Glan Natural Science Academy

Evening 

Satro and Ryger came to Mentor Kubo’s house. Nervous because of the good news they’d tell Kubo soon, the two fidgeted while sitting . 

Mentor Kubo wasn’t back yet; Peerless was out for a long time; Enid was still collecting specimens and hadn’t returned. brought a plate of exotic fruits and placed it in front of the two of them. 

Seeing the two being so restrained and unnatural, Adva’s face softened. 

“Look at how nervous you two are. It’s not like your mentor is a proteus. What is he going to do? Gobble you up?” 

In the fruit plate, there was a strange fruit called a thunderlips fruit. 

Adva peeled the thunderlips fruit, cut it into small pieces with a fruit knife, skewered them one by one with toothpicks and put it in the fruit plate before handing it to them.

  “Thank you, Mrs Adva.” 

Satro took the fruit plate and motioned at Ryger, “Junior brother, you haven’t tasted a thunderlips fruit before, have you? It only grows a little in the Bloodwolf Gorge deep inside the Thorn Forest every winter. It also gets emptied very quickly by the Tibetan wolves nearby . Because of this, each fruit is worth a lot. The Academy only managed to transplant a tree some years ago after a lot of effort. Only so do the Academy distribute some fruits every year to the mentors!”

  “Oh?”

  Hearing that this foreign fruit is so precious, Ryger became curious and gently picked up a toothpick. 

Looking at the milky white pulp on the toothpick, Ryger gently placed it in his mouth while Adva and Satro smiled and watched. 

Zzzz! 

The moment the fruit touched his lips, an unexpected sensation of numbness swiftly permeated through his every cell, as though struck by a bolt lightning. Ryger instantly felt his whole-body trembling in unspeakable pain and happiness. His teeth clattered.

“hiss……”

  Ryger breathed out. 

It was only for a short moment but it felt like several days. The thunderlips fruit lost its effect and turned into mellow liquid that flowed down his throat. Ryger felt his body suddenly become lighter and he was indescribably refreshed.

“Junior Brother, how did it feel?” 

In contrast, Satro was already able to withstand the stimulation of thunderlips fruit like it was nothing.

“This, this is amazing! That there are such amazing fruits in the world, the evolution of life in nature is truly amazing. No wonder the Academy went through a lot of effort to transplant a tree!” 

Ryger had already learned the scholars’ way of praising. 

Adva smiled gracefully. “Work hard. Your mentor has many good things. It’s all yours in the future.”  

Hearing what she said, Ryger thought of the good news he was going to tell mentor soon – he had completed his basic initiate learnings – and the praises by mentor then. He got excited, as if it was a joy more wonderful than the thunderlips fruit. 

Mentor would never think that I would complete the basics in only one short month!

As he thought of this, Ryger inevitably felt a little bit proud of himself.

Creak.

Suddenly, the sound of the fence’s gate outside the house came. 

Satro and Ryger tacitly stood up and looked respectfully at the door.   

Seeing the two act like a mouse encountering a cat, Adva shook her head and smiled. “Alright, your mentor is back.” 

The door opened. Adva looked at the preoccupied Kubo and gently said, “Satro and Ryger are here.” 

Kubo looked up and glanced at the two people standing stiffly in the room. He made a ‘Mmn’ sound as a response without saying anything else and walked into the study. 

Satro and Ryger followed Kubo to the study, not daring to breathe loudly.

  “What’s the matter?” 

As soon as Kubo entered the study, he turned his back to the two and looked for something on the bookshelf. He asked them without looking at them.

  Ryger and Satro exchanged glances. Ryger pursed his lips and said nothing while Satro spoke respectfully. “Mentor, junior brother has completed the initiate lessons. He can follow the instructors’ lessons and learn together with the current batch of new students.”

  Ryger kept his head low. His ears and neck were flushed red. He had a shy expression. 

It was as if the praise from Mentor Kubo was the most potent stimulant to him in this world! 

Kubo, who was finding some books, paused for a while then continued on with his work. He still didn’t look at them. “Does he already have academic awareness?” 

“Yes.” 

Satro responded seriously. 

“Mn. I understand. Come over tomorrow morning.” 

Kubo’s voice was very calm, as though everything that happened was as it should be.   

