Chapter 87 - Going to Germany (1/2)

Finland's application for leave was approved by Ms. Fang. Aside from her good performance, she also impressed her entire department.

One afternoon she invited the group from the Marketing department to dinner at the Moon Restaurant of Continental Hotel to celebrate the opening of Katia's gallery. Everyone was very impressed by the result.

People at LTX know that Moon Restaurant's waiting list could be months, so Finland's success in bringing them there to eat made all of her colleagues very happy and amazed. The next morning when Finland approached to Ms. Fang to apply for leave from December 30th to January 29th, her request was quickly approved.

Finland promised to settle all her obligations before her leave and she would hand over her pending projects to Lily and Tran who would help her. She also promised that she could be contacted by telephone and e-mail at any time if there was an emergency that needed her attention.

A week before they left for Germany, Finland told Caspar the good news when they were eating together.

”I have been given a month leave. This week is my last day of work in 2018.”

”Ahh... that's great! I'm very happy to hear that.” Caspar nodded happily, ”Starting tomorrow night I will give you a crash course on Alchemists so you can prepare to meet them.”

”Crash course? What for?” Finland asked in surprise.

”There are a lot of things you don't know about my people, and I don't want you to feel surprised when you meet people who are rather quirky or very different from me.” Caspar replied calmly, ”I told you, not all Alchemists are like me.”

”I know, not all Alchemists are rich and smart like you. You told me that, ”Finland said, shrugging.

”That's not all.” This time Caspar looked very serious, ”There are some people who call themselves 'purists' or pure Alchemists. They are the direct descendants of the previous generation of alchemists and do not need to drink the immortality potion. They consider themselves better than regular humans and look down on them and all members of the Alchemist who are mixed or are born from ordinary people who enter our clan by marrying an Alchemist and are gifted the immortality potion.”

”Really? So they are like racists who look down on others because of their skin color and nationality...” Finland was surprised to hear Caspar's story. She did not expect that there were some evil Alchemists.

”Sort of. They only support marriages among fellow Alchemists, even though, you know, there are very few of us... If we limit ourselves to just marrying fellow Alchemists, in a short time we will have relationships with our own relatives, almost like incest. My grandfather and father were also purists. They refused to accept Louis, Flora's husband, to enter our clan. After Alexandrite was born ten years later, my father changed his mind. He loved Alexandrite, his grandson, and didn't want to see him grow old and die. Finally, the family accepted Louis and gave him the immortality potion when he was 40 years old. Then, Garnet was born, and finally Jadeith. They are all considered mixed blood.”

Finland only recently heard about Caspar's parents and grandfather, and she did not expect that his father and grandfather were also racist towards regular people.

”Have you ever wanted a purist to be your spouse?” Finland probed. She knew that Caspar had a very close relationship with his parents and she wanted to know if Caspar had the same attitude as them.