Chapter 779: Wine Part 5

With a loud 'thud', Eisen placed one of the wooden barrels down onto the ground. The fact that he was able to carry this alone was still something that he wasn't perfectly used to; it was more than a metric ton, after all. But he liked feeling powerful in this world, so it wasn't a bad feeling. As that though crossed through his mind, the old man just let out a slight sigh and quickly pressed the tap into the side of the barrel, before starting to fill the fast-aged wine into its bottles.

After finishing filling up each bottle, he pressed a cork into the top and set them to the side. Usually, for wine bottles, he would seal them up further with something like wax around the bottleneck, but since these were going to be opened soon anyway, there was no need for him to do something like that. He could worry about that when he prepared the rest of the bottles throughout the coming trip.

While in the middle of this, he turned his head to the side, noticing that Millicent had finally returned. It seemed as though her curiosity got the better of her, since she came back sooner than she said she would. She looked at the large wooden barrels, and dozens of bottles that were set up right behind Eisen, being sorted into small crates by his ethereal doubles, "Are you seriously done already?"

Eisen looked at her with a slight smile, "Are you still doubting me?"

"Of course I am! There's no way you could ferment and age wine so quickly... It's a process known for taking time... it's literally called aging!" Millicent pointed out with a face of disbelief, but Eisen just smiled at her a little, "Don't worry, I get it. But you know, there's magic in this world that can turn a small seed into a tree with roots that can spread throughout a city, so why wouldn't there be magic that can speed up things like fermentation and aging?"

"...That..." Millicent slowly averted her gaze. She didn't have an answer to that. But Eisen simply smiled and got up from his squatting position in front of the barrel. He walked over to one of the nearby cabinets, grabbing a small glass cup. He went over to the barrel holding the white yellow grape wine; the one that Millicent pressed herself earlier. The old man poured some of the wine into the cup using the tap, and quickly handed it over to the woman next to him, "Here, give it a try."

A bit uncertain of whether or not she really should, she grabbed the cup. She drank a suspicious potion earlier without worry, so why would she hesitate drinking something like this wine now?

Slowly, she placed her lips against the cup, and the smell of wine quickly entered her nose. Surprised that she was even smelling alcohol in the first place, she quickly drank it, and then looked at Eisen completely perplexed, "But- How did you-"

With a chuckle, Eisen returned to filling up the bottles with wine, "I told you. My friend's magic is really quite useful. Are you still doubting me?"

"...No, not anymore... I don't think so, at least." Millicent pointed out. She tasted the wine, she knew how good it was, "Are you going to start selling this here?" She asked nervously, and Eisen smiled.

"Just for today, but yes."

"Just for today? What do you mean?" 

"I'm a traveler. I can't stay here for too long," he explained, glancing down to the side, at the system's clock. In this world, in this place, it was around 7pm right now. The others should arrive here in about five or six hours, "Rather, I'll have to close up pretty soon. It's regrettable, but it is how it is."

Millicent looked at all those bottles of wine, surprised, "So you'll sell this wine tonight, and never again? Isn't that a little unfair?"

"...Why would it be? Did you take such a liking to it?" Eisen asked with a grin, but he soon stopped when he saw Millicent's expression, "You came here, and made nine barrels of different types of wine I have never even heard of before in a single day, which tastes better than anything I've made in years, and then just leave?"

The old man stopped for a moment. He hadn't really thought about it like that. It was true that this was something that would just end up troubling the people that were working here. At the end of the day, that was something that might happen to anyone while he was staying in certain cities for a while. It sounded cocky and as if he was full of himself, but was just a fact that most people simply couldn't compare to the products that Eisen was capable of making. Neither their skill or speed, or even the stats or abilities connected to the items they made could really compare to Eisen's. And that gap would simply to grow. That wasn't just the case here, but on earth as well. He used to go to a lot of conventions and meetups, but at some point people started complaining that he was trying to show them up, or was just there to brag. Which of course, wasn't the case, but it wasn't Eisen's fault either. Just because others weren't able to match up to him didn't mean that he had to lower his own standards just to make them feel good.

"That's exactly what's happening. So?" Eisen replied to Millicent, trying to be as blunt as he could be. But Millicent was just stunned for a few moments as Eisen let out a deep sigh and walked up to her, "The world's unfair. You know that... I know that. That's just how it is. Just because I'm doing something you think you can't doesn't make it my fault."

"...And then what am I supposed to do?" Millicent asked, biting her lip as if trying to hold back her anger. Eisen walked over to the table near him, opening the book that was just laying there. He grabbed a pen out of his storage space, and tapped one of the pages with the wrong end of the pen, before placing the pen onto a blank piece of paper.

Before he knew it, the pen started moving on its own, copying down the page in question. It was as if the pen had turned into a printer of sorts, copying the page down to the most minute detail. It was done within a few moments, and Eisen gave the page to to Millicent.

"This is a recipe from the book I've been entrusted with. It uses a flower that grows in tall mountains like these. At least, I saw some of them on my way here. You should be able to find some on your own, or hire someone else that can find them. There's plenty of alchemists in this city too, so either ask them to collaborate with you, or learn some basics from them. You should be able to do it as long as you reach rank 2... no, since you most likely have a decent brewery skill rank, probably already when you reach rank 1 in the alchemy skill," Eisen explained, before quickly returning back to his work filling up bottles. Millicent looked at the page with a confused expression, "What are you talking about?"

"That's your payment for helping me press the juice out of the grapes and peaches earlier."

"This... are you sure you should give this to me?"

Eisen turned his head toward her with a raised brow, "First you complain that I'm selling things you can't make, and now I'm giving you a chance to make and sell something that even I haven't made yet, and you still complain?" 

Millicent looked down at the piece of paper in her hands, clutching it so tight that it seemed the paper might rip soon. Not that it would be able to; this was the paper that Eisen used for most of his books. It wasn't something easy to rip or even cut through with most knives.

The old man's frown quickly turned into a smile, "Seriously, go ahead and make it. I want to spread those recipes throughout this world. You're actually doing me a favor my making this a local speciality item." 

A light smile slowly formed on Millicent's face, "...Thank you..."