Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius and Kiana soon reached the mansion and alighted from the carriage. They had spent quite a bit of time at the Brewery and it was already time for Lunch.

"Let\'s just head to the dining hall right away. We are late for lunch, anyway." Lucius said.

​​

"Alright, I\'ll get the servants to set up lunch if they haven\'t already," Kiana replied before heading on ahead.

Lucius leisurely walked to the dining hall and sat down on one of the chairs. The dining hall was currently empty and neither the count nor the countess were here.

\'I did get over an hour late for lunch, so they must have gone to do their other tasks…\' Lucius thought to himself.

A few minutes later, Kiana and the other servants appeared with the food trays with them. They served Lucius lunch before taking a few steps back to stand. Kiana though sat at Lucius\'s side and ate lunch with him.

"It feels a little dreamy doesn\'t it…" Kiana suddenly said.

"Hmmm? What feels dreamy?" Lucius questioned.

"The brewery. We\'ve been planning for it such a long time ago and a few months ago we would have never thought of something like this." Kiana answered.

"Mmm, I guess it is dreamy for you. But it was always a fact for me as I was sure that it was going to be built." Lucius replied in a calm tone as he sliced his steak.

Hearing Lucius\'s confident words, Kiana didn\'t know what to say. 

\'So that\'s the difference between us… he \'knows\' it will happen, while I can only hope for it…\' Kiana thought to herself, her expressions complex.

The rest of the dinner was spent in silence as the two of them quickly finished the lunch. It was now that a steward entered the hall.

"Pardon me for the intrusion, young lord Asher, I just have a few things to confirm with you." The steward said in a respectful tone.

"Please, do speak." Lucius replied.

"While the production has started in the brewery, I just wanted to confirm the sales plan with you one last time before we instruct the workers." The steward replied.

"Sure," Lucius spoke.

"So as planned, by the end of this week, we will be packaging about fifty to sixty thousand bottles of Humble blaze and sending it off to the nearby cities while avoiding Inanis city for now." The Steward stated.

"That\'s correct. Though… you can prioritize the cities and towns that currently have a trade agreement with us first, such as Baron Harrels town and also Dowland city." Lucius replied.

"It shall be done as you said. Once the shipments are sent out, the latest it will take is the third day after the weekend which will be Tuesday. By Thursday we should have the first report of the sales if everything went well." The steward stated.

"That\'s fine. Oh, and when are the actual profits going to be sent back?" Lucius questioned.

"Since our projected profits are about five thousand gold coins for the first shipment it shall be brought back by a few trusted men along with an entourage of guards. It shall be collected from the various cities before being brought back." The Steward answered.

"Very well. Do ensure that the least number of people get a whiff of this in our city, but for other cities try to create an interest in our Humble Blaze." Lucius added.

"Of course, young lord. As you said before, we already had a few people recruited in various cities that will be spreading the word about a new wine that is stronger than any other wine in the market." The steward replied.

"And what about the samples?" Lucius questioned.

"The samples have already been sent out to the wine merchants and retailers. We should start receiving their responses by tonight and all of them should be here by the day after tomorrow." The steward promptly answered.

"Mm… keep me informed about any changes or problems. You are dismissed for now." Lucius stated.

"As you command young master, Farewell." The steward replied before taking his leave.

Once the steward was gone, Kiana looked at Lucius with a questioning expression.

"What?" Lucius questioned.

"Do you think the method you devised for \'advertisement\' would work?" Kiana asked.

"Oh, I\'m extremely sure it will work. With the quality and price we are offering, no merchant will deny it. Even they sell it at double the price that they get it at, our profits will be far more than that. 

If we see other wines that are also considered luxurious they cost at least thirty to a hundred silvers. While our\'s is less than one third that cost and is even stronger. If the merchants don\'t see the profit in this then they would be a stain on the profession of a merchant.

Besides, once they taste it, I doubt they won\'t like it." Lucius replied confidently.

Kiana recalled the taste of the Humble blaze that was the finalized product made by Lucius himself and remembered the warmth in her belly and the fuzzy feeling of the alcohol. 

"That does seem right, now that I think of it." Kiana agreed.

Lucius nodded as well and smiled. This was a plan that was very unlikely to fail since it was tested for a long time in his past life. Lucius doubted people who had worked in the advertising industry for decades would go wrong with such basic tactics.

This was just spreading the name of the product by word of mouth and also giving some samples to hype up the launch. The samples that were sent out were specifically fine tuned by Lucius and he ensured that they were of the best quality that he could make as of now.

In fact, the quality of the samples might even be higher than that of the actual product, but the customers would never get to taste it, anyway. Lucius had made about twenty liters of wine for giving away as samples to the wine merchants and retailers so that they would like their wine.

This twenty liter was further divided into small bottles of two hundred milliliters so that they could give it to as many merchants as they could. Since they wanted them to buy their wine as soon as it arrived, Lucius had gotten the stewards to send out the samples about three days ago.

That way, the samples had the chance of reaching the farthest city and town and they will also have plenty of time for them to give their feedback. 

"Now all that\'s left to do is to wait…" Lucius muttered to himself before standing up from the dining table and going to his lab.

In his lab, he spent about two hours reading some books when he heard a knock on the door.

~knock~knock~knock~

"It\'s your servant, Young Lord Asher." A man spoke from outside.

Lucius went to the door and unlocked it, seeing one of the regular servants in front of him. The man had a small cage in his hand in which a beast was present and was trying to break its way out.

"Ah, they got another bore shrew?" Lucius said upon seeing the beast.

"Yes, the guards just dropped it off and thus I brought it to you as you ordered." The servant replied hurriedly.

"Excellent," Lucius replied before taking the cage from the servant and closing the door on his face.

~kacha~

The door was instantly locked and Lucius placed the cage on the table. The servant who was left standing on the outside had a wry smile on his face, but just sighed to himself before shaking his head.

This was the same servant that had the common ranked gift Sticky touch. He was usually posed around Lucius\'s lab and was the first person to respond to his call. By now, the servant had learned his young lord\'s behavior and knew that he didn\'t mean to be rude when he closed the door on his face.

"He\'s as focused as always…" the servant muttered before going to do his chores which was scrubbing the stone walls, currently.

Inside the lab, Lucius didn\'t even open the cage and simply pointed a finger at it. The finger started to glow red and he shot out a sliver of hell energy from it. Lucius\'s control over hell energy was getting better and he could now freely release it in a far wider range than before.

The sliver of hell energy entered the bore shrew, and it quickly reacted to it. The beast started to spasm and twitch in the cage, starting the process of transformation that Lucius had seen about three times till now.

~skwee~

One of the three transformed bore shrews woke up in their cage and looked at the newcomer while letting out a low cry.

Hearing its cry, the other two bore shrews woke up too and gazed at the new bore shrew with eyes filled with intent.

"Let\'s see how this one fares…" Lucius muttered as he took a seat.