Garth and I spent the entire day in the old cafe.

The aunty brought us our lunch. Which was unusual since Sterling usually does it. "I heard you're going to show Sterling your lab."

"Yeah, that's what I said."

"Why are you mucking about with him?" She asked.

"What? I don't know what you mean." I said.

"I know what you're up to." She hissed. "If you hurt a hair on his pretty little head, I'll make you eat your tits." I stared at her like a deer caught in the headlights. The woman was nuts. "Enjoy." Her glare turned into a customer-friendly smile instantly as she put the food down on the table. After saying what she'd come to say, she disappeared back into the kitchen.

I thought about electrocuting her until I looked at her level, then I realized she could make me eat my tits. So, for the time being, I just ate my lunch.

***

"Alright, I'm done work." Sterling showed up at our table with his little backpack.

Garth was sleeping on the table, and I smacked him awake. "Come on, wake up. He's done work."

We hailed a rickshaw, and all three of us got on. We didn't talk much during the ride. It looked like Sterling was thinking about some serious stuff.

The driver dropped us off in front of the inn.

Walking up the stairs, Sterling said to Garth, "It's like you said. It does smell of herbs."

"Ah? I guess it does." I hadn't really paid much attention to it. "You told him that?"

"Yeah." Garth scratched his head.

"Well, the smell doesn't matter. What's important is what's inside." I opened the door and welcomed them in.

"Should I clean the room, master," Garth asked when he saw the inside.

"Why, what's wrong with it?" Most of the things were ingredients. They couldn't just be cleaned away. "Stop being annoying, Garth," I told him and led Sterling to the desk on the side. I had arranged just the right products to allure him on that desk. The other stuff was for my own use, but those products were put there with the expectation of showing it to Sterling.

"This here's a vaccine for Influenza," I said, picking up a potion bottle on the desk. "This is a cure for the Juju Sting. Then this one's a cure for Linkon Arm. This is for Ebola. Rabies. Corona. Necro Mice. Red Fever..." I listed off a bunch of diseases I knew the cure to.

"These..." His eyes were growing rounder the more he listened.

When I finished listing everything on the desk, I said, "The potions over there are still incomplete. Then those ones," I walked over to the box in the corner, "these are mana potions. What else would you like to see?" I wondered if I should list the ingredients in my lab, but I realized he wasn't listening to me but staring at the desk filled with cures.

"Can you look at my mother?" He finally spoke with tears in his eyes. That was a bigger reaction than I thought I'd get. If this was a game, options would pop up under him for me to choose.

"What's wrong with your mother?" I asked innocently.

He sat down on my bed. "I don't know. I've had priests look at her, alchemists look at her, doctors look at her, but no one can tell me what's wrong with her. No one knows what's wrong with her. She can't get off the bed anymore, and she's getting worse and worse each year."

"Sure, I'll look at her." I put my hand on his shoulder and assured him with a confident smile. What his mother had was a disease called: Gray Chronos. It's a disease that ages different parts of the body at different rates, throwing off the biological clock and destroying the body from the inside. You need about 100 ingredients to cure it. The main ingredient was Green Chronos Flower. I'd gathered everything, including the Green Chronos Flower, years ago. None of the ingredients are expensive. The transport costs for some of the products cost more than the actual products. Green Chronos Flower, for instance, only grows in the most western region of the Forest of Horn. 

Then combining the ingredients to produce the desired effect requires the recipe, which only I have.

"Thank you." He bowed to me. "Is it too late to look at her today? Then maybe I can take the day off tomorrow and-"

"No, it's okay, we can go look at her right now," I said. It's only been four days since I met him, and already I have the quest. This was kind of a record.

"Thank you." He bowed again.

"Lead the way," I said.

"Okay." He said enthusiastically and led the way.

Garth scratched his head and whispered into my ears. "Is it good to give him so much hope? From what it seems, it looks like he's had a lot of people look at her already."

"Stay here, Garth," I told him. "I'm going to go look at his mother."

"Oh, okay." So I made Garth stay at the inn.

What Garth didn't know was that I'd already made the cure the first day we arrived at the capital. Now all I needed to do was administer it naturally and discreetly to not seem suspicious.

Sterling hailed the rickshaw, and we went to his house.

He lived in a small apartment complex that had 5 other residents. The walls looked old, with cracks in the corners. The stairs creaked as you walked on them. It was the same as the game, but it looked much worse in real life. He lived on the second floor. A single bedroom apartment with one bathroom. His mother lay in the only bedroom of the house. You could tell by the folded bedsheet on the couch in the living room that he slept there.

"Sorry about the mess." He said, feeling embarrassed.

We went to the bedroom, and his mother tried to get off the bed. "Oh, did you bring a guest?" She said with a raspy voice.

"Mother, the doctor told you not to move needlessly." He immediately went to her side.

"This isn't needlessly." She complained.

"You can just lay down, Mrs. Quazi," I told her. "I'm just going to look at you for a second."

"Okay." She laid back down. "And who are you?"

"Just a friend of your son," I said, taking her hand in mine. I put some mana in my hand to give a performance. I wanted to make it look like I was looking into her condition. So, I touched her foot, arms, head, and chest. Then I pretended to think and stroked my chin. "It looks like she has..." I paused for dramatic effect, "Gray Chronos. I can't be sure, but that's what it feels like."

"Gray Chronos? I've never heard of it." His mother said.

"Yeah, it's pretty rare."

"You're the first one to name it. Is that true? Is it a disease you know about?" He had saucers for eyes.

"Well, I've read about it in a book."

"Oh," then he asked trepidatiously, "can you cure it?"

I looked at him and gave him a meaningful nod. "I think so."

""Really!"" Mother and son burst.

"Maybe, I'll have to work on it." I nodded again. "I'll start working on it when I get home, then I'll find you tomorrow."

"Can you finish it in one day!?" He sounded ecstatic.

What if I pulled out the cure right now; would he die of a heart attack? I shook away such stupid thoughts and said, "It just so happen to have the ingredients you need. I was planning to use it for something else, but if it's for a friend."

He hugged me tightly. "Thank you! Thank you!"

"Well, alright. Let me go. I'll go then. I'll see you tomorrow at the cafe." He nodded vigorously.

He walked me out of the apartment and wouldn't stop talking to me, expressing his thanks till the rickshaw showed up. He waved to me like an excited child as the rickshaw driver pulled me away.

*** 

Of course, when I got back to the inn, I had nothing to do but wait around till tomorrow and show up with the cure.

When Garth saw me, he asked with a heavy look, "So, what did you tell him?"

"Of course, I told him I'd cure his mother."

"It can't be help- Whaah!? You told him you'll cure her!?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that."

"But- but- Wait. Can you?"

"Would I say I would if I couldn't?" Should I electrocute this idiot? Does he have no faith at all?

"I guess not." He nodded. "Then what did his mother have."

"Gray Chronos."

"What's that?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I explained."

"That's probably true." He nodded.

"Let's have dinner."

"Alright. I heard today's specialty is crab."

"Then let's order some."

So we went to the inn's restaurant.