The Adult World Is So Complicated

On the conference hall stage, a supposedly renowned alchemist in his sixties was using broken English to talk about the sluggish development and decline of alchemy in recent years. Albert's eyelids twitched as he listened, and he nearly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

That morning, Albert had still gotten up before dawn. Even after drinking a large cup of strong tea, he could not stop himself from yawning.

Isabelle, seated beside him, was not doing much better. Catherine and Valeria looked as though they might fall asleep at any moment.

Perhaps to keep themselves awake, many of the witches and wizards attending the conference were whispering among themselves. If not for the middle-aged wizard onstage using a microphone to amplify his voice, it would probably have been rather awkward.

"Mr. Sera, has Professor Dumbledore basically stopped attending the International Alchemy Convention since receiving the Pioneering Contribution Gold Medal at the Cairo International Alchemy Convention?"

To stop himself from falling asleep, Albert decided to find someone to chat with. Besides, he had picked up on something from the middle-aged wizard's speech.

"I'm not sure. But I really haven't seen Dumbledore attend the International Alchemy Convention in recent decades." Sera was not particularly surprised. He could more or less guess the reason.

That fellow onstage was spitting as he went on about how alchemy ought to advance, but were those words really of any use?

In Albert's view, those old fellows onstage ought to bear more than half the blame for alchemy's decline.

They droned on for ages, only to produce a pile of nonsense. The people in charge failed to fulfill their responsibilities and instead did all sorts of disgusting things. Naturally, alchemy had ended up in its current miserable state.

They especially liked suppressing newcomers. Many older, experienced wizards