125 Goodbye (1/2)

On Monday morning, it was time for Lara to leave. They had set the departure time at five o clock, which was before Ivan had to go to school. As such everyone was standing at the front door to say goodbye to her.

Lara hugged Jane while saying her temporary goodbye to her. ”Take care and listen to your father, alright?”

”Mmm”, Jane obediently nodded, ”You too, take care.”

”I will. And I will call you every day as well.”, Lara promised.

After releasing her daughter, she then hugged Ivan, surprising him. At first, he didn't know how to respond to the sudden close contact, but after a second of being frozen stiff, he hugged her back.

”Take care.”, he said softly.

”You too. Take care of our daughter.”

The hug didn't last long before Lara let him go and turned around, to leave. She waved one last time before entering Jenny's car.

Standing hand in hand, Jane and Ivan watched her leave. ”Don't worry, she will be back soon.”, he then comforted his daughter, who looked sadly down the road.

”I know, but this is still the first time we will be separated for so long.”

”Well the best method to fight against loneliness is to play with someone, so go and play with Lucia.”, Ivan told her in a joking tone, even though his advice was serious.

”Exactly! I have already planned many things.”, Lucia jumped in.

”Really?”

”Of course.”

Hearing her new friends words, Jane let go of Ivan's hand and ran over to her, making the others smile. It was really astonishing how fast her mood changed. Just now she was so sad to see her mother leave and now she was happily thinking of playing with Lucia.

”Then go play. I too have to go to school.”

Time passed and it was time for the pill refining class. Both Ivan and Serge were sitting in the classroom and were waiting for Miss Klein to come to teach their class.

”Have you decided?”, Serge, surprisingly, asked him. Of course, Ivan instantly understood what he meant. It was about Miss Klein's offer to take them as her disciples.

”Yeah, I'll accept the offer. It is just too tempting.”, he honestly answered.

”Great, I too have decided to accept it. I really don't want to follow in my father's footsteps.”, Serge said. Surprisingly he was quite talkative today, which was quite different from his usual behavior.

”So you don't want to take over his store?”

”No. Although I really like reading, I want to do something different. And luckily my father doesn't want to force me either but instead supports my decision.”

”So you want to focus on pill refining?”

”Yes. I love refining pills. Not only is it profitable but also really challenging. This way I can earn money and do what I love. But I don't know if I can really do it. After all learning pill refinement cost quite a lot.”

This was something Ivan had realized as well. To learn pill refinement it was necessary to practice and to practice one needed the necessary ingredients. For the beginner pills, it was still alright, but the better the pills the more expensive the ingredients. And with the failure rate of a novice, it was nearly impossible to make enough money form pill refinement. Sure one could make the pills from a lower grade, but that would cost a lot of time.

This need for money to nurture a pill refiner had lead to them being rare at higher grades. The ones that had reached a higher grade generally belonged to either a bigger family or were sponsored by a corporation. Of getting sponsored meant that one would have to work for the corporation for a long time.

Ivan hadn't thought about it before since most of his herbs were those he got during training and the others were bought since they weren't rare. Of course, he was only of the lowest grade of pill refiner, so the ingredients were neither rare nor expensive.

”Then do you have an idea on how to get the money?”

”No. I have thought about it and I think getting sponsorship is the best idea, but I wanted to ask Miss. Klein about it.”

”Well being Miss. Klein's student should make it easier as well.”, Ivan said. He had learned that Miss. Klein was quite famous in the circle of pill refiners.

”You are correct, it would make it much easier.”, a voice surprised the two of them. Unknowingly their teacher had entered the room, ”But don't you think that talking like this would make it seem like you only want to be my student because of the status you would gain?”