A Good Girl

Greg had never been able to understand why the people in the Department of Alchemy always managed to cause explosions when they were clearly just mixing seemingly harmless items.

He had once firmly believed that they must be sneakily adding some contraband ingredients into their experiments to cause such frequent accidents.

After all, the scientific education he had received before transmigrating told him that chemical reactions followed strict laws; as long as one followed the recipe to the letter, no accidents should occur.

Until he saw with his own eyes Alice and Chloe drop a tiny bottle of what looked like clear water onto the Golden Glow Spider Silk. The very next second, a ball of orange-red fire rose from the workbench with a deafening roar, forming a perfect spiral pillar of flame that shot straight toward the ceiling.

From that day on, he was a believer.

The alchemy of this world was just that mystical.

It didn't care about science, and it didn't care about logic; it only cared about feelings and inspiration.

When Alice and Chloe were doing experiments, they would often say things that he couldn't comprehend at all, such as:

“The mana flow of this material is a bit violent,” “Its affinity with that reagent doesn't quite match,” or “I think it's in a bad mood today, we need to soothe it first.”

At first, Greg thought they were joking, but only after suffering the consequences did he realize they had been completely serious from the very beginning.

“Senior Greg, Victoria, are you two really okay?”

A soft voice pulled Greg back to reality from his painful memories.

He looked up and saw Silvia's face, which was filled with concern.

The pink-haired girl tilted her head slightly, her warm eyes filled with worry as she looked at the two disheveled figures in front of her. They had claimed to be stepping out for some fresh air, but they looked more like they had just escaped for their lives from a battlefield.

Victoria's originally smooth, long gray hair was now slightly curly—not the kind of curls that were meticulously styled, but rather singed and crimped from being blasted by heatwaves.

Right now, she looked like she had just crawled out of a burning building, her eyes vacant and exhausted with the look of a survivor.

Greg's situation wasn't any better.

His otherwise handsome face was covered in soot and dust, and there were even a few tiny pebbles hidden in his hair, glinting faintly in the sunlight.

Currently, he didn't look at all like an elite student about to represent the academy in the Hundred Academy Exchange; he looked more like a miserable laborer who had spent the entire day carrying bricks at a construction site.

Victoria nodded weakly. “We're... okay, I guess...”

Greg nodded along, his voice equally exhausted. “Yeah, we're not dead yet.”

He and Victoria had originally thought that since they didn't have to do the experiments themselves, their time in the laboratory would be quite relaxing.

After all, the actual labor was being handled by Alice and Chloe; all they had to do was play cards on the side or occasionally hand over a tool.

However, reality dealt them a resounding slap in the face.

Because the two of them had to focus intensely on those two experimenting “maniacs.” The moment a spark flashed, they had to immediately use magic to block it and suppress the impending explosion to the smallest possible area.

This required extreme concentration and reaction speed, because with even a slight lapse, the entire laboratory could be leveled to the ground.

To make matters worse, once Alice and Chloe started their experiments, it was as if they suddenly entered a state of obsession.

Even if Greg and Victoria screamed until their throats went hoarse, the girls remained completely deaf to them, focused only on continuing their hazardous experimental procedures.

Once, Greg had even seen Chloe continuing to add reagents to a test tube that was already smoking. He had screamed at her to “stop,” but Chloe had only smiled and said, “Don't worry, Big Brother, I know what I'm doing,” and then, the very next second, the test tube exploded.

Only when the girls exhausted themselves to the point of completely losing consciousness, like they had just now, could Greg and Victoria finally escape the laboratory to catch their breath.

“You both are working so hard for the upcoming exchange...”

Silvia sighed softly as she looked at the state they were in.

Her voice carried heartfelt admiration, along with a faint trace of shame.

She thought of her own group's situation.

Her mentor was the First-year Chief Professor, Grace.

However, since Professor Grace was combat-oriented rather than theoretical-type, she hadn't strictly demanded that they prepare anything specific for the exchange.

Professor Grace had simply told them not to embarrass Glory Cael Magic Academy during the exchange; her real focus was on the subsequent Five Academy Tournament.

So during this period, Silvia had been preparing at her own pace, practicing magic control and reviewing theoretical knowledge every day.

Over the past few days, Silvia had honestly believed she was preparing incredibly hard.

But now, seeing Greg and Victoria pushing themselves to their absolute limits for the exchange, she suddenly felt like she had been slacking off.

“Want to go to the dungeon to relax a bit?”

Greg suddenly spoke up, proposing to Victoria beside him.

There was an impatient longing in his voice, like someone who had been trapped in an office for too long finally seeing the dawn of the weekend.

Hearing this, Victoria's gray eyes, which had been somewhat dull from exhaustion, instantly lit up like two ignited stars.

She nodded vigorously, her voice filled with irrepressible excitement. “Great idea! I definitely need to go blow off some steam!”

If other students heard their conversation, they would definitely think there was something wrong with their heads.

The dungeon?

That was one of the most dangerous places in the world, filled with ferocious monsters, deadly traps, and all kinds of unpredictable hazards.

Ordinary students would turn pale just at the mention of the word “dungeon,” wishing to never have anything to do with it for the rest of their lives.

Yet these two were talking about going to the dungeon to relax?

To ordinary students, people like this were either lunatics or absolute freaks; their logic was utterly incomprehensible.

Victoria turned to look at her friend, her gray eyes filled with anticipation. “Silvia, do you want to come with us?”

Silvia fell silent for a moment, her pink hair swaying gently in the breeze.

She actually really wanted to continue staying by Greg's side.

She was even quietly scheming in her heart whether she could find another opportunity behind Victoria's back... to sneak a taste of him again.

But as soon as this thought surfaced, she suppressed it.

Because she saw a spark in Greg and Victoria's eyes—it was their dedication to the upcoming exchange, and their thirst for victory.

That light was so blazing and dazzling that it made her feel a little ashamed of herself.

“They're working so hard, yet I'm still thinking about how to sneak a taste... I can't be like this!”

In order not to be left behind by them, she also planned to go back and continue working hard on her preparations.

She wanted to show her best self at the exchange as well, so Greg would see that she was also making progress and working hard.

Only then would she be worthy of standing by his side.

“I-I'm sorry,”

Silvia lowered her head, her voice tinged with apology.

“Since I want to keep preparing for the exchange, you two should go ahead without me this time.”

With that, she said her goodbyes, turned around, and took her leave.

Her figure receded into the shadows of the corridor, carrying a sense of firm determination.

Watching Silvia's departing back, both Greg and Victoria couldn't help but sigh inwardly:

“As expected of a good girl. Her attitude toward studying is on a completely different level from slackers like us.”