She also brought out her latest leather-bound book, which she opened to her last entry. The writing inside was done in her own messy scrawl. Her brother often complained that her writing was illegible, but she could read it just fine.
“Let’s see… I was working on… yes. The effects that devilish Venus flytrap essence has on one-hundred-year-old snapdragon petals.”
Licking her somewhat dry lips, Feinrea went over to a drawer and began pulling out ingredients. The first was a jar that contained the individual petals of a snapdragon—a flower with petals shaped like the muzzle of a dragon. It was a vibrant red that glowed in low lighting. Several blue veins ran along the petal’s surface. The second ingredient was in another jar, but it was a slightly murky liquid. This was the devilish Venus flytrap essence. It was the essence of a devilish Venus flytrap that she had created by grinding it into a fine paste, diluting it with water, and letting the paste infuse with the water.
At the moment, Feinrea was trying to determine the different effects combining these two ingredients possessed. Snapdragon petals were filled with the vitality of life and contained a fire element. Often, this meant they were explosive ingredients and highly volatile. She’d not yet found a use for them, but she knew there had to be something that could be created from this ingredient. On the other hand, devilish Venus flytrap essence contained a sturdy earth element and was something they had used in the creation of beauty care products—despite the dangerous-sounding name.
She wondered what those ladies who used to buy their beauty products would say if they knew this dangerous-sounding plant was the key ingredient in their much-beloved makeup?
They would probably blow their tops.
There were many different processes used in alchemy. Ablution was the act of washing a solid with a liquid, usually water, but she had tried washing a snapdragon petal with the devilish Venus flytrap essence. That had not done anything. Sometimes, however, abluting something could activate the ingredients or even enhance their effects.
The next act Feinrea tried was Bain Marie—in other words, a warm alchemical bath. Chemically, it was an action that could be called a double-boiler. What she did was suspend a container with a snapdragon petal inside of a simmering cauldron of devilish Venus flytrap essence. This type of alchemy action was used in the dissolution process, or the process of dissolving a solid into a liquid.
Feinrea kept her eyes firmly glued on the flask as smoke began pouring from it. She furrowed her brow. Was this supposed to happen? Either way, she wrote down what was happening, but as she did, the smoke rose into the air and she realized the snapdragon petal had crumbled apart. She was just about to sigh in disappointment when she inhaled the snapdragon smoke and jolted upright.
“What… was that?!”
Hurrying to replicate this effect, Feinrea poured more devilish Venus flytrap essence into the cauldron, placed a new flask with another snapdragon petal inside, and then waited for smoke to begin rising from it before taking a deep breath. She felt revitalized the moment she did. It was like her mind had become more alert and her body filled with energy.
This energizing effect was incredible. She quickly wrote down her new discovery in her leather-bound book. Then she repeated the Bain Marie process but with water instead of devilish Venus flytrap essence. She was not disappointed when the simmering water failed to make the snapdragon petal dissolve into smoke. If anything, she was excited.
“So it seems devilish Venus flytrap essence can turn snapdragon petals into smoke through pyrolysis, but simple water cannot,” Feinrea said to herself as she jotted all this down.
Pyrolysis was the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere. It involved an irreversible change of chemical composition. The term was coined from the word pyro, which meant fire, and lysis, meaning to separate.
There were several methods of performing pyrolysis: dry distillation, destruction distillation, caramelization, roasting, frying, toasting, grilling, charcoal burning, and cracking of heavier hydrocarbons into lighter ones, thermal depolymerization, hydrous pyrolysis, caramelization, catagenesis, and flash vacuum pyrolysis.
Not all of these methods were useful in alchemy, which Feinrea knew because she had tried all of them. One of her leather-bound books was filled with nothing but the various pyrolysis methods she had tried.
The types of ingredients gained from pyrolysis were often liquid or residue. Complete pyrolysis of organic matter usually left a solid residue that consisted of mostly elemental carbon, which could be used in the refinement of pills. She had actually begun experimenting with the use of elemental carbon in pill refinement, though she had yet to create anything sellable. Most of her creations were complete failures.
She was certain it was only a matter of time.
As she continued working, someone knocked on her door.
“Sis, Lord Valstine is here to see you.”
Her brother spoke with a strange tone, but it went ignored as Feinrea sighed in discontent. Lord Stelys Valstine was the Alchemist Association’s partner. It was the Valstine Family who distributed and sold her Alchemy Pills on the open market. One could even say it was thanks to them that their pills were selling so well. She could not very well ignore the man when he came to pay a visit, and she did like him well enough, she supposed.
Still, she wished he would have picked a better time…
“Send him in please,” she said at length.
Feinrea made herself somewhat presentable as the door opened and Lord Valstine walked in. He paused a moment to look at her, walked the rest of the way in, and shut the door behind him.
“It seems I came at a bad time,” he said after taking notice of all the alchemy equipment set on her desk. There was also the heavy smell in the air, which came from the snapdragon petals.
