Chapter 166 Alchemy King [3]

5 days

It would have taken Nathan only a few hours to create the sword constellation.

…He had been trying to coat the sword for over 5 days.

His face hardened at the realization.

Nathan was losing his grasp on reality.

The mediations were supposed to make him lose his sense of time, but not to this extent. There was no way he should mistake a few days for a few minutes.

If he could, he wouldn't have suffered in the memory world.

But he ultimately erased those thoughts.

Live

Keep Living

This was his only goal.

Everything was secondary… even his life.

"Uhm..please lea-ve!"

Katrina anxiously looked at him.

"You have b-een here for 5 days…"

Five days earlier, she found an unknown man inside her room. She was so frightened that she almost went outside.

Only she knew how horrible these past five days were.

The young man wouldn't wake up no matter what she did. She honestly felt like crying and running away.

It was more awful due to her introverted nature.

Grumble-

Nathan was about to refuse when he heard the rumbling of someone's stomach.

Katrina, who also heard the sound, blushed.

"I-I didn't eat because I was… worried about leaving the r-room with a stranger."

She tried to make excuses as her face burned from shame.

Nathan interrupted her mid-sentence.

"It was me."

"Huh?"

"The grumbling. It came from my stomach."

The smile on Nathan's face as he spoke those words ramped up the humiliation to another degree.

Katrina's face became hot red, and she only wanted to dig a hole and die.

"Okay… but why are y-you trespassing here?..."

She managed to eke out words in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

Nathan smiled before bringing out papers from his storage ring.

He passed them to Katrina.

Katrina hesitatingly took the papers and read through them.

"Mhm..I'm a first-year."

"I know"

"You won't learn much from me. I'm… self-taught."

"I don't think the first part is true."

Katrina was trying to find excuses to refuse Nathan's request. It was problematic, in more ways than one.

Nathan also knew this, but he wasn't going to back down.

The papers Nathan brought out were Mentor-Trainee forms.

Due to the Research Department's nature, it wasn't uncommon for junior-year cadets to sometimes be more knowledgeable than seniors. Geniuses were called genius for a reason.

This led to an issue.

If only senior-year cadets can become mentors, won't they be unable to take guidance from their juniors?

As said before, sometimes geniuses would appear that could take the world of science and magic technology by storm.

It wouldn't be a wasted opportunity for even professors to learn from them.

Thus, Ward altered the rules for the Research Department a bit.

The 'senior' in the mentor-trainee relationship refers to those who have more knowledge in their fields than 'juniors'.

In this case, Nathan, who didn't know 'a' of alchemy, would be a junior of Katrina, even if she was self-taught.

'I need ether potion. For that, I need you to awaken your stigma, even if it's a year early.'

Nathan showed his pure smile to express his pure intentions.

Katrina felt a chill crawl up her spine. She looked around in fright to find the source.

A few hamburgers appeared in Nathan's hand. Walking to the table, he placed them in a clean area and walked away.

He sat in the corner, and another hamburger appeared in his hand. Without speaking another word, he started eating the hamburger.

Katrina, perplexed by his strange actions, opened her mouth…

Grumble-

…and closed it back.

The aroma of hamburgers filled the air. The smell made her hungry, but she knew better than to eat anything given by an unknown cadet.

It wouldn't be the first time someone was trying to trick her like this. She had been through so many humiliations at the hands of others who felt superior to her.

As someone from a fallen family, her status wasn't very good.

It wasn't like the heirs of the fallen family were treated poorly. On the contrary, most of the fallen families were treated highly, as they became fallen due to losing their strong awakeners on the frontlines or Great Disasters protecting Earth.

It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine, though. If someone talented came from a fallen family, they receive brutal treatment, not that Katrina knew this. She was someone untalented and an outcast.

Her own family never paid her any attention. Not when she made her first potion, not when she first got an offer to work as a potioneer, not when she was specially called by Ward on a scholarship. They were always her sisters.

Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, Always, no matter how hard she tried, how good she performed. She was always compared to her sister.

She was never enough for them!

Katrina lost a piece of herself whenever someone gave her a cold shoulder. She was slowly losing herself.

When Ward's scholarship offer came, she thought she would make her family proud. She was one of the top 3 cadets on the written exams!

Katrina was on cloud nine. This time they wouldn't turn a blind eye to her!

True to her thoughts, they praised her. She felt that it was the happiest moment of her life.

...and the worst.

The higher someone flies, the harder they fall.

Everyone congratulated her and went back to Anna.

Anna this, Anna that, however, this time Katrina no longer had any desperation.

She lost.

Her desperation.

Her starvation for love.

Herself.

She lost...

...everything.

It was a good thing too.

After coming to Ward, it only became worse.

Anna hated her, she hated Katrina, when others came to know about this. They steered clear of her. No one came to her.

No, someone did.

Those losers who felt superior by humiliating her came regularly. They came yesterday too, though they ran away, afraid, when the young man trespassing in her territory started swinging his sword abruptly.

And this time...

"You can take your time, but be sure to sign them, okay? They cya!"

The young man sat cross-legged and entered a meditative state.

"W-wait!"

Katrina lunged and tried to shake him. However, she was too late.

The young man was already in his own world.

"Ugh.."

It has been like this for the past five days.

Katrina had tried to shake him awake, but he never responded. If not for his stable pulse and continuous breathing, she would've thought he was dead.

Her pace paled.

Was he going to do it again?

On the fourth day, the young man suddenly stood up and started swinging his sword. He kept swinging and swinging and swinging for the whole day.

Katrina... couldn't describe the shock!

It was a nightmare!

"Who does that!?"

She roared and hit him on the head. It wasn't like he was going to wake up and call her out for that.

"I almost died from a heart attack!"

With no one watching her, her confidence returned like a tsunami, followed by the storm of her punches.

"Do you think I'm afraid of something!"

After hitting him a few more times, her anger calmed, and she sat down.

She decided to practice alchemy to cool her head.

Shortly a frown appeared on her face.

She was missing a few ingredients, however, due to the young's man presence she was hesitant to leave.

Ultimately, she decided to wait.

Though she was going to send him out the next time he woke up, no matter what!