Chapter 24 – How to Become an Alchemist
At Seongil’s explanation, the priest nodded vigorously and answered Seongil.
“You have such a problem!”
‘What is it… Why do you like this person so much?’
When Seong-il was puzzled, the priest continued to talk to Seong-il in an excited voice.
“There is a brother who suffers from such a problem, so how can we not sell, or pay for, the highest quality holy water from the Allta Church!
“Sister Sophia! Go get some holy water for Brother Lee right away.”
So the priest sent the nun and told Seongil.
“Hmm.. Yes, brother. Since Sister Sophia isn’t here, I’ll be honest.”
“Actually, the highest quality holy water cannot be taken out to non-believers… Since the brother said 10 gold per piece, I will do my best to take it out. Instead, do you have any intention of displaying your last name on me personally…? “
After saying that, the priest said to Seongil with a greedy face.
‘Ha.. I was wondering why you liked him so much earlier, but he’s a corrupted priest when he’s corrupted by money.’
Seong-il spoke kindly to him while hiding his inner thoughts.
“Of course. Priest! How can I not show my sincerity when you have helped me like this?”
After Seong-il said that, he took out another pouch and handed it to him.
The priest turned his back and checked the contents, then thanked Seong-il with a smile as if his mouth would tear.
“Heh heh.. Well, to the point where he would show so much sincerity.”
He said so, but the priest quickly stuffed his pocket into his chest in order not to see anyone.
‘Wow.. To spend 30 gold as a bribe.’
Shortly after I put the pouch in my pocket, Sister Sophia brought a luxurious looking wooden box and handed it to me.
“Brother, here is the highest quality holy water.”
I took her holy water from her and bowed her head.
“Thank you! Priest, Sister! See you again tomorrow.”
Seong-il, who visited the guild the next day, visited the house with the man who met him.
“Huh… Originally, it was within the scope of what the receptionist had to do, but she said she wouldn’t be able to go to that house even if she died, so I’m going.”
“Oops. I’m in charge of the messy job. I’m sorry.”
“…Until I’m sorry, I’m doing it for money, so it’s natural.”
Seong-il arrived in front of the house after chatting with him, received a key from him, opened the front door, and entered the garden. As I was about to enter the house, a man grabbed me.
“I’m sorry, but let’s take care of the rest of the business here.”
“…?”
The man smiled softly and said,
“Actually… I’m a little embarrassed too. I’m sorry, but can I finish my business here?”
His last name was the same, and he began to finalize his contract.
“First of all, it’s a tax payment certificate issued by the city yesterday. Be careful as it can cause trouble if you lose it. This is the deed of title to the house. I gave you the contract yesterday, so there’s no problem, right?”
Seong-il nodded his head, gave the man 10 gold for the purchase of the house and brokerage commission, and parted ways.
“Even if I can’t do it, the house will be worth 100 gold. It’s only 10 gold. It seems that the rumors have been quite vicious…”
Having said that, Seong-il opened the door and entered the house.
Squeak… The hinges of the door made an annoying noise as if they hadn’t been maintained for a very long time.
Seong-il frowned at the sound and entered the room.
“Hmm… Is this really a place like this?”
It was a place where a shrugged energy could be felt all over the body. I could see why people felt ominous.
Seong-il sensed the danger by maximizing his response skill, lit the lantern he brought and went down to the basement.
The basement, which looked like ten pyeong, was empty without anything.
“Let’s see… Shall we look for the hint?”
Seong-il took out the candles she had brought and lit them using the lantern’s light.
After lighting it, I turned around against the wall.
“Ah! That’s it. The wind blows from behind the locker room.”
As the candles danced in front of a specific wall, Seong-il knew that behind the wall was a secret room.
On Seongil, she attached the ‘Thunder Stone’ obtained from Beecher in the school library to the wall, sprayed the prepared catalyst and reagent, and quickly went upstairs.
“Bang!!!”
As the loud noise echoed through the basement, Seong-il went down again.
