Teacher by day, Farmer by passion-Chapter 176: Deception [3]

Ace, now fully reclined in his chair with one leg casually crossed over the other, watches the students began there refinement.

Lotus quietly stepped up beside him, forming a subtle noise cancellation formation with a flick of her sleeve.

"Teacher," she said in a hushed tone, "Can you enlighten me? I failed to notice

any fake herbs among them."

Ace gave her a sidelong glance and smiled faintly. "That's because there aren't any."

Lotus blinked. "Then why say—"

"Because I want them to think there are." He cut her off gently, eyes twinkling with amusement as he watched a student discard a perfectly good Azure Leaf, mistaking it for a mimic weed.

"The moment doubt settles in," Ace continued, "they'll begin questioning everything. That's how an alchemist's mind should work. Cautious, methodical, curious. You can't refine pills blindly. You need certainty. And if they don't even know their herbs by sight, they don't deserve a cauldron."

Lotus stared, slowly processing the underlying brilliance behind what seemed at first like a prank.

Ace leaned forward, finally serious. "After this, I'm giving them the full herb compendium and locking the doors. They'll memorize it cover to cover."

She gasped a little.

"Oh, and don't think you're excluded," Ace added casually. "You're my assistant now. I'll groom you personally to become the next Master Alchemist."

Soon Cauldrons bubbled. Flames flickered. Students sweated.

As the class began refining the Body Strengthening Pill, chaos ensued—beautiful, glorious chaos.

One student squealed when their cauldron let out a strange hiss, another yelped as sparks flew up and singed the tips of their eyebrows.

A noble girl shrieked and ducked behind her table as her mixture began foaming violently.

Ace sat comfortably on his chair, one leg crossed over the other, sipping tea clearly enjoying the chaos unfold.

A broad grin stretched across his face as another mini explosion popped in the corner.

"Marvelous," he muttered, eyes gleaming with amusement as a boy let out a cry of betrayal: "Why is mine purple?!"

A loud boom sent another student tumbling backward, face covered in soot, hair standing up like a frightened porcupine.

An hour passed in a haze of smoke, sweat, and occasional small explosions. The scent of scorched herbs hung in the air like a silent accusation.

Several students sat beside cracked or scorched cauldrons, soot on their cheeks and despair in their eyes.

But to their credit, most had actually succeeded—barely.

Ace inspected the last pill presented to him, rolling it between his fingers with a casual nod.

"Not so hard now, was it?" he said, offering the exhausted student a slight grin.

The student, pale and trembling, collapsed onto the floor right then and there, breathing heavily as if he had just fought a spiritual beast rather than refined a simple Grade 1 pill.

The rest of the class looked no better—many were slumped over their stations, robes soaked with sweat, their hands trembling from the intense mental strain.

A few students had fallen asleep mid-sit, their heads resting against still-warm cauldrons.

Just then, a slender hand rose into the air.

Ace turned his gaze toward the voice.

It was the same girl who had been chatting with Emilia earlier. Unlike the others, she stood tall, not a trace of sweat on her brow.

Her expression was calm, curious even.

"Professor," she asked, her voice steady, "there really were no fake herbs, were there?"

Ace paused for a moment, then gave her an appreciative look. "Sharp."

The girl smiled slightly. The rest of the class, catching wind of the question, began straightening up, eyes wide in realization.

"No fakes," Ace confirmed aloud, rising to his feet. "But your minds told you otherwise. The mere possibility changed how you approached the task. That's what I wanted to see."

He looked over the class, his voice carrying more weight now.

"You might be able to refine a pill, but that's not enough. A true alchemist must have certainty in their knowledge, even when doubt is whispered in their ear."

Lotus, standing nearby, quietly nodded, her earlier doubts about his method now completely erased.

"Consider today your first real lesson," Ace concluded. "And get some rest. You'll need it."

Ace stepped out of the alchemy room, the door closing behind him with a soft thud. The hall was quiet, but his mind wasn't.

Lotus followed close behind, adjusting her robe and smoothing her sleeves when Ace suddenly called out, "You, assistant."

She narrowed her eyes. "I have a name, you know."

"Whatever it is," Ace replied breezily, waving a hand. "Do you know how to distinguish between potent and impotent herbs?"

"What kind of question is that?" she frowned, caught off guard.

Ace didn't respond. His eyes narrowed slightly as he slipped into deep thought, his footsteps slowing.

There was something strange.

He had intentionally placed a completely useless wooden tree bark in the bin—something no alchemist with basic training would ever mistake for the ironwood root, a key ingredient in the Body Strengthening Pill.

It was a subtle trap, meant to catch overconfident students off-guard.

But instead of confusion or failure… one student had used it. And succeeded.

That girl. The one who raised her hand with that calm voice, asking whether there were ever any fake herbs to begin with.

Ace's brows furrowed.

How did she do it? A misidentification would normally corrupt the entire pill structure.

Bark didn't contain the stabilizing essence ironwood root provided. By all logic, her cauldron should have exploded—or, at best, produced sludge.

Yet the result had been a perfect Body Strengthening Pill.

He replayed the moment in his mind. Her posture. Her clarity. Her lack of sweat. Her certainty.

"Unless…" he muttered under his breath, "the ingredient isn't as necessary as we were led to believe. Or she altered the pill formula on the fly…?"

Was she improvising with substitutions? That would require an intimate understanding of herb properties and how their energies interacted, something even experienced alchemists struggled with.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned to Lotus. freewёbnoνel.com

"You. What was the name of the girl who raised her hand earlier?"

Lotus blinked no longer bothering to remind him of her name.

She didn't press it. "Her name is Anna, teacher."

Ace's eyes narrowed slightly, the gears in his mind turning ever faster.

"Anna… interesting."