Curse the Mainframe! 56 Mix of Flavours

Alec chewed thoughtfully as he considered the taste.

It was… strange. Not bad, but strange. It tasted somewhat reminiscent of an apple, which went strangely with the fried rice and chicken he was eating. But he could get used to it, if he ate it enough, and really, it wasn't bad.

Henry must have taken the smile on his face to mean something else, though, and eyed the spice container curiously. "Can I try some as well?"

Alec handed over the small glass container without another word, eating his meal.

Henry sprinkled a small portion of it on his food, scooping a large portion into his mouth.

His face contorted strangely, as if he didn't know what to feel. "You like this? Isn't this combination of flavours kind of strange like this?"

In a move of masochistic abuse on himself, the hunter sprinkled a little more onto the food, trying it again as if he wanted to categorize this strange flavour. "What's this anyway?"

"Oh… it's just the Viridian extract. I managed to crystallise it earlier to see what it'll do if consumed," Alec said with a smile.

Henry choked on the food that had been going down his throat, causing Philip to thump him hard on the back.

"What!" Henry wheezed. "By Viridian extract, do you mean the one from the purely medicinal side? Please tell me that's what you mean."

Philip's face took on a rather alarmed expression at the noise his friend was making.

"Ah, I must have forgotten to mention that it's not poisonous when mixed with together with the non-poisonous half."

Henry relaxed, looking calmer.

"Not as much, anyway."

He tensed back up.

Philip snorted. "Don't be so obtuse. Can't you tell he's messing with you?"

Alec tilted his head, looking confused, but maintaining his gentle smile.

"You were messing with us, right?" Philip repeated, looking a little less sure of himself now.

Henry gulped down some water, looking like he was about to force Alec to throw it all up if he didn't answer affirmatively.

"Yes?"

Philip and Henry eyed him with varying degrees of scepticism but allowed it to pass for now.

Alec sent both troublesome adults away with much difficulty, going to the back to prepare more of the crystallised extract from the Viridian Herbs.

He inked a spatial dimension rune onto the little glass container, gleefully filling it up.

By the time he finished, he realized that from the ten pots that he'd Awakened his herbs in, the fifth ones, whereby he Awakened their reproduction abilities, the entire pot had been filled up with other freshly grown Viridian Herbs as well.

He was surprised when he realized that the other herbs also formed a bond with him, though it was linked to the bond through the original herb in the first place.

Fascinating.

Alec itched to experiment more, so he cleared out all the other herbs except the original one, replanting a few into new pots.

Then, he went back and repeated the cycle of crushing, mixing and crystallising the Viridian extract, filling more of his container.

The more the better.

Alec took two pots of the replanted herbs and placed them in the spatial dimension to see if things would die if placed inside. As far as he could tell, the plant still needed oxygen to be able to survive, so if there wasn't any inside, then it would die.

The bell rang, and to his surprise, it was actually a customer.

Alec felt pained when he realized that it was a child. Her age was not unlike himself, which made it even worse. He could scarcely remember how he interacted with Elias and the rest, which was doing him no favours right now.

He never thought that a little girl would come into a flower shop on her own, without an older sibling or adult with her.

Hopefully this wouldn't go too badly. Alec was terrible with children.

"Mr. Woods, I'm here for the daily flowers for my mothe-" the little girl cuts herself off, her eyes locking onto one of the pots he'd brought to the front. "Is that a Viridian Herb?" she blurted out, her voice going high-pitched.

Lily was looking for some new flowers to cheer her mother up, so she dropped by the flower shop just before it closed for the day.

She gasped, struggling to peer over the counter to take a closer look at it. "It is!" she squealed. "I've never seen one before!"

"Eh, who are you?" Lily said when she realized it wasn't Mr. Woods.

"I'm a part-time helper," Alec said calmly. "You recognise the Viridian Herbs?" he questioned, curious. How did this little girl know when a hunter like Henry who frequently went into the woods didn't know about it?

Lily pointed at the book near him. "I've got one of those too!"

Alec eyed the brown-haired girl sporting glasses with an appraising look. With her colouring, she almost looked like one of their clan members. However, Alec was sure that he'd never seen her before.

Regardless, he could appreciate the curiosity and initiative to learn in a child, so he was actually feeling pretty happy right now.

"Do you want one?" Alec said spontaneously, holding out one of the pots. He offered her the non-poisonous one, because while he did appreciate her inquisitiveness, he wasn't an idiot that would hand a child something potentially dangerous to their health.

However, curiosity was meant to be encouraged and nurtured, so Alec wanted to do this.

Lily eagerly reached out for it before hesitating. She looked at the bare amount of money that she'd barely managed to scrounge up before sadly looking away.

"Want to buy flowers?"

Lily nodded, pointing at the peony. "That one, please. Just one."

Whilst Alec wrapped it up how he remembered Stanley showing him previously very quickly, he still noticed the barely concealed longing gazes the girl was giving to the pot.

Alec handed her the single flower, then the pot.

Lily shook her head. "I don't have any more money," she said, trying to hide her longing. She was actually hiding her feelings quite well.

Alec paused. What did he do now? How did he convince her to take it? The System wracked his brain to think about a way, referring back to a few of the conversations he overheard.

"Can you keep a secret?" Alec hesitantly asked, not sure whether or not this would work.

Lily nodded eagerly at the thought of hearing a secret from someone.

"These are actually my herbs. I grew them myself, so if you want, I'll give one to you."

"But you only have one!" Lily cried, looking visibly distressed.

Alright, plan aborted. The conversations from those other useless Systems were useless. What else could he possibly have expected? He was a fool for ever having considered that they would ever be useful.

The longer was away from them, the more his mind slipped from just how useless the most of them were.

"I have a lot more," Alec said slowly, trying his best to think of what else to say. "If you're able to take care of it properly, then I'll give you some seeds to try and grow some as well."

"Thank you!" Lily said, saluting him cutely. Her face carried a look of stern determination as she said goodbye to him and walked out the door.

Lily thought to herself that she had to take good care of the Viridian Herb that the nice boy had given her. She'd bring it every day so he could see she was taking good care of it!

Alec watched her go, baffled about why she suddenly accepted before shrugging. As long as she took it, it was fine, right?

Right?

Chapter end

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