Leaving the Candy Complex, Kai headed directly toward the Honey Pill Shop, and after around 40 minutes of walking, he arrived at his destination.
"Kai, it's you!"
As Kai entered the Honey Pill Shop, Miya came flying toward him, surprised.
Thank the Fairy Mother—the Human was here! Otherwise, she would have had to listen to her cousin nagging once again.
"What happened? Why are you so late today?" Miya asked, trying to understand the reason behind Kai's delay. She intended to report it to her cousin Lyra. After all, this was the first time the Human had been this late, and her suspicions grew stronger.
"Nothing serious, just overslept," Kai replied in a carefree tone, confident he could complete all the tasks on the brewing list before the workday ended.
"Okay… here's the brewing list."
Hearing his reply, Miya realized he didn't want to explain further, so she let it go and handed him the brewing list.
Taking it, Kai headed toward his alchemy room.
Once inside, he brought the small brewing list close to his eyes to read.
[Brewing List]
Name: Kai
Date: Year 0, Month 4, Day 16
Task: 8 Essence Boost Potions]
Seeing that the task was just simple Essence Boost Potions, Kai got to work.
First, he ground some Dragon Roots. Then, taking some dried Whispering Ferns, he ground them into a fine powder. After he was done, he collected the ingredients in separate containers. Next, he began grinding the stems of the Sunlit Blossom.
It took him more than an hour to prepare all the ingredients for the Essence Boost Potions.
Once everything was ready, Kai placed a pot on the Firestones and started by pouring in 7 liters of Moonwater.
"Fire Control!"
Kai let the Moonwater thicken, then tossed in 2 ground Dragon Roots along with the powdered Whispering Fern and began stirring.
After a while, he added a ground stem of Sunlit Blossom and continued stirring. After stirring continuously for around 40 minutes, the first pot of Essence Boost Potion was ready.
Kai collected the potion in vials, then rested for a while to let his arms recover.
Repeating the same process three more times, Kai brewed a total of eight Essence Boost Potions, along with an extra 10 ml of the Essence Boost liquid.
[Essence Boost Potion]
Grade: Low
Effects: +100 Ki (Temporary)
Description: Upon drinking, increases a person's Ki by 100. This effect lasts for an hour and has no side effects.]
[Essence Boost Potion]
Grade: Low
Effects: +10 Ki (Temporary)
Description: Upon drinking, increases a person's Ki by 10. This effect lasts for an hour and has no side effects.]
Kai counted all the potions and checked each one carefully. After making sure they were all good, he looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 6 PM.
Since there wasn't enough time left to make a batch of Basic Vitality Pills, Kai decided to call it a day. After all, he wasn't going to make another pot of potion and continue torturing his arms.
Making a list of all the herbs he had used, Kai headed out. Leaving the Alchemy room, he arrived at the front desk and handed over the Essence Boost Potions he had made, along with the brewing list, the list of herbs used, and his employee card.
"Since this 10 ml of Essence Boost Potion is too little, I'm not going to add any Honey Points," Miya reminded the Human named Kai after checking everything.
After all, if she started handing out Honey Points for every extra 10 ml of potion, she would be dead the moment Lyra found out.
"It's fine with me," Kai replied. He didn't care much about the extra 10 ml of Essence Boost liquid that was collected from all four pots.
"Here you go."
Marking the Human's employee card, Miya handed it back to him, all while eyeing him with suspicion.
After all, if the one possessing the Human named Kai turned out to be from their Fairy race, she couldn't imagine what His Majesty would do to them.
"Thanks." Taking his employee card, Kai left the Honey Pill Shop.
Leaving the Honey Pill Shop, Kai headed toward the Hunters Market, which wasn't that far away.
After roaming the Hunters Market for a while, Kai came across two vendors selling candy apples, but no one was selling cotton candy. Since he couldn't find any, he decided to buy some sweets from the bakery instead.
Having made up his mind, Kai headed toward Kato Bakery.
"Six strawberry muffins and two cookies… No, make it twenty."
Arriving at the bakery, Kai initially ordered six strawberry muffins for himself and two cookies for Yara. But after a moment of thought, he decided to buy cookies for everyone.
"Here you go, Kai. Just give me one Silver. If you don't mind me asking—why are you buying so many cookies?" Mathew gave Kai a discount on the large order and asked curiously.
He figured that since Kai worked at an alchemy shop filled with fairies, maybe some of them had started to like his baked goods. After all, the boy Kai always munched on them; they were bound to get curious about human food.
"They're for everyone back at my complex," Kai replied while handing over the Silver coin.
"Oh, thanks—and come again." Taking the coin, Mathew put it in the drawer and wondered to himself if he might be overthinking things.
On his way back to the Candy Complex, Kai stored all the cookies in his storage bag and started munching on the strawberry muffins.
After half an hour of walking, Kai returned to the Candy Complex.
"Yara, take care of Uncle Tony. I'll be back soon."
As Kai entered the lounge, he saw Tony in his wheelchair slowly heading toward the backyard, while Orion instructed Yara to look after him.
"Oh, you're back." Looking up after giving his instructions to Yara, Orion saw Kai, who had just returned from work.
"Yes, where are you headed?" Kai asked, noticing Orion carrying three empty grocery bags.
"I forgot about the groceries. Look after Tony and Yara, I'll be back soon… Sophia is going to kill me."
At noon, Orion had asked Kai to buy groceries and run a few other errands. However, since Kai was running late, Orion had decided to do them himself. But after Kai left, he completely forgot about them.
Now that there was still some time left before everyone returned, he decided to quickly buy the groceries. As for the rest of the errands—he'd think about those later.
"Bye-bye, Brother Orion!" Yara called out as Orion stormed off. She left the lounge briefly to see him off.
"Yara, I didn't find any cotton candy, but I bought you cookies." When Yara returned, Kai took out the bag of cookies and handed it to her.
"Big bro, are all these for me? But I won't be able to finish them all by myself!" Her eyes lit up at the sight of the cookie-filled bag. After cotton candy, cookies were Yara's favorite. However, she knew she couldn't eat all of them alone.
"They're not all for you. You'll have to share with everyone." Patting Yara's head, Kai felt like she was acting like a little guillotine—cute but dangerous.
"Okay!" Yara said cheerfully and immediately headed to the kitchen with the bag of cookies.
Watching her tiny figure disappear into the kitchen, Kai smiled and made his way toward the backyard.