Move the time forward a day, and the location is Prest, a city about sixty miles away from Crescent College.
Warren's Pharmacy Store is an ordinary alchemy supplies store in Prest. The owner, Warren, does not have the talent of a mage, so he could only open such a store after he got rich to satisfy his childhood wish.
"That guy Antoine came up with something weird again. Forget it, it's not worth much money anyway."
Warren looked at the neatly arranged black drinks in the box and said to himself that he was an old customer of Antoine's Alchemy Workshop. Even though there were many new alchemy workshops in recent years, he still took care of Antoine's business. , the reason is probably because I received a lot of favors from the other party when I first started my business.
This time, Antoine asked him to sell this drink called Coke. Warren agreed without much thought and brought twenty bottles of goods. Anyway, the import price was only two copper coins a bottle, even if he got them all in his hand. , which is only a loss of forty copper coins.
It's been a bit hot these two days, and even the store is filled with stagnant air. Warren wiped his sweat and put the Coke in the freezer.
The freezer is driven by magic and can maintain low temperatures. Since the storage of many medicines requires a specific temperature, Warren purchased one and placed it in the corner of the shop. Through the glass display window, you can see the medicines of various colors inside. It's trendy.
Opening the "Daily Prest" delivered by the newsboy in the morning, Warren officially started his day's business.
Not long after, the wind chime at the door rang. Warren put down the newspaper and saw the first customer of the day walking in.
That was Baron Goode across the street. He suffered from anorexia and could only eat some liquid food every day and was losing weight day by day.
"Master Gude, why are you here in person?"
Warren knew about Good's illness. He had also asked people to come here to find some medicine to treat anorexia, but it basically had no effect.
"I was walking outside and saw that your place was open, so I came in to sit down."
Baron Goode was wearing a double-breasted tuxedo, and the originally well-fitting clothes now looked extremely loose. It was impossible to imagine that a year ago, he was a tall and strong nobleman who was famous as a gourmet.
According to the doctor's conclusion, his illness was caused by Goode's long-term exposure to various kinds of delicacies, which resulted in his resistance to food. It was a psychological disease, and he wanted to cure it unless he found food with a special taste.
Baron Goode did know that there were some delicacies from foreign worlds, but as a mere baron, he simply could not afford such expenses, not to mention that some ingredients could only be exchanged for the academic points of mages.
"You have to take care of yourself."
Although Warren was not familiar with Baron Goode, they were still neighbors in the same neighborhood. Looking at the other's scrawny appearance, Warren couldn't help but remind him.
"If I really die from this disease, I will feel relieved."
Baron Goode smiled and didn't care too much. More than a year of suffering from illness had already made him look down on everything and reflect on the luxurious life in the past.
At this time, the wind chimes rang again, and a woman walked in dusty, attracting the attention of the two people.
"Oriana, you seem to be very busy recently?"
Warren shook the newspaper in his hand. "Daily Prest" is a newspaper with a long history, but it has recently been replaced by several emerging ones such as "Prest Daily" and "Prest Life" Waiting for the squeeze, those new newspapers use sensational headlines to attract readers, even distorting factual reports, and like to publish some tidbits with obviously indescribable content.
For the public, this gimmick was so successful that the market share of "Daily Priest" continued to decline, and now only old customers like Warren are probably still persisting.
"Those guys who are sensationalizing have no professional ethics at all!"
Oriana was very angry, pounded the counter, and said.
"Warren, give me two bottles of calming potion, the usual ones."
"OK."
Warren turned around and went to look for it on the shelf, while saying with emotion.
"Oliana, these years have not been easy for you. Russell passed away long ago. You have to raise your daughter by yourself. Don't tire yourself out."
Picking up two small bottles of light blue potion, Warren handed them to Oriana's audience.
"Although the tranquilizing potion is effective, long-term use will still cause dependence. You must use it with caution."
"Thanks, Warren, I will pay attention to it, but there are too many things going on recently. I can't sleep at night without this thing."
Oriana looked a little haggard, picked up the potion, and was about to leave when she heard Baron Good knocking on the door of the freezer in the store with his crutch.
"Warren, what is this black potion?"
What he was pointing at was the Coke he had just put in. The red and black packaging, coupled with the black liquid, was very eye-catching among the potions.
"This is not a potion, it's a drink, called Coke or something. It's a new product from the alchemy workshop that I usually buy."
Warren explained, and on a sudden thought, he walked over, opened the freezer, and took out a bottle of Coke.
"It's so sultry today, let's try this thing. It's chilled anyway, so the taste won't be much different. Just treat it as my treat."
Originally, he bought the Coke as a favor and had no intention of selling it for money.
"Cola?"
After repeating the strange-sounding name, Oriana looked at the black liquid in the bottle with one or two bubbles coming out from time to time, and did not dare to try it.
Just when they were hesitating, Warren had already opened the bottle of Coke. The metal bottle cap was very strong and the method of opening it was very simple. From this point of view, Warren thought the design was good.
He smelled it, but there was no special smell. Then he found three clean cups, poured Coke into them, and pushed them in front of the two of them.
Baron Goode picked up the cup. This special drink made him a little curious. Anyway, he had no hope, so there was no big problem in trying new things.
Oriana was already feeling stuffy, and feeling the coldness of the cup in her hand, she did not refuse.
"Then let us honor the Daily Priest."
Warren joked as the three clinked their glasses and each drank the liquid in their own glasses.
Almost at the same time, the eyes of the three people suddenly widened, and the scene was frozen at this moment.
Putting down the cup, Warren was silent. He didn't know how to describe his mood, so he looked at Oriana, hoping that the editor-in-chief with excellent writing skills could say something, but he soon saw that Oriana was stunned. He looked at the empty cup and said nothing.
The silence was finally broken by Baron Goode. He raised his bony hand, picked up the metal bottle cap on the table, and read out the words written in the bottle cap word by word, pun intended.
"Another bottle."