23 Becoming an Alchemist: With Vivienne (1/2)
While the commotion outside was growing worse,
SLAM!
The door to their pavilion opened with a bang as a familiar figure dressed in yellow and white came rushing in with a worried look on her face. Laura ran towards Zhen Shi and Myne with a much calmer Vivienne following her. Noticing that Zhen Shi was fine, and of course, Myne as well, Laura heaved a sigh of relief.
Laura and Vivienne had just returned from their trip to the Market Hall, only to find a great commotion outside the pavilion. Fearing the worst Laura had rushed in, despite Vivienne's attempts to calm her down. Laura had only relaxed when she noticed that they were safe. But noticing Zhen Shi who was in front of a freshly steaming dark black furnace which had obviously been used to artifice some item, her eyes glowed with understanding, as she noted the lack of this artifact. I
Immediately her face contorted mischievously as she pointed at Zhen Shi, ”Big brother, your actions have caused irreparable mental damages to poor Lance and the rest of the guards of our Lyon and Turnbull Market hall, will you take responsibility or shall we settle this amicably...?”
Hearing this, Myne calmly rested his hands behind his back and started to whistle calmly while looking at the central garden, after all this matter was 'completely unrelated' to him. Vivienne frowned her brows in suspicion and stared at Myne but didn't say anything.
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Zhen Shi had been rather touched by Laura's worry, but hearing her mischievous words he immediately forgot about it as he calmly brought out that Scryer Crystal. Moreover, he was rather unhappy about this blame-shifting brother of his. Under Laura's ever-growing frown, he played around with the scrying crystal as he looked at the 'innocent' Myne. He began to whistle himself copying Myne's actions.
With a devilish grin Zhen Shi began wagging his index finger in front of Laura's face and spoke out, ”Laura, Laura... my dear girl, you jumped to accuse me without any investigation of the matter. I find this unbelievably unfair! What if I 'accidentally' showed the contents of this scryer crystal to someone, in my sorrow, regarding the unfairness of the world?”
Laura was immediately caught by surprise and could only stutter, ”You--you, shameles--” Zhen Shi grinned in victory as he continued, ”Brother Myne was only showing me his artifact refining to teach me. And he simply threw it out just to show its power. So this matter is completely his fault, and I am the unjustly accused,” and finished with a wronged face.
Vivienne began to laugh as her suspicions were proved correct, and said, ”Sister Laura, I apologize for my husband's actions. Since Brother Zhen Shi says so, I am now sure of his crime!” She turned to Myne and eyed him dangerously.
Myne shivered as he turned to Zhen Shi with a frown and sent mentally, ”Bro, how could you do this to me? Aren't we brothers?” Zhen Shi frowned as well, ”Oi, grand mage bro, you let the blame fall on me first! Besides you're the grand mage, Merlin! 'Master of yourself'! If you can't take care of a little girl, aren't you useless?” and finished with a grin.
Myne grimaced helplessly but calmly turned to the expectant face of Vivienne and the uncomfortable face of Laura. Laura was willing to accuse that shameless Zhen Shi but was unwilling to do the same to this senior disciple Myne, who she had wronged first. As such, she was planning on putting this entire matter behind her, immediately after Myne explained himself.
Myne spoke out with an apologetic face, ”I am indeed sorry, sister Laura. But you have to understand that was only a Grade 2 throwing knife.”
This caused Laura to be astonished. Who the hell throws out grade 2 artifacts?
Grade 1 artifacts were mainly used by cultivators below the soul category. While grade 2 artifacts were completely sufficient until one reaches the soul deification stage! As such, Laura's reaction was rather sensible.
Laura gasped in surprise as she had a sudden realization and thought, 'Their master, Lord Myrden, must be truly amazing to have made his disciples think of grade 2 artifacts so poorly!' Her amazement only improved as she considered the fact that the weapon had been thrown across the pavilion and the refined bronze walls, while still being enough to greatly damage the soul formation stage guard, Lance, outside. And this weapon had been just refined mere moments ago!
Myne ignored her amazed face, after all, to him, a grade 2 artifact meant very little. He continued to speak proudly, ”As such, I was rather disappointed in the fact that the pavilion walls were unable to handle my artificing lessons. And your soldiers as well, screaming over a mere flash wound. Tsk-tsk. How is this my fault? I simply thought too highly of your market hall...”
Laura who had been celebrating her luck for having come across these powerful fellow disciples, who would undoubtedly be helpful to her, couldn't help but frown at Myne's words. She couldn't help but think, 'This is our best guest pavilion! And it wasn't made to handle people throwing grade 2 artifacts at it. This elder disciple is just as shameless as that Zhen Shi.'
And almost as if on cue, Zhen Shi spoke out, ”And don't forget that the employees here like to accuse people unjustly. Aiya! My innocence, my purity... you have stolen it!” while playing the victim with an innocent and wronged face, but his hand holding the scryer crystal would rather strangely dance about...
Laura could only grin helplessly. I have dug my own grave!
But to her luck, Vivienne spoke out with a frown, ”Do you two enjoy making poor girls feel helpless? It was obviously your fault!” and death raging in her eyes. Immediately Zhen Shi and Myne grew silent. They looked at each other and with an agreeing nod turned to Laura while shamelessly saying, ”We just realized, it's not good to bully the juniors. So let's just forget this matter...” with a smile.
Laura stared at Vivienne with adoration in her eyes. My Angelic Sister! That master Myrden must be disappointed in these disciples while being proud of only you!
