CHAPTER 78: ALCHEMY TEST

"Ok, let’s all have a small alchemy test in pairs," Rosaline announces as she starts to form the teams.

My partner will be Tsubasa Watanabe. I’m not very happy about that, he and Hana are a couple of fucking sociopaths.

"Looks like we’re a team," he says as he comes to my desk and sits next to me, since Riko went to sit with her partner, the princess.

"Yes," I respond dryly as Rosaline goes from desk to desk handing out materials, then she gives the explanation.

"What you need to do is create an alchemy formula that produces a gold nugget. The handouts and tables I’ve given you show what you need to do and the step-by-step process."

"However, I’ve provided various materials because each of you can decide to customize your alchemy formula, so the most efficient magic circles will receive extra credit."

"Professor, then why is it in pairs?" Celeste asks, raising her hand.

"Because it will be more difficult for you that way, after all, the two of you will have to reach a consensus on what to do."

"Now you can start, you have 1 hour, and both of you must work together." Soon, several students start reading and choosing a material to make the magic circle.

But students like me, Celeste, and Evangeline are looking at the mana conductivity of each material.

’None of this is any good.’ We have some minerals, some different types of powders, and what was the least chosen, a knife to carve the wood.

"What do you think we should do, Pandora? I’ll follow your advice," Tsubasa says.

"Professor, am I limited to using what was handed out?" I ask.

"No, but you can’t use purchased items," she replies while turning her attention to other teams.

"Okay, Tsubasa, then start carving a magic circle base on the table." Naturally, carving on wood has the lowest conductivity, and some murmurs arise here and there.

Neither Celeste nor Evangeline chose this, the two of them chose materials and started working with their partners.

However, since the table was also allowed, it can serve as a material.

"Okay, Pandora," he soon starts carving carefully, while I start thinking about how to make this alchemy formula as efficient as possible.

Soon I cough up blood, I quickly clean it and go back to thinking, completely ignoring this fact.

’Blood... that’s it.’ My blood is a perfect magical conductor, especially since I’m a monster.

"Please give me the knife," I tell Tsubasa after he’s drawn the base of the circle. I soon hold the blade of the knife and squeeze it, cutting my hand, and some students are surprised as my blood flows and begins to fill the magic circle.

Soon the base is perfect, I use mana to finish it.

’It looks good.’ Its magical conductivity is much superior to most students.

My hand soon regenerates, I clean the knife with magic and start making new patterns to customize the type based on what I’ve read.

But I change the formula to better suit me and Tsubasa, after all, he also needs to use this magic circle.

"You’re quite daring, you know?" Tsubasa says to me while I’m drawing the magic circle.

"I prefer the term efficient," it’s not like a small injury like this is really a problem, it didn’t even hurt.

"Now start separating those minerals and putting them in order on the 4 corners of the magic circle." He obeys me as he starts doing what was asked, the minerals are quickly absorbed.

I did it this way so that he could generate a new mineral using the old ones to reduce the total cost.

"It looks really good," Tsubasa praises me, his falseness is touching.

Of course it’s good, after all, I’m the one doing it. I based this new one on the one the saint made to generate a little stone, and then I modified it in various aspects.

Now it should be capable of generating a gold piece the size of a fist.

"Now put your mana, Tsubasa," I say as I wait, he soon starts doing his part, at least he’s not as talkative as Kaito or Yuki.

Quickly, a gold stone the size of his fist is formed in the magic circle, so our "team" work wasn’t that difficult, but it alone consumed half of my mana.

And for other students, it practically drained their mana, the lack of experience is obvious.

Alchemy has a very high price, that’s why alchemists are so valuable, it takes them a long time to reach great abilities in alchemy.

Soon the saint comes to us and looks at the magic circle, she evaluates it and writes some things down, only to leave afterwards.

Meanwhile, he and I can only talk, he soon starts the conversation.

"So... what you did to save everyone in the dungeon was amazing."

"I just did what was my duty," I say dryly.

"Hahaha, so modest, but it really was incredible."

’What will his color be?’ I usually don’t look at people’s colors, it’s like that thing about reading minds, if you just keep reading people’s minds, you’ll just get disappointed, so I only look at the colors when it’s really necessary.

