The Novice Alchemist's Store

Royal Alchemist Training School.

It is the only school in this country where the national qualification of alchemist can be obtained.

If you can graduate from this school and even qualify as an alchemist, the person's life is already safe.

The life of our left is promised.

But it's also very competitive, and it's very difficult to enroll, as well as graduate safely.

Such a super difficult school is the Royal Alchemist Training School.

Alchemists are synonymous with elites in the first place.

Having the ability to create essential smelters (potions) and smelter artifacts, their supply is always scarce to demand.

There is also price control by the state, and excessive discounts are not allowed.

In other words, simply put, the profit margin is very high and you don't have to worry about remaining sold as long as you choose the product.

For this reason, if you can be an alchemist, you won't have a lifetime full of food - on the contrary, you don't have to work desperately to make enough money.

Also a hallmark of the Royal Alchemist Training School is that anyone who strives - civilians, of course, even orphans - can enrol in school.

Knowledge required in entrance exams can be learned in textbooks, which are lent free of charge upon application.

Besides, there is no cost to take the exam.

There's nothing I can do if I can't even read the letters, but even in an orphanage, it's possible to study the letters to the extent I want, so I can cover them there with my personal efforts as well.

In addition to tuition waivers, there are also scholarship payments and exam-by-exam bonus awards for the best performers, which in a sense creates a "good as long as they are studying” environment.

But because it is such a privileged environment, its gateway is very narrow.

For civilians and orphans, there are many who wish to enroll only in a profession that is almost the only one capable of development, and naturally the exams are difficult.

Furthermore, nobles with excellent tutors take the exams as well, so there is no way they can beat the competition with their raw "naked" efforts.

And I can't feel safe if I manage to pass the entrance exam.

If the results of the exams that take place every four months do not reach a certain level, you will be relentlessly expelled.

Naturally, there is no such thing as retesting, as is this even for nobility.

As a result, it is said that less than a tenth of the graduation ceremony at the time of enrolment can be attended five years later.

I, Sarasa Feed, graduate from such a school today.

No, that was tough!

Graduation emotions?

I didn't even have time to feel that way.

Whatever you say, I had my graduation exam until yesterday.

And the announcement of that test result, this morning.

In case you fail with that, it's a nightmare that you can't go to graduation even if you come to school today!?

I don't know who thought about it, but I don't think we have exactly this date.

Well, it seems that no one has ever missed a graduation exam before.

There's no one left with a grade problem because they're hung up on a sieve long enough by then.

It's possible to fall off if you get out of your mind, but if you imagine a situation where only one person is left in the classroom on graduation day, it's natural to get more tempered than usual exams.

Is it about sickness that's dangerous? Of course we all know that, so we'll work hard to stay fit, and if we have anxiety, we'll be out of school for a while. But we'll get better.

Of course I did, desperately!

It was also worth it, and I got my last exam bounty along with my diploma.

Yeah, thankfully.

I think I lost my parents in an accident when I was eight, and since I was put in an orphanage, I even study except for the minimum job, as if I were going to escape reality.

For this reason it annoyed everyone in the orphanage, but it was not particularly reprehensible because of the implicit understanding that all children who aspire to an alchemist training school will support them.

If you succeed in becoming an alchemist instead, sending a donation in return is another implicit understanding.

The alchemist from the orphanage now sends us donations on a regular basis, so we didn't have to live like lighting a fire on our nails either.

But it was also worth such a gallery study, and as a civilian, I succeeded in enrolling in school with a pretty good grade, earned free tuition, eligibility to pay scholarships and residency, and was able to leave the orphanage at the age of ten.

After that, it even dawned on part-time work and study.

Fortunately, he was hired to work part-time at an alchemist's shop, so he could also be apprenticed to the store manager.

Thanks to this, I was able to study myself and keep my academic achievement at the level where I can get exam rewards even if I get time for part-time work.

