The Alchemists

"Hey… You're Elios Linden, aren't you?" Suddenly, an eager voice from the door greeted him. Alaric turned his head and found the face of a very handsome young man with bright blond hair and narrow blue eyes.

"Hmm..." Alaric nodded. He recognized this young man as the son of the Schneider family who came with Terry to the Ritz Gala.

"My name is Rune Schneider, I really like the Virconnect product made by Splitz." Rune raised his hand to shake hands, and for a moment Alaric couldn't bear to turn his hand away because he saw those beaming eyes.

"Thank you." He finally responded to Rune's handshake. "What do you like most about Virconnect?"

"Umm... I like it because very little data is needed to access it. I think we can use Virconnect for more purposes if it can be installed on a smaller device." Rune answered enthusiastically. Without waiting for a response from Alaric, he outlined several alternatives to using Virconnect in addition to long-distance relationships between people on earth.

Rune was a talented scientist who had followed in the footsteps of his uncle Aldebar, and this year, he had produced his first machine, a tool to accelerate plant growth. He was waiting for the Schneider Group to mass-produce it.

He was very pleased to meet Alaric at this event because he admired many innovations of the group of companies he was leading and enthusiastically discussed one by one the things he liked about their products.

Alaric listened in admiration. He knew that this boy was very young. He had heard that Caspar had married shortly before Ned and Portia, so his children would still be young. So young, yet he already sounded very knowledgeable and forward-thinking, he thought.

"You sound very innovative. If you aren't the son of the Schneider family, I would love to offer you work in my company," Alaric commented.

"Why, why not?" asked Rune in surprise. "Do you hate my family?"

"Don't you need to take care of your family business as an heir to the Schneider family?" asked Alaric, who now looked at him in puzzlement.

"Oh yeah, that's right..." Rune was naive and didn't think in that direction, leaving Alaric to only faintly smile. The children of the Schneider family are very pleasant, he thought.

The two then talked further about various things, and for a moment, Alaric was comforted. Their conversation only stopped when Aldebar called Rune to come back inside.

"Sorry, I have to go back soon. It was nice talking with you." Rune went back to greet Alaric and excused himself.

"Ah, see you tomorrow then. I'll be having tea with your father tomorrow," Alaric answered.

"Good. See you tomorrow!"

After Rune left, Alaric stood staring at the empty night sky. His lonely-looking posture attracted a lot of sympathy from the girls who had gathered outside and watched him since earlier time.

After a while, because Alaric didn't seem to be moving, several beautiful girls came to him.

"Good evening, Eli. Nice to meet you." A tall girl who looked like a supermodel greeted him with a very beautiful smile. "My name is Shekina and these are my friends. We saw that you looked pensive."

"I'm Lyana." The cute girl with a freckled face nodded next to Shekina.

"I'm Alexandra." The last girl appeared from behind the tall Shekina, her small body immediately taking place in front of her friends while laughing.

For a moment, Alaric was amazed to see how Alexandra had a pair of very beautiful eyes. Both her eyes had a mixture of gray and green, which was extremely rare. She also had heterochromia like Aleksis, and even their names sounded similar.

Alexandra's friends saw how Alaric was stunned and thought he was attracted to the girl. They whispered and giggled flirtatiously.

"Ah... It looks like Eli likes Alexandra. Well, then we won't bother you two." Smiling, Shekina dragged Lyana away, leaving Alexandra blushing in front of Alaric.

Instantly, Alaric felt tired. He didn't need interference at times like this, he thought.

"Alexandra, nice to meet you. Sorry, but I have to go." He nodded at Alexandra and walked the other way.

The girl he left behind took a few seconds to process what happened. And when she finally found her voice, Alaric was already far away.

"Hey... Wait!! What do you mean by that?"

Alexandra felt very disappointed. Earlier, when Alaric was staring at her with an awed look, she really thought the man was into her. She was already very happy when her friends thoughtfully left them alone.

Ughhhh!!!

Sophia, who was passing by, had seen what had happened. She only smiled to herself at how popular Alaric was, causing so many girls to try to attract his attention. Unfortunately for them, Alaric didn't seem to be interested in any of them.

While holding back her laughter, Sophia approached Alexandra and greeted her kindly.

"Hi... Please forgive my cousin, he didn't mean to make you misunderstand." At that time, Sophia also saw Alexandra's two-colored eyes and remembered how Alaric was stunned when he saw this girl. Sophia narrowed her eyes and smiled very sweetly.

Her guess was correct. Alaric's wife must be the same Aleksis as she had thought. It must be Caspar's daughter who had heterochromia, because just now, Alaric seemed to be reminded of her eyes when he saw Alexandra's.

Alaric's dead wife was Caspar's biological daughter. No wonder Caspar was hunting him to death.

In her heart, Sophia was very happy to know that Aleksis was dead. The child had caused large losses to her family.

And what pleased her more was the fact that Caspar didn't know that Alaric Rhionen was Elios Linden. Had he known, he wouldn't have invited Alaric to drink tea tomorrow.

Sophia smiled faintly as she thought of the secret she had just discovered.

"Princess Sophia," Alexandra's voice woke Sophia from her reverie. "I'm fine, thank you for caring. I was just shocked."

"Alright. Don't take it to heart. Just enjoy the party."

Alexandra nodded respectfully and went looking for her friends.

Until the party ended, Alaric didn't return. That made a lot of people disappointed, and they soon realized that he really didn't like crowds.

"Ugh... He really is his father's child," Portia grumbled to Ned. "Both of them don't like crowds and parties."

"Let him be. After all, he has given us face by being present. Now let him rest." Ned kissed his wife's forehead to make Portia smile again.

"Hmm... I'm not angry. I understand him." Portia nodded. "I'm just sorry he doesn't want to socialize with other people. You saw it for yourself how lonely he looked. I want him to have friends and, who knows, maybe among the many beautiful girls from our clan, he can find new love."

"Hmm... What do you think of Kit Blue? Lex's daughter. They'll be staying at our palace tomorrow," Ned asked.

Portia shrugged. "Kit seems to be too young, huh. I don't know... It feels like her family is not of the same level as us. I know Lex is your childhood friend, but they're from the lower classes."

Ned sighed. "This is 2045, my dear. The period of nobles and royals has passed hundreds of years ago. Now money is the measure of one's nobility. In my opinion, as the richest family in Iceland, the Blue family has a pretty good class."

Portia didn't answer. She admitted that Kit was very beautiful, well educated, and seemed to understand good manners. She didn't openly reject Kit as her daughter-in-law, but she still didn't feel that the girl was perfect for her adopted son.

The party ended at 11 PM and the guests returned home excitedly. Alaric was again the subject of discussion, and many members of the Alchemists speculated that after Caspar had resigned from the position of clan leader (as he had stated several times), Alaric would rise to replace him.

The girls were even more excited to talk about him.

***