Chapter 20 –– Puffing

The next day, Moshe told me that he had something to do at his work. He told me to come with him because, again, his mother told him to.

We went to some kind of manufacturing factory with numerous labour workers working inside. Before entering, Moshe gave me some kind of suit for me to wear. This was oddly familiar to the experience I had back in Caninus Village.

The factory turned out to be Felixia Extraction Facility. Moshe worked there as one of the alchemists for the Research and Development department. I didn’t know both of my suitors were researchers. Huh. They finally got something in common.

After entering the factory, I saw tonnes of flower petals being processed through various machines. Starting from the original plant, the machine separated the flower petals from the stems and leaves. The flower petals were then gathered into a gigantic barrel. After a certain amount of flower petals filled the barrel, the barrel was closed in a tight-seal lid. A centrifuge machine then spun the flowers with extreme speed to the point that the flowers turned into mush and got emulsified. After that, the flowers were transferred to another machine that liquefies the emulsion by filtering it drop by drop. Once the liquid made from the extracted flowers filled a florence flask, it then got sterilised for it to be molded into shapes and packaged later on. Basically, these machines are used for extracting flowers. But what are those extracted flowers for?

“These flowers contain a high amount of gnox energy. By extracting them, we could create flower-powered engines, using batteries. That’s why we have a lot of flower fields, to cultivate them and extract them for our village’s energy supply.”

Ah, so that was why there was such an expansive flower field that we visited yesterday.

“Is that why you’re good at picking and arranging flowers?” I asked him.

“Haha.”

He smiled for the first fucking time. Damn. That was hella cute. I didn’t even intend to make a joke or make him laugh whatsoever, but for some reason he found it funny. Oh well. He really should smile more.

“Do you not have a gnox router here?” I asked Moshe.

Oh, right. I don’t know if that’s a classified information. Should I not have mentioned that?

“No, we don’t. It costs a lot to make and to maintain. Besides, we don’t have the technology to build it in the first place. I heard that Caninus Village has one and they’re currently making another one for another village, but we’re not interested,” Moshe answered proudly.

He seemed to have quite some pride in his own tribe. Despite not having as advanced technology for machinery as Caninus village, Moshe still made it sound like his tribe was better than theirs.

“Despite that, we have a lot of fertile soil and more advanced agricultural technology than them. Thus, instead of redirecting the gnox energy from the capital to our village, we use a different approach in getting more energy. Fundamentally, all living creatures creatures contain more gnox energy than inanimate objects such as minerals or ores. Out of everything–– except for people–– flowers contain the most gnox energy. And that is what we do here. We cultivate flowers and extract its gnox energy for our village’s needs.”

Whoa.....

That’s some really smart thinking.

No wonder these two villages were aiming for the first spot in the realm; they took technological development really seriously, unlike mine.

I didn’t even know the concept of gnox until just recently, and I am the Chieftain’s son. That meant that these two villages had a better education system than ours since they taught things that were beyond mere survival. I wish I was able to learn more about this when I was younger.

By the way, this was the first time I heard him speak more than 3 words. I guess he became more passionate when talking about work, huh.

After that, Moshe gave me a tour around the facility. He also showed me how the engine made from those extracted flowers was used. It was interesting how a flower could turn into something so compact and resourceful. No wonder they value flowers so much in this village to the point that they made it their tribe’s logo.

“Oh, Moshe! Who’s this?”

Moshe and I just came across someone who worked at the facility. He seemed to be his coworker.

“He’s my intended,” he answered nonchalantly.

“Hello, I’m Noam Dabau. Nice to meet you,” I awkwardly introduced myself.

“:O You’re mating!?!??!?” Moshe’s coworker replied in shock.

“Hope so.”

Ah, so he’s back to his usual less than 3-word type of reply.

“Well, good for you bro! He’s cute.”

Moshe’s coworker whispered to him but I could hear him loud and clear.

“Piss off,” Moshe said after knowing that he was messing with him.

I guess those two were more than just coworkers, huh. They seemed to be close friends.

“Noam, this is my coworker, Aaryn Namer,” Moshe finally introduced him to me.

Judging from his look, he must be a tiger. His striped tail reminded me of Amal, but with different colours.

“A.k.a, his step brother. He doesn't like to be called a step bro, though," Aaryn said while wrapping his arm around Moshe’s shoulder, a big brother type of gesture.

"We weren't until just recently," Moshe added.

I see. I didn't know Moshe had a step brother. I wonder why he didn't come to my village when Moshe first introduced himself.

After getting to know each other, someone called the two of them to help around the facility.

“I’ll be there soon.”

Moshe and Aaryn then left me to wander around the facility alone.

How awkward.

After returning to the manor, later that night when I was asleep, I heard some ruckus on the balcony. I immediately woke up to see who or what it was. After the life-threatening incident yesterday, I didn’t think I could ever put my guard down as long as I was in this village.

I tiptoed to the the window, trying not to make any sound. I peeked through the gap between the curtains to see who was behind the window on the balcony.

“Can’t sleep either?”

Turned out, it was just Moshe outside. I immediately put my guard down knowing it was him. Despite trying my best not to make any sound, he could still hear me. That was some amazing hearing right there.

“Yeah.”

Well, technically, he was the one who woke me up. I was sleeping soundly just now. But now that I'm awake, it doesn't feel right to just go back to sleep after starting a conversation like that.

“Come.”

He asked me to come closer to him. I walked towards the balcony and stood next to him.

The moment I stood next to him, I saw him sucking some kind of herb that’d been lit up on its tip. I didn’t know what that was since I’d never seen it before.

“What is that?” I asked him.

“It’s a puff.”

“What does it do?”

“Wanna find out?”

He then offered me his puff that he just stuck in his mouth. This felt like an indirect kiss, but I was not gonna make a big deal out of it.

“Cough cough!” I coughed the moment I inhaled the smoke.

It tasted almost like nothing but smoke, with some bitterness.

Since I didn’t want it anymore, I returned it to him.

“I don’t think I’m suited for this,” I told him.

“Everyone thought of that at first. Try it again.”

He picked up the puff from my finger and put it in my mouth. He then instructed me step by step on how to properly inhale it.

“Breathe in.”

I did as I was told and coughed again. See? I really was not suited for it.

“Not too fast. Slowly.”

I tried it again for the third time. This time, he put his paw on my stomach to make sure I controlled my breathing properly.

“Hold it in for a second.”

When I held the smoke inside after inhaling it, it felt like it went straight to my lungs. It felt weird.

“Breathe out slowly.”

I slowly exhaled the smoke out. Wow. I immediately felt calmer for some reason after just one puff.

“This calms you down, huh,” I muttered, mesmerized by the stuff.

We didn’t have it back in my village, so it was interesting to know what people could do with herbs and stuff.

I tried puffing some more. It was more addictive than I expected. After a few more puffs, the puff became so short that I used it all up so fast.

“Can I have more?” I asked.

“No. You’ll get addicted,” he said.

Ah. I knew it. This stuff was addictive. Thankfully he stopped me from puffing more, otherwise I would get into an addiction problem.

“What makes you do this? What are you thinking?” I asked him.

“Just life.”

He just continued puffing while staring at the soil ceiling above. I could feel that he still didn’t want to open up to me. Well, that was understandable. We only started talking for around 2 days, so he probably needed more time before he could tell me things.

“You should get back to sleep.”

“What about you?”

Even though he still had some puff left, he extinguished it and threw it to the bin. He then patted my head and slightly smiled at me. I blushed the moment his paw came in contact with my hair. He then left me and returned to his room, without saying a single word.