Indeed, there was a sealed door behind the collapsed wall, and Seong-il began to recite the spell to release the seal in front of the door.
“The red moon will rise and the sun will turn black. The living will lose their life and the dead will breathe in the world. Praise be to the great goddess of plague and curse to come.”
Then the door shook and opened.
Seong-il took the holy water he had kept in her arms and went inside.
Then, to my surprise, at a glance, I could see that there were piles of gold coins, rare-looking dishes, candlesticks, and jewels, ten times more than the ones I had seen in the locker room the previous time.
And she was able to find a beautiful but intriguing statue of the goddess standing in the middle of all the treasures.
‘That statue of Polke…’
Seongil took out holy water without hesitation and sprinkled it on the statue. Then, Seong-il heard a moan of terrible pain in his ears, and black smoke spread around the statue.
‘I can definitely feel that the energy between us has diminished.’
When the prepared holy water ran out, Seongil left the door, cast a spell, closed the door again, moved to the temple of the god of light, received the holy water, and returned to the dormitory.
After returning to the dormitory, Seong-il made a plan to focus on purifying the house and learning the common sense of Nerke Kingdom, refraining from her big activities until the first quarter exam.
When Seong-il posted a notice to the school that he would like to take lessons on the culture, customs, history, and geography of the Nerke Kingdom for one hour every day for three months, there was a great stir at the school.
Why?
It was because the cost was three gold for a simple tutoring topic that taught basic common sense for an hour every day for three months.
Thanks to the unconventional announcement, Seong-il became a celebrity again, and in front of his room, students who wished to take tutoring were full of doors.
‘Why did you choose a man? A man..’
He politely declined a male senior who asked him for tutoring, and in the middle of an interview with tutoring students who wanted to teach him, the person Seong-il was looking for appeared in front of him in the afternoon.
‘Smart’
“Who are you?”
Seong-il opened the door at the now-familiar knock on the door and went out to meet him. A brown-haired woman who knew Seong-il well appeared in front of the door.
‘Ericha Portis!! At las!’
Feigning her composure, her seongil posed her question to her.
“What did you come for…?”
Then Erisha, with her tense face, began her self-introduction, holding her hands in the hands of her filial piety.
“Hello! Seongil-gun! My name is Erisha Portis! I saw the announcement and wanted Seongil-gun to take tutoring, so I came here to say hello! Did you find a tutor?!”
Pouring out her own words like her rapid-fire cannon, she looked at her holy day with her longing eyes.
She said, ‘I thought that if I hung up a lump sum of money, Sujeon Nora, a debtor, I would somehow connect, but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly…’
Thinking so, Seongil looked at Erica and replied.
“Uh… I haven’t found one yet. It’s the first day of the announcement, so I only met the applicants and interviewed them.”
“Ah! Then, could I be interviewed too?!”
It was an announcement aimed at her very own Erica, but her Sungil nodded her head with an expression as if she didn’t know her.
“Okay. Come into the room first.”
“Yes yes!”
Bringing her tea to her desk for her study and entertaining her, Seong-il began introducing herself to her.
“First of all.. My name is Han Seong-il. As you can see, I came from the east a while ago to learn alchemy. So I don’t know anything about this place. That’s why I posted an announcement.”
“I want to be tutored by someone who is worthy of the purpose, and I posted a notice with a very high price, so I’m thinking of taking a closer look.
Erisha, slightly hesitant at the words of her holy day, began to introduce herself.
“Ah… First of all, I’m in the same first year as Seongil…”
As soon as Seongil used that expression, she forcibly frowned and cut her words off.
“1st year…? 1st year is a bit…”
‘I’ll have to work hard to be more active..?’
As expected, embarrassed by Seongil’s negative attitude, she desperately defended herself and started introducing her.
“No! I’m from an aristocratic family with a long history, so I’m confident that I have a solid foundation in culture, customs, history, and geography from a young age!”
“Among the students who wished to be tutored by Seongil-gun, were there any from noble families? In general, nobles value face, so I don’t think there will be any other students from noble families other than me!”
