Entering through the door that the old lady had first entered, I followed her into a long corridor lined with countless doors, all resembling the one I had just come through.
We continued to walk through the corridor, passing by each door.
"I assume these ingredients for the potion are for you?" the lady asked as we walked.
"Yes, I was curious about how it works," I replied, continuing to follow her.
"It's a good thing you're curious, but don't use it in the wrong way. Depending on how you use it, you could either have an easy life or a messed up one," the old lady cautioned. She stopped in front of one of the doors and opened it, leading us into a room that was incredibly quiet.
As I entered, I was hit by a strange fragrance. It was like the scent of a multitude of flowers all at once, so sweet that my head began to feel numb.
"The thing you didn't understand—the beginning of love—is not something much harder to acquire. If you look around, you could find it easily anywhere," the old lady explained.
The room was dimly lit and appeared quite spacious. As I entered, the old lady's gaze introduced me to the larger room where I saw a few females lying upon what looked like flower petals.
"So, which one do you want?" the old lady asked as I gazed at the females lying before us.
"Do you mean like which girl I want?" I clarified, and she nodded in approval.
I didn't understand why she suddenly asked me to choose one among them, but as I looked at them again, I observed their faces and figures carefully.
To put it simply, all of these girls were quite beautiful in their own right, but one in particular caught my eye. She had soft, milky-white skin and a well-proportioned body, reminiscent of filora when I first saw her. She lay upon the flower petals with her eyes closed, seemingly in a deep sleep.
"That one," I pointed to the girl I found attractive.
"And why are all these girls sleeping in these flower petals?" I asked, puzzled.
"It's for efficiency. Out of every order we receive in a year, love potions are some of the most in-demand ones, so we prepare them with all these ingredients for better and quicker output," the old lady explained.
"Ingredients?"
"Pop!" Suddenly, the old lady clapped her hands, and...
Chus!
While I was still gazing at the woman I had chosen, I noticed something peculiar. Flower petals were piercing out from her body, emerging from the exact location where her heart was. They remained there, resembling flower buds on the verge of blooming.
In the next moment, they began to blossom. The petals unfurled and rotated around her, appearing like a flower in full bloom. And right in the center of this blooming flower, I saw the beating heart of the young woman.
"What the fuck?" I exclaimed, my voice filled with disgust and disbelief.
"You didn't say to me you were going to kill her,"
"How else am I going to get the thing you want?" the lady replied in a cold voice. It was clear she wasn't trying to ignore me, but I could sense that she felt no guilt whatsoever about what she had done.
The lady walked toward the young girl and took the beating heart from the bloomed flower, causing some blood to flow through her hand.
"This is the beginning of love. The first sign is your heart, which beats unnaturally when you're close to your love, like a signal constantly reminding you to love them. Put it in the bag," she instructed, offering me the heart. But looking at it, there was no way I could bring myself to put that thing inside my bag.
It was dripping with blood and other substances.
Observing the expression on my face as I looked at the heart, the witch sighed and tore off a leaf from the nearby flower petal, covering the heart with it.
"Here, but if you're going to be that disgusted by these things, it's a good thing if you never walk in the path of a witchcraft," she remarked sternly.
"I never will," I affirmed silently to myself as I opened the bag and placed the Heart inside it. Afterward, we emerged from the room.
Before leaving, I cast one last glance at all of them. I felt a twinge of pity; their existence was solely to be ingredients for witches, condemned to remain in a deep slumber for the rest of their lives.
However, at that moment, I noticed some of them had tears in their eyes and happy smiles on their faces, which piqued my curiosity.
"Are they all asleep or..." I began to ask.
"They're in a dream, the dream they're hoping for deep in their hearts, which is to live with their loved partner for the rest of their lives. It's probably something that will never happen in the real world, so we give them their ultimate dream in exchange for their heart. Fair trade, right?" the witch explained, her tone teasing.
I nodded, understanding the situation a bit better, though a pang of sadness lingered within me for those girls trapped in their unattainable dreams.
After coming out from the room, we wandered around the shop for a few minutes as the lady continued to gather ingredients. After about half an hour, we returned to the entrance of the shop.
"Thank you for giving all of this to me for free. I really appreciate it," I said, while patting the bag full of ingredients for my love potion.
"This is not about you; it's about the lineage," replied the old lady bluntly.
"And here's the last ingredient for your love potion," the old lady said, offering me a tiny glass bottle that appeared to contain water.
"Is this..." I began to ask.
"Yes, it's the end of a love. And what else makes the end of a love more poignant than the tears of a broken heart?" she explained.
Taking the tiny bottle, I carefully placed it inside the bag, completing the collection of ingredients for my love potion.
"And before I leave, I have one last thing to ask from you," I said.
"What is it?" the old lady inquired.
"Can I get a broom too, a flying one?"
"Huh, you don't even have a broom with you," she remarked.
"I had one, but I lost it on my way,"
Shaking her head in disappointment, she picked up a broom from a cabin in the shop and handed it to me.
"Here, and don't lose this one," she said sternly.
Taking the broom, I thanked her once again for everything she had done and walked out from the shop. But before I could take another step, I heard her voice again.
"Remember, young man, use the things you have carefully. It depends on your actions whether they bring fortune or disaster," she cautioned.
Looking back inside the shop, I noticed it looked completely different from before, and the lady was nowhere to be seen. With a sense of wonder and curiosity, I left the shop behind me.
"Where have you gone, leaving me all alone?" I heard the voice of Absa beside me. Apparently, after we entered, only she walked inside the shop, and I disappeared. She must have been waiting for me, knowing that something must have happened to me when I went inside.
"So you got the thing you wanted, Where do we go next?" she asked.
"Sorry, Absa, but this is the end of my journey, and I absolutely cannot bring anyone else with me to where I'm going now," I explained.
"Oh, is that so... Then that means..." Absa trailed off, understanding dawning on her.
"Yes, this is truly goodbye," I said, looking at her face.
"Fine, it's about time I continue my journey for offerings from now then," she said, accepting my decision.
After bidding farewell to Absa one final time, she left with the carriage we had arrived in.
"Now that's out of the way," I muttered to myself, glancing around the street and the shop to ensure nobody was nearby. Hurriedly, I awkwardly placed the broom between my legs and thought about flying up. And In the next moment, I was soaring through the air with incredible speed towards the castle.
- - - - -
Through the windy air, I flew with a fast speed, the sights of the journey with Absa passing beneath me as I ascended higher into the sky.
"Grrr," I heard a rumbling sound and saw in the distance that there was something like a storm heading my way.
"I'm not getting lost again," I muttered to myself, carefully flying away from the area where the storm was forming.
After a while of flying, I caught sight of the familiar glimpse of the endless forest right in front of my eyes.