The Reincarnated Villainous Young Master's Guide to Happiness

Chapter 17: Emblem

Gods, he missed them a great deal.

Every world and time period has its own rules and laws to live by. Here, he was served everywhere he went, either by Rainier or other servants. The son of a duke, bastard or not, did not have chores.

It wasn't a bad way to live, per se.

He should be grateful the magic here allowed for functional toilets. It could have been worse. He could have traveled to another world with no running water or an irrigation system.

It was just...

Well, he was just feeling a little homesick.

Which was why he made dandelion syrup.

The season was right.

In his childhood memories with his Ma and Pa, dandelions were abundant in the garden. Every spring, the three of them would make dandelion syrup together. The jars would last them until late summer.

Neo held the clay pot to his chest as if it were more precious than gold.

He intended for the syrup to be used for tea. Aurelion seemed to like the spice-orchid extract he had leftover after he separated the spice from the flowers—he had only needed the flower petals.

Perhaps his brother might also enjoy something new.

As a matter of fact, the dandelion syrup also came from leftover parts he didn't need. The roots and stems were what he wanted, so the yellow heads were made into something sweet for himself

The syrup was a combination of Everfree Birch sap and the dandelions he personally grew in his office. The taste was close to the ones he made every summer, but the sap gave it too strong of a fragrance.

Unfortunately, raw cane sugar was a rare import. All the sweets made in the ducal were usually from honey or sap. There were the occasional sugar beets if the season was right, but the processing from beet to sugar took longer time and effort, so sugar beets were saved for the winter.

It wasn't like the modern world. Here, there were no supermarkets with an abundant amount of baking supplies.

Neo and Rainier arrived at Neo's office.

Rainier waited by the door when they stepped inside.

The long table across the room, adjacent to the desk used solely for paperwork, was the workspace Neo set up for his personal research.

It was littered with papers and pens and the occasional jars of herbal ingredients and plants. Neo had a bucket at the foot of the table with dirty bowls and mortars soaking in soapy water.

He cleared a space for himself and brought out a balance scale.

Once the balance scale was placed down, he pulled out all the painstakingly prepared ingredients, one after another, from his shelves and meticulously measured them on the balance, writing down the weight of each ingredient and putting them in a silver bowl.

When he finished, he lit a heating talisman under the bowl and poured a cup of water into it.

The room soon filled with the distinctive smell of herbal medicine—bitter and strange.

---

Rainier had no idea what the Young Master was doing—and frankly, he didn't want to know.

The last time he found himself standing in a room smelling like an apothecary, he was given a tattoo on his face for shits and giggles.

The servant couldn't help the clammy feeling on his hands.