I cleared my throat, disrupting the sudden bout of silence that had settled over the table.

  “With any luck, you will see the results of these nutritional supplements quickly. Now, if you don’t mind me asking…” I leaned forward and dropped my voice to a whisper. “What is happening between Arandel and Ritsu?”

  “Ahhhh, well…” Hyel, rather uncharacteristically, faltered. His small smile didn’t drop, but it certainly looked strained.

  “The fox has been trampling Hyel’s brat since we last spoke,” Grafton chortled, earning himself a small glare from the elven elder.

  “Trampling?” It was Alys who interjected, her eyes narrowed. “Trampling how?”

  “He knows far more recipes than Arandel, and seems to have a keen sense for what people would most appreciate at any given moment.” Yora sighed, rubbing her beak in exasperation. “He has been serving people food nonstop, before Arandel even manages to ask what they would like to order. He doesn’t ask. He just delivers.”

  I glanced over at the kitchen, where the fox was still having a staring contest with Arandel, only to see him turn and wink at me.

  “I see. That is… impressive, I suppose,” I ventured carefully. “I take it Arandel is handling this rather poorly?”

  Grafton snorted. “She’s been pushed out of her own kitchen, brat. What do you think?”

  I had no idea what to say. Alys seemed to share my confusion. She was now staring at the fox with a strange expression, half ‘impressed’ and half ‘mildly murderous.’

  I tapped a finger against the table as I turned a few ideas over in my head. Alys seemed quite taken with the kitsune’s cooking, especially some of his sauces. Even if those sauces were a threat to my continued sanity, considering how much she enjoyed kissing me right after eating spicy food, they could represent some kind of opportunity.

  Plus, there was Arandel to consider. What if I walked into the Hall one day soon to find her wearing a fox fur coat?

  That made my decision rather easy.

  “Ritsu! Could I speak with you for a moment?”

  The kitsune perked up, his tails swaying around him at a faster pace as he broke eye contact with Arandel and headed towards us.

  “How may I assist you, dear customer?”

  “It’s more a question of how we can assist each other, actually,” I replied, smiling in spite of myself. “You are here to experiment with the honey, aren’t you?”

  “That is correct! I would like to see if there are any other interesting ingredients to be had, of course. I’ve partially succeeded in this. But yes, the honey is why I decided to stay!”

  “What do you mean, you’ve ‘partially succeeded’?” I paused, then shook my head. “Actually, never mind. I have a proposal for you.”

  “Hmmm? A proposal, dear customer? I will happily hear you out! And I can also answer that question regarding my limited success. Lovely Arandel’s kitchen has some distinctive-looking herbs and plants. They are mostly identical to more mundane ingredients, but they have more mana than they should, which means I can use them in more unique combinations!”

  My eyes narrowed. He was obviously referring to the oddly colored herbs I’d identified and asked the hunters to start collecting, but that was not the striking point. I was far more interested in the implication that higher mana content was somehow helpful for his cooking.

  Setting this aside for the moment, I went on, “Here is what I am offering: you will teach us some of your recipes, particularly the sauce recipes which Alys seems to enjoy so much, and I will help you get some honey of your own. I believe you’ve noticed that we do not have much of it?”

  “Yes,” the kitsune admitted in a whine, though his eyes burned gold with intrigue at the idea of parting with some of his recipes. “It has been frustrating. Arandel has not allowed me to access her supply!”

  “That is because of how difficult the honey is to harvest,” I explained. “The bees that produce it are mutated. If approached carelessly, they could even kill you. Furthermore, the hives are guarded by direbears. I am the one who figured out how to harvest the honey safely, so I am the only one supplying it to the town.”

  His tails churned as he squinted at me contemplatively. I noted, however, that his smile never once slipped.

  “Hmmm, I see! In that case, dear customer, I accept.”

  Alys’ tail tightened around my waist. From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the wide smile now gracing her features.

  “We can discuss the details when we head out to gather the honey,” I went on. “You can meet me across the river. Would tomorrow at noon suit you?”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “That sounds excellent, dear customer! I will prepare some containers for the honey, and I will meet you exactly at noon. Not a minute late!” the fox declared boisterously, bouncing on his toes.

  A second later, his body wavered and then began to dissolve into a mist. I barely caught his silhouette as he rushed upstairs.

  I was staring at the space he’d just been occupying, wondering if he really would spend the rest of the night and the next morning just anxiously waiting for our appointment, when Alys’ voice broke into my thoughts.

  “You’re dealing with the kitsune… for me?”

  I looked into her eyes and simply nodded. “Of course.”

  Letting out a happy rumble, she pulled me into a quick kiss that made Grafton snarl in disgust while the other elders chuckled.

  —

  I woke up early the next morning. Though the sun was still slumbering away, I felt an electric sensation squirming through my limbs, urging me to get up and do something.

  I would have been happy to follow that urge, too, if getting away from my dragoness was at all a possibility.

  Alys’ grip on me was so tight that I wouldn’t be able to wriggle away without waking her up. I had to choose between giving into this odd urge I was experiencing, and letting her rest.

  I chose not to disturb her, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t let my mind wander.

  The most pressing task ahead of me was the development of a powder to boost the immune system. Not only would such a product reassure Alys about Nelaeryn, but it would also be good for everyone who called Swiftband their home.

