Alchemy Academy (4)

"Miss Lan Yu, keep an eye on Young Master. I'll go get some food. I kept him waiting too long just now; he must be hungry." Tiger Girl gave them that instruction, then went to the middle to get food.

This was a buffet restaurant. All food and drinks were provided free of charge; you could take as much as you wanted, provided you could finish it all without wasting even a morsel.

"Honestly, I can't understand you. You refused to go to Star Chasing Academy and insisted on staying here. That's the number one academy in the world—others would kill for the qualification to go there." After Tiger Girl left, Ye Lanyu grumbled unhappily at the Seventh Princess, seemingly forgetting that she herself had not gone there either.

"Aren't you the same? What right do you have to criticize me?" the Seventh Princess retorted directly.

"I'm different. I have to look after my little brother. Besides, I don't think this place is any different from there. I can still become the finest mage."

"I'm the same. I have to look after my fiancé, and I don't think there's any difference either. I can still become the finest mage."

"You..."

"What are you arguing about? Aren't your opinions the same? Why do you two have to quarrel every time?" Thirteenth Young Master interrupted the girls' dispute. He truly could not understand it; there was no conflict between them at all, and their goals were quite similar.

It was not only him who could not understand it; the Ye Clan and the royal family could not understand it either. They had no idea why the two kept arguing. Could it be because they had each commented on the other's figure that one time? That should not have led to this.

Perhaps it was because of their Talent Attributes. The Seventh Princess was fire, while Ye Lanyu possessed the rare ice attribute—a mutated water attribute inherited from Long Anqi. Among the four siblings, she alone had inherited this rare attribute.

Fate had made the two of them ice and fire, unable to coexist.

"Who agrees with her?" the two girls said in unison.

"Oh. Let's eat first." Thirteenth Young Master merely responded with an "oh," then picked up the food Tiger Girl had just brought back and began wolfing it down.

"Hmph..." The two girls exchanged a glance, then began eating as well.

Tiger Girl shook her head helplessly, sighing inwardly over how strange people always seemed to appear around her young master. Miss Lan Yu's temperament was already strange enough, and now there was an even stranger Seventh Princess.

She did not know what it was about her young master that the Seventh Princess liked. It was not that kind of liking, but she always liked staying with her foolish young master.

"I'm full. Time to go out and have fun!" Thirteenth Young Master Ye patted his belly, wiped his mouth, and immediately got up to leave. He did not wait for the girls who were still chewing slowly and savoring every bite. Of course, this did not include Tiger Girl; she simply ate a lot, so her overall speed was slower as well.

"Young Master!" Tiger Girl immediately wiped her mouth, rose, and hurried after him. Eight-tenths full was good enough.

Eight-tenths full!? As expected of the Tiger Clan—this amount was enough for an ordinary person to eat for several meals.

"You little bastard, get back here and wait for me..." Ye Lanyu shouted irritably. She was extremely displeased that Thirteenth Young Master had left without waiting for her.

Though she knew her little brother had always been like this, she was still very unhappy.

But before she could finish speaking, something unexpected happened. It gave two people who should never have crossed paths a baffling beginning—a chance encounter.

At that moment, Thirteenth Young Master Ye was still holding a bottle of fruit juice. He liked carrying one around and drinking from it, something he often did in the past. Yet today, because of it, an absurd scene unfolded.

Someone spotted Thirteenth Young Master Ye "on his own," saw an opportunity, and used a common prank to attack him: sticking out a leg to trip him.

The clumsy Thirteenth Young Master Ye fell for it easily, tripping and falling to the ground in an intimate embrace with the floor. The fruit juice in his hand naturally splashed out as well.

"Ah..."

"It hurts, it hurts..."

"Young Master!"

"Little brother!"

"Ye Lang!"

A pleasant scream, Thirteenth Young Master's cry of pain, and the worried cries of Tiger Girl and the other two girls rang through the restaurant hall almost at the same time.

The latter few voices were perfectly normal. Only that first pleasant cry of alarm left people faintly puzzled. Who had made it?

It came from a girl of fifteen or sixteen dressed in white. She had an exquisitely delicate little face of unparalleled freshness and beauty, long silver-white hair, and skin as fair as snow, making one's eyes feel as though they were tasting ice cream.

The girl stood in front of Thirteenth Young Master Ye. Her scream was not because he had suddenly fallen before her, but because fruit juice had splashed across her face and chest. That was right—the juice belonged to Thirteenth Young Master Ye.

The Fresh and Pretty Girl, originally snow-white all over, now had a bit of color added to her—the color of fruit juice. It ruined the overall impression she gave, and even more seriously, it ruined her white dress.

"..." The girl's brows drew tightly together. Anger was already showing on her face, but she would soon become even angrier—so angry she might explode.

"Young Master, are you all right?" Tiger Girl helped Thirteenth Young Master Ye up.

"My nose hurts... White underwear. Tiger Girl, she's white all over. She looks very pretty." Thirteenth Young Master Ye covered his nose as he spoke in an utterly ordinary tone, as though he were saying something completely mundane.

"..."

The entire scene fell silent.

At that moment, the person who had tripped Thirteenth Young Master Ye began to regret why he had given this little idiot such a bargain. He wished he had been the one tripped instead. Most likely, every male student in the hall shared that thought to some extent.

It was over. How could this foolish little brother say everything that came to mind? Even if he had seen someone's underwear, he should not have blurted it out so directly.

At that moment, Ye Lanyu withdrew the magic she had been preparing to cast. If not for this incident, the person who had tripped Thirteenth Young Master Ye would have been frozen for a while.

"Hehe, beautiful miss, I'm sorry. My little brother is an idiot. He didn't mean to peek at your underwear; he was only tripped by someone." Ye Lanyu intended to calm the girl down before she lost her temper, but there seemed to be a serious problem with her words as well. She had brought up the underwear incident again.

"You really don't know how to speak," the Seventh Princess quietly said to Ye Lanyu. Then she went up to speak with the girl. "I'm sorry. Neither of these siblings knows how to speak properly. Ye Lang only ended up like this because someone tripped him. Please forgive the offense and don't be angry. Ye Lang, hurry and apologize."

"Oh, sorry." Thirteenth Young Master Ye was still very honest. Though he had been tripped, he felt that splashing fruit juice all over someone was wrong as well. At the very least, he owed her an apology.

"One 'I was tripped,' and one 'sorry,' and all your mistakes can be wiped clean?" the girl said frostily, clearly refusing to accept the apology.