Master and Apprentices: Rise of the Cheat Potion Maker #2
Master and Apprentices: Interlude 3

Phase 4…

Alexander stared at the scroll containing the top one hundred shops in the world. He adjusted his monocle before getting annoyed with the damn thing and tossing it back onto the stand. The former magic-toting, vulgar pirate king, couldn’t help but feel the pain of being stuck as a law-abiding noble forced to sell items for an eternity. If it weren’t for his prolonged life due to being a magician, he’d die of old age eventually, sooner than later, allowing him to break free from this life.

Instead, he had the body of a ten-year-old boy.

“Reincarnation is a bitch,” he said softly, remembering the betrayal of his first mate those years ago.

He seemed like a genius to his irritating family to the point that he desperately wanted to escape. If the family were simply overly happy and proud of their child, Alexander would have no problems. But the customs of this noble family lodged in the Kingdom of Cremlin were strange to say the least. The most alarming was the forced marriage of his bloody big sister. To make matters even worse, he learned that his family was part of a crazy demonic cult.

If Alexander couldn’t get the hell away from this place before he turned fifteen, the initiation would begin. Among that ritual was something called the Procreation of Life. A public thing too.

Alexander may have been a pirate king in a different life, but being born again, interacting with his new blood family, took him on the path of complacency.

He considered trying to sabotage his own shop, but the importance of it to his kingdom tossed away that idea. The War King would hunt him down without rest and publicly execute him.

The only choice he had left was to cultivate as much mana as possible. As a magician, Alexander could escape, though he had no idea where to go. Maybe to the neighboring kingdom of Merridon.

He’d love to return to his crew, but they’d likely make Alexander a cleaning boy and ridicule him for daring to claim to be Yomi the Pirate King. Any hope to assassinate his former first mate was also out the window for now.

If that sneaky storm magician could trick Yomi into letting his guard down, then it was more than likely the current crew consisted of the most ruthless pirates on the ocean, followed him like little puppies.

The humiliation of being poisoned was one thing. But his first mate called a sea dragon to attack the ship, arranging it to make it look as if Alexander made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the lives of his crew.

He was sure the storm mage easily dispatched his wife too, the only person who never liked him.

Now Alexander knew why. Her instincts to not trust his childhood friend were spot on.

The question remained was why his former first mate, former best friend, who do such a thing. If he wanted to take command of the ship, Alexander would’ve just given him control, choosing to maintain his responsibilities in the shadows. With a wife, he had a path to retirement someday, though they were in their twenties back then. Ten years passed… and ultimately, Alexander knew he had to let the past go.

Many people died unfairly and, unable to accept things, came back to the lands as vengeful ghosts with no one to listen to them tell their tale.

Alexander reincarnating and so fast was not only fortunate, but a little concerning. What did this mean? Why did Wanda not condemn him? Why wasn’t he a vengeful ghost himself, haunting the ship or oceans?

His mind wandered back to the Kingdom of Merridon. This wasn’t the first time his eyes were drawn to that spot on the map, but it was only a couple of months ago that it began to call to the boy.

Well, it was either replace a way there or be forced to marry his big sister, participate in a loony ritual, and live a life of secret shame as a demonic cult member. He absolutely refused.

When he stepped off the standing stool, planning to go outside for some fresh air, arms pulled him into someone’s chest.

“Ah, there you are, my future husband,” said the sixteen-year-old.

“I didn’t agree to this,” Alexander wanted to say, but knew the ‘blasphemous’ words would anger his father. The only thing he could do was sigh in relief that he only entered the cult himself a few years ago. Alexander’s mother wasn’t his father’s sister. But he failed to understand why his father got a free pass. This was horse dung!

Alexander, owner of the number two shop in the world, former pirate king, would escape this hell, even if it killed him.