Chapter 24: From Prester
One day ago in Prester, a city about sixty miles from Luna Nova Magical Academy.
Warren Pharmacy Store was an ordinary alchemy shop in Prester. The owner, Warren, had no talent for a mage. He could only open such a store when he had money to satisfy his childhood wishes.
"Antoine produced something weird again. Forget it, it's not worth a lot of money anyway."
Warren looked at the neatly arranged black drinks in the box and said to himself. He was a regular customer of Antoine Alchemy Workshop. In the past few years, even with many emerging alchemy workshops, he still took care of Antoine's business. The reason was probably that he had received a lot of favors from the other side when he first started his business.
This time Antoine asked himself to sell this drink called Cola. Warren agreed without much thought and bought 20 bottles. Anyway, the import price only needed two copper coins a bottle, even if he couldn't sell all of them, the loss would only be forty copper coins.
It was a bit sultry these two days, even the store was filled with stagnant air. Warren wiped his sweat and put the Cola in the fridge.
The fridge was operated by magic spells and could keep the temperature low. Because the storage of many medicines required a certain temperature, Warren bought one and placed it in the corner of the store. Through the glass window, one could see the medicines of various colors inside, it was very trendy.
After opening the "Daily Prester" delivered by the newsboy in the morning, Warren officially started a day of business.
Not long after, the wind chimes at the door rang and Warren put down the newspaper just in time to see today's first customer come in.
That was Baron Goode from the other side of the street. He was anorexic and could only eat some liquid food every day, so he was gradually losing weight.
"Lord Goode, why are you here in person?"
Warren knew of Goode's illness. He had asked someone to come here to find some medicine for anorexia, but it was basically useless.
"I was strolling outside when I saw that your shop had opened, so I came in to take a look."
Baron Goode wore a double-breasted gown. The originally fitted clothes were now extremely loose. It was unimaginable that he used to be a tall and sturdy nobleman a year ago and was well known as a gourmet.
According to the doctor's diagnosis, Goode's illness was due to his long-term exposure to various types of food, which resulted in resistance to food. It was a psychological illness, and if he wanted to be cured, he had to find food with a special taste.
Baron Goode knew some delicacies from foreign countries, but he who was a mere baron couldn't afford the cost of those delicacies, let alone that some ingredients could only be exchanged using the academic points of the mages.
"You have to take care of yourself."
Although Warren was unfamiliar with Baron Goode, they were the neighbors in the same block. Seeing his scrawny appearance, he couldn't help but say.
"If I really die because of this disease, I will feel relieved."
Baron Goode smiled and didn't care too much. The torment of more than a year of illness had long made him no longer worry about many things and reflect on his luxurious life of the past.
At this time, the wind chime rang again, and a woman walked in, attracting the attention of the two.
"Oliana, you seem to be busy these days?"
Warren shook the newspaper in his hand. "Daily Prester" was a long-established newspaper, but recently it had been bullied by several emerging newspapers such as "Prester Daily" and "Prester Life". Those new newspapers used sensationalizing headlines to attract readers, even making up stories or twisting facts, and they liked to publish some news with obvious indescribable content.
For the public, this kind of gimmick was very successful. The market share of "Daily Prester" was declining. Up to now, probably only regular customers like Warren were still subscribing to it.
"Those sensationalizing guys have no professional ethics at all!"
Oliana was very angry, pounded the counter, and said.
"Warren, give me two bottles of calming potions, the kind I usually want."
"Okay."
Warren turned around and looked on the shelf, and said with emotion.
"Oliana, it hasn't been easy for you these years. Russell passed away a long time ago. You raised your daughter by yourself, so don't work too hard."
Picking up two small bottles of light blue potion, Warren handed them to Oliana.
"Although the calming potion is effective, long-term use will still cause addiction. You have to use it carefully."
"Thanks, Warren, I will pay attention, but there have been too many things recently, without this thing, I can't sleep at night."
Oliana looked haggard, picked up the potion, and when she was about to leave, she heard Baron Goode knocking on the door of the fridge in the store with his cane.
"Warren, what is this black potion?"
He was pointing to the Cola that had just been put in. This red and black color packaging, coupled with the black liquid, was very eye-catching among a pack of potions.
"This is not a potion, it's a kind of drink, it's called cola or something, it's a new product from the Alchemy Workshop that I usually purchase my goods."
Warren explained, on a whim, walked over to open the freezer and took out a bottle of Cola.
"It happens to be so sultry today. Let's try this thing. It's iced anyway. I guess the taste is not bad. It will be my treat."
Originally, he bought Cola because of favor, and he didn't intend to sell it for money.
"Cola."
Repeating this strange-sounding name, Oliana looked at the black in the bottle. Seeing that one or two bubbles of liquid popped up from time to time, she did not dare to try.
Just when they hesitated, Warren had already opened the bottle of Cola. This metal bottle cap was very strong, and the opening method was very simple. From this perspective, Warren thought that the design was good.
He smelled it, there was no special smell. Then he found three clean cups, poured Cola on them, and pushed them in front of them.
Baron Goode picked up the cup. This special drink made him a little curious. Anyway, he had no hope of improving his health anymore, and there was no big problem trying new things.
Oliana also felt that the air was sultry. Feeling the coldness of the cup in her hand, she did not refuse this time.
"To 'Daily Prester'."
Warren joked, the three clinked their cups, and then each drank the liquid in their own cups.
Almost at the same time, the eyes of the three people suddenly widened, and the scene froze at this moment.
Putting down the cup, Warren was silent. He didn't know how to describe his feelings, so he looked at Oliana, hoping that this excellent editor in chief could say something, but he soon saw that Oliana was stunned. Looking at the empty cup, she said nothing.
In the end, the silence was broken by Baron Goode. He raised his scrawny hand and picked up the metal bottle cap on the table. He read the words written in the bottle cap.
"Another bottle"