Chapter 50: Miss Chloe Wishes to Learn Alchemy

"Ivy, what do you think?"

With dark circles under her eyes, Ivy peered sneakily around the doorway of Miss Chloe’s bedroom alongside Ethan, stealing glances at the little hen who had her back to them and was reading intently. A strange sense of guilt, as if she were committing a petty crime, welled up in Ivy's heart.

Moreover, why did it feel like she had somehow become the assistant after spending a short while with Ethan?

Wasn't that a question she was supposed to be asking Ethan?

Despite this, Ivy answered honestly, "This is likely the effect of the werewolf collar. When the collar's curse was activated, some form of link was established between you and Miss Chloe, causing her to subtly develop the same hobbies as you."

Ethan's hobby was reading.

This was common knowledge among the residents of Riverwood. In his very first year coming to this town, people noticed he practically spent every daytime hour hoarded away in the town library. He had scoured every single book on occultism the town possessed, earning him the title of "Occult Expert" over time.

"Miss Chloe is reading books on alchemy, and she even slipped out of the apartment in the middle of the night to pick empress vipers from the mountain!"

The book was one that originally came with the apartment's bookshelf, merely an introductory beginner's guide to alchemy, and the town's public library possessed an identical copy.

Alchemy was one of the few paths in this world that granted an opportunity to step into the realm of the transcendent without needing to worship any deities. At the same time, the byproducts of alchemy—potions—were among the hottest commodities in the occult shops, with potions crafted by high-ranking alchemists often fetching astronomical sums at auctions.

Then why were there so few practitioners of such a promising-sounding transcendent profession?

When Ethan had posed this question to the president of the Riverwood Guild two years ago while holding a copy of *Introduction to Alchemy Notes*, the worldly-wise middle-aged man had delivered a sobering reality check: "What kind of fortune do you think you have to even dream of studying alchemy?"

At the time, the guild president had held up four fingers to Ethan.

In the vast town of Riverwood, there were only four households with the financial backing to study alchemy. Among those four, Ivy, a graduate of the Enlightenment Society, was excluded, and the offspring of the other three households possessed no talent whatsoever for alchemy. Consequently, this created a situation where those with money could not study it, while those without money... were desperately working to scrape by, completely oblivious to whether they even possessed the talent to become an alchemist.

Ethan's dream of becoming an alchemist had been ruthlessly crushed by reality.

However, fortunes can reverse in the span of thirty years!

He gazed at Miss Chloe, who was engrossed in reading the notes, and suddenly experienced a bizarre sense of déjà vu. Back then, poverty had forced him to abandon his dream of becoming an alchemist. Now, he had found a way to make money, accumulating savings of over fifty gold lions in less than a week. The young ones at home would no longer have to bow their heads to reality because of poverty...

*Chronicles of Struggling in Riverwood*, proudly serialized!

So this was the heaviest meaning behind the codename "Chicken Keeper"!

***

Ethan once again unconsciously slipped into the role of an old, doting father.

Ivy and the golden retriever hair clip atop her head both slanted their gazes at him. "What crooked ideas are you cooking up again?"

She and the golden retriever clip had reached a consensus—Ethan had a peculiar train of thought and could always burst forth with astonishing wisdom out of nowhere. Judging by the expression on his face just then, which seemed to have witnessed the vicissitudes of life, she could tell that this fellow was undoubtedly about to say, "I have a plan."

"Ivy, do you think there's any possibility that Miss Chloe could become an alchemist?"

Even though she had prepared herself in advance, Ivy was still shaken to her core by Ethan's earth-shattering question. Unwilling to even answer directly, she retorted, "Do you even hear yourself right now?"

Turn a werewolf chicken into an alchemist?

Not to mention a frontier town like Riverwood, even in the imperial capital, aristocratic scions who had studied under high-ranking alchemists since childhood didn't necessarily amount to anything. On the path toward transcendence, lacking a clear belief system was far from a good thing; it only caused mortals to lose themselves in the process of groping blindly in the dark.

Looking across the entire Empire, only those blessed with both wisdom and talent had any hope of treading this path.

And Ethan's current plan was to turn a little hen into an alchemist.

If those high-ranking alchemists were to overhear these words, they would likely boot Ethan flying right out of the gates of the Alchemical Society.

Yet, Ethan seemed completely oblivious to how absurd a proposition he had just made, and instead muttered to himself, "Come to think of it, Miss Chloe has reached the age to choose a profession. It's rare for her to take such an interest in something."

"You...!"

Even with a myriad of thoughts swirling in her mind, Ivy couldn't manage to string together a single complete sentence. At that exact moment, she finally confirmed one thing.

Ethan's brain genuinely had a wiring problem.

A very, very big one.

"Perhaps Miss Chloe doesn't understand the contents of the book at all."

In the end, Ivy adopted a roundabout tactic, probing tactfully, "The *Introduction to Alchemy Notes* features many herbs and creatures required for potion-making. She probably just likes the illustrations inside."

She figured this was the normal thought process for a rational person.

Could a little hen possibly understand alchemy?

***

Based on her observations of Miss Chloe, although the collar allowed her to comprehend a portion of human speech and granted her intelligence surpassing that of ordinary animals, she was still a far cry from humans.

"Do not make hasty generalizations. Have you never heard the saying? Interest is a child's best teacher."

Ethan pushed open the door and stepped inside first. "Let's go verify it for ourselves."

The two of them walked one after the other behind Miss Chloe. Hearing the commotion from behind, the little hen rose from the floor. Upon discovering that the visitors were Ethan and Ivy, she abruptly lifted her neck and smiled happily at them.

Although describing it that way felt somewhat strange when applied to a little hen, Ivy felt that Miss Chloe's eyes were shining brightly, just like a child full of curiosity and yearning for the world.

Then, using a somewhat clumsy method, Miss Chloe flipped to a specific page with her beak and carried the entire book over in her mouth, presenting it before them.

That page depicted the crucible used for brewing potions—the absolute foundation of alchemy.

*Chloe really needs this.*

She had actually managed to read the little hen's gaze.

Ivy stared at the illustration of the crucible in silence for a long time, then heard herself speak as if possessed by some mysterious force, "The Research Department of the Containment Bureau is in urgent need of talent in alchemy. The expenses incurred from studying alchemy should be eligible for reimbursement from the branch office."

...

Ivy could no longer quite remember how she had managed to walk out of Ethan's apartment. She made her way back up the steps onto the street, feeling the chill of the biting wind blowing against her face, as the golden retriever clip on her head drooped in utter defeat.

By the God of Truth,

She must have been infected by Ethan's bizarre train of thought!

This level of contamination made her suspect that Ethan himself was some sort of humanoid cursed artifact they had never encountered before.

And now she, as the head of the Riverwood Intelligence Station, was about to write an application to the Gear City branch.

Yes, she was going to use a formal letter to persuade the branch's finance department to reimburse the alchemy tuition for a little hen.