The Alchemists

Finland fell silent. She remembered that last year, when she first met Lauriel, the man showed her a bottle he called death and said that he was tired of life.

"Uhm... when we first met, you said that you wanted to die. Did the bottle contain poison?" she asked slowly.

Aleksis, who sat next to Finland and was playing with a bell, suddenly became quiet and looked at Lauriel, her round eyes full of question marks. The man, who realized that Aleksis looked at him attentively, smiled and shook his head.

He rubbed her hair gently before answering, as if he didn't want Aleksis to hear that he once wanted to die, "It's not poison, but medicine."

"What medicine?" Finland asked, not understanding.

"Being an alchemist is a genetic disorder. People are not supposed to be able to live forever. All cells should eventually die and not regenerate again. The medicine in that bottle heals an alchemist's genetic disorder and makes us like normal humans." Lauriel raised Aleksis to his lap with affection, as if she was his own child.

"Uncle Albert, Caspar's grandfather, found a drug to mutate our genes so that we have super genes. This drug makes us perfect humans. The mutations are genetically inherited, and pure Alchemist offspring don't need to take any medicine to get that privilege. We can stay young forever and live as immortals, if we want to. However, not everyone fits into that life, and after hundreds of years, some people became tired of life, some people missed their family and friends who died, so they don't want to live as immortals anymore. Therefore, an antidote was created. All Alchemists who want to go back to being a mortal can take this medicine and eventually die. That's why the bottle is called Death."

"Oh... So, after taking that medicine, you will age and eventually die?"

"That's true." Lauriel looked at Aleksis for a long time before continuing, "I bought this farm a while ago and I was planning to spend the rest of my life here and die. My adventure in the world is over. I changed my mind when I saw Aleksis. I never had a child, and I feel like I have no purpose in life anymore. All the great adventures I wanted to do have been done... but now I want to share them with Aleksis. I want to take her around the world and make crop circles together. I want to take her sailing in the vast ocean to explore the waters and show her the treasures of the sea that I hid in the Caribbean. Now I even want to wait until Space X launches a voyage into space so that I can explore the sky with my daughter ...."

Finland remembered Caspar's words two years ago, that Finland would change her mind and want to live as an immortal when they had children, because she would want to see her children grow up and live happily. Was this how Lauriel felt about Aleksis? He wanted to live forever so he could see Aleksis grow and go on adventures with her?

"But Aleksis is not your child..." Finland said quietly, "Someday you will meet a woman, fall in love and have a child of your own. I'm sure that will happen."

Lauriel laughed at that, as if Finland was saying something funny.

"Finland, I've been exploring this earth for 550 years... I've seen kingdoms built and destroyed, wars go on and on, rulers come and go. I see times change and life flourish. If I wanted to have a wife and children, it should have happened a long time ago, but the fact is that I'm still alone. I don't like humans. Only a few people I can tolerate." His tone of speech then became serious. "I already consider Aleksis as my own daughter, and I wish to officially adopt her as my child if you don't mind. What is mine will be hers..."

Finland knew that Lauriel was very rich, even though she never saw him do any work. As a woman who grew up in poverty, getting a wealthy foster father for her child was a big temptation, especially now that Caspar had moved on and didn't want to acknowledge her child, and instead lived with Sophia...

"I'm not used to accepting other people's kindness," She said later. She could not accept Lauriel's offer. "Tell me, what's your real reason? There's no way you want to do all that for a child who has no blood relation with you..."

Lauriel shook his head at the stubborn girl…

"You've received my kindness for the past year, have I ever shown that I have an ulterior motive? I don't need anything in this world. I have everything. If I wanted something in return, wouldn't I have asked for it a long time ago?"

"But there is no such human..." hissed Finland. "Sorry, I'm a pessimist. I can't believe that someone can be nice to others without wanting anything in return..."

Lauriel stared at Finland for a long time and then something struck in his mind.

"Hmm... do you think I want you?"

Finland did not answer. She recalled that in Singapore, Lauriel held her hand and began to behave somewhat differently.

"Don't you think I can get any woman I want?" Lauriel asked again.

"That is true," said Finland softly. "But the fact is that you are here with me and Aleksis. It's been a year - since we first met – and you have never left us."

Finally, Lauriel smiled and nodded slowly.

"Hmm... you're right."

Finland took a deep breath. She already suspected this.

"I'm sorry... my wounds are still very fresh. I don't know when my heart will recover and be able to open up to others." Finland looked away sadly. She wanted to hide her tears. "You are very kind, but I can't be with you."

"It's OK, Finland. I can wait." Lauriel smiled gently. "I'm not in a hurry.".