Lucas had expected that his return would be the top news around the manor for the next couple of days, but as it turned out, he didn’t even make the top three. That was impossible with Adin’s arrival and the scandal of his sudden engagement. That was hardly his fault, though. Though he had no idea he was going to be coming home the same day as the garbage that would one day be his brother-in-w, that wasn’t even the end of the surprises.

  Once he had a minute to breathe and chatted with Kar’gandin, the dwarf quickly got him up to speed on everything, including the test gossip about Arissa. “No shit,” Lucas breathed as the two of them sat in the cider house, drinking a couple pints of hard cider. “She’s pregnant? Already?”

  “It hasn’t been announced yet,” the dwarf nodded, “But all the maids are whispering about it. Yer news is just one more log for that very chatty bonfire.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Lucas sighed.

  For once, Hura’gh was away on business with the Knights of Brass, so Lucas didn’t have to deal with his smart ass, but he was sure he would have no end of bad jokes when the half-orc returned in a few days. Still, Kar’gandin did more than his fair share of teasing while they drank, and Lucas took it if only to soften the blow when he turned the conversation to talk of the Prince’s terms.

  That was enough to distract the dwarf for hours. “A thousand dragons within the season? That’s highway robbery! What is the man thinking? It’s more than half of what we have left from what we’ve made so far!”

  “Well, if you want to expin how unfair that is to him, be my guest,” Lucas said with a shrug, “But I doubt very much that he will listen to you when it comes to conversations about bancing the books.”

  The dwarf swore a blue streak at that as he cracked open his ledger and started ranting about the legitimate costs of an illegitimate business. “Does he think we get these reagents for free, or that muscle grows on trees?!” the dwarf yelled, outraged as he went line by line. That finally gave Lucas an excuse to ugh.

  Honestly, Lucas had pnned to keep his engagement on the down low until everything with Skyra was resolved, just as the Prince had told him to, but in light of today’s events, he was gd he hadn’t waited. If anything, he was kicking himself for not popping the question months ago.

  Dirty or not, Lucas really should have taken Adin’s blessing while it was on the table instead of breaking his nose a few months back. It wouldn’t have been as satisfying, but it would have been so much cleaner. It will be fine, he told himself. It’s not like we can do more than go shopping for an expensive ring until I convince Skyra to find a new boytoy.

  Lucas let Kar’gandin bellyache about the state of their finances for a good long while before he told the dwarf the good news about the state of his recipe. “I’m gd to hear that, at least, but who else do you pn on selling it to. We’re already bleeding half of the richest families dry.”

  “Well, we could try to hook the other half,” Lucas ughed, “Or we could try to spread it further abroad. That was the Prince’s suggestion. That we franchise this shit.”

  “Pardon?” the dwarf answered. “Franchise?”

  “It’s… Well, it’s a foreign word,” Lucas answered, trying to smooth it over. “Basically, I mean, we sell it in bulk to some other enterprising men wholesale and let them sell it in their own cities at a profit.”

  “Aye, that might be possible,” Kar’gandin agreed, “I have many connections abroad, but few of them deal with such products. Still, I could send off a few letters, and we could see if there’s anyone with some interest. It's gonna take months to get an answer, though, even to talk terms.”

  “Yeah, well, offer them cost plus 30% of the expected profit and include a few samples,” Lucas told them, “Then tell them to double the price to their dealers, and everyone will make a healthy profit.”

  “Ye sound like you’ve done this before,” Kar’gandin answered, stroking his beard.

  “Yeah, well, never from this height,” Lucas responded. “Usually, I’ve been at the other end with stepped-on shit trying to make a profit. It's better from this end, though, trust me.”

  Kar’gandin ughed at that, but when he tried to probe further, Lucas turned the discussion to the new home he wanted to be constructed as soon as possible. There, the dwarf didn’t disappoint. Though it was little more than holes in the ground for footings and foundations, work had indeed begun weeks ago as soon as the ground had started to thaw, and bricks were already being baked just outside Meadowin at the closest cy bank on the stream there.

  “It won’t be fit for newlyweds this year, but perhaps early next year, ye will be able to move the missus in,” he answered.

  “Sooner is definitely better with everything that’s going on here these days,” Lucas sighed as he got up to get them both another round.

  Lucas didn’t even bother to clean up his b or get to the state of his reagents that day. The most he did was put his concentrated moonlight down there for safekeeping. Then, that night, he brought the brightest bottle in his collection up to Danaria after she’d gotten ready for bed. She still pulled her bnket up over her nightgown even though it covered everything up to her neck as if his presence around her in long johns was a scandal, but he ignored it.

