The chief arrived at Alex’s place after learning about his intention to leave.
“I heard you wanted to leave,” the chief said when he found Alex in his room, making pastes.
“That’s what I decided,” Alex answered.
“And you also want to give away your secrets to the pastes, I hear,” the man said. “Is that true?”
“You make it sound as if it’s a world-ending secret,” Alex said with a light chuckle. “It’s just pastes.”
The chief sat down on a chair in the room.
“It is important to us. Will you really only give it to Mabi?” he asked. “There are other men and women out there that would want to learn it too, you know?”
“The Lun family helped me so much that I just want to repay them by doing them this favor. I will only be teaching Tala or his daughter,” Alex said. “Don’t worry. If she wants to give away that knowledge, she will be free to do so. I won’t make her make any promises.”
The chief thought for a bit and nodded.
“And do you not want any payments in return for this?” he asked.
“Of course I want them,” Alex said. “That’s why I had Tala go deliver this news to you.”
The chief raised his eyebrow. “Alright, let us hear the conditions then.”
Alex stopped making the pastes and looked at the chief. “There’s really only 3 conditions, simple ones too in fact.”
“Do let me decide if they are simple or not,” the chief said. “Go on.”
“Well, first of all, I want my daily delivery of blood for the next month even though I won’t be making any more pastes.”
The chief narrowed his eyes. “Okay, I can accept that. What else?”
“I want new clothes,” Alex said. “As well as a decent-sized sword, and quite a few storage bags. Since many Sunhearts apparently can’t be kept in the same place, I’ll be needing these.”
The chief nodded. “I’ll tell the smiths about the sword. You can go get new storage bags from there as well. As for the clothes, I can get them to you by tonight.”
Alex smiled. “That’s amazing. Finally… I want to see your stash of Sunhearts.”
The chief paused for a moment, looking toward Alex with a surprised look.
“You… you wish to look at our Sunhearts?” he asked.
“That’s right,” Alex said. “For a city that has stood for this many years, with Sunhearts being brought in every day, I want to see what sort of reserve you people have. I have a guess, but I still wish to see the actual thing.”
The chief remained silent for a long time before finally saying something.
“You’re not trying to steal from us, are you?” he asked. “If you are, you’re better off just asking for them now so I can make some compromises with you. The Sunhearts are very important to the survival of our people for you to take them all.”
“Hey!” Alex said in a slightly offended tone. “Don’t go making me a thief when I’m not one. I really just want to look at your stash. That’s it.”
The chief didn’t entirely believe Alex, but there wasn’t much he could do except accept his request. If Alex really wanted to get his hands on those Sunhearts, he could easily do so with his strength.
“So, for those 3 conditions, you will teach Mabi everything you know about pastes?” the chief asked.
“Just about everything,” Alex said. “I’ll give her the recipe to all the pastes I’ve sold until now, and maybe a few extra as well. Will that be enough?”
The chief finally let out a smile. “That is more than enough. Thank you, Alex. I am honored to meet someone so benevolent.”
Alex shrugged at the words and turned back to making more pastes. “Oh right, for the sword, I will make the sword myself. Just let me borrow the smithy.”
“Alright…” the chief said. “I’ll let the smith know you’re coming over in the morning.”
Then the chief left.
Tala was excited to learn that Alex’s idea had been accepted by the chief, which meant that his daughter would be learning pastes.
“Let her come once she’s done with her morning tasks. I will teach her what I know. You can stay and learn on your own if you wish to.”
“Oh, I would be honored to,” Tala said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Tala left for home happily, while Alex went back to trying and figuring out the Blood Armor technique. He had tried a hundred thousand different variations by now, and yet nothing was sticking just yet.
And yet, he had to continue doing it until it stuck. There wasn’t any logic he understood behind the technique just yet, so he needed to force his way until he found the logic.
Alex still attacked his seal every day, and by now he had gotten strong enough to last for 8 tries and a little longer. And he hadn’t even been focusing that much into it.
After a night of sleep, Alex woke up early in the morning and made his way to the smith. He had seen the place where the smithy was, but had never really thought to enter it. He had always been able to just ask Tala for anything, so he didn’t have the reason to enter.
However, since he wanted a specific type of sword, he needed to make it himself. As a result, he finally had a reason to come to this place.
He walked in and found a very dark-skinned man inside, sitting next to a burning forge, waiting for him. The man looked at Alex from head to toe before raising an eyebrow.
“You’re the paste maker?” he asked.
“I am.”
The man suddenly burst into a wide smile. “Thank you for that paste. My wife has never loved me more than this past month.”
It took Alex only a moment to understand what paste he was talking about. “You’re welcome,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of time. Should we get started?”