Cold Medicine (2)

"You're fine now, but you'll be in trouble if you eat too much. Do you really need to prove it to yourself?" Tiger Girl felt utterly powerless.

"Will I really be in trouble?" Thirteenth Young Master still trusted Tiger Girl. Since she said so, it might be true.

Nonsense, it's true. Only you would be so clueless. And you're someone who dabbles in Alchemy.

"Yes, you'll be in trouble. I'll throw away these expired potions later. If any potions are about to expire again next time, you can't eat them either. Medicine should only be taken when you're sick, and not just randomly. Don't end up taking stomach medicine when you just have a cold," Tiger Girl cautioned gently.

"I know, I won't be that stupid," Thirteenth Young Master said dismissively, as if he would never do such a foolish thing. But whether he actually wouldn't, that was hard to say.

At this moment, he sighed again, lamenting, "Isn't it too wasteful to do it this way?"

"..." Tiger Girl was speechless. It would have been one thing if someone else said it was wasteful, but he was a notoriously extravagant spendthrift. How could he possibly know what the word "wasteful" even meant?

"Young Master, you call yourself the greatest spendthrift in the world, and you're afraid of wasting a little bit of medicine?"

"A spendthrift is a spendthrift, but a spendthrift can also avoid waste. I'm just extravagant, not wasteful." Thirteenth Young Master began to interpret what it meant to be a spendthrift, emphasizing that one shouldn't equate being a spendthrift with being wasteful.

"This..." Tiger Girl had nothing more to say. While Thirteenth Young Master was indeed extravagant, he genuinely disliked wasting things.

Anyway, this foolish young master of mine can no longer be explained by common sense.

Tiger Girl smiled and then continued with her day's tasks. Her foolish young master did the same, continuing his own activities. The two of them thus carried on with their new day.

At this time, the foolish young master was thirteen years old, and Tiger Girl was fourteen...

The Royal Academy in the capital city, an elite institution that even nobles couldn't easily enter, was ranked second overall on the continent. However, this position was highly contested.

The controversy wasn't about the Royal Academy wanting to be first or not wanting to be second. The first place was almost universally acknowledged, a heartfelt recognition; no one could shake the status of the top academy.

Since the controversy wasn't about first place, it was about the second position held by the Royal Academy. That's right, the academies ranked third and fourth were all coveting this second place, seizing every opportunity to snatch it.

If you ask how this ranking was determined, it wasn't based on someone collecting data and scoring each aspect. The ranking was actually very simple: it was determined by one's overall strength in the arena competition held once every ten years.

In other words, this ranking only lasted for ten years. After ten years, if you lost, you would drop in rank; conversely, if you won, you would rise. This is the so-called "thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river," but here the time frame was even shorter, only ten years.

This arena competition wasn't a mixed event either. It was divided by type into Magic Competitions, Martial Arts Competitions, and the less popular Alchemy Competitions. Of course, there were also mixed competitions, categorized by participant composition into Individual Competitions and Team Competitions.

On this continent where martial power reigned supreme, academies focused on increasing individual strength as their primary goal. Therefore, the strength of the students directly represented the strength of the academy.

It's worth mentioning that the second to fourth ranked academies were basically occupied by institutions from the three major empires. However, the first academy did not belong to any of these three empires; it belonged to a very small and inconspicuous country. In fact, one could say that this country was the academy, and the academy was the country.

Perhaps this was why it became the top academy, with fewer political factors involved.

Even among the three major empires, most of their nobles would choose this first academy as their top choice. Take the Ye family, for instance. Thirteenth Young Master's elder brother, Ye Hui, attended the first academy, as did Thirteenth Young Master's second eldest sister and several other cousins.

In fact, if Thirteenth Young Master weren't so special, the Ye family would have sent him to the first academy as well. As it stood, even with the Royal Academy's lower ranking, they would have him attend there. They were worried about him being too far away, so this way, they could at least look after him.

Another matter was that Thirteenth Young Master's elder sister, Ye Lanyu, refused to go to the first academy, using the excuse of needing to look after her younger brother. She attended the Royal Academy instead. Her abilities were such that even at the first academy, she would be among the outstanding students, and at the empire's Royal Academy, she was naturally an excellent student.

Because she was a girl, the family didn't place overly high expectations on her. She could study wherever she pleased.

Since they were attending the same academy, the two naturally went to school together every day. And here she was again, appearing before Thirteenth Young Master. The current Ye Lanyu possessed all the qualities of a beauty, becoming the object of pursuit for many young noblemen in the city.

It seemed she was in the prime of her youth, a budding flower in her teens.

"Brother, let's go to school." Ye Lanyu kicked open the courtyard gate and then pulled the already prepared Thirteenth Young Master along with her. This series of actions was incredibly smooth, executed in one fluid motion.

"Oh..." Thirteenth Young Master was completely accustomed to this scene. He let Ye Lanyu pull his hand while holding a book in his other hand and reading.

Tiger Girl, who was in the courtyard, saw this and, just as smoothly, packed her belongings into her Space Pouch and quickly hurried to catch up with the two siblings ahead.

Every day, Tiger Girl followed these peculiar siblings to the Royal Academy. Her presence was naturally that of a companion for Thirteenth Young Master. As nobles, they were allowed to bring a companion or attendant to school, a practice permitted by academies across the continent. However, nobles had to pay extra tuition fees for their companions.

Of course, not every noble brought a companion; Ye Lanyu, for example, did not.

The Ye family's carriage took the three of them to the entrance of the Royal Academy. The three disembarked and began to walk in. This was also a rule of the Royal Academy: no vehicles were allowed inside. Otherwise, the entire Royal Academy would face massive traffic jams every day, given that it was filled with nobles of extraordinary status.

And every time this happened, a crowd would gather outside the academy, waiting for the arrival of the three of them. What they were waiting for was certainly not Thirteenth Young Master. Although he was the object of envy, he hadn't broadly offended anyone, so there was no phenomenon of him being mobbed.

These people were waiting for the person beside Thirteenth Young Master, Miss Ye Lanyu, his elder sister.

"Miss Lanyu, these are nine hundred and ninety-nine roses from Aphrodite Flower Shop. This represents my love for you..." A cluster of roses appeared before the three of them, but the person holding the roses could only be heard, not seen.

"I'm sorry, I don't like roses," Ye Lanyu said with a smile, her face showing a hint of apology. Her tone and demeanor were as noble and gentle as ever.

This was indeed the attitude a young lady from a prominent family should have. But did this Miss Ye exhibit such a side? Had she changed as she grew older?