Feinrea smiled, though even she recognized it was a little bland. “Not at all. Please, come in. I assume you are here for your monthly report?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Lord Valstine said as he made his way to the desk, eyes occasionally straying toward all of her equipment.
Ignoring his wandering eyes, Feinrea turned around, opened the vault behind her, and pulled out several long sheets of rolled-up parchment. She presented these to Lord Valstine. He took them from her hand, unrolled the first, and read the contents, which she explained as his eyes roved over the written report.
“Thanks to the money we have coming in, we’ve been able to bring in more alchemists, which has caused our productivity to rise. This means we can now keep up with supply and demand. However, I do plan on bringing in even more people. Lord Eryk recently presented me with another recipe, and I assume he will give us even more in the future. You can probably expect to see a dramatic rise in your sales. However, we’ve learned from last time. I’d like to have enough people on hand before I begin letting them refine the new pills in mass for market sales.”
While Feinrea would have much rather spent her entire day refining ingredients, she knew how important it was to keep abreast of everything that was happening within her Alchemist Association. She knew exactly how well they were doing at any given time, could list the exact number of alchemists working under her, and could even state how many of each pill they were currently refining daily.
“It sounds like the Alchemist Association is doing quite well for itself,” Lord Valstine said with a pleasant sigh. “It really was a blessing when Eryk came to me all those months ago and proposed that my family work with you.”
“Indeed. It has been a great benefit to us both,” Feinrea agreed, and she meant it.
The Alchemist Association had been on the verge of collapse before Eryk had come and offered a solution that solved this problem. Had he not arrived when he did, there might not have been an Alchemist Association anymore.
“Speaking of great benefits, I heard Eryk has finally begun courting your daughter,” Feinrea said. “Congratulations.”
“I’m sur
prised you know about that,” Lord Valstine said.
Feinrea smiled and shrugged, causing her robes to loosen some. “I do not get out of the Alchemist Association very often, but that does not mean I don’t hear things. Many of the alchemists under my employ love to talk. It seems Eryk’s act of courting Fay, Kari, and some Lamia girl has become extremely popular gossip topic.”
Of course, anything involving Eryk was a popular topic for conversation. He was the man who had raised up the Alchemist Association when it was near collapse, the man who crushed a noble in an Honor Duel, and the man who had won the Spiritualist Grand Tournament. Now he was courting three women—one of whom wasn’t even human. It went without saying that he was a hot topic.
“That is true,” Lord Valstine said with a strained smile.
“Do you not approve?” asked Feinrea. “I assumed you would be happy with this arrangement.”
“It is not that I am not happy per se...” Running a hand over his beard, the giant bear of a man grimaced ever so slightly. “I see nothing wrong with Eryk’s actions, such as they are, but I myself have never taken a second wife. Even after Stella passed away, I never married because I couldn’t imagine loving another woman. Yet here is this young man who is courting three of them at the same time, and one of them is my daughter. I am just wondering if Eryk can truly love Fay like he does Kari and be a proper husband to her.”
Feinrea knew next to nothing about courting and marriage. Not only had she never dated someone before in her life, but she had never even contemplated marrying someone. Yet even she knew that a man did not court a woman—or women in this case—without the intention of marrying. This world did allow people to fool around. However, fooling around and courting were two completely different matters.
Nobles also did not fool around like peasants were wont to do.
“I do not believe you have anything to worry about,” Feinrea said at last. “Eryk is a very earnest young man. I do not believe he would court Fay if he did not believe he can love her like he does Lady Kari.”
“Hmmm… I suppose you are correct,” Lord Valstine said.
Feinrea could only smile humorlessly at Lord Valstine. Her father had never needed to worry about her entering a relationship with boys because she’d always been so into her alchemy that everything else seemed pointless. A relationship? Why would she want that when it would take time away from her pursuit of knowledge?
Lord Valstine soon left, and Feinrea put their conversation out of her mind as she got back to her alchemy. Like always, she stayed up well into the night and only went to bed when her mind and body were too exhausted to continue.
“Sis. Come on, Sis. Wake up. It’s time you got to work.”
It was early the morning after Lord Valstine came by to get his report, and Feinrea’s brother was once more making her wake up after a long night of laborious studying. She could only groan as she listened to her brother’s demands. While she wished she could sleep in like she used to when the Alchemist Association was in threat of shutting down, she understood that she could no longer afford to take such a lackadaisical approach to life.
As she once more got ready for another day, Feinrea sent thanks to Eryk for coming when he did. Her Alchemist Association had been saved because of his actions. It was a debt she would not soon forget.
Chapter 8
An Empress’ Life
Hilda sat at the breakfast table with her husbands, eating a sumptuous meal provided by their chef. Today’s breakfast was open-faced sandwiches. Thick slices of crisp bread lathered with a layer of calcined butter sat on their plates. Sitting upon several trays were an assortment of cold cuts, smoked fish, cheese, soft-boiled eggs, and a variety of fruits for a side dish.
