A Dragon's Curiosity

Nisha and Miss Carmen entered the laboratory of the Alchemist.

As she remembered it, many potion bottles and ingredients littered the ground and every free space in the room.

Shelfs full of books obscured any hint of the original walls, while the ground had long since been stained beyond recognition too.

Surrounded by various tools and devices used for alchemy, the Alchemist was entirely focused on his work.

In a glass tube held up by a metal tripod, a glowing orange potion released sparks occasionally while the man behind the instruments added more ingredients to the concoction.

Same as her first visit, the elf admired the amount of ambient energy, mana and aura was far more abundant in this secret lair than the outside world.

Pondering the reason for this variance, Nisha assumed that this artificial environment helped with cultivation and increased the success chance for potion brewing.

She would have to ask to know the details, but there was a good chance that she was right.

“Kekeke, you arrived quite fast. It’s nice to have competent people working on my assignments.”

The Alchemist only turned around and barked out a cackle after the potion he worked on settled down and no longer glowed or sparked with activity.

Rather than energetic or powerful, the fluid turned sluggish and made onlookers feel ill as the viscous potion slowly turned and flowed inside the glass tube at a slow pace.

Nisha did not know much about the Seats of the [Thieves Guild] aside from unreliable rumors and hushed words spoken from the underlings of the guild.

His white and grey peppered hair was more disordered than before and the robe he wore had a few additional stains on it.

Perhaps the man could have looked like a kindly grandfather or a dignified elder, yet the cackling laugh and mad demeanor he showed his guests immediately threw those impressions as far away as possible.

“We made it here without getting poisoned or getting knocked out once again, it’s almost a miracle.

I don’t work for you either, if you have a sudden insight the next time, find your own messenger to summon a guest.”

Compared to the cordial tone and respectful behaviour the Golden Heel showed to the elf, she was almost a freezing spell from the far south towards the elderly Alchemist.

Clearly, the man was not surprised at this attitude and likely experienced it before.

“You are lucky people then, I guess. And you’re exaggerating, there’s not much danger in my place at all.

I spend all my time here and have yet to suffer from any side effects of my experiments.”

Waving off the complaints and concerns, the Alchemist packed away the finished product and ignored the messy tools strewn around.

Disregarding whether or not the two women were following him, the old Alchemist exited through one of the doors almost buried beneath a messy shelf full of scrolls and books.

Only when Golden Heel and Nisha also stepped inside did the dragon realize that this reception room was the same that they used for their last meeting.

The glass wall at the back was still as seamless as before, only the occupants had changed.

Ignoring his guests, the robed man picked one of the furniture pieces at random and ignored the dust as he threw himself into the luxurious cushions.

Miss Carmen opened her mouth and apparently wanted to speak her mind several times, but she eventually swallowed her words and pulled Nisha along to a couch, where the pretty woman firstly dusted off as much grime as possible before sitting down together with the girl.

“Don’t always shut yourself in and take the time to learn some damn manners sometime.

You’re the one who asked to invite a guest, and now you’re acting like some wronged lady.

If that’s how you’re going to be, don’t ask me for help the next time, I can’t take your business anymore.”

The proprietor of the [Crimson Night Palace] scolded the Alchemist right to his face and stood up, indicating that she was ready to leave right away.

Nisha was confused why they first had to sit down if they were going to leave right away anyway, but she trusted the woman more and was inclined to side with Miss Carmen in this matter.

“Why are you always angry, I didn't even do anything yet.

Sit down and hear me out, there’s a proper reason why I needed to arrange this meeting.

Geez, always so impatient.”

The last statement would have not offended people if it was said by a kind elder or a similar figure, the Alchemist just had to be a stubborn old man that threw a sarcastic remark at his fellow Seat despite being in the wrong.

Miss Carmen clenched her fist and seemed to deliberate whether she stood a chance of winning against him, but ultimately calmed down again.

“If it wasn’t for you being obstinate and hard to get along with, do you think your alchemy branch would be the weakest, smallest and comparably poor one amongst the guild?

Say whatever you want to say and then we’re out of here.”

Nisha wondered whether she was actually supposed to attend a meeting or mediate a dispute.

Her image of the [Thieves Guild]’s Seats suffered greatly.

“What do you know about my craft, no matter how many amateurs attempt to learn my skills, it’s useless if they are useless themselves.

If they’re incompetent, I can’t teach them, that’s just how it is.

Let me worry about my matters on my own, you should keep yourself busy with your girls and keep pulling the money out of the pockets of the men you trick.

Shoo, go away, this girl said she represented herself last time.

Don’t bother with things outside of your jurisdiction if you don’t want to help anyway.”

During her previous visit, Nisha had a deep impression of the man, mainly that he did not bother with things outside of his field of study, alchemy.

The strong animosity between Golden Heel and The Alchemist came unexpected, and it was clearly not the first time that the two branches clashed against each other.

A decade spent living in the Wilderness cultivated a great survival instinct and the dragon decided that she had the time to wait until the two arguing Seats settled their problems without her.

