Arcane Innovator

"Potions! Healing potions! Only 2 silver marks per bottle!" I shouted, joining all the other merchants eagerly promoting their goods.

...

..

.

We waited and then waited some more, but nobody seemed to come to our stall despite offering such an enticing deal. Once in a while, we got a few strange looks from the passers-by, but that was about it.

This continued for some time, and as the morning progressed, the square began filling with people. Soon enough, a considerable crowd was already busily browsing the various stalls. Yet, we still waited to welcome our first customer.

Seeing this, I couldn't help but chuckle. 'I guess when something is too good to be true, people will more likely believe it is a scam...'

While I was submerged in my own thoughts, someone finally came. I eagerly looked at our very first customer. It was an unassuming old man who regarded us with a piercing gaze. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Trying so brazenly to fool people... But let me tell you, nobody is so stupid to believe such an obvious swindle!"

I raised an eyebrow in amusement. "What do you mean? All of our products are genuine. There is even an Alchemist's mark engraved on each vial, see?" I replied while pointing at the line of vials in front of me.

The man scoffed. "Hah! And I'm the High priest of Ereneth! As if a real Alchemist would lower himself to sell his products at the stall like some common rabble!"

I glanced covertly at Theo, who was awkwardly fidgeting beside me, looking miserable, like he would rather be anywhere else but here. I had to make quite an effort not to burst out laughing.

I almost wanted to tell the man that there was indeed a real Alchemist standing right before him, but then I opted not to as by his looks, he had already made up his mind about us, and nothing I could say would have convinced him otherwise.

So I simply smiled at him and said, "Well, that's how things are. If you are not satisfied with our product, go look elsewhere. Have a nice day..."

He looked at us angrily for a short while before scoffing again and stomping away.

'Hmm, not a great start...' I thought. But this also gave me an idea. Since we will unlikely get any customers like this, we will need to demonstrate the potion's effectiveness for people to start believing it.

The easiest way would be to simply flaunt our statuses around convincing people that way. But I wanted to avoid too much attention directed our way right from the start, so we came to the market dressed quite modestly, pretending to be simple merchants.

For this experiment, I wanted our potions to speak for themselves, as we won't be there in person the next time to promote them.

However, I also understood people's innate skepticism of new things, so some advertisement would be needed.

'What should I do? Should I just cut my finger and heal it like I did before? But then they could simply accuse me of faking it... No, it has to be someone actually injured or sick, but where to find someone like that at such short notice?'

I pondered about my current predicament with furrowed brows, but then I spotted something within the crowd that made me don a bright smile, and I immediately changed my promotion to "Free samples! We offer free healing! Come try it out!"

Soon, a young woman reluctantly approached us. She was tightly clutching a small boy in her arms who looked quite sick. I immediately noticed a nasty-looking wound on his left leg, which was already severely infected. By the reddened skin on his face, he seemed to have also developed a high fever.

The woman gave me a weary look and said weakly. "Please, can you help my son?"

I smiled at her reassuringly. "Well, of course, come closer, and I will take a look at him."

Her weary face softened in visible relief, but another woman approached us with a disapproving look before she could come closer. "How can you entrust your son's life to those two charlatans? You would do much better if you went to an actual herbalist!" She exclaimed.

The young woman blinked a few times, looking startled, but then she grimaced. "I went to an herbalist almost a week ago! I even gave him all my money... but my son's wound only got worse... and now he says he needs an elixir... but I have no more money to give!"

She then started sobbing, "I was just on my way to the temple to pray to the gods for my son's life, so excuse me if I'm going to take any chance, whatever slim to see him smiling again!" The woman said with a clear determination in her eyes, promptly brushing the other woman aside and coming to us.

'This is perfect...' I thought happily. This little commotion had already attracted a small crowd of onlookers who were tensely waiting to see how this would turn out.

I beckoned the young mother to come right next to the counter while I pretended to be examining her son. There was no actual need for it as the potion would work on almost any affection short of a mortal wound. Still, a little bit of theatrics wouldn't hurt as I threw a cover glance at the crowd, who was watching me with bated breath.

I removed the shabby-looking bandage on his leg. The area was instantly permeated with an unpleasant scent of infected flesh. I scrunched my nose and pulled away from him. 'This much should be enough...'

Then, with a subtle smile playing on my lips, I simply took one potion vial out of the crate and uncorked it. I made a sweeping gesture and poured a generous dose into the boy's mouth and the rest on his wound.

Nothing had happened for a few seconds, and I could see several people in the crowd throwing mocking looks my way, including the older woman who was so fervently arguing earlier. But then they froze and widened their eyes, as well as everyone else within the crowd.

The boy's leg shined with a subtle red glow as the potion got absorbed into his skin. The grievously looking wound sizzled and disappeared in front of everyone's eyes as the magic worked its... well, magic.

Soon, the boy's appearance became a healthy-looking one, and he smiled happily, squirming in his mother's arms.

The entire area around our stall submerged into complete silence as everyone stared at the scene in utter disbelief. They couldn't comprehend what had just happened as they had never seen anything like this before. A series of excited whispers quickly ensued.

"That's impossible!"

"It's a miracle!"

"Was this real magic?"

"How is this possible?"

However, the most surprised person was the boy's mother. She quickly recovered from her stupor and tightly hugged the boy, tears flowing freely down her cheeks, but she didn't care.

After a while, she finally looked at me and smiled brightly. "Thank you... Thank you so much..." I smiled back and simply nodded as there were no words needed.

I didn't mind helping her for free as this little spectacle promised to bring in a lot more profit than the price of a single potion.

In the next moment, I was already approached by another customer - an older gentleman dressed in fine clothes who seemed to have stopped by to see what the commotion was about. "You said 2 silver marks? I'll take one!"

Right after him came a slightly limping middle-aged man. "I'm injured too!" He said while busily pointing at his right leg.

I took a look at the long line that was already forming and showed him a shrewd smile. "I'm sorry. The demonstration is over. There won't be any more free samples. But you are more than welcome to buy one. I'm sure you will be cured in no time!"

"You...!" A hint of anger flashed through his eyes, but he could do nothing about it. Hence, he begrudgingly walked away as he apparently couldn't afford it.

Very soon, word that someone was selling real healing potions on the market for a fraction of the usual cost spread like wildfire, and soon, our small stall was besieged by an over-enthusiastic crowd. It was absolute mayhem.

"Give me one!"

"I want two...no scratch that, give me five!"

The nearby merchants were throwing me both envious and angry looks as everyone seemed to be ignoring them as they were all trying to get to our stall.

Before long, multiple traveling merchants who were in Ereneth with one of the several Caravans also got word about this, and they, too, descended upon our poor little stall.

But they, instead of buying just one or two potions like everyone else, started buying full crates of them. Thus, not too long before the noon bell rang, we were officially sold out...