092 Reckless Experiment

Ever since she obtained the Blue Hawk, Teressa had resumed her classes at Saint Alverta Academy. Though she could not summon the least enthusiasm for such ladylike instruction, attending Saint Alverta had been her mother Renee Brento’s arrangement, and she would not go against her mother’s wishes. So, despite being busy and frequently taking leave now and then, she still did not fall behind in her studies there, and even earned an excellent top mark in history.

Yet resuming classes was one thing; actually sitting through them was another. It did not mean she was really listening. As now, on the platform, a teacher was expounding learned references with sparkling eloquence, while in the student seats below, Teressa rested her chin in her hand and stared blankly ahead. She seemed to be daydreaming, but in truth she was listening intently to another voice in her mind.

“Water-line alchemical sigils are the gentlest, and they place the least demand on the alchemist. They are the best kind for beginners to master. Ah, don’t ask me what a sigil is. It isn’t in the notes, and Master never told me. If you want to know, look it up yourself. In any case, it’s something different from the magical characters you use now. Don’t interrupt! Let me finish—uh, where was I?” The spirit of the book spoke directly into her mind, clear and plain.

“Water-line alchemical sigils are the foundation,” Teressa reminded it.

“Yes, the foundation. Why is it called the foundation? Aside from its mild nature and low backlash damage, the most important reason is that it has excellent compatibility! Alchemy, alchemy—what is alchemy? Nothing more than materials, design, and processing. Among these, processing skill is closely tied to the alchemist’s spiritual power and their ability to control it with fine precision. Only with the proper processing skill can one handle the corresponding materials, and only then is there greater room for design. From this it follows that spiritual power is the very root of an alchemist!”

Teressa listened with a solemn expression, and her gaze gradually sharpened, though that focus was turned inward rather than outward.

“Of course, although spiritual power is important, the other two are equally indispensable. In particular, the design process of alchemy is the soul of the whole craft. A good alchemist often has an excellent alchemical design; even if it is the same formula, placed in the hands of different alchemists, the result is often entirely different. The reason we begin our study of alchemy with the water line is, fundamentally, because the water line has such excellent compatibility... or rather, the nature of water is compatibility. All sigils and arrays related to compatibility belong to the water line.”

“Ling, you’ve emphasized compatibility over and over. What exactly is it?” Teressa could not help asking.

“Well... to put it simply, it means it can do anything,” the spirit of the book replied, and there seemed even to be a trace of confusion in its voice. After a few silent seconds, it rallied its strength and went on. “This time, the dual recovery potion achieved balance through the compatibility of water.”

Through this example, Teressa finally gained some intuitive understanding, and could not help falling into thought.

Seeing her grasp the idea, the spirit of the book became more and more animated in its speech, pouring out a torrent of knowledge in one gush, until Teressa felt as though she were being driven between ecstasy and despair.

“Tes. What are you daydreaming about? Class is over, and you still aren’t leaving?” Benita shoved her hard, finally rousing Teressa from her reverie. Teressa sat dazed for a while before coming back to herself. This showed just how deeply she had been absorbed.

Still muttering to herself, Teressa stared at Benita foolishly for a moment, then lowered her head again. Her hand moved quickly, and before long a strange pattern had appeared on the page.

That seemed to be only the beginning. What happened next nearly gave Benita a fright.

One after another, Teressa took alchemical tools and materials from her spatial equipment, and actually began working right there in the classroom, which by then was completely empty save for Teressa and Benita.

Material after material seemed to appear by magic in Teressa’s hands, only to be processed and fed into various pieces of alchemical equipment. In the blink of an eye, Teressa had set out three magical crucibles on the desk. Though no fire burned beneath them, each crucible still held a different liquid at a rolling boil, while Teressa’s hands moved swiftly, continuing to break down the various materials.

So intent on her alchemical experiment was Teressa, and so captivated was Benita by the spectacle, that neither noticed a pair of keen, interested eyes not far outside the classroom, taking in every movement Teressa made.

...

With a tremendous blast, a classroom in the northwest corner of Saint Alverta Academy suddenly flared with fire and roiling smoke. The commotion sent countless students into panic, though fortunately there were not many attending class in this teaching district, and the teachers handled the evacuation effectively. In the end, no trampling disaster occurred. Amid wave after wave of fleeing students, apparently no one noticed two unremarkable little girls desperately wiping a peculiar black-and-blue stain from their faces with tissues.