Ryger was in disbelief. Excitement was quickly replaced by an inability to understand, as though a bucket of cold water had drenched him and doused his fiery excitement. He raised his head and looked at mentor who was looking for books. His eager yearning was completely overwhelmed by grievance and loss. 

All he got in return for his hard work was only a few terse responses. 

Finally, Kubo found a yellowed scroll on the bookshelf and took it down. 

” 《Spiritual Sacrifice》. The limbs and organs of human albinos are spiritual sacrificial offerings for advanced sorcerers. The many serial murders of albinos in the Academy recently… seems like some sorcerers have infiltrated in again… Damned rats, do you still think this is the Dark Age when you faced the Church face on?!” 

As he muttered to himself, Kubo seemed to have completely forgotten the two disciples standing in front of him. He sat on a chair and perused the scroll absorbedly. 

Ryger raised his head and looked anxiously and helplessly at his mentor who was completely immersed in the contents of the scroll. 

He felt his clothes being pulled gently by his senior brother. Ryger looked. Satro was pursing his lips. He shook his head slightly and gestured to Ryger to leave the room and to not disturb mentor.  

Satro understands Ryger’s grievances. He, too, was in pain.

  He had thought to tell mentor this good news and make him happy – mentor’s joy was his joy. But he didn’t think he would get such an indifferent response.

It wasn’t only Ryger; he too was the same!

  For so many years, no matter how hard he worked, he wouldn’t be able to get mentor’s recognition. And for the same thing, Peerless only needs to do it casually and his results will always be far better, far superior than himself, making mentor proud. He himself had always lived under the insurmountable shadow of Peerless. Like a supporting character. He had felt lost and despaired time and time, and time again.   

Mentor’s heart has been completely occupied by Peerless.

Any results, so long as it does not surpass Peerless’s achievements, would only result in mentor’s indifference and criticism, no matter how much effort was put into it.   

Satro closed the door of the study lightly, as if this door was the most beautiful woman, making him treat it with all of his heart, afraid of disturbing mentor’s ruminations.  He pulled Ryger’s clothes gently and left.

  “Huh? Satro, Ryger, why are you leaving so soon. Come and have dinner together!” 

Adva, who was making dinner, walked out of the kitchen. 

“Eh? No, madam! Junior brother still does not understand an important knowledge. We just consulted the mentor so we should go back and teach junior brother about it. So that I don’t forget it. Hahhaha.” 

Satro smiled honestly.

" "

  Adva looked at Ryger whose head was lowered and didn’t dare to look at her. She suddenly understood what happened and glared at Satro who lied to her.

  Satro slowly lowered his head and said nothing.  . 

“Ahh… well, learning is important. After Enid comes back two days later, I’ll call you.” 

Adva sighed and patted Satro and Ryger on the shoulders. She hugged them gently like a mother, comforted their hearts and watched them leave. 

After Ryger and Satro completely away. Adva’s sigh of compassion suddenly turned into anger. She pushed open the wooden door of Kubo’s stud. Kubo, who was studying some handwritten notes, was startled. 

“What is it with you?” 

“Satro has been a disciple of yours for almost 20 years. Do you not even know how many grievances he has experienced? What did he do wrong? Is it wrong for him to not be as good as Peerless? Now it’s even better, there’s Ryger. Is Peerless the only one that you care about?”

  Kubo snorted and threw the notes onto the table. 

“I’m not just their mentor. I’m also the Academy’s head-of-year and the founder of the academic discipline of atavistic cloning. It’s only a little achievement. Do I need to be like their nanny and keep praising them non-stop in the future? Isn’t this what he should accomplish as a qualified scholar!” 

Kubo said angrily: “The path of exploring evolutionary secrets is one done by oneself, not by others’ encouragement. Without mountains of corpses from specimens, without seas of blood from the dissection table, if the laboratory ground isn’t a wasteland of bones, without the courage of exploration to break through all obstacles, he will be nothing more than third-rate scholars, a midget that’ll never grow up!”

“You!” 

Adva didn’t know what to say anymore.She just stared straight at Kubo. The room became extremely quiet in an instant, leaving only the sound of heartbeats. 

After a while. 

“Ah…hah…haha. We’ve been married for so long now. Don’t be angry. Alright, I understand. I’ll pay attention in the future.”   

After some silence, Kubo smiled awkwardly.