50 The Elixir 2

Teo originally wanted to rush over and cash in his receipt first thing this morning, but remembering how the Alchemist had insisted that he should come no sooner than noon, he begrudgingly dragged himself to school instead.

It was already well into the second semester, and early spring had been around for a while. He would have to deal with his finals soon, but his priorities lay elsewhere for now. The whole morning he sat through one boring lecture after another, trying to pay as much attention to class as possible, while his thoughts were wandering.

It was easier said than done, but Teo had no choice if he wanted to appear inconspicuous to his teachers and avoid trouble with his family. Somehow he had to nail all of the knowledge to the insides of his head in the least possible amount of time to keep his grades in the average range while saving enough free time to deal with other matters.

It felt like forever, but after several excruciating hours on the treadmill of the educational system, he was a free man once more. With a victorious grin, he stepped out of the building and rushed off the premises like a madman — it was past noon, and he had a delivery to receive.

His speed was quite impressive, and many onlookers barely saw a shadow dash by, unable to identify his facial features. One guard even wanted to tackle him to the ground out of reflex but held himself back at the last second when he saw that it was just a child. Usually,  it was only a few particular occupations that had a reason to move at such velocities on the marketplace, leading to this almost catastrophic misunderstanding. The captain would certainly not have liked to hear about him wrestling children to the ground — in duty no less!

After approximately twenty minutes, Teo could already see the steep tower rising high above the adjacent buildings. His training seemed to have had substantial effects on his endurance, allowing him to cover the distance in a surprisingly short amount of time, even when he had gotten a bit slower towards the end.

He checked his pocket one last time, to feel for the slightly crumpled receipt he had gotten the day before, then he strode towards the wooden gate, demarcating the estate from the rest of the neighborhood, and knocked.

"What?" it echoed from the other side whilst a sliding window was pulled open to reveal a large, round eye, trying to espy the identity of this visitor — It was the same, grumpy doorkeeper he had the honor of meeting yesterday.

"Good afternoon, Sir! I am Teodor Grassdown, and I have come to pick up my order!" the boy stated firmly. He had already rehearsed this several times on the way, intending to get this over with as fast as possible.

This time Teo knew the way and was not as impressed with the eccentric amounts of furniture and decoration. In his eyes, it was just a lot of junk lying around the place that looked funny.

As soon as they finished their ascension on the helical staircase, Teo knocked on the already familiar office door without hesitation, before the gatekeeper could even say anything. Seeing that his services were no longer necessary here, he turned around on the spot and marched down the stairway again, intending to return to his post as quickly as he could. Even though he made a sluggish appearance while walking, he was not slow by any means and disappeared behind the next bend after barely a breath.

When Teo focused his attention on the door once more, it was already wide open, and only now did he notice the strong medicinal stench wafting from inside — it certainly was a lot stronger than last time.

"Good afternoon, Sir! I have come to pick up my order," Teo said with a friendly smile.

"Ahh, just at the right time. I have finished the procedures just an hour ago and was already expecting you, young Grassdown. Here, take a seat!" the Alchemist said and gestured for Teo to join him, which he did.

Teo tried to hold back his curiosity, but could not help but blurt out when he had barely taken seat yet: "Did it work? Did everything go as planned?!"

"Someone is quite impatient, I see. Yes, everything went according to plan. I have managed to prepare your potion, even if it has cost me much of my evening, my entire morning, and many precious materials. Take a look!" the man said and pushed an ornate, wooden box that had been seated on the table the entire time, closer to Teo.

It was small but seemed to be rather expensive. The outside was decorated with carvings of leaves, vines, and floral patterns. Teo carefully opened it, after observing it in detail from the outside.

The intestines of the box provided an entirely different picture and surprised Teo quite a bit. The bottom and the walls were lined with a fluffy fabric, dampening any shocks from the outside and protecting the flasks resting on it in neat rows from breaking.

"So many?!" Teo cried out involuntarily. He had expected one bottle and not... One, two, three... ten bottles! A grand total of ten crystal vials filled the box in an orderly five by two pattern, a pale, yellow liquid resting inside of them.

"It's just a matter of packaging. You did specify that you need an especially large dose for your purposes, but I can't bottle it in a way that would encourage potentially lethal overdosing. This is an aggressive brew, and any ordinary man would pop like a balloon if he were to ingest it all at once. It is a drawback of the formula, but given the circumstances, it should be the most effective solution," the Alchemist explained while Teo nodded intently at every sentence.

"One bottle a day, not more, optimally consumed after a meal. After ten days, your patient should be as good as new, if not better. Just revisit me if there are any problems," the man said and gave Teo a surprisingly amicable smile.

"Oh, ah... Thank you, Sir! One bottle a day got it!" the boy said, jumped up from his seat, and bowed to his benefactor. Finally, he had a solution to his most pressing problem.

After bidding farewell to the aged Alchemist and reassuring him that he would return for all his alchemical needs, Teo tightly grabbed the small, locked box and was on his way.

'I told you he was not a bad guy! He even gave me such a nice box for free! It's all about reputation — Re-pu-ta-tion!' Teo taunted his silent companion.

'I don't know. His smile did look a bit fake. I still think that he has some kind of hidden agenda,' the Golem responded after a few seconds.

'You're just salty because you were wrong, admit it! Being bad at dealing with others does not make one a criminal mastermind, you know?' Teo continued to celebrate his victory. Who had the better eye for people now? Huh?