The Notorious Misadventures of an Alchemist and a Phoenix, Chapter 14

Noah had a nice skip in his step, he was back in his city and on his way back home followed by a group of bag boys carrying his loot. Bag boys were kids trying to earn a little pocket money by carrying luggage for lazy or weak customers. Most bag boys were unreliable. Customers would find small items missing from their stock due to sneaky, grubby hands looking for a quick payday. And yet the bag boys knew better than to cheat Noah, or to be more precise, the phoenix.

Noah made his way home passing the butchers who had rebranded themselves and now was called dismantler of fine and rare beast. Noah occasionally heard tiny little wondering hands getting slapped by soft feathers, the bag boys weren't as smart as he thought. The city was alive with activity. Noah watched a street fight between three gangs briefly stop when an enforcer from the brawlers guild checked their membership cards.

While all of this was an excitable experience to any newcomer, to Noah it was an everyday existence. Something he was completely used to. The idea of how violent and hectic the city was compared to the wilds never crossed his mind. It all comes down to what you were used to. The city wasn't a safe place by any means but if you spent any time in one you knew just where you could go and where you shouldn't go waving a bag of cash, unless you were armed to the teeth with very well-armed old men that most of the time had no teeth.

And yet this was Noah's home. Noah quickly without showing an inch of fear sidestepped a pair of young fighters who had found great interest in introducing broken bottles to each other's faces.

Both of the young fighters ignored Noah and tumbled into a mess of flailing punches and kicks, That was until they spotted the phoenix.

The pair froze still while they watched the phoenix point at them both and wordlessly threaten them with gestures that looked violently dirty. The phoenix was infamous and while legendary creatures were honoured, this one had an aura of a godfather. It probably didn't help that the phoenix was an asshole and he wasn't afraid to spread as much shit as possible.

The parade of bag boys continued past the frozen pair, breaking eye contact with the phoenix. Instantly the pair continued beating the crap out of each other. Neither of them could afford to give even the smallest advantage to the other, they were evenly matched and knew each other's weaknesses, because they were brothers.

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Noah brushed past the long line that entered his shop. Several merchants reached out to stop Noah from cutting in line but were quickly pushed aside by the equally large bag boy parade. Angry murmurs spread though out and it was only a few seconds before someone with too much brawn and not enough brains were going to do something about it.

"Welcome back" an old lady crooked.

Everyone turned to look at the hunched women. Grey hair tied into a bun, neatly dressed in a heavily washed grey cloth and supporting herself with a bone white cane.

Her name was Margo Mordecai and all due appearances she was the owner of the Alchemist Bank. Noah used her as a front, he had found her washing her rented apartment, which was odd.

A person at her age should have massive amounts of stats and found her wealth years ago, but there she was washing a rented home. It turned out that Margo had a daughter, and that daughter was stupid and horny. Her daughter called it love and long story short, Margo had lost everything including her daughter who had run off.

Noah didn't exactly feel sorry for Margo but there was something like mutual hatred for being scammed. And so He had given her a job as the figurehead of the shop, a sort of bouncer to stop any powerful people coming in and bullying him.

Some people would think that was a little much but if you saw an Alchemist making tons of cash and his age was no older than twenty-five it wouldn't be long before he was kidnapped and disappeared. The old woman was there to persuade those with ill intent to back off.

In return, Morgo was given full access to the front of the store where she used the skills she had gained throughout her long life to make and sell her adventure food. Cooking was close in appearance to alchemy.

While Margo was the face, Noah played the apprentice. This way Noah wouldn't be interfered with and allowed to do the things he wanted. Margo had a place to sell her Brough blocks and cured meats.

Inside the shop, Noah passed the many giant barrels that held potions. These giant beauties saved Noah time and money. He could fill individual pots, tubes or containers for his customers but times was money. So instead, merchants that were desperate to buy Noah's potions would fill their own glassware.

Noah pulled out a key and placed it in the door behind the barrels. The key wasn't needed and in fact, was fake. The door shimmered slightly as it recognised Noah. The soul door opened and allowed Noah in.

Noah paused in his workshop as he watched his three golems fighting over seniority. He didn't care and sent them out the back to collect the spoils of his small adventure.