(I'm posting my eighth chapter today! Let's push for 3,000 recommendations—if you have a vote, please cast it for me!)
Apart from at special banquets, the custom in this world was to drink wine with dinner. If it was brought out at other times, it was usually to celebrate some happy occasion. Of course, some people liked to drink wine regularly, but they wouldn't casually bring it out to serve guests outside of mealtimes. That was unless they had specifically invited them to taste the wine.
After filling a glass each with red and white wine, Donald smiled mysteriously. Rather than explain, he said, "Master, try a glass first. You'll understand once you do!"
Messer took the glass Donald offered him, puzzled. It held an enticing, ruby-red liquid. He held it beneath his nose and took a gentle sniff. A sweet, fragrant aroma wafted into his nostrils. Unable to resist, he took a small sip, and the old mage was instantly captivated by its delicious taste.
As he was still savoring the wine, a gentle warmth rose inside him. The stamina and mental strength he had spent during the alchemical process were slowly recovering.
"This is..."
His stamina and mental strength recovered slowly, but at ten times the rate of normal rest. Even ordinary people could easily notice the difference, let alone a mage, whose profession made him highly sensitive to changes in mental strength.
"Is this wine or an alchemical potion? Little Donald, tell me!"
The old mage grabbed Donald by the shoulders and pressed him for an answer, nearly beside himself with excitement.
Donald chuckled. "Don't get so worked up, Master. I invented this special wine based on a recovery-potion recipe. It tastes like a fine wine, but also has some of a recovery potion's effects—and it has no side effects at all. I thought it would be perfect for mages to drink while resting, so I brought some for you to try!"
Messer had seen a lot in his time, and quickly regained his composure, though excitement still shone in his eyes.
"Sorry! I got too excited. Little Donald, you have no idea—if this invention can be mass-produced, it could be one of the most valuable mage inventions of the past century. The wine's effects aren't powerful, but they're gentle and long-lasting, with practically no side effects. If mages could regularly drink this miraculous wine, it wouldn't just lift their spirits and improve their constitutions; it would also greatly reduce the time they need to rest and speed up their spell research and advancement!"
Donald's original intention was to make sure the benefits went to those who had helped him. The mages at the club deserved to be the first to receive a good thing like this. Otherwise, if they got it from merchants elsewhere and learned where it came from, they would surely resent him.
Rather than let that happen, he had decided to pitch it to them directly. If the mages weren't interested, that would be another matter!
Of course, the chances of that were slim.
With the incredible Book of Truth at his disposal, Donald had never lacked ordinary support items. As a result, he had underestimated how tempting a drink that restored stamina and mental strength would be to mages! Even his teacher, Messer, North Shire's Number One Mage, had been this excited!
Hearing his teacher's words, Donald said hesitantly, "Mass production will be difficult. For now, I can only make a small amount, but I should be able to supply the club's mages."
Messer immediately asked, his excitement rising again, "Really?"
"Of course. I brought fifty bottles of the special wine today, and I should be able to provide about that many every month from now on!"
Once Donald confirmed it, Messer was about to summon the club's mages and share the good news, but Donald stopped him.
"Master, don't call everyone just yet. You haven't tried the other glass!"
"The other glass? Right, this red wine restores fatigue. Then the white wine you brought must have a different effect, too, right?"
Donald only smiled and said nothing, so Messer decided to test it himself. He picked up the glass of white wine and downed it in one go.
"What a strange feeling. My mental strength is recovering faster, and it feels a little purer, too. Is this white wine focused on mental strength?"
Purification potions were effective, but they were diluted, after all. For a mage like Messer, whose mental strength had already grown exceptionally powerful and concentrated, even being able to sense these changes was proof of the wine's remarkable effects.
Donald nodded. "That's right. The recipe for this white wine is different from the red wine's. It has a slight effect on purifying and restoring mental strength, and it offers a little resistance to negative mental effects, such as curse spells. It can also help ordinary people avoid certain illnesses!"
This time, Messer didn't get excited again. Instead, he studied Donald so intently that Donald began to feel uneasy. At last, Messer sighed. "Little Donald, you're a blessing to the mages of North Shire! First, you successfully awakened your Summoner talent, and now you've given us such a wonderful surprise. Your potential is even greater than I imagined. Perhaps you'll become the first level-nine Archmage in North Shire!"
Even Donald, whose skin was thick as a wall, couldn't help blushing under the old mage's praise.
It wasn't as if he had developed this stuff himself. He had simply used the miraculous power of the Book of Truth to tinker with some blended wine. In his previous life, he'd surely have been accused of making fake wine. Hadn't he seen how even the big wineries never openly admitted how much their products were blended?
"Master, you're praising me too much. You and the other mages at the club have helped me so much. This small return is only right—and it's not as if I'm giving the wine away. I'm selling it to make money from you all!"
"If you didn't take our money, some mage would probably be begging you to let him pay you instead!"
Hearing Donald's little joke, Messer smiled and joked back, his inner child coming out.
"Enough! We shouldn't keep everyone waiting. Everyone should get to share something this good. If we can supply it to all the mages in North Shire, our mages' strength will surely improve enormously within ten years!"
"But if you sell this wine openly, it could cause trouble. Those greedy merchants and nobles will swarm around you like bloodsucking insects. Since you can't produce much, you might as well sell it all directly to the club's mages. They could easily take twice as much. Even if outsiders find out, they won't dare scheme against all the mages of North Shire!"
"Thank you for the warning, Master. I got carried away!"
Donald had avoided bringing out potions directly because he feared they would cause trouble, so he had come up with these two wines instead. He hadn't considered carefully enough how these fine wines might affect the outside world. Hearing the old mage's advice, he felt a little shaken—but fortunately, his teacher had resolved the problem with a single remark.
Messer was the first to step out the door. He offered Donald a kind word of reassurance. "Don't blame yourself. It's good for young people to have some spirit and drive. When you're my age, it'll be hard even to act on impulse! Come on, we should go share this good news with everyone!"
Donald smiled at that. In his previous life, he had been nearly thirty, but he was still straightforward by nature. After his soul merged with that of his younger self in this life, he had become even more innocent and imaginative. If the threat to his survival hadn't forced him to mature quickly after first arriving in this world, he would never have made all those plans earlier to secure his future.
At Messer's summons, Donald held an impromptu wine tasting. The two exceptional wines caused a sensation among the club's mages.
Faced with the club's enthusiastic mages, Donald didn't sell the wine at the fifty Gold Sol per bottle he had originally decided on before coming. Instead, he sold all fifty bottles he had brought for forty Gold Sol each.
He could have asked for a higher price without hesitation if they had been merchants or nobles. But these mages were kind and principled people—or at least the ones he knew well were. They were worth getting closer to and building a relationship with.
Before you continue