Teressa and Benita were swept along by the fleeing crowd and quickly reached the lawn. Before they could even steady themselves, they heard cries in the crowd that someone had gone to put out the fire. Instinctively, the two turned back toward the still-smoking scene. There they saw a column of water skillfully plunging into the blaze, suppressing the flames in only a few moves. At the same time, a sudden wind, its source unknown, whipped the thick black smoke upward until it vanished into the clear sky.

With the smoke gone, everyone finally saw the person fighting the fire. It was a seductive half-elf in red, her magic as obedient as a toy in her hands. Under her command, her exquisite skill and composed bearing made many young girls swoon at once.

Amid the crowd’s excited discussion, her identity was soon revealed: Professor Felina, head of the Department of History, a half-elf who had taught at Saint Alverta Academy for thirteen years. Outgoing in temperament, she was one of the academy’s most beloved teachers.

Not long after the smoke dispersed, the fire was completely suppressed. Though the building had suffered the ravages of fire, smoke, and water, nothing unusual showed from the outside—at most, there were only streaks of water.

After Felina had brought the situation under control, she turned to the girls who had been evacuated onto the lawn and, using a spell of amplification, said, “The fire has been extinguished. Since everyone has been frightened, today’s class will be suspended for now. Go back and rest. As for the cause of the fire... the academy will investigate thoroughly.”

Her voice was not loud, but it was gentle and tender, and anyone who heard it could not help feeling soothed, naturally inclined to do as she said. Yet perhaps because Teressa felt guilty, when Felina mentioned the cause of the fire, Teressa thought she paused ever so slightly—and that her gaze seemed to land on her, perhaps intentionally.

Having finished speaking, Felina turned and headed for the teaching building, presumably to inspect the scene. The girls chattered noisily among themselves, while Teressa and Benita exchanged a glance, both feeling somewhat guilty and embarrassed. Then, side by side, they hurriedly left the place. Only after the two had ridden out of the academy some distance away did Benita ask uneasily, “Will the academy find out it was us?”

Teressa thought about it for a while, and in the end said like a true rogue, “Let them investigate. If they really find out, just say I was alone in the classroom and you weren’t there. Anyway, this mess was the result of my own carelessness... Ah, honestly, I’ve been working on an ancient formula lately and gotten a little obsessed. To think I’d make such a foolish mistake!”

As she spoke, Teressa kept banging her own head in annoyance. She had truly become so absorbed in the spirit of the book’s explanation that, for a moment, she forgot where she was and assumed she was in the alchemy room at home, which led to this blunder.

Benita, however, did not buy her explanation. She gave Teressa a sidelong look and said, “You want me to be invisible, but I won’t agree to that. If I hadn’t seen the fire start and, in my panic, poured water into the pot, it wouldn’t have caused such an explosion. Speaking of which, I poured water and the flames got bigger—why did Professor Felina use water and put the fire out instead?”

“Water and fire can restrain each other, but they can also give rise to one another,” Teressa said carelessly, as though pondering some other problem. “There was already a quality in those alchemical materials that could draw on water as fuel. If the water was too weak, it couldn’t suppress the flames; instead it would be drawn into the fire-bearing material and make the blaze even fiercer. Only when the water was strong enough to fully suppress the space in which the flames could burn, dousing them all at once so they could not ignite again, could the fire be extinguished... Ah, I know where I went wrong!”

As she explained herself, Teressa suddenly seized Benita’s sleeve, leaning toward her with great excitement. Not caring that they were still on horseback, she rattled off a long string of alchemical theories, leaving Benita utterly bewildered and seeing stars.

...

South of Valienta City, in a quiet three-courtyard manor, two young men stood before a stone gate, looking at one another.

“Still no reply from the master?” asked Kiri.

Angel shook his head. “It’s already the third day since the message went in, and there’s still no reply. It seems the treatment has already entered the second course, and he can’t move lightly.”

“Tsk, that’s really bad...” Kiri had always worn a smile, but even he could not help looking troubled now. “The second course can last as little as one or two years, or as long as six or seven... We can’t just keep waiting like this. What should we do?”

Angel twirled a blue-green leaf between his fingers, his expression shifting with thought. After a moment, he lifted his eyes and said, “Report to the clan first. After all, the master’s bloodline is thin; even a possibility cannot be taken lightly. At the same time, contact the empire’s liaison station—what city is that young lady in again?”

“Sevan... Sevan what was it?” Kiri looked up at the sky in thought.

“Sevantis?” Angel, reminded by him, recalled it at once. “Why does that name sound so familiar?”

“Yes, very familiar...” Kiri also sank into thought. Before long, he brought his fist to his palm and suddenly exclaimed, “Ah! I remember now. The Morrow Teacher happens to be there!”