The Silly Alchemist

Very soon, the excitement from the thirteenth prince’s memory powers faded. The strength of a person’s memory can’t outweigh his other shortcomings after all.

Another incident replaced old news.

The thirteenth prince was at one of the most important phases of his life. What he was trained in now would determine how the rest of his life would unfold, if the ‘job’ he’d take would be an academician, an officer or something else.

Why ‘job’? That’s simple. The general consensus was that he wouldn’t take a job, nor would they let him take one. In short, he only needed something that sounded good. Basically, it was a matter of ‘face’, or reputation.

Obviously, this decision was made by his parents. It was a huge problem for Ye Chengtian and his wife. They were at a loss.

With his memory abilities, it wouldn’t be too difficult for him to become a knowledgable academician- though he might not be capable of telling people about what he knew.

Well, they didn’t need him to tell other people about what he knew. Thus, they hired a very famous academician to tutor the thirteenth prince.

And that was how peculiar things started to happen. After teaching him for a period of time, the academician immediately sent in a resignation notice, requesting them to hire another expert. His stated reason was: he wasn’t capable enough to teach the thirteenth prince.

In the beginning, the couple thought it was because the thirteenth prince was too slow and dumb to be taught, so the academician couldn’t help him. They decided to hire another tutor, this time also another famous academician.

This one lasted an even shorter time. It was on the third day when the academician made the same request, which was for the Ye family to hire another expert.

The next few didn’t stay long either, and the time period they stayed became shorter and shorter. The most recent one only lasted half a day. Looking terrified as if in a mental breakdown, he sputtered:

“Your son is a godsend prodigy, I can’t teach him. I’m afraid the only one who can teach him in this world is a god.”

Ye Chengtian and his wife began to suspect something. It didn’t matter how dumb their son was, these experts came in with full knowledge of his condition. They would’ve made necessary arrangements, and not resign within half a day!

Then again, based on regular circumstances, the academicians they hired should get more and more powerful, and bear with him for longer periods of time. Why was it the opposite?

Hence, with these confusions, Ye Chengtian and his wife went to coax the thirteenth prince. They wanted to know what happened between him and the tutors, why such peculiar things would happen.

They were shocked. When they got the answers, they immediately stopped considering hiring academicians, and at the same time stopped thinking of the thirteenth prince as only a fake academician.

…

“Thirteenth master, today we shall talk about the origin of this mainland. Before god, there was no life on this earth. When god came upon this world, He gave the earth life, and made us, the humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen and other intelligent life.”

“And among all these races, us humans are the closest to god because he modelled us after his own form. That is why among all the races, we are the wisest…”

While the academician was proudly describing the superiorities of his race, the thirteenth prince zoned out for a moment. He then expressed an opinion...

“Humans weren’t created by god, that’s just a legend. Humans evolved from apes, this is based on the Theory of Evolution.”

What was the Theory of Evolution? The academician didn’t want to know. He was in shock. The thirteenth prince questioned the presence of god! He immediately corrected the thirteenth prince.

However, when he was talking about how he couldn’t question the existence of god, the thirteenth prince raised a question once again. Why not? Have you seen god? Can you confirm the existence of god?

The academician immediately packed his bags and left. He was afraid that if he continued, he’d get dragged into trouble.

The next few academicians were met with similar circumstances. Once, the thirteenth prince claimed the world wasn’t flat but a sphere. Only the sphere was massive so you don’t feel it.

Also, he declared the sun was a giant star, a fireball, and we were only spinning around the sun. The sun wasn’t orbiting around us.

He said many things that argued against the existence of god. If the churches knew of this, he’d be interrogated by the pastors- even if it was just the ramblings of a child.

Therefore, after listening to him, the academicians would immediately leave so they wouldn’t get into trouble.

After Ye Chengtian and his wife knew of this, they changed their approach. They decided not to hire any academicians. If the thirteenth prince continued to spout these shocking theories, there would be trouble!

This left everyone baffled. “Chengtian, where do you think he learned these...Outrageous theories from? He’s never taken half a step out of the house!” Long Anqi was very puzzled. Due to her son being a little special, she’d never let him leave the Ye Residences so it was impossible for him to come into contact with these preposterous ideas.

“You’re right. Only a few servants and us have been taking care of him since young. And…” Ye Chengtian was puzzled too. As he spoke, he a possible candidate struck him.

“Ye Lanyu!!”

“What?” Little Lanyu look at her parents, confused. Realising her parents seemed a little angry, she tried to recall if she’d done anything wrong that day.

“You little troublemaker! It’s fine if you cause a little trouble here and there, but why did you feed your brother some nonsense ideas? You know he can’t differentiate between right and wrong! He’d believe whatever you say.”

“What?” Little Lanyu didn’t understand. Specifically, she was confused about: exactly which lie were they talking about?

Obviously, this wasn’t the first time she lied to her brother.

However, after she knew of the entire matter, she insisted…

“Dad! Mom! It really isn’t me!!”

Afterwards, the couple temporarily gave up on their education plans for him. Looks like they’d just let the thirteenth prince read his books alone to avoid other alarming opinions.

Since then, they’d gone out of their way to collect many books for him. They were of all kinds, but of course, none with ‘provoking’ ideas.

Since being an academician didn’t work out, it was time for him to try something else. He could try being a regional leader. This was something he had to do sooner or later anyway, although he might not have to personally do the job. The Ye family would have someone to assist him.