Chapter 228 - Secret Recipe
“Balbo, I heard you were looking for me?”
“Small matter. Right, Burnside, you’re almost done with the things on hand?”
“There’s still a little more left, but I’ve sent someone to keep an eye on it. It’ll definitely be done before the discussion.”
“It’s been hard on you.”
“Heh heh…”
After a round of smalltalk, Balbo dived into the main point. “Actually, I need to discuss an important matter with you today.”
“What is it?”
“Morning, everyone.” Balbo was beaming with smile. He saved all the greetings after entering the guild hall, and went straight to the point. “I believe everyone is anxious after all the waiting, so I’ll cut to the chase.
“It’s like that. Three months ago, the Pharmacists Guild discovered a High Elves relic. We were lucky to find four lost formulas. We’ve managed to work out three. However, we still can’t make head nor tail of the last formula after three months. That’s why we called for this discussion. All of you are experienced pharmacist. I believe that we’ll be able to work out the last formula with your knowledge of pharmaceutics.”
“President Balbo, what exactly is the formula?” Balbo’s voice had just fallen when a plump middle-aged pharmacist stood up from the crowd. “Could you bring it out for us to have a look?”
Out of the over hundred pharmacists in the guild hall, at least 90 of them had come for the mysterious formula. The middle-aged pharmacist got the approval of everyone when he opened his mouth.
For a while, the pharmacist’s guild was in a clamor. Everyone was urging Balbo to bring out the formula as soon as possible.
Balbo was on friendly terms with that fatty. He wasn’t angry at the fatty’s attempt to create a stir. He merely laughed, and cracked a joke. “Haha, Hoffman, I haven’t seen you in a long time. You haven’t lost all that meat, but your temper’s getting more and more impatient…”
Balbo’s voice had just fallen when there was a burst of laughter from below.
“Hahaha…”
“Hoffman, are you over 200 kg now?”
“Hoffman, I heard that your wife has given birth to a daughter recently. Is your daughter as fat as you?”
“Shut up, you bastards. I’ll get someone to poison your food sooner or later!”
“Hahahaha…”
Nobody took Hoffman’s words seriously, and they continued laughing. Everyone knew that the middle-aged fatty had the best temper among the pharmacists in the entire Felan Kingdom. They had known him for decades, and nobody had ever seen the middle-aged fatty fly into a rage.
“Alright…” Balbo waited until the crowd had enough of laughing before turning to Old Grimm, saying, “Burnside, you can start by writing down the formula.”
“Okay.”
Old Grimm nodded and took out a pen from his pocket. Then, he had someone bring him a huge parchment, which he laid out on the table.
“Shoo, shoo, shoo…” The sound of the pen tip scratching against the paper sounded, and the hall fell into silence. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the huge parchment. They wanted to see just what kind of secret was contained in the formula that even the Pharmacists Guild couldn’t work out.
Strange symbols appeared one after another as the pen tip danced along on the parchment. Balbo took on the role of a commentary at a side. “In order to present the original formula, Burnside has written it in High Elves Print. But all of you here are experienced pharmacists; it should not be too hard to decipher High Elves Print.”
Old Grimm had written numerous runes as Balbo explained.
Lin Li was frowning all the time. He was an experienced pharmacist, yes. But it was as hard for him to recognize the High Elves Print as it was for a man to give birth. In order to find out what Old Grimm had written, he had to turn to Andoine, the authority on the High Elves, for help.