  On the other hand, I was starting to run into the problem dreaded by all alchemists: production limitation.

  I was a single person. No matter how skilled I became or how valuable my alchemical products were, I couldn’t make an endless supply for everyone.

  This had been most obvious during my recent chat with the expecting couple. Before that visit, Nelaeryn hadn’t even encountered the honey ginger candies. I’d churned out a truly impressive amount of them to share with the townsfolk, and also to satisfy Alys’ bottomless appetite for the candies’ potent taste, but none of that stock had made its way to Nelaeryn.

  I couldn’t even blame Vance or the elders for that. The ‘candies’ were an extremely useful source of healing. When handing them out, those in authority had prioritized the townsfolk who needed the product most: anyone involved in either dangerous tasks or heavy labor.

  Alys’ crew, for example, had steady access to the candies. So did the hunters. Hagmar and Nelaeryn, on the other hand, simply didn’t require such supplements. While not easy, their work didn’t put their health at risk.

  Yet I knew the elders would be glad to hand the candies out to literally everyone, just in case, if I could somehow produce enough of them.

  Obviously, I couldn’t.

  I also couldn’t dedicate all of my time to producing nutritional supplements for Grafton, or to brewing healing potions so we could stockpile them for emergencies and trade. Especially not now, when I was devoting so many working hours to experimentation…

  I wanted to groan, but I tried to focus on finding a solution instead.

  In the hour or so I spent enjoying Alys’ warmth, I failed to do so.

  Short of taking on an apprentice, something I was neither ready nor willing to do, I couldn’t glimpse any answer. I would simply have to prioritize tasks that were imminently relevant to our survival and ability to thrive, and go from there.

  I was relieved when Alys stirred into wakefulness, ending my grim contemplation of my limits.

  “Hrrrmmmm…” She yawned and briefly squeezed me much tighter. “Morning.”

  “Morning to you too, mistress!” I grinned as I felt my mood improve significantly. “How are you feeling today?”

  “Ask me when I’m awake. And give me a kiss,” she rumbled.

  I was more than happy to indulge this sleepy demand. When my clingy dragoness finally released me, I dressed and ventured downstairs to fix us a simple breakfast while she tottered about trying to wake up.

  It was honestly adorable how little Alys cared for waking up early, in spite of forcing herself to do so every day. Most mornings, I could swear on the Seasons that she wasn’t truly awake until she was outside and working.

  However, I was now in possession of a secret weapon!

  As she gnawed on a quickly assembled sandwich that contained much more meat than bread, I extracted one of the concentrated torture juice jugs and placed it by her side. She picked up the jug almost absently and drank directly from it.

  Immediately, an intense shiver raced through her body. Her wings and tail shook while her eyes shot wide open. The noise she made was less embarrassing than the day before, but it still put a small flush on my cheeks.

  “Hrrrmmm… I needed that.” She put the jug down and sighed in contentment as her eyes settled on me. “You are going to deal with the kitsune today, right?”

  Seeing Ritsu’s treatment of Arandel had definitely decreased Alys’ opinion of the fox.

  “At noon, yes.” I took a quick bite of my own sandwich. “Before then… would you mind if I started working on that small garden I mentioned a while ago?”

  “A garden?”

  “Yes. Primarily for the bees, remember? So we could lure them in with the moss and flowers?”

  “Ah, yes.” Alys’ eyes lit up at the prospect of easily accessible honey. “I will make sure to make some of those boxes bees live in.”

  I nodded. “The garden will have other uses also. I need quicker access to some basic ingredients. With my abilities, I can grow a plethora of poisonous plants, many of which have uses far beyond poison. Medicine, healing potions… even cooking. Nightshade, for example. The berries are extremely delicious and can be purified of poison altogether for safe consumption. I made you some marmalade with nightshade berries once, actually.”

  “Hrm? Really? That one time when you cooked all night?”

  “Correct! It was delicious, right?”

  My dragoness grinned in amusement. “It was…. hrm. Interesting to know you fed me poisonous fruit without telling me.”

  “The berries were not poisonous when I fed them to you,” I assured her.

  She scoffed and shook her head. “Sure. And yes, you can start on all of that this morning. I will work on those bee boxes. Do you need any help with the garden itself?”

  “Not right now. I will just try to do as much as I can before Ritsu shows up. Definitely later, though.” I hesitated just a moment. “Would it be possible for you to raise some walls around the garden, made out of that special material your grandmother taught you how to make?”

  “What’s wrong with regular wooden walls?”

  She was frowning, but she hadn’t said ‘no’, so I plunged ahead.

  “The walls need to be extremely sturdy. With the bees around, there will be direbears to worry about. I can mitigate that issue by planting certain herbs, the scent of which will mask the honey, but I’d like to be extra cautious. Besides, the bees themselves are a threat to any townsfolk who might venture this way.”

  My dragoness sighed fondly as her frown shifted into a smile. “Fine. I will do it.”

  I beamed, pulling her in for a kiss.

  That was when my genius plan to get her fully awake and functional with the juice backfired. The secondhand taste of the torture liquid left me sputtering, while my cruel mistress just laughed merrily at my plight.