“Of course, I’m not ignoring the commoners, but I still think that nobles have a different level of learning in that area because culture is essential. In that sense, I can say that Seongil-gun’s tutor is the best in this school!”
Seong-il hid her bewilderment and asked her a question about her aggressive and desperate courtship.
“Uh… Then why does Miss Elisha want tutoring that the other nobles don’t?”
Stunned by such a sharp question of her holy day, Erisha answered with an excuse while hiding her circumstances.
“I… I don’t have friends from the East, so I thought I’d take advantage of this opportunity to make friends. Hehe…”
‘Then I’m afraid I’ll scream for free.’
Seong-il cursed at her shamelessness inwardly, but she couldn’t pass up her golden opportunity to attack her, so she expressed her agreement, pretending to be refuted by her logic. .
“Ho.. Then, you’re the perfect teacher for me. I also came from a faraway place and don’t have any friends, so thank you so much for being my friend. By any chance, when can I start teaching..?”
Erisha, whose lips were caught up to her ears at her Seongil’s positive answer, trembled slightly to her lips and answered with excitement while holding her Seongil’s hands.
“That!! Whatever you want! I’ll make it whatever you want. Goh.. No, Seongil-kun! Shall we start today?!”
Seong-il replied with a bitter smile at her excessively active appearance.
“Hmm.. As you can see, this place is narrow and messy, so a teahouse would be nice. If possible, would you like to take tutoring outside the school? In addition to being introduced to the city…”
Then she made an expression as if Erisha was not a problem, and she said to Seong-il.
“Then let’s do it at my house! I don’t live in that dormitory! Even if you look at it like this, they have an outside workshop with the support of the dean. Ahem!”
Seong-il, who smiled slightly at her proud cute expression, pretended to admire her, and she agreed with her opinion.
“Oh! Really? That’s even better! Then why don’t you start tutoring right away tomorrow?”
“Good! But.. Um.. There’s something I want to be sure about.. Hehe..”
“Which one?”
At the words of such a holy day, Erica swallowed her saliva once and spoke to him.
“Um.. Actually! I entered this school against the opposition of my family.. There is no separate application.. Hehe..”
“There is a book I really want to buy, but will the tutoring fee be paid normally?
Seong-il gave her a positive answer with a slight smile at her cute lie.
“Of course. Even as friends, financial relationships should be clean.”
Having said that, Seong-il took her pocket out of her bosom, opened it ‘widely’, showed her the gold coins it contained, and took out one of hers and handed it to her.
“First of all, I’ll give you the down payment. If you like it for a month, I’ll give you another one, and the last one on the day the class ends.”
“Ah! And originally, if you were satisfied with the class, we planned to pay you a separate performance bonus on the day you finish the class… Hmm… Is this kind of rude to a noble lady?”
Then, Erisha, her eyes wide, hurriedly stopped her holy day and said,
“Ah.. No! That.. Non-performance awards based on such achievements are a glorious custom that is highly recommended in our Nerke Kingdom, so if you are satisfied with my lessons and pay me a bonus, it will be an honor for me too!!”
Her holy days laughed at her attitude inwardly, and she gave her a word of agreement.
“Ah~ that would be better! Then let’s meet tomorrow.”
“Yes, I like it!”
Her holy day was told to her as she was about to leave for her visit after saying thank you.
“Ah. And Miss Erica prepares food, tea, and educational materials, and if you charge me, I’ll cover all the expenses. They even provide a place for training at home, so it’s polite to pay for that much.”
Erisha, whose eyes widened at the words of such a holy day, thanked her holy day in front of her door and left.
Erica, who finished her business and came out the door, thought to herself.
‘Hee hee.. I asked for this properly! The expensive tuition fees were not enough, so they even paid for class preparation. You look like a pretty rich boy, don’t you? I will definitely become friends and eat them to the bone!’
Although Erisha played perfectly in the palm of her Seongil, she returned home with a happy imagination without even guessing the black heart of Seongil.