“Fine then, let’s see how you mess the deal up all on your own.

It was your idea to contact a food supplier in the first place, so if you want to ruin the entire operation, be my guest!”

Throwing her hands in the air, Miss Carmen stomped out of the room and left behind a cranky old man smoldering in his seat.

“What do you strumpets know about the coming crisis anyway, it will only help if you stay away as far as possible!”

Unwilling to not have the last word, the Alchemist screamed after the Golden Heel and huffed to himself for quite a while before he calmed down.

Nisha did not want to inherit this wrath and politely stayed silent and allowed the man his own space to cool down.

Thankfully, the old man calmed his rage just as fast as he flared up, hence the elf did not have to wait too long.

“Girl, you were called Nisha Dharnas, right? Follow me to take a look over there.”

Since the object of his anger disappeared, the Alchemist no longer showed much interest, confirming the girl’s suspicion from the last visit.

As long as the topic was not related to alchemy or rubbed him the wrong way, the old man hardly bothered to invest his attention into anything.

Perhaps he would not have thought of inviting the elf to his base if the topic of their meeting was not connected to the [Blackroot Plague] either.

“Yes, I have been invited once to a meeting here to discuss the procurement of grain and other supplies before.”

As she had already invested some time to come here, Nisha would rather have a productive chat and then go on her way.

Talking to the guild required her to take extra care with her words and sound more mature than she actually was.

Otherwise, no one would take Nisha seriously, and sending Annabelle and Lydia as proxies would not work either, they were busy coordinating the purchases in the entire Leandar kingdom and seldom had the time to rest at home.

“Good, I hate explaining things twice. Come over here and tell me what you see.”

Without alchemy or Golden Heel involved, the old man visibly deflated and ushered over to the glass wall separating the back portion of the lobby from the rest.

Contrary to her first visit, there were now two people imprisoned inside.

On the left side of the glass prison, a man huddled in the corner, clearly afraid.

Strangely enough, he did not beg for mercy or wail against the glass like a madman, he only curled into a ball as much as possible, clearly afraid of the Alchemist just as a prey in front of a terrifying predator.

On the right side, a person trembled and occasionally trashed around in agony.

A torn bed sheet covered most of their frame and features, making it unclear which gender and age the person belonged to at a first glance, and Nisha had little desire to use her [Spirit Sight] to look deeper and solve that riddle.

She had a premonition that the result would not please her in any way.

“Since you asked me to come down here, I reckon that these two are infected by the [Blackroot Plague].

Based on that guess, one of them should be quite far along with the sickness, while the other is only in contact with the disease recently?

There are other details, but I guess they are not relevant to your question.”

Comparing them to the energy of normal people the elf met every day, the prisoners almost had no difference in her [Spirit Sight].

Only by concentrating and looking for flaws did the girl discover that their aura stagnated from time to time and their mana pool - however small it was - barely moved at all.

The twitching one on the ground even had no flow at all. His mana withered slowly from being still.

“Working with smart people is the only joy I get when meeting others.

Very astute observation, you figured it out on the first try.”

The Alchemist pulled some of his mana and infused it into the glass panel.

Nisha had always found it weird how a man barely at the third aura and mana level held the Seat of an entire branch, when competition in the [Thieves Guild] quite literally cut-throat, more so than in other businesses.

Still, his alchemy most likely made up for some of his weaknesses.

Just judging by the threat level she felt from him, the dragon decided to not assume she was more powerful than him and eat a loss.

While Nisha mused about the true power of the Alchemist, inscriptions lit up on the glass panel and transformed into a mist that settled on the inhabitants of the glass prison.

“Thanks to an early warning, we managed to discover these two who already contracted the [Blackroot Plague] among the people under investigation.

They have no further use for my experiments and an incident took place last night, so I asked the guild to invite you here again.

My task is to give you some insights on the danger the plague represents and speed up the cooperation, so the grain is ready when the worst of the [Blackroot Plague] hits the city.”

The mist spread throughout the room, quickly finding the huddled form of the left man trying to stay as far away as possible from the unknown substance, whereas the twitching person on the right no longer even reacted when the surging mist burrowed through the ripped cloth and into his body.

Apparently the man screamed and tried to scratch his body where the substance soaked into his skin.

Nisha heard nothing though, the glass panels perfectly shielding them from anything inside.

She wanted to ask what exactly happened right now, but the Alchemist repeatedly stated his preference of intelligent conversation partners.

Observing a while longer would not hurt, compared to incurring the wrath of a powerful Seat in the [Thieves Guild].

The dragon actually enjoyed the tepid reception from the man, since he had no reason to have strong feelings for or against her either way.

Although the Alchemist did not really get along with Miss Carmen, Nisha understood that it was impossible that everyone got along with everyone.

Her own impression of the man was not too bad either.

“Watch.”

As the Alchemist pulled her out of her thoughts, changes began to happen inside the glass prison.