"Tell me how things are coming along, Agatha?"
"I have found a few capable potioners and some staff as you've asked along with a capable manager to handle the shop's daily affairs. And I've made them sign binding contracts with the manager. And I've only signed the binding contract with her.
As per your instructions, I've enlisted Jack's help to sell our black market products. It'll be treated as a separate account from the shop's affairs. But sadly, we can expect our profits in the black market to go down soon."
Eren raised his eyebrows and looked at Agatha standing in front of him inquisitively. But he figured out what the problem must have been before she responded.
"Oh, I get it. Counterfeits! They arrived already?"
Agatha sighed and nodded her head before speaking further:
"That's right. The potion bombs that we were selling now have stiff competition. There are at least three variants that can compete with our products in terms of both output and price. What do we do now? Change our focus from potion bombs to something else?"
Eren chuckled at Agatha's response before speaking up:
"It's not like potion bombs were completely unique to the black market. They were still available to rankers with deep pockets. We just made them available to the masses.
We created a buzz because of the price at which we sold it along with its enhanced output. That was all made possible by the unique recipe I had found.
Um... let's just say that the recipe wasn't mine, to begin with. I borrowed it from somewhere. So no need to sulk for missing out on something that didn't belong to us in the first place.
The counterfeits would always keep on appearing no matter which product we choose to focus on. So don't worry about anything and maintain our current operations as they are. Our profits would take a hit for a time before getting stable.
Plus, the potion bombs are not the only thing we'll be dependent on. There would be a wide range of new products that would make the White Raven potions famous in this kingdom. Hehehe!"
Eren giggled as he smoked. He didn't forget to get an ashtray this time. Agatha wanted to ask which products they'd be launching but Eren spoke up before she could do so.
"It's helpful that you've hired the manager to take care of things here. I'll let you handle her. Also, you need to focus on your ranking practice as well. I can see you've barely made any progress."
Agatha looked at Eren like she had been wronged when he said that. He had made her handle everything regarding his shop affairs. And now he was expecting her to be a competent ranker too while handling these things.
"Hehe! Don't look at me like that. The new manager should give you plenty of time. Stay in the city of Laurel for some time. Settle all our affairs here. Take Jack's help if and when you need to. Then you'd have to come to the Nightshade duchy.
Meanwhile, take these recipes and have the potioneer start making them in batches. They are not completely groundbreaking. But they should give us the variation we need to minimize the negative impact of counterfeits getting introduced."
Eren handed Agatha a bunch of pages containing new recipes. She took the pages from his hand and immediately began reading a few. She had found that although the products weren't unique, the products always contained an additional effect or two. For example, she found a potion recipe that could restore a person's stamina and recoup his strength while enabling them to experience extreme focus.
In short, the potions created based on these brand-new recipes were multi-purpose products. They had a good potential to become popular in a short time. Like Eren had said, they'd be able to prevent the extreme dip in profits with this updated line of products.
"This… this should help us a lot. I'll arrange a rotation for the potioners to start making these products in rotation. Our regular production is bound to get affected. But we have made plenty of stockpiles by now. So that shouldn't be a problem.
Um… When am I supposed to leave for the duchy of Nightshade? It would be better if you could share a time frame with me, you know."
Agatha asked with a bit of nervousness. Eren looked at his anthrope slave keenly before asking her.
"What plans do you have?"
Agatha looked down and said in a small voice that Eren could barely hear…
"I… I need some personal time. I'll only need two weeks to settle my affairs. I didn't get time to do that until now. But with the new manager and you leaving, I thought I'd better take care of that before heading for the Nightshade duchy."
Eren thought about Agatha's request. Then he remembered the things she had said when he had intimidated her using Reen. He then sighed and looked at his assistant before speaking up:
"Agatha, I know I should be the last person to speak about letting things go and not seeking revenge. But I'd say this. Make sure that you are strong enough to seek justice for yourself before you take any step in that direction.
And from the look of things, you are not strong enough. At least not right now."
Agatha clenched her fist when she heard Eren's response. Technically, he hadn't said anything wrong. But that realization still irked her a bit. She responded while controlling various emotions that were raging in her mind.
"You… you don't even want to listen to my side of the story. And now you want me to lecture on it? In case you forgot, it's almost impossible for me to break into Ace rank because of my status as a therianthrope.
I will use potions to reach the solid stage of the Novice rank and then carry out my plans. I'm not heading out a plan either. I'll use a bunch of potions to my advantage now that I know how to use them. That's the most prepared I could get anyway. I'll neither ask for your help nor get you involved in any way.
Do… Do you still plan to stop me?"