  She did, too, once he drew the sparkling vial from his pocket and gave it to her as a gift. “Oh Lucas, it’s beautiful,” she breathed as she gazed into its glimmer, shifting luminescence.

  “It really is,” he agreed, staring at her instead.

  Danaria missed that compliment entirely, but that only made him smile brighter when she asked him what he was smiling about afterward. “You’ll see,” he answered mysteriously before he kissed her goodnight.

  In the days that followed, he showered her with so many that she couldn’t dodge them all. The first thing they did was take a carriage together to the high street in Lordanin, where he looked for the most expensive jewelry store he could find and bought her a thirty-dragon golden ring that was encrusted with rubies, as well as ordering a pair of wedding bands to be completed in the future.

  A ring of just gemstones wasn’t worth that much, but the thing had a number of small gmorous woven into it, that made the thing even more beautiful. Not only did the rubies glimmer even when there was no light. They also seemed to contained little flower gardens if you peered closely into the rgest ones.

  It was more money than he’d ever spent on anything during his time here, and Kar’gandin was not pleased with the extravagant cost, but Lucas didn't care. She was worth all that and more. “The new home yer building will cost less than a pair of those rings!” the dwarf had insisted, but that was okay with Lucas.

  “We’ll make more money,” he insisted. “Don’t worry about it. We got this shit on lock now.”

  And really, it felt like he did. Though he was counting down the days to the ball he was supposed to meet Skyra at with increasing concern, he didn’t let it show in front of Danaria or his crew. By day, he spent his time with her, taking her pces and showing her off, and by night, he was locked up in his little b, churning out batches of blue and experimenting with empowered alchemy.

  For now, Lucas decided to make batches of both real Blue as well as Water of Life. This was done as much so he could experiment, as because he was worried about what would happen if suddenly freed all of their rich clients of their addictions. So, in the end, he made some dilute but empowered water of life for the knights to distribute to the common folk, and he ratcheted up the euphoria on the Blue they sold to their rich clientele.

  Without Hisenburgle here to second guess what he was doing, Lucas tried pretty much every option that both potions allowed him at least once. He used mana to ramp up the quality and the quantity of both drugs and when he noticed that sometimes empowering a potion in one day unlocked certain effects, he made sure to be extra thorough.

  In the end, he found out that burning all of his mana was exhausting, but that didn’t stop him from doing it almost every night. It felt just like the first few times he’d started using his ring, and he was sure he had even more potential to unlock in terms of his own performance, with or without his system.

  For a few days, that was his whole world. Finding secret moments to steal kisses from Danaria, and seeing if he could beat his euphoria high score on either potion before he watered them down enough to make them fit for human consumption. He even let Danaria watch once and showed her how Lwynthenll came apart in a dazzling light show when he got it just right, which left her mesmerized.

  Lucas thought about telling her they could take that one together someday but decided against it, even as a joke. Not only would that send the wrong message to her about the things her brother had told her. It would also necessitate him telling her what the elves used it for, and he wasn’t ready to have the talk about the birds and the bees with her just yet.

  He loved that rhythm of events so much that he only took a break from his b three days before the upcoming ball. That wasn’t because he had literally hundreds of doses set aside and ready to be used, even though he did. It was because his preparations were finally completed. While he was keeping Danaria busy, he sent Mort into Meadowin with a long to-do list, and then one warm afternoon all of his hard work came together in the form of a feast.

  It was over the top in every way but had still only cost a handful of gold coins. It was nothing compared to the cost of their engagement ring.

  There was a roast pig for the head table, roasted chickens for all the other families that chose to attend, and a seemingly endless variety of pies, cakes, and other confections to be tasted and shared. More than that, though, there were flowers. The flowers were grown out of season with magic and more expensive than all the food combined, but Lucas knew how Danaria loved such things and wouldn't have dreamed of throwing her a party like this without them.

  For her part, she was taken completely by surprise. She didn’t even suspect that he had such intentions until the entire vilge exploded in celebrations one afternoon after they’d stopped there with the supposed intent of visiting the cobbler for a new pair of shoes. Her look of astonishment, when everyone started to congratute her out of the blue, amused him to no end.

  The party went on all afternoon until it was too te and cold to continue. Eventually, even the manor shut down so that all the servants and members of Lucas’ ever-growing organization could pay their respects. The only people that didn’t come were Adin and his wife. Lucas had made it clear to the man in private that he wasn’t welcome, and though Danarai kept asking why he never bothered to show up, Lucas never told her that.

  Instead, he just shrugged and said, “He has his own family now. I told you. People start to grow apart once that happens.” That wasn’t so far from the truth to be a lie, but truthfully, Lucas would be a lot happier if that growing apart went a hell of a lot faster.