"... Love potion, pig transformation potion, eternal sleep potion—"
"Mark it."
"Gallant smile potion, Happily Ever After potion—"
"Mark... Ahem... both of them..."
"Ok, boss. Let me see where I left off... here. Sad face potion, Unhappily Ever After potion—"
"What does it do?"
"Uhmm... it says it makes the couple feel nauseous when they see each other. Flatulence may be involved if they're too close."
"Oh? Ok, continue."
"Are you going to separate that one, boss?" asked the huge leprechaun — eight feet tall, with imposing muscles — to the little orange cat by his side, who didn't even reach his knee.
The leprechaun wore green, had a four-leaf clover pinned to the black buckle of his hat, and his hairy, muscular chest was visible through his half-open vest. In his large mouth, a small golden pipe rested.
But the strange thing was that although he was enormous, his voice was high-pitched and nasal, as if he had inhaled a helium balloon.
"No, leave it with the others in my private vault." The cat, obviously our old friend Puss, waved his paw as he walked through the factory, analyzing the information.
The factory was busy, with several men whose only similarity was the golden claw embroidery on their chests, the same one the huge leprechaun wore, moving non-stop—carrying items, reading papers, and sorting documents.
Besides them, there were several kingdom guards escorting small people in chemical suits, and elves with goatees who looked very much alike, though there were some without goatees who looked different.
Puss made an extra effort and truly remembered that the elves in the movies also had differences among them, even if some were nearly identical, and reality wasn't much different.
And although they weren't the beautiful elves from The Lord of the Rings or other media, none of them were ugly—in fact, they were rather handsome in real life. So they weren't staining Puss's memory of elves too much.
"Remember to conduct a thorough investigation of these people. I want them running the factory for me, but I don't want anyone still loyal to the Fairy Godmother messing with potions that me or my people might consume in the future. At the same time, for those we keep, make them taste the benefits of following us, while also reminding them of the consequences of betrayal."
Puss ordered Lucky, the enormous leprechaun who stood by his side, as he watched the former factory staff walk by.
"Yes, boss." The huge man's high-pitched nasal voice rang out.
"Another thing. I'll send a letter to the Comandante's Cousin, asking him to send a trusted manager to oversee the factory. For now, I'll have to leave this extra job to you until he arrives. Is that a problem, Lucky?" the cat, walking with his hands behind his back while inspecting the factory, asked, looking at the loyal GoldenClaw bank manager from the Far Far Away branch.
Puss didn't know all the managers, but in the 15 years he had lived in this world, he had cultivated his circle of trusted people—and Lucky was one of them.
Being one of his most loyal men, he placed him in the strategic position of branch manager in this magical city.
It all began when he captured Lucky, who at the time was just a mischievous little leprechaun passing through his town. But instead of demanding his precious, hard-earned pot of gold—which nearly brought the poor magical being to tears at the thought of losing it—Puss asked him to work for him, promising many more pots of gold in return.
Thus began an incredible cooperation, and over time, Lucky developed a strong loyalty to Puss.
Lucky was shrewd and had a sharp sense for business, which made him an excellent manager. Handling gold all day long, he couldn't have been happier.
Later, Puss somehow became his idol, and Lucky also began physical training to imitate him, growing from not much taller than Puss into this giant 8-foot-tall monster of pure muscle.
For some reason, the orange cat eyed him suspiciously, feeling that this guy must have taken some kind of special juice to grow like that.
"No problem, boss, it's not that much extra work. I'll get things in the factory organized as quickly as possible. Although without the Fairy Godmother, production and creation of new potions will likely fall a lot, with the qualified staff she left behind, keeping the factory running shouldn't be a problem." Lucky waved and skimmed through the documents he was holding, which looked small compared to his huge muscular body
"Good." Puss nodded and motioned for him to continue.
"Ah, yes, almost forgot. Boss, the potions that will be produced—will they be sold?" Lucky remembered an important point and asked.
"Well, certain special potions that could be useful for our people cannot be sold to outsiders—we'll discuss later which ones fit into that category. As for the ones we can commercialize, see if there are any for hair growth, teeth cleaning, fever curing, or other illnesses—public utility stuff, you know? Those you can mass-produce and try to sell, they should bring in good money. And leave room for innovation in the factory—never stop innovating."
Puss ordered, and Lucky immediately wrote everything down, impressed.
"Let's continue with the potions."
"Yes, boss! Err... cat ears potion—"
"Ahem! I'll take those, next."
...
After finishing the full analysis of the potion stock and storing several that impressed him inside his frog pouch, Puss departed once he saw that everything was going smoothly.
Riding Tornado, he quickly galloped toward the royal city of Far Far Away.
On the way, he asked the horse to slow down a little and pulled out a pink potion from his frog, looking at it carefully.
That was a potion he had found in a secret vault in the Fairy Godmother's office, whose combination he had discovered using his sharp hearing. Inside, besides money, some documents, and incriminating evidence the Fairy Godmother had against others, there was this pink potion.
On the front, written on the label, was something that deeply impressed Puss.
[ Resurrection Potion. ]
[ Use within an hour, no more delay, and death itself is held at bay.]
He took a deep breath when he first saw it, and after reading it again now, making sure it truly was what it claimed to be, he carefully stored it back in his frog.
That potion was far too precious, and not even the Fairy Godmother should be able to make more, otherwise it wouldn't have been so well hidden in her personal vault.
And Puss also valued that potion greatly—not because of himself, since he already had nine lives—but because of the people he loved, who only had one.
Taking a deep breath, he ordered Tornado to gallop at full speed again.
His pouch was carrying dozens of extra potions, but fortunately, with Aurora's powerful Dragon Scale and Vivianne's great talent in crafting magical artifacts, she had quickly upgraded Puss's pouch from a useful corpse into a true magical instrument.
Now the size of the frog pouch expanded 50 times less in proportion to what it consumed, which was even better than the previous 10 times. The weight reduction had also been enhanced, decreasing the weight of everything inside by 500 times instead of the original 100 times.
Thus, the frog had been improved fivefold, which left Puss very satisfied. Besides that, now it worked by intent, only spitting out what was commanded, so it was no longer necessary to tie its mouth shut.
Placing things inside the frog's stomach had also become much easier that way.
Finally, since Aurora's great treasure and Fiona's various belongings had made the frog very large and heavy, Puss had taken the last few days to unload those things in his bank, opening accounts and a vault for each of the two women, thus emptying his frog.
As he sped toward the city, he began to ponder his tasks.
'With the Fairy Godmother dealt with, Fiona and Aurora can walk freely in the streets. Even though Charming still needs to be handled—after all, I don't want him starting a villains' insurrection and freeing the Fairy Godmother—he himself is not a major problem, just a playboy without much skill.'
'I should also learn artifact crafting with Vivianne, and try to study magic with Merlin. Later, I can attempt to learn potion-making with the factory workers, once I've mastered the first two and already have a solid foundation.'
'There's much to do, but I can't stay here for too long...'
'One year. In one year I'll learn as much as I can, and then I'll return to San Ricardo to see how things are. I can't run away forever.'
With a determined look, he saw the city gate ahead and entered.
Now that he had plans, he had a direction.