"Silver!" Zefir widened his eyes in excitement and his hands moved even faster, cleaning the red mud off the item. Cleaning the item thoroughly, he took it out of the bucket filled with muddy red water and examined it thoroughly.
It was a silver medallion the size of a baby's fist, engraved with designs on both sides. On the front, there was an engraving of an ethereal coiled snake with thorny scales, and a butterfly resting on the snake's nose. "Wow…" Zefir felt like he was looking at something that wasn't there, while being present at the same time. Each time he moved his eyes across the engraving, he felt the color of each of the snake's scale, and the butterfly's wings change. "Is it because of the lighting?" He finally removed his eyes from the medallion to look at the window, the evening sun shining through. Flipping the medallion, he saw another engraving of flowers and vines with prickly thorns. This was also beautiful, but it didn't have much of an impact as the butterfly and the snake at the front.
"Fir! Aren't you done?"
Just as he was about to examine the medallion further, he heard his mother call him from downstairs. Startled, the medallion nearly fell out of his hands. "That was close… If the silver is damaged, it's value will decrease.." he mumbled with a sigh of relief.
"I'm almost done! I'll be down in five minutes!" He shouted back as he put the medallion away safely. He put away his dirty clothes in a laundry basket and showered quickly. It didn't even take 5 minutes for him to appear downstairs with damp hair and a new set of clothes.
As he had to examine the medallion further, he decided to hide it from his mother for the time being. He had a lot of doubts, and a lot of questions regarding the medallion in his mind. Is it real silver? What was it doing in a random mud patch that deep within the forest? Where did it come from? Did someone hide it there? No.. why would someone hide silver in a mud patch that deep.. Silver is valuable, but not THAT valuable…
"….Fir?" His mother called him with a strange look.
"Huh? Yeah?" Zefir responded, breaking free from his thoughts.
"Didn't you hear me just now? What were you thinking about?" Evelyn probed.
"Me?" Zefir deliberated. "N-Nothing. I was just thinking about that spot where I found the red mud. What were you saying?" He replied with a half-truth. He was, in fact, also thinking about visiting the place where he found the medallion tomorrow.
"Oh?" Evelyn raised her eyebrows in suspicion for a second before relaxing. "That's good" she paused, "yes…, bring some red mud tomorrow too! We'll start making that skin cream tomorrow!" She chuckled with a proud nod, "We'll aim to make twice or even thrice the profit from before!"
"Thrice!!?" Zefir exclaimed. "The amount of red mud I brought today and the amount left there will barely be enough for twice if my estimate is correct.." Zefir sighed.
"Huhuhu.. my naive son, you have much to learn about the world!" Evelyn laughed with a smug look. Brushing her nose with her finger, she began explaining, "Since the cream showed its effects last year, and sold so well then, what makes you think I'll sell it at the same price this year? With red mud being as rare as it is, and with the skin cream formula only our apothecary has, I'm sure it will sell like hot cake even though its expensive!"
She glanced at Zefir. "Well, isn't your mom a genius?" Come on, praise your mother! She thought in pride. Hearing her idea, Zefir was astonished, and had his mouth agape. "This…." He made a strange face. "This is really genius! Haha! Mom, you've really outdone yourself this time!!" The mother and son duo broke out in laughter. If anyone saw them right now, they would feel chills run down their spine.
No one in Redmud Town would think that one of the trustworthy apothecary, Evelyn, would conspire to loot people out of their money like this! Everyone only had a good impression of Evelyn, except for a few strangeness here and there. But these strangeness were ignored as people who dabbled in medicine were bound to show some peculiarities.
"Ahem.." With a cough from Evelyn, the atmosphere returned to how it was before. "As I was saying before, since you've done such a good job today, how about some chicken for dinner? Huh? Aren't I generous?" She put her hand on Zefir's shoulder.
Chicken… Zefir instantly thought about the whole chicken he had for lunch today. Feeling her expectation, he had no choice but to nod. "Sure, chicken is fine." He said with some guilt. I should have saved some from the morning for mom…
"Good, good!" Evelyn smiled and nodded. "Come on, let's close the shop and head to the night market. We'll need vegetables to put in the meat too!"