Among her husbands, Dante was easily the most ravenous. His open-faced sandwich was filled to overflowing with several slices of meat, cheese, and smoked salmon. He was also on his third sandwich. Fortunately, he still ate with grace and proper table manners. Hilda was very glad she had managed to drill etiquette into the once boorish man.
“Before I forget, have you had a chance to consider Eryk’s ideas at all?” Dante asked Empress Hilda.
Breakfast was the most important meal of Hilda’s day. She often skipped lunch because she didn’t have time for it, so eating a hearty breakfast was essential for her to keep up her energy. That was why she, much like Dante, ate a lot more during breakfast than her other two husbands. She was already on her second sandwich. Like Dante’s, it was covered in a wide assortment of meat, cheese, and fish.
“Of course, I have,” Hilda said as she brought the sandwich to her mouth and took a bite. She would have moaned in delight at the crunchy texture, but that would not have been very empress-like. She only spoke again after she finished swallowing her food. “His idea of building watchtowers with those… ballistae, I believe they were called?”
“Yes, ballistae,” Rainer said with a nod.
“It is a great idea,” Hilda continued. “If ever we found ourselves beset by flying Demon Beasts, those ballistae would prove to be a great deterring force. I think they are worth looking into.”
“I sense a ‘but’ coming here,” Dante said.
“But we currently lack the funds,” Hilda said with a bland smile in Dante’s direction.
It was here that Rainer spoke up. He was sitting next to Valence on the other side of the table. Unlike her and Dante, he and Valence were not eating as much. Neither of them ate the same amount as her youngest husband.
“But he did provide a means of acquiring more funds, didn’t he? I heard he suggested forming a… what did he call it?”
“A sect,” Hilda supplied.
“Yes. A sect.” Rainer nodded even as he picked up a sliced strawberry and popped it into his mouth. “The idea has merit. A sect sounds a lot like a mercenary company, and mercenaries are often hired by everyone from peasants and merchants to nobles for various tasks like guard duty, protection detail, and Demon Beast extermination. If we could found our own company of elite mercenaries and sell their services, it would be a great method of gaining a second income outside of taxes.”
Hilda would certainly never deny the idea’s merit, but she was also aware of the other problem that came from creating a sect.
“We have no one to run it,” she said.
Dante and Rainer both hesitated at those words. They were the commander and vice-commander of the Nevarian Spiritualists. Meanwhile, Valence was both Hilda’s bodyguard and the commander of the Imperial Royal Guard. None of them could become the leader of a sect. What’s more, they did not have anyone under their command with the qualifications who they could let form a sect. Everyone with talent was already in use.
“So you would need Eryk to run the sect,” Rainer mused.
Hilda smiled blandly. “Except Eryk has no desire to run a sect right now. He is more interested in gaining personal strength.”
A frown threatened to mar her face. Eryk’s desire for power seemed almost unnatural. It was like he was rushing to acquire as much power as he could as quickly as possible, almost like he was afraid of something. That was the impression she got. Beneath that calm and collected exterior he always showed, there was something that Eryk was absolutely terrified of.
It bothered her that she did not know what that something was.
“So we wait,” Dante said at last, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms. “I’m sure he won’t be opposed to the idea once he’s reached the level of strength he believes he needs.”
“That could take a while though,” Rainer objected.
But Dante shook his head. “I don’t think it will take anywhere near as long as you think. That boy has an incredible determination and has already gained a lot of strength in a short period of time. He’s already reached the Second State of Spiritualism, and I do not believe it will take much time before he reaches the Third State of Spiritualism. I suspect he’ll reach the Third State within a year or less.”
; “You have a lot of confidence in him,” Hilda noted.
“Of course! That boy is going to become a member of our family soon. Why wouldn’t I have confidence in him?” asked Dante with a smile, as if the reason for his confidence was obvious.
At the mention of Eryk becoming a member of their family, Valence slammed his fork onto the table with more force than he needed to. He had been about to stab an apple slice, but he ended up breaking through the apple and plate, stabbing into the table. Dante and Rainer both blinked at Valence, who slowly removed the fork and continue eating as if nothing had happened.
“What’s this?” Dante grinned, eyes shining like a child who’d just found a new toy to play with. “Is our dear eldest brother upset that a young man has managed to woo his daughter when he wasn’t looking?”
“That isn’t it,” Valence finally spoke, voice colder than a frozen tundra.
“Come on now. There’s no need for you to lie.” Dante snickered. “I’m aware of how… protective you secretly are of Little Kari. You might think we don’t know what you’ve been up to, but all of us are aware of how much you protect her.”
Valence trembled. It was so slight anyone who didn’t know him would have missed it, but there was no way his wife and brothers wouldn’t see it.
“Like how you followed her the first few days Kari began going to the Nadine Library,” Rainer added.
Valence’s trembling increased.
“Or the times when Kari used to play outside of Nevaria’s walls with Fay and you followed her for an entire month before Hilda put a stop to it,” Dante added.
Valence’s normally stone-like face… turned red.
“Didn’t Hilda also put a stop to you following Kari to the library?” asked Rainer.
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