"A secret?" wondered Erika curiously.
"Yeah, for now let's keep it a secret, I am working on a big project of mine so I want some privacy, but you can still watch anyway." I said. "Just stay silent and don't interrupt me… Okay?"
Erika was an obedient girl, she nodded happily and stood in silence while admiring what I made. I moved back to working into what I was doing, after assorting the items I quickly looked into the pot of alchemy, where I poured some water and then dissolved some Spirit Orb dust and began to boil it all.
It took roughly an hour for the water and the spirit orb dust to converge together and make Mana Water, it is actually toxic, and it needs the special herb to make mana potions, drinking this would probably give me an intoxication. However, it was a basic base material for most potions and also pills, which I make my solidifying potions.
After the water was boiling and had taken a blue color, I started by adding demon blood, around five litters of it, and left it boiling while slowly moving the water and the blood for half an hour, it was a methodical process, but I have a lot of patience, such work is nothing much for someone like me.
After the water and the blood fully blend together, the water turned dark red, and became very slimy. This was the perfect time to add the other materials. I decided to soften the blow of the demonic energy by adding the typical lesser healing herbs I use to make healing pills. I had cut it down into pieces and then started to boil it all.
After that, I added the dust of the demons' horns, the cut off skin which I made into meat paste, and then the dust of their bones, the hair was added at last because it burns quickly.
"Isn't Alchemy like just making a big stew?" wondered Erika. That remark made me laugh. This is a very basic form of alchemy so yes, it is like making dew, but there are other items and artefacts that makes alchemy way more complicated, from the extraction of oils from products, to the vaporization of essence and more… but I can't do any of that complicated stuff here.
"Yes, essentially is it cooking with extra steps." I said. "But this is definitely not a stew you would want to eat."
"I-I know…" She said. "Looks yucky."
The boiling liquid and all the materials began to meld over the time, I left it boiling and decided to spend some time with Erika, things would be done in roughly four hours, so there was nothing for me left to do, as I had already used Synthesis on all the items several times, they needed to be left resting while boiling and mixing all the essential materials together.
As I spent some time with my friend, Eleanora was growing rather jealous, and wanted to come out. She seemed to dislike when I spent time alone with Erika. With any of the other two kids she was okay with it, but with Erika she began making some little remarks.
She never insulted the girl, and she had actually begun to grow fond of her because of her pure heart and honesty, but her nature was hard to control even after dying and reincarnating as my spirit in this new world.
"I see you're enjoying your time together…" She said. "H-How nice of you…"
"Eleanora, stop this…" I sighed.
"I-I am just happy for you, my lord…" She said. "T-Though you always say such romantic things to me… And now you're having a nice time making this young girl blush for you all the time…"
"Sigh… You can come out if that's what you want." I said.
"T-There's no need…" She said. "I am your servant… Just your spirit. I shouldn't get involved more than that in your personal life…"
"Don't start this again, you want me to tell you that you're important to me?" I asked. "Eleanora, I told you the same sermon yesterday. It seems that you just like me to act corny with you just so you can be happy…"
"T-That's not it! E-Erm… I…" She said. "N-Never mind me…"
I sighed internally once more, I spent most of my time with her, yet she gets jealous with Erika. I don't want to complicate myself with such weird and forced drama, so I decided to ignore her until she stopped being so grumpy. I wasn't inviting her out because I just wanted time with Erika, as I've been too busy sometimes, so I haven't spent enough time with her.
She is my first and best friend in this world, despite her childishness, she's good hearted, and also someone honest.
For someone that has experienced his fair share of betrayals on his previous life, having good-hearted and honest people at my side that won't betray me is a must, this is why someone as unlikely as Erika is a good friend for someone like me, despite our clear differences in thought process and personalities.
I went upstairs with Erika who invited me to her room, as she wanted to show me her new dresses that her father sewed for her using his threads and abilities.
"Do you one?" She asked. "Oh, or this one!"
The girl showed me two dresses, one was pink-colored with many white frills that made it look like something a princess would wear, the other was a white-colored dress, it was less extravagant and had flower-like decorations.
"The pink one goes with your hair but the second one is simpler, so I like it more." I said. "You would look good in both of them. …Nonetheless, have your dolls grown stronger or developed something new in this time?"
"S-So both are good then? Okay… I also like the second one more…" She said. "And yeah! Wanna see? There's two new dolls that suddenly showed up."