The next day, Tori finally received the books Mi Luosha had sent over from the Witch Church. They included general reference books like *A History of the Kingdom*, *A Gazetteer*, and *A Compendium of Common Plants*.

It hadn’t been easy getting these. She’d really needed them.

“I didn’t know until now that our kingdom is called Layn. It was named after its first king.”

She could skim the geography book first to get a general idea. But the book she cared about most was the plant compendium.

Perhaps the Church also had books on animals and minerals, but Mi Luosha hadn’t sent those over. Was she holding something back?

These books were valuable in this world. You wouldn’t find a compendium like this for sale in town—and even if you could, Tori figured it would cost at least ten silver coins.

How extravagant. Since when had I started counting money in silver coins instead of copper ones?

“Let’s see. The ingredients I need… Earth, water, fire, and wind—I have those, more or less. There are plenty of options for life, too. But what about lightning, light, and darkness?”

“Stargrass is a light-attribute herb? That’s an unexpected find. I’d suspected as much, but now it’s confirmed. What about herbs with a dark attribute?”

As she leafed through the book, she felt her knowledge expanding by leaps and bounds. It couldn’t help her brew Potions, but it gave her a basis for all sorts of ideas and would save her a lot of time.

“Lightning-struck wood! Of course! Lightning-struck wood! A plant that’s been struck by lightning and is still alive and growing—that won’t be easy to find, and it’s bound to be expensive.”

What about ingredients with a dark attribute?

At last, she found a plant called “Hollowflower.” It was believed to have a dark attribute, and it grew right in the Demon Mist Forest. Some even believed it was the very cause of the mist there.

Of course, there was no evidence to support that theory. Still, Tori felt she’d found all the ingredients she needed.

That was assuming she could get enough of each ingredient to brew other Potions first. Only then would she feel confident enough to use them to try making an advanced Potion.

Going from knowing nothing to knowing something was already a huge breakthrough. It made her feel a little warmer toward Mi Luosha. She knew the other woman was surely keeping plenty of things to herself, but they’d been enemies not long ago. Getting this much knowledge from her was no small feat.

Was the information in this book reliable? It probably was. There was no reason to deceive her. Besides, Mi Luosha didn’t know Tori was planning to make an all-purpose Potion.

“Making money is the most important thing right now.” She held up a vial of Potion that looked a lot like a Miniature Healing Potion. She called it “Hot-and-Spicy Potion.”

It had no other use. The whole point was that it tasted fiercely spicy and made you feel hot after drinking it—like a bubbling pot of spicy hotpot.

But it still counted as a Potion. The recipe was 10 ml of red chili fruit solution, 2 g of Moongrass powder, and 2 g of the outer layer of ice crystal ore. Stir using the rinsing method until the liquid turned completely red, then dilute the solution with water.

She thought the Potion might sell well in some very cold places, but she doubted it would be a hit in a place like Blackwater Town.

But…

Just because it wouldn’t be a hit didn’t mean it couldn’t make money.

She planned to put on an event in Blackwater Town.

“Who Can Handle the Most Spice? Contest! Free to enter. Food provided by the Witch’s House. Every dish must be eaten with the Hot-and-Spicy Potion specially brewed by the Witch’s House Potion Maker. The champion will win 10 Miniature Meditation Potions and 10 Miniature Healing Potions! Sign-ups are open for three days starting today. Come to the Witch’s House in five days to compete! Cheating and magic are prohibited during the contest.”

“They’re really offering something like this? What’s the Witch’s House up to? That Hot-and-Spicy Potion is bright red. It doesn’t look like anything good. Are they trying to use us as test subjects?”

“Are you stupid? They sell it right there in the shop, and they say it’s for seasoning. A friend of mine bought a bottle. Apparently, you only need a little to get plenty of flavor, and it tastes pretty good. But eat too much of it, and you won’t be able to handle it.”

“Is it really that spicy?”

“It’s not just spicy. You know I can eat red chilies on their own, but that Potion packs a much bigger punch. My butt still hurts today.”

“That’s because you’re weak!”

Tori was very pleased with how things were going. Putting on an event like this in a small town like Blackwater Town wasn’t easy. Either way, she was sure to make a profit.

It was a marketing tactic—a bit of advertising. She took Old Yabu to see the town mayor and explained what she had in mind. The mayor was very much in favor of the idea.

Ethan had made quite a name for himself at the Magic Academy, bringing plenty of people from out of town to Blackwater Town. An event at the Witch’s House would surely benefit the town. And besides, with Tori putting on a contest and people drinking Hot-and-Spicy Potion, there was nothing stopping the locals from selling drinks to cool everyone’s mouths down, right?

