The Silly Alchemist

With just a step in the alchemy academy, you could quickly tell that this was a very different environment compared to the other academies. This had nothing to do with the interior or architectural design, as all buildings and gardens in the Royal Institute of Education shared a strict uniform design. 

Instead, the similarity in architecture was what made the difference even more obvious.  

The popularity of the alchemy academy was a far cry from the other academies. In the other academies, students and academic staffs were bustling with liveliness everywhere, on the other hand, the alchemy academy felt quieter and colder. It was hard to come by a person or two in the corridors. 

The measly number of enrolled students gave the alchemy academy an illusion that it was the biggest building in the compound. In reality, they had the smallest building!

The total number of alchemy students in the Royal Institute of Education did not even reach a hundred people, they had only two classes. Alchemy wasn’t a popular course, and students here were all of aristocratic backgrounds. Not many were interested in it as the course was not highly regarded in the eyes of the general public.

This academy had one special characteristic though- the number of teachers exceeded the number of students. Alchemy resources were very expensive, unaffordable to regular citizens. It was understandable that the teachers were here for their resources, because this was the only chance they had to prove themselves worthy alchemists.

The royal institute had also a liking towards teachers like this. Those who were prominent enough would be promoted to become royal alchemists. Such opportunities were not limited to only the teachers, but also the students. 

This was the reason why the Alchemy Academy always had someone new to break its records as the oldest student or with the longest academic duration. 

Freshmen like the thirteenth prince wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet such students as they were constantly studying in the laboratory anyway.

Ye Lang was enrolled in the only freshman class in the academy. There were a total of twenty-one students, and out of them were nine female students. This was the highest number of female students enrolled here in history! 

Within the compounds of the Royal Institute of Education, the magic academy had the most female students followed by martial arts while the alchemy academy had the least number. It was mind-boggling that the total number of alchemy students was fewer than the number of female students of a class in the Magic Academy. 

The girls in his class were very different from one another. Zhen Xiaoyan, one of them, was a rather big girl. 

Then there were also pretty girls, Sha Lan who had silky blonde hair and gleaming blue eyes was one of them. She was destined to grow into a gorgeous lady in the future. 

The other girls in the class were sophisticated aristocrat ladies, they dressed and presented themselves well. That wasn’t the case for Zhen Xiaoyan. 

Though so, the thirteenth prince liked Zhen Xiaoyan more than the other girls. She never chased him down nor had she ever threatened to beat him up. To be really honest, it wasn’t that she never had the thought, but it was that she knew she couldn’t run fast enough to catch up to him. Once again, Ye Lang was blissfully unaware of that. 

As soon as the thirteenth prince and Tigress step into the classroom, the once lively classroom fell silent. All his classmates had stared hard at him, eyes following him as he slowly went to his seat. 

“Yikes…”

Everyone within his close radius had instantly stood up and moved to the other end of the classroom, they tried their best to keep the most distance away from him. Then, they started to chatter away again. There was a heated discussion. 

The thirteenth prince did not respond to such a scene. He proceeded to bend down and took out his alchemy textbook. Everyone was relieved to see that it was a book in his hand. However, they remained wary, afraid of what would come next. 

Since it was a book, everyone had deemed it safe enough to ignore him. Everyone knew that he was the quietest when he was reading, he rarely moved when he had a book so everyone went about their own businesses. 

The thirteenth prince never engaged himself in classroom chit-chats or discussions. One reason was that his language ability was still lacking. The other reason was that his thoughts and ideas were so weird that people found it hard to agree with, hence all discussion would cease. 

Class started soon after that. The class teacher entered through the doors and started to go about his regular teaching regime of the day. Students of this academy were allowed to approach any teachers to become their mentees, however, there would be one main teacher in charge of their academics. And not all students had mentors. 

Some students were unable to find a suitable mentor. Some experienced mentors were unapproachable and cold- they wouldn’t simply accept any regular students, and had their own requirements. Mentors like this were definitely out of question for students like Ye Lang. 

If Ye Lang was purely a slow learner, they would definitely agree to be his mentor. This would allow them to have ties to the Ye family and they would be able to obtain free resources for their own use. This alone should be attractive enough to them as it was their main goal of coming to the academy in the first place. 

However, the problem was that the thirteenth prince’s alchemy abilities were very odd and basically inexplicable. No one was able to provide proper guidance to the young aristocrat, no one had dared to be his mentor. 

“The two most important things in alchemy are the alchemy formulas and alchemy formations. These are precious pieces of knowledge we inherited from our alchemy forefathers. We must be familiar with these to honour their sacrifices,” explained the teacher.

“Alchemy formulas can be really challenging to master, as it is a very complicated subject. Outcomes can vary, therefore you must experiment and learn through trial and error. Comparatively, alchemy formations are much easier to understand as they are combinations of basic formations. From its nature, we can differentiate formations into two distinct types, which are conversion formations and smelting formations. From the outcomes, we can also categorize them as offensive, defensive or recovery.” 

“Conversion formations are mainly used to change a substance’s shape or state. It is rather simple to achieve. On the other hand, alchemy formations are able to combine two or more different substances into a new substance. Different composition of formation will bring about different outcomes, you need to try it out yourself. Practice is key.” 

As the teacher went on, the students were mouthing his speech in sync from their seats, as if they had memorized everything. 

“I repeat this every day because I hope you future alchemists understand the importance of having a strong foundation in alchemy basics. You need to study hard and memorise all of the basics, only then with a strong foundation you are able to experiment more and reach the highest peak of alchemy. Maybe one day, when you look back, you’ll notice that the basics you deemed useless were the keys to solve your problems,” preached the teacher. 

He was aware of the reactions of his students, he knew they were bored out of their minds but he never stopped narrating the same old prologue over and over again every single day. It had even become a habit of his. 

What amazing perseverance!