But suddenly a rather innocent-looking middle-aged guard walked into the doorway of the now open pavilion. Zhen Shi eyed this soul formation fellow who was holding onto the tattered metallic remains of a shield and a familiar-looking knife. His lower body was covered in bloodied bandages. He grimaced in pain as he bowed to Laura and the rest. He spoke out with pain in his voice, ”Lady Laura, we have searched everywhere. There were no signs of any intruders...” He gasped suddenly and bit his lips as if he was being impaled by a sword. With sweat falling down his face, he continued speaking, ”I apolog--apologize for this failure.” Laura silently turned to Myne and Vivienne, letting them know that they could take care of this matter as they wished.
Myne smiled and walked forwards while eyeing this guard's bloodied legs and spoke out, ”Brother Lance right? Those daylight assassins are truly heartless. They attacked us within this pavilion and in our retaliation, my knife missed and struck this fellow brother. Aiya! Those daylight assassins are my worst enemies, and thus I am grateful for this brother's help. Still, I ask for your forgiveness in having dragged you into this matter...”
Zhen Shi and Laura gasped at his shamelessness. But Vivienne shooke her head helplessly...
The ignorant Lance nodded while holding out the dark silver knife and spoke out, ”If I was able to help out this elder brother and fulfill my duty, then I suppose my wounds are not so useless,” with a look of genuine conviction and satisfaction.
Seeing his innocent and gullible face, even Myne felt guilty at this point. As such while pushing back the knife towards Lance he spoke out, ”As a reward, I'll let this brother keep the dark silver knife. I hope it'll be sufficien--”
But Lance's eyes teared up making Myne worry that maybe Lance was in horrible pain. But in actuality, this Lance was a rather pitiful fellow with a horrible childhood and had only known deep betrayal and sorrow. He was unable to cultivate beyond the soul formation stage and would spend the rest of his life as a mere guard. As such this simple and 'unconditional' gift from Myne meant the world to him!
Thus to Myne's relief, Lance started to cry tears of joy saying, ”My Elder brother! Thank you! You are the first person to give this useless guard such a valuable gift!” and jumped forwards to hug Myne. However, his wound acted out in an explosion of blood and bandages, causing him to trip over in pain. And in the end, he hugged the surprised Myne's legs, while rubbing his blood, tears, and snot all over Myne's trousers and legs while crying loudly.
Zhen Shi and Vivienne couldn't help but start to laugh at this. But under Laura's strange and condescending look they coughed and calmed down. After all who would laugh in the face of a wounded man?
Laura mentally sent out some commands and several awkward moments later, during which Myne had been struggling with the bloody and tightly hugging Lance, while Zhen Shi and Vivienne had been struggling to hold their laughter under the disapproving but still lightly smiling face of Laura, several guards walked in with a stretcher. They pulled apart Lance's tight hands holding onto the struggling Myne and put him on to the stretcher. Myne heaved a sigh of relief as he hurried to brush off the blood.
While still spewing blood all over the stretcher, Lance looked at Myne in adoration and spoke out with painful gasps, ”Big brother, thank you for today. I'll cherish this gift forever. If in the future you need my backside for your use again, just say the word. Next time, I won't even need a reward. Today was that blissful for me...” while gripping tightly onto the gift; the black silver knife.
Myne's eye twitched ಠ_ಥ as he worriedly eyed the rest of the guards. FUCK! Brother Lance, could you have worded that differently? Even if I explain now, it'll only make things worse!
Zhen Shi and Vivienne finally broke out in a cacophony of laughter. Even Laura couldn't help but grin with a smirk seeing Myne's flabbergasted face.
On the other hand, the guards with the stretcher were from a completely different area. As such, they were unaware of the knife attack. All they knew were that there was a fellow guard with a heavily 'wounded' backside which was literally bleeding, another man who the soldier was thanking for a 'blissful' time, a valuable grade 2 knife as 'payment' and spectators who were laughing at this matter. They immediately 'figured' out the matter and stared at Myne with judging looks, bringing Myne's worries to reality. However, some of the soldiers seemed to be looking at him with enticing, impressed glances and shining eyes. After all the 'reward' was pretty good...
Seeing this Zhen Shi and Vivienne laughed even louder while wiping off tears from their eyes. Even Laura joined in as Myne palmed his face in exasperation. The stretcher with the grateful Lance who was still speaking out words of thanks, was taken away as the soldiers continued to stare at Myne either with judging or enticing looks. One even winked at him as they left...
Myne grimaced and flicked his fingers as he muttered, ”Bro, take the furnace and these materials,” and materialized several bags. He continued to speak out with gritted teeth, ”It's Vivienne's turn now. So I'm taking a break,” and immediately vanished leaving a lightly sparkling blue flame, which too flickered away momentarily.
Even after he disappeared, the laughing trio struggled to stop. But in the end, they did, albeit rather difficultly. Laura turned to look at Zhen Shi with a victorious grin, ”Shameless Elder brother, did you see that? That is what happens to people who mess with this missy here! Even your elder brother was unable to escape! Scared yet? Will you apologize and destroy that evidence now?” and shouted with a pleased look.
In fact, Laura was obviously completely unrelated to this matter. It was exactly what it seemed to be; A wacky series of random events led by fate. She was simply acting tough to hopefully scare Zhen Shi...
But Zhen Shi laughed out loud, ”Laura... Laura... Little Sister Laura. How can you keep underestimating us fellow students like this?” He grinned confidently as he wagged his index finger in her face, as he brought out the same Scrying Crystal. He spoke out, ”In addition to the previous evidence, I now have another one confirming in your own words that you were responsible for embarrassing my senior brother!”
Laura was frozen in place. Uhh... The teachings of this Master Myrden are indeed profound!