He wasn’t exactly on Ethan’s side, but he wasn’t an idiot. If there was money to be made, why pass it up? The capital was far away, and even those young masters and ladies couldn’t get him removed. They’d only have that kind of authority once they became lords.

“Remember, Lydia: this is one way to do business. It may look like we’re losing a lot of gold by providing both the food and the Hot-and-Spicy Potion. But once we’ve advertised the Potion—especially while there are so many people from out of town here—we can get them to buy a bottle or two to take home. That’s how we find a market. That’s how a business grows bigger and stronger. Understand?”

Lydia seemed to understand, more or less. At least, she raised a hand and said, “But, boss! You still haven’t paid me this month’s wages.”

“! I haven’t?”

Tori suddenly realized that it was indeed time to pay Lydia. So she handed her ten silver coins.

“Huh?” Lydia remembered that she and Tori had originally agreed on four silver coins.

Tori waved a hand. “That’s what we agreed on. If you help me with some Potion brewing, too, I can pay you twenty silver coins.”

“Your work is way too delicate. I’m better off selling things.”

Tori sighed. It looked like Lydia didn’t have much talent as a Potion Maker. That was a shame. Tori quite liked the girl. She was earnest, careful, honest, and obedient.

“Still, we’ll need to find some people to help. We could work something out with Three Coins. They can provide iced drinks, and they’ll have to help us keep things orderly, too.”

Tori decided to focus on making enough money before looking for the Potion ingredients she needed. Lightning-struck wood, Stargrass, and Hollowflower were all expensive.

She could probably manage to gather Stargrass and Hollowflower, but Tori had no idea where to find lightning-struck wood. Was there any in the Demon Mist Forest? Who knew!

She went to the Church, but Mi Luosha wasn’t there. One of the others said she’d already gone out.

Had she gone to find Ethan?

Tori frowned. She thanked the other nun for the information, then thought about what to do next.

Mi Luosha was more proactive than Tori had expected. If she really found Ethan, they might go straight into one of those scenes, and Mi Luosha would become the first member of Ethan’s harem—if things followed the story.

But that wasn’t what Tori needed to worry about. What mattered was how she should position herself going forward.

Whether or not Ethan was the protagonist, he’d proved that he was capable and full of potential. He was young, rich, and highly respected. Plenty of Potion Makers would want to work with him. So what made her think she could secure a place as one of his partners?

Putting on the spicy-eating contest was her way of proving her abilities from another angle. She wanted to tell Ethan, “I’ve got ideas—ideas that can help you. They’re something no other Potion Maker or merchant can offer.”

That would prove she was one of a kind and make her partnership with Ethan unshakable.

Unless another transmigrator showed up.

The main problem was that she didn’t have the resources to stand on her own yet. Otherwise, she would’ve kicked Ethan to the curb a long time ago. In the end, she was still too weak. If she couldn’t gather all the ingredients by the time she was ready to break through, she might have to make something other than an all-purpose Potion. It was only an idea, anyway.

Sometimes, trying to make everything perfect did more harm than good. Whether a Potion was all-purpose or not didn’t always make much difference to her ability to make money. She just thought an all-purpose Potion would be the best fit. But even if she gathered all the ingredients, there was no guarantee she could make anything. Who said she could brew a Potion just by bringing together the elements in the ingredients she’d thought of? Was this some kind of alchemy workshop? It would take a simplified alchemy system like the one in Laisha’s area. Clearly, Potion-making in this world wasn’t that simple.

Still, advanced Potions really were different from ordinary ones.

With that anticipation in the air, Blackwater Town’s first-ever Spicy-Eating Champion Contest finally began.

There were more than three hundred contestants. Even Tori hadn’t expected that. There were far more spectators, too, many of them arriving with their whole families.

“Heh heh~ My husband’s been training for this contest by drinking plenty of Hot-and-Spicy Potion these past few days. Now he can drink it straight without even changing his expression.”

“That’s nothing! You’re just wasting Potion. The spice builds up inside him and makes it harder for him to stand. My husband’s been diligently training in water magic these past few days, without a trace of fire element. A little Hot-and-Spicy Potion is nothing to him. Heh heh~”

Listening to all their bragging, Tori thought about how well the Hot-and-Spicy Potion had sold over the past few days. Her mood lifted.

“Now, I, Tori, acting manager of the Witch’s House, hereby announce the rules of the contest!” She suddenly spotted two familiar faces in the crowd. They were among the contestants—her parents. She froze. Looking more closely, she saw that at least a dozen or twenty people had come from Lusaka Village.

“Our Lusaka Village has been growing red chilies for years. This contest is right in our wheelhouse!”

The old village chief had actually joined the crowd of spectators and started bragging.