Ermu

Chapter 517: The True Alchemy

...

Back home, Kaimo Strale immediately spotted a black envelope on the dining table.

“What’s this?” He asked, looking at his wife, Sella, who was busy in the kitchen.

“Oh, right, a city hall official came by this afternoon,” his wife said, wiping grease off her hands as she brought a pot of fragrant stew to the table. “Said His Highness wants you to go to the royal capital. The ship assigned to transport you will arrive in two days.”

“Isn't he busy causing trouble for his brother? What does he want me to do? It's a waste of time,” Kaimo frowned. “It takes a week to get there. His demands are getting more and more outrageous.”

“He is your Prince, the lord of Neverwinter, darling,” Sella said with a smile and a shake of her head. “And the city hall official said he even wrote you a letter to show how important this is. Isn't that a rare honor? Remember to keep this letter safe after reading it. It might become an heirloom someday.”

“Heirloom, my foot. A complete edition of *Intermediate Chemistry* would be more like it,” Kaimo muttered. “Let's eat first, we'll talk about it later... he better have a good reason.”

After a simple dinner, he went into the room and opened the envelope.

A small piece of paper fell out, barely an inch long when unfolded. It was obviously a secret message delivered by carrier pigeon, with the city hall official adding the outer envelope afterward.

Kaimo held down the paper with one hand and groped on the table with the other, clipping his monocle onto his nose. His eyesight had been deteriorating under the dim candlelight for years. Fortunately, life in the town had improved greatly, and he could light five or six candles in the room at the same time. He just wondered when his home would be lit with the same bright, clean light as the chemical plant.

The message on the paper was short, only one sentence.

“Remember the Alchemist Association of the royal capital? Now you have a chance to tell them what true alchemy is.”

Kaimo’s breath caught in his throat.

The Alchemist Association of the royal capital was the place all those aspiring to walk this path, seeking the truth of all things, most longed to go. Of course, he was no exception when he was young.

Only his wife knew that he had applied to the royal capital Alchemist Association, using his alchemy formula "Solvent Gold Solution," which he had independently discovered at the age of twenty, as a stepping stone. However, during the review process, Kaimo's formula unexpectedly failed. After two attempts, he failed to obtain the fuming brown-yellow acid. Lighting, the alchemist who attended the review, was furious, accusing him of deliberately wasting the association's valuable raw materials. He not only didn't give him a third chance to try, but also ordered the guards to snatch his money bag and throw him out the door.

At the entrance of the association, Lighting took out five silver wolves from the bag with a sneer and threw them in front of Kaimo, saying it was his travel expenses to return to Redwater City, and the rest was to compensate the association's losses. After speaking, he turned and left, leaving Kaimo with only his back and great shame. This became a scar in his heart that he had never revealed to anyone except his wife.

Holding a belly of anger, Kaimo returned to Redwater City, but he did not give up alchemy. He spent all day in the workshop, trying to find new alchemy formulas and prove to the royal capital Alchemist Association that their vision and level were nothing more than that... But unexpectedly, he waited for ten years until he was thirty years old before he found a second alchemy formula and was promoted to alchemist in Redwater City. It took another six years to truly become the chief.

During this period, Kaimo regarded the royal capital Alchemist Association as his biggest opponent, and he had several industry exchanges with them. But the other party behaved like a proud swan, and did not even recognize any alchemical organizations other than them, believing that the alchemists in Redwater City were only apprentices, at most disciples, and were not worthy of the title at all. Most of the so-called newly discovered alchemy formulas were old things that the association had been working on for more than ten years.

The then chief of the association even disdainfully said that there was no need for other cities to establish alchemy workshops. This skill required a lot of money and manpower, and was not something that ordinary lords could afford to play with. If there was a need for alchemy, they could directly ask them for help. If the lords invested on their own, even tens of thousands of gold dragons might not be able to make a splash, and most likely

they would only raise a bunch of good-for-nothings.

Although it was a bit aggrieved to say it, Kaimo knew that only the Redwater City alchemy workshop regarded the association as a competitor, and the latter did not take him seriously at all. This was also the reason why he was ecstatic after the successful production of the Double Stone Acid Production Method and the crystal glass firing. The former could produce large quantities of precious acid, and the latter was the most popular alchemical commodity on the market. With these two achievements, even the Alchemy Association, which had its chin raised to the sky, would no longer be able to treat him as nothing.

No one could have predicted that everything that followed would be so dramatic. Roland Wimbledon, His Highness, who was far away on the frontier, found him and opened a new door for him with a copy of *Elementary Chemistry*.

From then on, Kaimo realized that everything he had learned had become meaningless. Alchemy itself represented backwardness and had become a skill destined to be eliminated. A new path of exploration was placed before him – this time, the connection between all things was no longer full of chaos, but orderly; the past calculations became worthless, whether it was the royal capital Alchemist Association or those precious formulas that had cost countless efforts, they could all be put down.

It should be like this.

However, Kaimo Strale found that when His Highness mentioned this phrase again, his heart was still pounding, and an unspeakable excitement quietly returned to his heart.

Kaimo's mind seemed to flash with that dismissive back, the dust-covered silver wolves, the door slammed shut, and the arrogant words that other alchemical organizations besides the royal capital Alchemist Association had no need to exist.

“Now you have a chance to tell them what true alchemy is.”

Kaimo finally glanced at the note, and involuntarily stood up and walked out of the room, "Sella—"

He stopped halfway, noticing an unfolded package in the living room, with several of his clothes stacked inside. His wife was bending over to pack his luggage.

“This is...”

“Of course it's to the royal capital. I know you would have gone even without His Highness's autograph,” Sella said with a smile. “Remember those stories you used to tell me? There's something you should get back there.”

Kaimo was stunned for a while, then laughed.

“I'll leave the house to you. I'm going to the royal capital.”(。)