Besides, there are colors that are ugly, while others are beautiful, so to maintain the beauty of the colors, I only look when I deem it necessary.

Soon I start looking at his colors.

’Turquoise... beige... cyan... red?’ He displays 4 colors, now out of these 4, I have no idea what beige, cyan, and red are.

’Red would be anger? But the Crimson color is vibrant and wild, while this red is more soft.’ I have no idea what red is, it doesn’t seem like a negative feeling.

’And what is beige and cyan... no, I think I know what beige is, maybe it’s when they feel comfortable.’ I deduce this based on the maids in the castle, Shogo and Elena.

’But cyan and red are things I don’t know...’ They are quite rare patterns that I almost never see, red is completely new, while cyan I’ve seen a few times.

’It can’t be anger, if he’s comfortable with me, he can’t be feeling anger.’

’To begin with, is this for me?’ I don’t know how to identify who the feeling is directed at, I just see that it’s there, I look around the room, but Tsubasa’s gaze is on me.

So the feelings must be about me.

"You know, Pandora, maybe we should go out with the group? You know, as friends, I heard Hana say you had fun going shopping with the girls." He talks as if I’m part of his little group.

’Wait, this could be an opportunity to find out his ability.’ If that sociopath Hana has such a strong unique ability, what ability does Tsubasa have?

If I could get the information the church has about what the abilities are, I wouldn’t have to waste time in this academy.

But invading the church proved very difficult, the whole place is full of anti-demon magic.

Most weaker demons die just by entering the main area of the church.

To be able to obtain the information from that place, we would need the help of someone influential from inside, unfortunately the security is very strict.

Unlike the incompetent nobles, the church takes its role very seriously.

"Maybe we should," I respond to what he said, I’ll love to see the heroes’ faces of despair when they find out the Grand Duchess is the Demon King.

"Okay, students, attention," the saint calls everyone’s attention.

"Time is up, now let’s announce the first, second, and third place results."

"In first place is... Amiya Luminara and Evangeline Silverhart. In second place are Pandora Aegis and Tsubasa Watanabe. And in third place are Celeste Montclair and Hana Watanabe."

Ironically, I lost first place because of Amiya, the princess’s initial work was inferior to mine, and was on the same level as Celeste’s, but when Amiya started her part, the magical formula of the two improved a lot.

Soon the teacher writes down the extra points for each one as she starts to collect the materials, when she gets to me, she says.

"Pandora, try to avoid doing that again... i-it’s not good for your health to keep getting hurt."

’Tsk’

"Of course, Professor Rosaline." Honestly, the mentality of these people is very creative, I’m not sick, but rumors about it circulate here and there.

It reminds me of manga about misunderstandings, I read one in my past life, it had been placed in the school library as a prank and I found it.

The thing is, I don’t understand how the main characters are so dense? Like, don’t they hear the rumors about them?

I’m always hearing whispers about me being dying, about me being half dragon, about me being in a relationship? Where did this boyfriend rumor come from?

I can understand the dragon and the dying ones, but I’ve never gone out with any guy, in general I don’t socialize much, at most I talk to those who talk to me to maintain politeness.

These students love a good gossip, because it’s like I’m the only one to talk about.

And I always hear this, but I never deny it, if I denied it, I’d lose the advantages that come with it, it’s just that I don’t like them making up lies about me, imagine if Mikael hears that I’m dating?

’If I conquer Mikael as the Grand Duchess? Would I be putting horns on myself as the Demon King?’ It’s like Spider-Man kissing Peter Parker’s girlfriend, they’re the same person, but the girlfriend clearly didn’t know.

So if I make Mikael fall in love with me as the Grand Duchess, wouldn’t it be the same as him cheating on me? Can I be cuckolded by myself?

’I can’t believe this... Mikael will betray me even before we date?’ I need to teach Mikael a lesson about loyalty, he can’t cheat on me, even if it’s me.

It’s better if he rejects all my advances as the Grand Duchess.

I don’t know if I’m happy or sad if he denies my flirtations, on the one hand, it means he’s not betraying the me as the Demon King, on the other hand, it means it will be difficult to conquer him.

’The class will be over soon... I should prepare for action.’