The Alchemists

After breakfast, Finland prepared herself to commute to her office, but Caspar insisted on driving her. The hotel immediately prepared a car equipped with a car seat and soon they were driving to Finland's office in the Financial District.

"Thank you for taking me," Finland said, kissing Caspar's cheek and getting out of the car. "Are you going to the hotel to work?"

"Maybe tomorrow. Today I want to look at our house in Palo Alto first," Caspar said.

"Alright. Just let me know what you're up to. I'll go to work now."

When Finland entered the building, Caspar immediately drove his car to the south. He very rarely came to San Francisco. You could say that for the past 20 years he had never set foot on this region. When he went to the state of California, he preferred to stay at the warm San Diego or Los Angeles. San Francisco was too cold for his taste.

But over time, Stanis bought and added assets, and eventually Caspar was not able to keep up with which properties he had, including this mansion in Palo Alto and the vineyard in Napa Valley.

The properties that he bought out of his own will because he liked them could be counted with all his fingers. One was the beautiful house in Seattle that he bought three years ago to give to Finland, another was Rose Mansion in Singapore, then his neighbor's house in New York – mostly because of the noisy residents, so they could never again play loud music and disturb his peace, and several other buildings.

Once, when he went to South Africa, he saw a beautiful colonial house in Pretoria. He loved the building so much so he called Stanis to take care of the purchase. To his utter surprise, Stanis told him that the house already belonged to him for a few years. He really did not remember; and to this day he and Stanis still laughed about the incident.

That was why, whenever Caspar arrives in a new city, he preferred to contact Stanis in advance and ascertain what assets he had in the area. Caspar had lived like this for hundreds of years and he realized he was too spoiled by the wealth he had had in his entire life.

When he entered the city of Palo Alto, Caspar nodded in satisfaction. This was a very pretty and peaceful area. He drove his car around to see the neighborhood and made sure he really liked the vibe.

When he was satisfied with his findings, he headed to his mansion in the Palo Alto Hills area. Palo Alto was one of the most expensive cities in America, where many technology billionaires such as Apple's Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg reside.

Of the several regions in Palo Alto, the Leland Manor, Crescent Park and Palo Alto Hills were the most expensive. Its location was close to Silicon Valley and Stanford University, and property prices in that area went up like crazy for the past several decades.

Stanis bought the mansion in Palo Alto Hills 20 years ago, and the price had multiplied since the technology boom in the early 2000s. All the homes that belonged to Caspar all over the world were managed by staff who were personally arranged by Stanis, since he was the head of the Schneider family's staff.

Buildings that were not personally used by Caspar were rented out or used for various purposes so that they were always maintained and kept in their best conditions.

Caspar's only permanent residences were the castle in Stuttgart, the mansion in Berlin, and the mansion in New York. Other than that, Caspar would usually stay in various penthouses or hotel suites around the world if he needed to travel. Once a year he would also visit Singapore for a month and spend time at Rose Mansion.

Three years ago, he changed his dynamics by extending his stay in Singapore to 6 months because he fell in love with the girl he met at the airport. And the rest, had become history.

The mansion he was going to in Palo Alto Hills was very pretty. It was located on the top of a hill and had a very breathtaking natural scenery. Its inhabitants had access to a golf course and a country club.

The gate to the mansion was white, quite tall, and covered a very large garden with a swimming pool at the back. He was not interested in swimming in late autumn because it must be very cold, but a barbecue on the grassy lawn beside the pool would be very pleasant, he thought.

Two staff members welcomed him at the door and readily prepared drinks and toys for Aleksis. The mansion had 6 master bedrooms and the design was very elegant. Caspar liked Stanis' taste.

Hmm... if he could choose, it would be more pleasant to stay in this mansion for a month, rather than in Finland's small apartment downtown, but he did not want to disappoint his wife and had to resist his desire to urge them to stay here.

All right... we could stay here on weekends, he thought, Finland had agreed.

After playing and reading books with Aleksis all day, Caspar realized that he hadn't worked at all that day. He was actually rather surprised because usually he really liked to work and always kept himself busy. But today, he had a great time driving around the city and playing with his daughter.

Ah, was this what it felt like to be a parent?

In his heart he felt sorry for other parents who wished to spend all their time with their children, but were forced to work to make a living.

Caspar didn't need to work. He had enough wealth to support him for so many generations. He only worked because he liked it. If he were an ordinary parent, he would not have had the chance to have this much fun with Aleksis, without having the need to work.

"Hmm... it's almost evening. Mummy will definitely finish work soon, we should pick her up from the office," Caspar said to Aleksis, who was busy picking flowers from the mansion's yard. "We can bring these flowers to Mummy."

Aleksis nodded happily and pulled out a few stems of flowers and proudly handed them over to her father. Caspar led the little girl to the car and placed her in the car seat. A few minutes later, the car was already heading to downtown San Francisco.

***

Finland spent half of her work day answering all her friends' questions about her relationship with Jean, where Aleksis' handsome nanny was now, and why she decided to quit working.

"Ouch... I didn't know you girls were all into gossips..." Finland complained, laughing. "Jean and I are just friends. I told you that already. Remember when I told you that I had a friend who was in a coma...? That was Jean."

"No! Really?! Why didn't you say that was HIM?" Lucia protested. "I really like Jean. If I knew you had access to him, I would have asked you to give him so many gifts from me."

"Ahahaha... what do you want to give him, anyway?" Finland asked amused, "I can give it to him the next time he comes here."

"Jean will come here???? Really??? WHEENNN???" Lucia and Anne looked very excited.

"Oops... I don't know yet, just a moment, let me ask him..." Finland shook her head and picked up her cellphone. "Hi, Jean... my colleagues here are your biggest fans. When is your movie promo event in San Francisco?"

Anne and Lucia screamed hysterically when Finland turned the speakers on her cellphone so they could hear Jean's voice. Tony, who passed their room, rolled his eyes while frowning at the girls' behavior.

"Hey… Finland. I just checked the schedule, and it is next week. Just invite your friends to come with you. I'll send you the invitations later..." Jean said.

Lucia felt her cheeks become hot and she almost fainted after hearing that.

Finland just laughed at their ridiculous behavior. In her heart, she felt a little sad because she would soon leave them. During these 2.5 years, Anne and Lucia had become her good friends and they had helped her a lot. Without them and Lauriel, her life in San Francisco would have been very hard and sad.

After chatting a bit with Jean, Finland was finally able to get back to work. LTX already had 3 replacement candidates and Tony wanted Finland to interview them to determine who will be hired. She had to attend all three interviews after lunch.