Pudding

Waking up in one of the rooms at the back of Sheeren's shop, Aina threw her legs off the simple bedding before rubbing her eyes. With how her life looked so far, sleeping in something as simple yet comfortable as bed already made it hard for her to wake up, not to speak about the perspective of what would happen through the day.

'Eh, I'm already tired from just thinking about it.' Shaking her head, Aina reached out to the side, only for her hand to rub the emptiness. 'Right, I'm not at my inn…' finally forced to move her body up, Aina looked around the room. And sure enough, after just a single scan, she managed to locate what she was looking for.

A bail of fresh yet cold water.

Flushing her face with the chill liquid, Aina finally came awake. Shaking her head to get rid of all the droplets of liquid that were stuck to it, she finally made her way out of the room and to the main floor of the workshop.

Only to enter what looked like a battlefield.

Medicinal herbs scattered all around. Several bodies lying on the floor with foam spilling out of their mouths. And amidst all this chaos, her master happily moving a ladle around the edges of a huge pot while humming a cheerful tune.

"What happened here…" Stunned by the sight, the girl shivered. "Ah, you are awake already?" Turning his head around, Sebian smiled gently before gesturing at the girl. "Come closer, come on!"

Unsure what was going on, Aina made a mistake. Instead of thinking about her next move thoroughly, she just swallowed the gulp of saliva in her throat before following her new master's order. As soon as the girl entered his range, Sebian pushed his finger into the pot he was stirring, before scooping a huge chunk of squeezy, brown-coloured glue. And before the girl could react, he pushed this shit-covered finger directly into her mouth!

"Whahhhpmh!" Shut down by the sudden insertion of the sticky and repulsive creme into her mouth, Aina attempted to back off when her tongue failed to avoid the goo. 'Huh?' Feeling the explosion of what definitely wasn't a taste of shit in her mouth, she instantly started to lick all the sweet goo directly from Sebian's finger. As if she was some kind of insanely starved beast, she quickly devoured the entire soft mass on Sebian's finger, before even going as far as to grab his wrist to stop the man from retracting this delicious hand!

'I knew chocolate was effective on all the girls but still, to react like that…' Unsure whether to laugh, cry or just enjoy the feeling of the girl's tongue swirling around his finger, Sebian forcefully retracted his finger out of the girl's grasp, only to soak it into the mysterious, brown goo in his pot and bring it back before the girl's face.

"Now, open wide." As if this goo was some kind of magical herb, Aina couldn't stop her mouth from prying open. Awaiting the next instance of the explosion of this insanely sweet, pleasant taste in her mouth, she instantly sucked on Sebian's finger when it neared her lips. Enclosing her mouth around it, she desperately swirled her tongue around the man's finger, quickly licking it clean from every last trace of the delicious taste.

There was no next time. Under Sebian's watchful gaze, Aina continued to enjoy the sweet taste in her mouth for a moment, before her complexion suddenly relaxed. As if all the worries disappeared from her mind, her eyes cleared out. If someone were to enter the workshop just now, she would appear as some kind of wise and enlightened saint.

"Just…" Even though she only had a little bit of this strange specific, Aina could tell she was already hooked on it. 'To be honest, between its taste and how relaxing it is… Wait a second!' Suddenly realizing what could be the reason behind Sebian's attempt at creating such a strange mixture, her face tensed. Noticing this, Sebian's lips slightly twitched in dissatisfaction.

"I guess I made it a little bit too weak." Shaking his head, Aina's master reached out for one of the two containers placed beside the pot, only to pour a whitish powder into the mixture. A few energetic swirls of the ladle later, the alchemist reached out for the other of the two containers only to pour a thick, see-through substance into the pot.

"Okay, that should do. As for you, feeling normal already? You ate just a bit so the effect shouldn't last long." Casting a curious glance at the girl, Sebian nodded his head when the girl's eyes returned to their usual state.

"Yeah." Nodding her head in response, Aina moved a few steps forward before glancing at the insides of the pot with curiosity. "Master, what is this substance?" Moving her eyes on the container with a white powder, Aina trembled a bit. "Some kind of drug?"

Hearing the girl's worries, Sebian barely managed to stop himself from giggling. While there was indeed a set of different drugs with the appearance of fine, white powder, that wasn't the case for him right now. "Don't worry, it's nothing else but a simple starch." With the mixture finally done, Sebian could, at last, take a look around him. And just as expected, the testers of the previous version of the 'calming pudding' that he spent the entire night to create were still in the dream-like state, put into complete relaxation by the specific before all the times Sebian would diffuse it later on.

"As for the entire thing, it's a chocolate calming pudding. The taste is the chocolate, while its effects can be used to clear your heard before attempting to break through the cultivation." Explaining the situation, Sebian took perverse pleasure from taking yet another leaf of the herb that Sheeren was so anxious about him eating. Munching on the herb, Sebian couldn't help but smile. Given how rare said herb was, there was nothing that the alchemist could do to earn from it. That's why, rather than trying to make it even more expensive, he came up with a product that could replicate its effects, despite being made from cheap ingredients.

The only drawback of the situation was, that Sebian couldn't craft this pudding from materia prima, secunda or even tertia. While it would be possible with materia quarta, given the reason behind the creation of this product, using such an expensive mixture to create a simple candy would be pointless. That's why, as much as Sebian hated it, he had to spend the entire night trying out different herbs to finally reconstruct the chocolate taste that he knew from his original world!

"Either way, we won't be selling it yet. For today, we will be selling the same pills we sold yesterday. The thing is…" Taking a small break to let the anticipation in the girl build up a little, Sebian smiled. "Today, we will be selling thrice as many pills as we did yesterday!"