When she had made the elixir, she had experimented a few new methods and processes, improving on the old formula, adding other ingredients. Aside from making it safe to consume and increase the intensity of the effect, it also had an aftereffect of physical and mental invigoration.

Right now, I was sitting in a chair facing against a standing Ghiscra.

“Are you ready?”

Ghiscra holding the vial, held it out towards me.

Even here those spies are hounding us but since we managed to identify which of the guards here were the spies by intercepting their secret communication line, I was able to formulate a schedule to send them away every time we wanted some privacy without them being suspicious.

Drink, not smoke, truly a revolutionary sales pitch and in this world, I never seen anyone smoke, so not only is this place where all the depressed creatures are brought together to form a paradise but it’s also a haven for non-smoker.

I sighed. This is stupid and also irrational, something I needed; stupidly irrational to edge out my build-up stress.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

With a determined expression, I opened my mouth and downed the vial.

The liquid poured down into my throat. It tasted flowery sweet like chrysanthemum with an overt hint of groundnut. It was probably the secondary ingredient mixed with the primary ingredient.

……

My eyes contracted and all five of my senses were numbed. The colours of my surrounding started to fall down like a dried watercolours washed by water.

And I was off.

--

She was staring at the man bound at the chair. The man had his face downed at the direction of the floor. Rather, he actually went limped as soon as he took the liquid that she had concocted.

Suddenly, the man jolted and his face darted towards her. Through instinct, she automatically turned her face aside, avoiding eye-contact. Slowly, she shuffled to the side and watched his face.

The man was staring in front of him with a blank expression and although his eyes were wide opened, it was pupil-less white as the eyeballs had turned over.

As rude as it may be, she just can’t help it. Men were scary regardless of their intention. Although perhaps it was only the Falskilan males, as she found that the different male species were nicer and less forceful.

Still, she can’t bypass the hurdle of her trauma so the best she can do was to apologize… except this man.

Several time he nearly tried to make eye-contact with her, causing her a sizable amount of frustration but she knew that he was subtly trying to help her.

It was a bit forceful but with a gentle and patient touch. An eventual push that could one day would cause her to overcome her fear.

When she had absent-mindedly let one of her research notes fell at the corridor on that day, fate had decreed their first actual interaction. Unlike the reluctant and accidental encounters she had with him at the Grand Library, they had truly opened up with each other. With similar inquisitive minds, it wasn’t long before both of them had passionately discussed their insight and studies in Eomancy. Impressed with his knowledge, she felt a kindred soul within him and even invited him to assist her in the project.

Even alone, as she had always been, she could have finished the project but with his assistance, the result was even more than she had expected.

She was glad of how clumsy she had been on that day or else, they would have had awkward interactions until this assignment ends.

And this was another surprise for her.

Finding the Ghervash, a flower that can only be found here and highly valued by the tribes for its properties in inducing a psychedelic experience, there was a traditional way of extracting the flower and made an elixir but Ghiscra had made a new way of making a more effective elixir.

As she was recording her observation, she couldn’t help but be amused looking at him, sitting on the chair, still unresponsive with a blank look.

After a few minutes, he suddenly went limped again and resumed the initial position when he had downed the elixir.

Suddenly his face darted forward again but this time his brown eyes were staring, looking for something.

Apparently that something was her as his eyes bored into her with sharp clarity.

Although his face looks calm but the eyes were nothing like that as deep within, they were tinged of feral glint.

--

What the hell was that? It was a real out of body experience.

I was literally in a wide space filled with barely discernible coloured wind that constantly shifted colours of the eleven Eomancy Colours. The place I had been was a plethora of stable colours mixing with transparent dots of about hundreds, congregating.

When I looked up, I saw a phenomenon like an aurora sky. When I looked further around, the horizon was like a mass of multi-coloured beast wandering and dots of plethora of stable colours that was the same as here.

The most shocking thing was when I looked below.

