Brewing Love and Casting Lies

Chapter 6

TW: Karen, Yelling, Discrimination, Anxiety

Janus was in his office, a vampire in front of him. They were requesting a potion to give their mermaid girlfriend so they could have legs instead of a tail for a few hours. It wasn't a very hard potion to brew, but Janus didn't get a lot of customers requesting it, mostly because there was another shop much like his a little closer to the pier so people would often just get the potion from that shop.'Shells and Spells' that was the name of the shop.

Janus had been there a few times, he made it a point to see who he was competing against. Well, it wasn't really a competition. Both shops were successful, Janus's because of how it had quickly gained popularity and the 'Shells and Spells' for the exact opposite reason. it was an older, family-owned shop that had stood there for over a hundred years. Both shop owners were known for being talented and good at what they do.

Janus's shop was slightly more successful. When he had met the owner of the other shop the old man had made a comment about it being because he was younger and had more energy. His wife had added something about him not having experience but the natural talent was working just fine for him. Janus had nearly rolled his eyes, if only they knew just how much experience he had.

Just because it had been gathered quickly and dangerously didn't mean it wasn't experience. Experience was experience, it doesn't matter how he had gathered it or at what pace he had done so.

Still, though the shop by the pier was his biggest competitor neither of them really got in each other's way. They were far enough away from each other that, for the most part, their customers would just go to whichever is closer. Neither of them participated in foul play against other shops. The other shop mostly because the older couple was to kind for that. Janus mostly because he was better than that, he didn't have time for that, he was more mature than that.

Janus hummed slightly as he flipped through a spellbook on his desk. His customer was sitting across from him on one of the two wooden chairs on the other side of the desk. A red couch sat behind those chairs pushed up against the wall underneath the window that, if not for the currently closed curtains, would show into the hall.

The two could hear a loud voice coming from the front of the shop but both ignored it, some people just didn't know how to talk quietly. Normally you wouldn't be able to hear anything from the rest of the building if the door to the office was closed, which it was, but that was unfortunately not the case at the moment. "Alright, how long did you say you wanted this potion to last?"

"Uh, eight hours," the vampire said.

"I'll give you nine, in case your plans take longer then you intend," Janus said, he stood up and made his way to one of the bookcases in the room. Bottles and boxes had been not so neatly placed on the shelves and he quickly began searching for the materials he needed as the vampire thanked him. "Does your girlfriend have any allergies?"

"Yes, she's-"

"Are you serious?! Do you think I was born yesterday?!-" the voice from the front of the shop yelled. They had been yelling for a while now, and before that, it had been loud laughter while they very loudly spoke to somebody else who had thankfully known how to speak at an appropriate volume. The voice stopped for a moment when it spoke again it wasn't as loud.

Janus gestured for the other person in the room to continue, "Uhm... frog, and she doesn't eat fish"

So that was why they came here. 'Shells and Spells' often used fish in their products. "Do you know how she reacts to dragon-root? Not everybody's bodies can digest it right"

"Uhm... no, I don't sorry"

"That's fine. We'll just use a substitute instead. Any other restrictions you'd like to put in place?"