wasn''t all diagrams found as there also carved ancient runes.

    Symbols that weren''t his field of expertise.

    "Suppose we go with this…" Arnold then tugged the parchment to his side, sliding his fingers on the dried blood ink etched on a dry parchment. "Are you confident that tweaking this would provide the same reaction?"

    [I''d like to try it now.]

    "Fascinating. We shall continue with this then. We''re beyond halfway with this noble work you''ve done here, yes?"

    When Nathalie nodded, Arnold went to work grabbing one of the jars, sprinkling the ashes on one of the focal points of the scroll while chanting.

    With her finishing touch, pricking her finger and letting the drop stain the parchment, it then went afloat while it shimmered with such brightness, although not too blinding to their eyes.

    Even Ashtra, who was near the corner, now anticipated what would happen next.

    Soon as it landed on Arnold''s palms, furled shut, she then gave it to her.

    "Here, you can try it."

    However, Nathalie smiled. [Why don''t you try it on me?]

    "Hmm, try it on you— I mean… Wait, what—?!" Arnold then had a face crack of the millennium.