It was like a sun, radiating an invisible pressure but I can ‘feel’ like I can see but not see it at the same time as even though the light was shining bright, it didn’t hurt my eyes. It’s hard to describe it in words. After staring for it what I felt like minutes, I realized that all the discernible winds around were coming from there.

It was then I realized… was that the Planet-Spirit of Eoum?

According to the shaman, the recorded experience was that the environment around them was shades of slow-moving colours like they were in the ocean with explosions of chaotic changing colours occasionally bursting around.

Even though there were similarities, there were no mentioned of dots of stable colour or aurora skies or even a sun radiating invisible light that can affect the sensation of touch in the eyes.

Is it because of Ghiscra modification? If that is so, then she’s beyond genius after succeeded on her first try. I thought we would need a few test runs before we could actually use it but that doesn’t apply for her.

Before I could speculate anymore, I ‘woke up’.

I found myself in the room but for whatever reason, I felt that something was heating up inside of me. I spotted Ghiscra who was standing on my left.

“How long was I out?”

I asked curtly. I don’t know why but I felt that the heat was spreading out through my entire body when I looked at her trembling figure. I stood up from the chair and approached her.

“R-ruigne, f-from the recor-”

Before she could finish, I closed in the distance as my left hand wrapped around her waist and pushed her closer. Our body touched and I could felt her bosom heaving opposite towards mine.

Shocked, she involuntarily looked at me with her eyes and then it met.

Our eyes made contact, briefly.

Just one second, one second of locked eye-contact but it was enough for me to memorize, to savour such beautiful eyes.

“Unlike Vefal’s rich-auburn eyes that radiates majestic forest that looks apathetic yet actually was brimming with compassion or Rino’s piercing scarlet eyes like the fiery volcano, belaying within was her sexy fury, yours are like the pair of purple pearls that shine with high intelligence of exquisite beauty!”

I pressed further and both of us can feel our hot breathes colliding.

“Ruigne, w-what’s wrong with you!?”

“Nothing is wrong. I’m simply appreciating an unparalleled beauty with my action! Action does speak louder than words! Now, I may have made the first move but it takes two to loves, so you follow-up by taking my lips! Let it be known, that Ruigne does not practice the act of one-way street of forcing himself unto other!”

(‘Eo, Aer, Erpurgo, Nimus’)

I opened [Synikorvus], took control of that spell she had casted and cast it on anywhere but me.

“Why resist when the absolute euphoria is just a lips away? Either way, take your time; savour the pleasure of being tenderly caressed.”

As she squirmed under my embrace and shifting her face from side to side in order to avoid eye-contact, I saw her left hand grabbed on something that was coincidentally placed on the table besides her.

She grabbed a cooking pan?

In fact, as I looked around the room, there were cooking pans everywhere. I think I was the one who arranged this but why?

Oh!

“Ghiscra, you wanted to learn how to cook is it? Well, I’m generous lover so we can do some naughty coo-”

Bang~!

I felt something hard hit at the side of my face. It was the frying pan.

From that impact, I wobbled a little but I held on because my passion sustained me!

“Oh silly you, that’s not how you cook! I don’t want to crack a ‘make me a sandmich’ joke to allude your probable inability to cook as displayed of your improper usage of the pan. You see, first of al-”

--

I woke up like really woke up and this time I was on the bed. I felt hang-over… but I remember everything.

I groggily got up with just my upper body. Ghiscra was sitting on a chair just beside me with her head bowed.

“I’m sorry.”

“… Sorry.”

We both apologized at the same time.

Looking at her again in slight disbelief, we both backed down and I involuntarily chuckled.

“The people at the Alkhemist Association had mistaken the ingredients that I requested but I don’t blame them since I was also at fault here as I had failed in checking the difference. One of the ingredients, the Chaul Seeds they gave me was post-processed under a different process. These had been purified for the quality of heightening sexual hormones, an aphrodisiac instead of what I requested, which was a vigour enhancer. I apologized!”

She bowed even deeper.

Well, at least I knew I wasn’t awakened into some sort of starved sex beast, willingly.