"Where did you find so many apothecaries?"
Celine asked in surprise as she looked at the twenty-six bottles of Energy Potion on the table.
Elan answered slowly:
"Maybe the apothecary I hired has finally come through. She told me she had a lot of friends who wanted her to sell their potions, but I can't help wondering if there's another possibility."
"Maybe the apothecary I hired is a once-in-a-century genius who can achieve a fifty percent success rate with Energy Potion. That would explain how she managed to give me so many potions in such a short time."
"Perhaps she only claimed she had lots of friends so she could keep her own involvement under wraps..."
Celine said with a dark look:
"What are you talking about? How could something like that happen? If it were true, the head of the Alchemy School would be on his knees, begging that apothecary to join."
"That success rate is pure fantasy. I'd say the theory you mentioned before—that she's moonlighting as a middleman—sounds more plausible."
Elan chuckled twice, took a sip of water, and continued:
"Anyway, enough small talk. How are things with the Association? Are they still holding on?"
Celine took a sip of fruit wine before replying:
"I can only say things aren't looking good. For the Association, that is."
"Recently, they had another falling-out with the apothecaries who make Energy Potion. Several of them simply stopped making it, so production has dropped again."
"Oh, what happened this time?"
"The liaison they sent to deal with them was greedy. He secretly pocketed some of the Energy Potion they'd collected and pretended those bottles were failed brews."
"He secretly sold the potions to Advanced Apprentices he knew and pocketed the profits..."
Elan's smile faded. He tapped the table and said:
"The Association is still the same as ever. When I was preparing for my examination, I dealt with liaisons who were secretly selling supplies too."
"Every time they held an examination back then, the Pharmacist Association prepared a huge pile of ingredients, claiming that would ensure there'd be no shortage of potions."
"But it was the same every time. My junior brother took the advancement examination three times before becoming a Formal Mage. He said they ran out of stock every single time, and he had to go around buying potions from people. It drove him crazy."
Elan continued:
"Oh, there's something else. One of the Association's liaisons somehow got hold of a huge batch of ingredients."
Celine's eyes lit up. She said:
"Oh, another batch of ingredients! Looks like the Association's luck hasn't run out after all!"
Elan shook his head.
"It's not luck. Someone's just bled the Association a little more."
"Tell me about it."
"You and I both know the Association's suppliers have been cutting back on the quotas they send to Loderis. They saw the Association get into such a mess and lost faith in its future."
"Now the Association can barely buy ingredients in bulk, which makes this batch especially valuable."
"That liaison was planning to sell the ingredients to the Association again and make a tidy profit."
Celine realized they were getting to the important part. She perked up and asked:
"So how did the Association find out?"
"The Association only discovered that there was something wrong with the batch. Apparently, during an inspection, they found labels with the unique inventory codes used in the Association's own storerooms."
"The seller ran off quickly, leaving behind only the sample batch they'd inspected. Most of the goods are still with him."
"But he still has to find a buyer for them. If he lets them rot in his hands, they'll be no better than weeds."
"So he came to me, and I contacted my apothecary. As it happened, she'd been complaining about the Association raising the price of its ingredients, so she ended up buying more than a hundred batches..."
Celine finished her glass of fruit wine, poured herself another, and asked:
"What about the Association? Have they figured out which storeroom the goods came from?"
"No. The Association wanted to inspect every storeroom. The newly appointed association president even declared, 'Once we've checked the storerooms, we'll definitely find another thousand batches of ingredients...'"
Celine couldn't help laughing.
"I doubt he'll manage to inspect even one storeroom. After all, so many things have been written off as dead accounts over the years..."
"Exactly. The committee members all rejected his proposal to inspect the storerooms, and the matter went no further."
Celine sighed.
"Maybe the Association would have died if we hadn't stepped in..."
"But it's still alive..."
They exchanged a glance, both looking helpless. There was nothing they could do about it. Energy Potion was just too profitable.
No, it was that the Advanced Apprentices had too much money. The Association was such a mess, yet their money had still managed to keep the whole thing afloat.
If this had happened two months earlier, the Association would probably have been dead already.
"What do I need your ingredients for? I'm no apothecary!" Richter said irritably to the lavishly dressed man.
"Hey, Richter, don't be like that. This batch is the real deal. You know Energy Potion is essential for apprentices like you."
"Imagine you're holding a scalpel and come up with a brilliant idea, maybe even the beginnings of a new spell, but you're exhausted."
"You know that if you fall asleep, you might let inspiration slip away. That's when a bottle of Energy Potion..."
"Enough. I didn't come here to talk about that. If you keep going, I..."
The man immediately fell silent. He'd heard of Richter, the notorious madman among the Advanced Apprentices. Since becoming an Advanced Apprentice, Richter had secretly killed several apprentices and taken the lives of at least a hundred people...
If not for the Transmutation School protecting him, and the potential he himself had shown, someone would have dealt with him long ago...
"Fine, then. What do you want? Let me make one thing clear: I can't help you smuggle any more bodies in. You'll have to leave Cuilan Academy..."
Richter interrupted him, his face dark.
"I can't leave Cuilan Academy before the examination, and that's not what I'm asking you to do..."
The man was confused. Why had Richter come to him, if it wasn't about transporting bodies?
His only dealings with Richter had been transporting bodies. He'd only brought it up because he wanted Richter to pay more before he agreed to bring any in...
He knew Richter's situation. Everyone wanted him dead. If he went outside and was spotted now, he probably wouldn't make it back...
And if Richter failed to earn a high ranking in this examination, simply passing wouldn't be enough. Without a good ranking, the Transmutation School would stop protecting him.
"I'm talking about what happens after the examination. There's an apprentice I'm interested in, and I need somewhere safe."
The man was puzzled, but he understood. He asked:
"But what if you don't make it back from the examination...?"
He left the rest unsaid. What if Richter couldn't pay him?
"I'll pay you in full right now. Just do exactly as I say."
If he was getting paid in full, then there was no problem.
"On the night your examination ends, the Pharmacist Association—which might still be alive—will claim that patch of wasteland south of Cuilan Academy. The next day, a Magic Artisan will turn all the soil into slurry and build a foundation. Then everything will be buried beneath it..."