Epic Of The Demonic Sage

The day was quite strange for the servants of the Inanis family. First, the count seemed to have been upset about something and then their young lord Asher suddenly rushed into the kitchen before eating raw wheat.

Then after that, he started smiling weirdly and asked for them to show all the fruits that they had in the kitchen. Not knowing what to think of all this, they did what they were supposed to do. Serve their young lord.

Multiple fruits were kept on the table in front of Lucius, who was looking at them intently. He could recognize most of them, but there were a few that he had yet to see. Most of the time he only saw them during meal times and had eaten them. As for the ones that he did not see, the reason for that was… the Count and countess didn't like them.

Two of such fruits were called Liben fruit and Caron fruit. The Liben looked similar to a deformed apple and was much flatter. It had an uneven red color and its interior was the same as its outside.

On the other hand, Caron was a long fruit that looked similar to a cucumber, but its interior was a pale white simile to a pear.

Seeing all the fruits, Lucius tasted them one by one, finding that the ones that the Count and countess didn't like were the more blander fruits. The Liben and Caron came into this category. The Caron was even a bit bitter, which was why a lot of people didn't like it.

"Which of these fruits grow in our territory?" Lucius questioned.

The servants then pointed to about five fruits that grew in the territory of the Inanis family, which include Jezens and Caron. Lucius had an intrigued expression on his face upon hearing this and asked a few more questions to the servants.

Since a lot of servants were also peasants before or knew about agriculture a bit, they could answer Lucius's questions very well. In fact, Lucius thought that it may be much better if he asked these servants questions related to daily matters.

Lucius learned quite a lot of things from the servants. He learned which fruits were expensive and which were cheap, which grew in large quantities and which were scant. After listening to all of them, he made up a few plans.

'Hmm… while I can make wine with nearly any fruits I need to prioritize the source. For this Jezens and Caron seem like the best choice. Though… Jezens are already used to make wine so they would already have a set price.' Lucius analyzed.

Lucius's interest was mainly trained on the two fruits Jezens and Carons. Both were native to the region and grew well. But in the end, he couldn't help but think about the Carons. While the fruit was mostly bland with a slight bitterness, he could tell that it was due to the starch in it.

'Carons seem like a good choice for making wine if I can get the process right. With the right method, the starch should be converted into sweet sugars and the bitterness should accentuate the overall taste. Though… I'll need the proper kind of yeast as well.' Lucius thought.

Minutes passed by like this, and now it was time for Lucius's swordsmanship lessons with lieutenant John. Before leaving for them, though, he left the servants with a few orders. He told them to prepare an empty room for him, along with some equipment.

Lucius had already gotten the money he needed beforehand and gave the servants whatever they needed to buy the equipment, if they didn't have that here. Lucius had mainly asked for brewing equipment used for making wine, along with a few other things.

After the lesson was done, Lucius took a bath and ate an early dinner before retiring to his room.

~huu~

"Things are really piling up now, aren't they? ~Sigh~ being powerless like this is really frustrated even after all this time, I'm not used to it." Lucius muttered to himself.

He then calmed himself down before entering the empty space where his soul was. Checking its condition one last time, Lucius began his attempts to form the hell imprint. He went through hundreds of coordinates but had no success.

Eventuate he was exhausted and went to sleep. The next day went the same for him, and the servants had yet to get all the things he had asked for. Some of the equipment even needed to be custom made because it was not sold so often. After all, it was not every day that someone bought brewing equipment.

Another day passed and Lucius was informed in the morning that everything was finally here.

"Are you really going to make wine now? I thought you were interested in artifacts." Kiana asked with curiosity, seeing all the things that Lucius had gotten.

"Yes. While I am interested in artifacts, I would not be able to study them much if we don't have the necessary finances for them later on. Our situation will be getting quite complex from what I've learned till now." Lucius replied.

"So… you're going to sell wine to solve that?" Kiana questioned with apprehension.

"Not just wine, but high quality wine. Something that the nobles have probably never seen till now." Lucius responded.

Kiana couldn't help but feel a bit strange at this. From what she knew, making wine was easy but making high quality wine that the nobles liked was hard. It took years of expertise to make it, but here Asher was claiming he could do so on his own.

Still, she did not deny him as what he was doing was for the benefit of the Inanis family. She would never ridicule him for this. Another thing was, she liked the changes in Asher. He was much more proactive now… well, he was proactive before too, but now he did not have the same recklessness with which he rushed into the battlefield.

"If this works, I'll make our family the richest in the entire kingdom…" Lucius said with a devilish smile.