Unfortunately, I rarely took the top, but fortunately, all the people above me were aristocrats, right?

Why “lucky”? Is that customary about bounty money? Tradition? Because there was such a thing.

Typically, exam bonuses are paid up to the top three.

If this is strictly applied, maybe the reward I got is about half of what it is now?

But if nobility comes to the top, there's a “duty of nobility” trend to resign.

The declined bounty is then rolled down to the lower ranking.

It is thanks to this system that I was awarded a bounty for the majority of my exams.

Of course it's not compulsory, but they have noble pride and other looks there.

In the case of lower nobles, I think it's hard because sometimes when you're bad, you don't have more money than wealthy civilians.

Though it's a very thankful tradition for me.

Thanks to this, my savings were over Rs 5 million at the time of graduation.

Ordinary civilians don't earn half a million rare a year, so they actually earn more than ten times what they earn a year!

Yeah, good luck! Me!

More than half of them are scholarships and bounty money, but the rest is money earned part-time!

Even though accommodation and food are free thanks to the dorm, it was really, really hard (...) to make this much money using between school classes and study time.

Thankfully, my part-time daily wage was comparable to the full day's earnings of the civilian population, but for this, it's not usually the kind of amount you can earn on a part-time basis.

It is an amount because I am an alchemist apprentice and I was able to work part-time in my master's shop.

That's all you can earn from your apprenticeship part time, so how can a real alchemist earn money?

And from today on, me too, such an alchemist!

Take the Alchemy's License out of your pocket and look at the Alchemy's License you just got for graduation.

A strange substance, like a thin metal, then very light and flexible.

There is engraved Mark the Alchemist and my name, the diploma of the Royal Alchemist Training School.

Furthermore, my own magic prints have been recorded, and even the mechanism by which the display disappears when anyone but me touches it. In a sense, this is a masterpiece of alchemy.

Hmm, I can get my hands on my cheeks that my face is going to burn.

It would be suspicious if one person was snorting in front of the gate.

… alone.

Yes, I'm alone.

The graduation ceremony is over safely, and a new doorstep.

But I'm alone in front of the school gate.

Hey, I really haven't done anything but part-time and study in the last five years!

Thanks to you, I'm trying to get out of school like this, but no one even comes to say hi.

And there's no one to go say hello to.

The air tastes different around me, even though there are graduates around who spare their juniors their goodbyes and people who are smiling and talking to the people who pick them up.

No one comes near me.

Beh, nothing, I don't miss you, but heh!

- No, I really miss you a little bit.

I don't know, because I hardly had any friends.

Because it's my fault, I can't help it.

After all, you're even studying and you barely even have a conversation, you can't make friends, can you?

No, well, the truth is, it's just almost zero, and it wasn't really zero, was it?

Until last year, there were two seniors who cared about me like this and got along.

And there's one junior who got along because of that senior connection.

But the two of you who graduated safely last year are not in the Wang Capital because you now work in another town.

I still do the correspondence, but the first year alchemist isn't sweet enough to come to Wang Du for my graduation ceremony. It costs a lot of transportation.

... Speaking of which, I was wondering if it was about the cost of the correspondence that I spent money on besides the essentials.

And speaking of juniors, I've been ill for a few days unluckily and I don't attend graduation.

I tried to get you here, but my junior regular exams are right after graduation.

You can't let them fail in case, "Never come, let your body heal!" I told him so strongly.

Because it involves life enough not to be stylish. Hey, if you fail the exam.

"Yeah,... let's go quick"

Standing alone in this air is a little hard.

Sometimes the surprise "a lot" of shivering gaze sent to me must not be my fault.

I look back once and look up at the school building where I spent five years.

A lot happened.

Most of them have only memories of studying, but still some fun.

At least I don't have any trouble with my life as long as I'm studying, so all in all, I think it was not a bad student life.

But from now on, I have to walk away by myself.

I walked out with determination in my chest and my back to the school gate.