Night seemed to descend far more quickly within the Silent Mountain"s Hidden Vale, but that is not unexpected as the tall mountain walls hid the setting sun and instead extended their shadows until the Vale was encompa.s.sed with darkness. And while the glowing mushrooms and dangling jars with entrapped Winter Fireflies were very beautiful to behold in the darkness, it was soon realised that they could not quite provide much light and the Scholars, who had worked so hard upon their theme, had to place more mage-globe lights and lanterns about. Now, at least, the products upon the stalls could actually be seen!Still, Leon felt they captured the essence of what they wished to portray and more. To him, he was reminded of Christmas markets, just without the loud rides that often were found side by side with numerous stalls, lights and Christmas trees. Students not trading at stalls, which included all of the First years, would pop out from the foliage from time to time (having lost the trails in between areas) and moved around the stalls, chatting to friends and simply enjoying themselves.
Leon"s best patrons came from the First years and then, tended to be girls.
"Oh, look at the decorated bottles! So cute!"
"It says they contain Blood Pills... Alright, I want two! Would you accept this mage crystal? It"s charmed to absorb daylight then glow in the dark!"
"Fire Tonic Water and Gentle Snowflower Balm... what are they for? Really? I don"t suppose this jade is acceptable? I know it"s a bit worn..."
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"How about this incense purse for three bottles of Clear Spiritual pills and one Still Mind Pills?"
His two older brothers glanced over, the younger retaining his expressionless features and the older with a look of disbelief, as the bottles were happily s.n.a.t.c.hed away. The tiny wooden plaques were really that effective...? Leon ended up accepting a lot of random bits, some of which could be considered junk, but he was enjoying the thrill of the trade too much to care!
After an hour had pa.s.sed, a familiar silhouette came into vision, that happened to be followed by two others, but Leon"s eyes did not notice them. His lips curled into a deeper smile and his heart skipped merrily in his chest. It had been two ten days since he"d last seen Jin Li, as both had been busy preparing for the Festival and he"d missed him a lot. Yet seeing him appear before him, it was as if those days of longing had vanished into a haze of mist and memory.
"Ah, isn"t this you Alchemist friend," the loud jovial voice of Teacher Corvus burst out. Leon didn"t need to see his face from the shadows to understand that he was grinning. A few Teachers had pa.s.sed by the three brother"s stall, but none had bought his pills, while his Master had simply praised all three of them for their hard work.
Stygar had traded a couple of rare plants, one to a Teacher and one to a trusted Senior Alchemist from the inner school, but otherwise he"d accepted no trade. He valued everything on how well his plants would be taken care of over what could be offered. Hue was less restrained, but only accepted high value products in return for the pills. If ever he wasn"t sure of the value of what was offered in comparison to his pills, he would turn to Stygar, allowing him the final say. In this way, just over ten pills had been traded away.
Sun was immediately drawn to Hue"s Pills. "No way!" The boy cried out, prodding at a jar with one finger. "Isn"t that a Soaring Feather Light Pill?"
Corvus ruffled the youth"s bangs. "What does it matter to you?" He laughed. "It"s not like you can use it at your level!" He turned to the stoic Hue and complimented him; "You are quite talented, why are you not in the inner school?"
Hue blinked, then turned to Stygar, who replied; "Who wants to transfer into the inner school anyway? We"d only be a foil to whatever is supposed to make them great. Better to quit while we"re ahead."
It was Corvus turn to look surprised, but apart from a moment where he froze like Leon had when dealing with the failed Gentle Snowflower Balm potion, he soon regained his smile. He hadn"t much contact with the other schools in the inst.i.tution, with the exception of obtaining a supply of pills for his cute apprentice and coaxing a decent skill scroll for his cute apprentice and helping out the Beast Tamer"s with the poachers... with his cute apprentice. And the martial arts inner school was much like the outer school, just with better food, resources and access to more dangerous missions. Thus he"d never considered there might be conflict between other inner and outer schools elsewhere in the inst.i.tute. He placed the problem to the back of his mind though. Such was the Headmaster"s problem, not his.
This was happening outside of Leon and Jin Li"s self created bubble, Jin Li was admiring his small alchemists carvings and demanded they be placed upon the bottles containing the pills he gave him in the future and Leon was naturally agreeing.
"H-have you seen m-m-much so far?" Leon asked him. Jin Li understood that he meant had he seen much of Festival so far.
"No," Jin Li replied. He had headed straight here, drawn to his small alchemist in a way he couldn"t explain. He would have been here sooner, if he hadn"t been stuck with two irritating tag alongs.
Corvus overheard their conversation and grinned as a thought occurred to him. He placed an arm over Sun"s shoulders, nonchalantly and said; "Then why don"t you two explore together?"
"B-but I"ve n-not finished tr-trading..." Leon said, looking over the bottles and potions of which he still had half of. Corvus swept half of the remaining bottles into his own inters.p.a.cial bag.
"I"ll give you something good for them later!" He declared and indicated that Leon should keep the rest, afterall, he"d need something to trade with others with!
Leon glanced helplessly at his two older brothers. Stygar gutted and glanced away, while Hue nodded and encouraged him; "Go."
Jin Li"s eye"s curved and he copied Corvus" gesture before gripping the thin wrist of his small alchemist. "Let"s go," he said, leaving no chance for Leon to argue with him.