Way of the Knights

"Oh? I thought you guys weren't recruiting?" Raven wasn't overly surprised at the old man's sudden offer. If he were on his position, he might've done the same anyway.His retort made Richard sigh in regret, his old and exhausted body sank a little on his chair and his face was showing a saddened expression."You see, young friend…" Richard hesitated for a bit, thinking if he should reveal some important things to Raven, but he decided to tell him anyway. "We might be included in the Big Five as of the moment, but I'm afraid that if things continued this way, then in less than a year, we would degrade into something worse…""I think…I could guess why…" Raven looked around and similarly sighed as well, it turns out that his guesses were truly correct."Yeah…" Although it pains him to say it, he did so anyway. "We're on a steep decline for years now, and we are powerless to do anything against it.""Can you tell me more?" Raven probed, though he had a good hunch as to why already, he thought that it's better to hear more details from a different perspective."It started with a relatively small problem…" He said, "It was due to the lack of breakthrough with some research. The last time we issued a new concoction was a decade ago, and it's the Cold Resistance Pill."Raven grimaced as he heard this revelation. He didn't thought that it was 'THAT' bad…Cold Resistance Pill is a nifty medicine which temporarily raise an individual's resistance against cold environments. Certainly, it has it's uses, but the gist is that the Final Haven Empire isn't situated in a cold environment, it is rather at a humid location hidden behind mountains and trees. There will be six months of spring plus occasional rain and three months of fall and three months of winter, then the cycle begins. This climate cycle then made this pill very seasonal, so the the revenue that this pill recipe gains isn't huge to begin with, add the fact that the cost is a bit on a higher end as well, ranging from 10-15 Gold Cards per pill."It would've been fine if there's other breakthroughs such as enhancing the effects of other pills, or etc. But alas, there was none. And because of that, other problems started popping out. One by one, we lost workers, and even losing more since out budget is being cut off because of our lack of breakthrough. We also started losing some business partners like farmers, suppliers, and even some of our own alchemist decided to quit and look for a more rewarding careers, not that I blame them.""And like other businesses, of course we have our own rivals. And along with our withering status, their attacks are also getting more formidable. As such, we have no choice but to stay silent and take their slanders despite our unwillingness. I mean what could we do? We don't have any results to show anyway so it's better for us to keep quiet."Richard's tone was extremely laden with grief and unwillingness, it was hard for him not to feel emotional when discussing this things, after all this place had been his home for more than 20 years. It would truly pain him to see in such a state."I am not going to lie to you young friend." Richard stared at Raven's eyes directly and continued: "Me inviting you to become a member of our organization is not only because of your outstanding potential, but also because of the Healing Salve.""You want me to hand you the recipe." Raven went straight to the point which made Richard place an embarrassed and guilty expression."I'm not asking you hand it for free!" He hurriedly replied, "I-in fact, I could give you the full credit for the recipe!""On the premise that you would claim the identity of being the sole researcher and producer of the pill. Am I right?"Raven's words went straight to the sore spot like an arrow, for some reason, that appears to physically hurt Richard. But he could bow his head in shame and admit that Raven was right.This explains the great excitement that he felt when Raven told him that he was the one who made the Healing Salves, he saw this as a great opportunity.The Pill Saint Pavilion is one of the big organizations of the Final Haven Kingdom has, it is the main supplier of medicinal pills for the longest of time, and the reason why it stayed like that for so long was because of the funds that it receives from the kingdom. But because of the lack of progress, those funds are become lesser and lesser, causing them to lack man power, business partners and even forced them to close some other branches across the kingdom. The only reason that this branch in the institute is still open is because of the hopes that maybe some youths decide to walk the path of alchemy instead of knighthood, but at the same time there is a steep requirement on their recruitment which made that challenging, and unfortunately they can't lower the requirements anymore since doing so would severely damage the quality of the future alchemists.Richard thought that if he could somehow get Raven to agree to his request, then it would be the start of something that could possibly turn the situation of the pavilion around."I only needed at least eight-no, six months. Give me six months and from then on, you could claim the ownership back. On behalf of the Pill Saint Pavilion, we are willing to give you 45% of the entire revenue. If you could only please-…""Sure." "Eh?" Richard was stunned. Though it might sound very demeaning, he was actually prepared to plead some more to Raven and was even prepared to hand out additional benefits to negotiate even further. But he was interrupted by the agreement of Raven which really surprised him since he thought that convincing him would be more challenging.And to confirm that he wasn't just hearing things, Raven repeated himself. "I said, sure. I'll give you the ownership for the Healing Salve, no need to return it or share it's revenue to me, I have no need for money currently."Even after hearing that, Richard remained speechless. Is this child being serious? Doesn't he know just how much revenue he would be missing if he do this?"H-how could…""Oh don't think that I'm giving it absolutely for free now old man." Raven smirked, which caused Richard to be pause, but his next words threw him into bafflement right away. "I have conditions. First, you will introduce this stuff two weeks from this day, you could extend it up to a month if you want to.""Second, I want you to record all of the consumers who bought them, and I mean 'EVERYONE', I want the name, date, time, amount and background of everyone person who bought it.""Finally, each bottle must have a 'Trace' inscription with them. This detail must be kept as a secret that only those who swore a 'Heavenly Oath' knows about. If you could agree to this conditions, then I would give you the recipe for the Healing Salves right now."Richard could only stare at Raven's face for a while, thinking if he was being pranked. But he threw away this notion since, upon further thinking, Richard could guess a few reasons as to why his conditions are like so.The two week up to a month delay was Raven telling him to keep his identity a mystery. The second one is a tactic to eliminate future conflicts and a reference, and the final condition was to set up a trap if ever some shady individuals have some 'ingenious' plan towards their new creation.In summary, this conditions are a win-win scenario for both parties. Something that Richard wasn't expecting from a kid who just arrived at this institute."This offer of yours…" Richard paused and said: "Is just so good. Are you sure this is all you want? I'm sure that if I could give them a heads up, they'll be more than willing to hand some revenue to you.""I am certain about it, I only have those conditions." Raven nodded and confirmed his stance.Richard stared at him some more, he wanted to discern if this child has an ulterior motive. But again, if he doesn't have any, then consider him dumb for not being able to tell because what's more important to him now, is the recovery of the Pill Saint Pavilion."On behalf of the Pill Saint Pavilion, I accept this deal young friend Raven." Richard extended his hand, Raven took it and then the agreement was formed.Being a man of his words, Raven took out a bunch of papers from his spatial ring and handed it towards the nervous old man.With shaking hands, he accepted the papers. Just as when he thought that the situation couldn't be better, he realized that he was wrong yet again after reading the contents.