Windlepoons Concoctions

The place she brought her to, was a medium sized store with an iron plaque forming the words "Windlepoons Concoctions" on the top of a wooden door. As she entered the store, she was greeted with the dizzying smell of herbs and spices.

"Hey, granny! I brought customer for you!"

"Whazzat, you cheeky brat?"

An old woman wearing black mourning clothes appeared from the depth of the store. She had only a few teeth left and wrinkles have overtaken her face. A pair of half moon glasses perched at the tip of her hooked nose. She walked with deliberate movements as she pushed up her glasses.

"This is Granny Windlepoons. She's been here for a looong time. Uncle Hans said that she was the one who delivered him when he was a baby."

"Alright, enough of that." The old grandma said.

Connie noticed that her fingers were stained with many colors that have settled deep under the skin. They were the same type of fingers that she had before. The hand of an apothecary.

"What are you here for, brat? The medicine's still due next week."

"Like I said, I brought you a customer. This is Lady Connie. She's my customer too!"

"Customer?" she looked at Connie from head to toe. "Not often I see someone of your statute around her. Usually they have a servant come and get it for them."

Connie was still admiring the store. There were small wooden drawers with number carved into them all around the wall and the only table around was the big stone table where Ethel was sitting. There was no other chair in the building other than the one she was sitting on. Clearly, she did not want people staying long.

"I'm here to buy some herbs and medicines. And perhaps learn a few things from you."

"Learning a few things? Miss Customer, in our line of job there is no learning a few things. Either you have it or you don't."

Connie did not take offense to the harsh tone and simply said, "Number 12 is sweet violet, 67 is marjoram, 428 is sage, 266 is mint. I don't know what the number 122 is but it smelled similar to hemp."

Ethel's eyes narrowed in mild shock. However, she did not live this long for nothing, "122 is thistlegreen ivy. It is similar to hemp but handled incorrectly will result in very bad rash."

To keep the inventory from being stolen Ethel Windleepoons did not put the names on the drawers, opting instead for numbers. She knew the content of every drawers and was surprised to find the noble lady to be able to find them out simply by smell.

"I have never seen anyone capable of doing that. Did you use some kind of unique skill?" Windlepoons asked.

"No. I just have a better sense of smell and taste than most people," she raised an eyebrow at Sen. "Do people have skills relating to smelling things?"

Sen shook her head. "I dunno."

"Whatever the case. Smell alone is not enough, you said the names correctly and that, at least prove that you are not just some rich girl trying out a hobby."

Connie nodded. "Good, now on to business. I want to buy everything you have."

"Impossible," she said simply.

The girl was mildly shocked by the quick rebuttal. "If you want money, I have them."

"If you bought everything, how would the people around me buy their medicines? This place does not exist for the whims of the rich," her voice was starkly sterner than before.

"…I'm sorry. But I really need a lot of herbs. Especially there are some that I cannot do without."

"What do you need so much for?"

"That's…something I cannot tell you."

Ethel rubbed the bridge of her nose and bit her lips.

"…Tell me the ones you need. I'll see if I can do something."

Connie handed her a list of items that she needed. Ethel took it and pushed down her glasses, scrutinizing the list with her sharp eyes. After a while she turned her attention towards the young girl.

"I don't know some of these. What is a Yellow Three-Prong Leaf and a Thousand year old Ling-zhi?"

"Y-you don't have it here?" Connie went wide-eyed. They were critical ingredients for the treatment!

"I haven't ever heard the name!" Ethel growled. "Are you playing with me?"

"No. Look, Yellow Three-Prong Leaf is from a small plant growing at the top of a hill, usually being guarded by a Moss Boar. A Thousand year old Ling-zhi is a wide brimmed mushroom the size of two palms which has aged for a thousand years. You haven't heard of it? Perhaps something similar?"

"No. I don't know what a Moss Boar is but I sure as hell have never heard of Ling-zhi. It's not even a language I knew of. Maybe you were tricked by a conman?" she said empathically.

Connie deflated after hearing her words. I thought that everything in the world should not be that different, but to think that they don't have Ling-zhi over here! How should I gather the Yang Energy needed for the treatment?! Nothing in this place has enough Yang Energy!

"The rest of these I can give you some. If you need larger quantities of these fast, I can try and get some of the other apothecaries to sell you some," she said with smirk. "For an extra fee."

"I…okay. Anything you can spare is fine. Just charge it to the Steelheart family."

"Hmm, I don't know if I can wrap these up for you in time. You have to get your people to bring it for you. Unless you have one of those Item Ring."

"Item…Ring?"

"You don't know? It's a smaller version of Item Box. Extremely expensive. I remembered that the hero used to sell the herbs he collected in massive amount to me back then."

"Not this again, Granny!"

"Hush. I'm telling a story!"

Connie zoned out a bit as the Granny told her story. The gist of it was that the former hero used to sell items he collected in massive amounts due to his Item Box that could store items in another space. He was a handsome fellow and used to flirt with her while she was tending the store.

The stern looking granny turned out to be a chatterbox when she talks about the former hero in her prime. Connie even saw a customer walking in and immediately walked out when he heard her yakking.

The task was finished three hours after that and Connie went out with a full bag of samples of every herbs in the store, the rest will come after.

Sen looked at Connie, who was still listless and unanchored with a sad face.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry if I didn't do a good job."

"No, you did a good job. It's just…sometimes in life, things don't go the way you want it to go," she hugged Sen tight. "And sometimes you have to make do with what you have."

She let go and gave Sen a small pat on the cheek. "You go home now. I'll take it over from here."

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked again.

"Yeah. I'm sure."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

Connie waved her goodbye and had a quick lunch of soup and bread as she thought about alternative ways of treating Illumca's condition.

When she returned home, it was in the evening and she saw a carriage parked outside with three footmen unloading large bags from it.

She walked into the mansion and found the maids looking at her with worried looks.

"Well, well, the young lady returned home at last. How is your day outside, Cornelia?"

The sickly languorous voice, the smell of man masked by heavy fragrance. Deep inside her heart Connie felt the disgust and hatred unbecoming of her. So this is her, eh?

Connie gazed coolly at the woman walking down the stairs from the second floor. Trailing behind her was a young boy that should be her son, 2 years younger than Connie.

Cornelia Asterium Steelheart's stepmother and stepbrother. She forgot many things, but she did not forget the two. Such was her anger and hatred towards them.

Connie let out a half grin. This would happen sooner or later.

"Evening…Lady Carell."