"Alright, let's go." Zefir sighed. The two of them quickly closed shop, putting away the things in the counter at their respective places. Exiting the door, Zefir waited patiently while Evelyn locked the door. Using this time, he checked the pocket inside his pants for the medallion. Making sure he hadn't lost it, he let out a sigh of relief. With the door locked, the mother son duo quickly made their way to the market first.
After walking through some stone paved paths, the two finally reached the night market, filled with stalls selling different items such as vegetables, spices, clothes and the likes. The market was illuminated by the street lamps, and each stall owner even had their own lanterns out. The place was hustling and bustling with the bargaining and inquiries of people.
Evelyn and Zefir walked around the market for a while before stopping in front of a stall selling vegetables.
"Evelyn!" The middle-aged woman in the stall, Mrs. Rosa Bell, greeted. "I was thinking about you today, I need to visit your shop for some medicine."
"Mrs. Rosa! Good evening." Evelyn responded politely. "What medicine do you need?" She inquired with a whisper while leaning on the stall. If people saw this, they would think Mrs. Rosa was trying to buy some inappropriate medicine.
With a strange expression, Mrs. Rosa responded, "N-No, it's nothing like that.. My son cut his finger while playing with his friends. I need some medicine for that."
"Oh.." Evelyn nodded. "I assumed you faced some problem in your marriage.." She whispered as she examined Mrs. Rosa from top to bottom. "No worries, you can come in tomorrow for the medicine."
"W-What!?" Mrs. Rosa stammered. "W-Why would you think t-that!?"
Evelyn's lips curled up, turning into a polite smile. "Hmm.. Well Mrs. Rosa, it's almost summer." She paused, until Mrs. Rosa gave her the signal to continue. "I noticed that your skin has become quite damaged due to the heat.." She sighed. "Your pores are clogged with dirt, and you have some skin bumps due to the dirt too.."
Mrs. Rosa's expression turned into that of worry and embarrassment as she touched her face subconsciously. "D-Do you have anything for this?"
"Hehehe.." Evelyn chuckled and nodded. "You're quite lucky. Zefir brought some red mud from the redmud forest just today. I'm going to make some skin cream this week, do you want me to reserve one for you?"
Mrs. Rosa's eyes sparkled. "Skin cream… Please do!" She nodded in a hurry, afraid the cream would sell out before it was even made. Turning towards Zefir, she gave an approving smile, "You've already grown so much Zefir, you're even helping your mother gather ingredients now huh.. I remember when you used to get into so much trouble.. Haha"
Zefir, who was looking at his mother in astonishment, turned his head towards Mrs. Rosa. "Huh.. Right.. Thank you Mrs. Rosa.." He nodded, and glanced at his mother. This mother of mine is too good of a saleswoman….
With a satisfied nod, Evelyn inquired about the tomatoes, onions and carrots. "How much are these?" She pointed at the respective items.
"Tomatoes are 150 Crests per kilo, Onions are 200 Crests per kilo and the carrots are just 50. They're really fresh!" Mrs. Rosa responded.
"Alright, can you pack half kilo of all three for me?" Evelyn sighed.
As she was returning the change, Mrs. Rosa smiled at Evelyn and whispered. "I put some celery in there for you, for all the good you do for this town." She winked.
Eyes sparkling, Evelyn gave a thumbs up and thanked Mrs. Rosa before heading off with Zefir. Looking at her son, she asked, quite smugly. "Impressed?"
Rolling his eyes, Zefir ignored his mother as they walked through the market. Although she had bought everything she needed, Evelyn stopped at some more stalls to inquire about spices, vegetables, clothes, and even slippers.
All the stalls she stopped at had women looking after them. While there, Evelyn pitched her skin cream to all five women. To some, she pointed out their dry skin, while to others she pointed out their oily skin. After she had spread the news to quite a few ladies, they finally exited the market.
They had yet to buy the chicken for dinner, but instead of the market, they were going to buy the meat from their neighbor, Mr. Antonio Pitti. Just as they neared Mr. Antonio's house, which as also a meat shop, they heard a loud commotion coming from within the shop.