As the rest days ended, the school days recommenced and two youths who inwardly felt a little physically frustrated and unfulfilled returned to their respective classes.
For Leon that meant paying his respects to his Teacher and following whatever plan his Teacher had for him. On this day, it was a review of his learnings the week before as well as a conversation about the events of the previous week. Leon quietly related what had occurred from his perspective, the mistake with the false nettle herb and the firepit having been compromised with indigo hearth shade herb. He did not mention his theory of bullying as there was no proof of it and neither did the other 'accidents' happen to come up in conversation.
Teacher Sagi listened quietly and honestly as Leon stuttered through his version of events. Of course he was not stupid, direct apprentices often became the targets of jealousy and there were always questionable events like these occurring after students had been named. Plus the former could have been coincidental and a complete accident and the latter was a childish prank, but there was no evidence to pinpoint just who was the culprit. He did not think Leon was the sort to sabotage his own working space and ruin the lesson.
He could only sigh and warn Leon to be more careful next time. There would be no punishment coming from him and besides, Leon had had to clean out the firepit, despite him likely being blameless. That was more than enough.
Teacher Sagi asked Leon to take care of the herbs in his (Sagi's) garden that morning, before allowing him the afternoon to do as he pleased.
The following day had Leon creating batches of Spring Willow Salve potion for Fox Bandages, but despite Leon sealing the barrels with spiritual energy, one of the barrels was compromised and the contents spoiled. Before the potion was settled into the barrels, it was unpleasant in odour enough, the spoiled batch was absolutely vile and its smell contaminated the whole of the Lecture Hall as well as several metres beyond. Those visiting the Herb Hall complained loudly and as Leon was responsible for the potion, all blame fell upon him.
There was little he could say in his defence. He had, he thought, sealed the battles and as far as he was aware, they could then only be unsealed by himself. It was just that he was certain that before he left the room to wash away the remnants of the herbs upon his hands, that he had checked that each barrel was tightly sealed, so how had it come to be that one was not at all?
He was tripped and pushed to the ground three times following that, but the third time, the overconfident student, a young man who was about his age whom he did not recall ever interacting with before, was caught by a very angry Teacher, who happened to pass by. Thus the following day, those targeting him quietened down and Leon breathed a sigh of relief.
He would later think that he had relaxed too soon.
Midweek, Leon came to the Herb Hall as usual, to be told by his senior, Hue, who had been accepted as Teacher Sagi's direct student two years prior, that their Master was currently at the Scholars Enlightened Mountain giving lectures. Leon accepted the explanation and the given task that Teacher Sagi had left him, which according to the note was to make a White Lotus Pill.
Leon frowned. According to the diaries, the White Lotus Pill was a cosmetic pill, a beauty pill that had no practical use, just was popular amongst the women of wealthy houses. Leo had been a little disgusted with cosmetic pills, considering them a waste of his time and effort. Did not even write down recipes or decent descriptions for them, just wrote down a list naming them and what they looked and smelled like so he could identify them later on. Leon's interest in them had been a little higher when he had first considered ways of making money, but after deciding to focus on healing pills, he had forgotten about them.
What he didn't understand was why Teacher Sagi wished for him to make them. He sighed and pushed his question to one side. It was still a pill that alchemists could make and he was still in learning. So he took the note with the recipe instructions and the pro-offered herbs and headed for the Lecture Hall.
The odour from the spoiled potion was finally minimal, though it still lingered in the room where Leon went to work. He felt that right now it was not a bad thing, at least he should be left alone to concentrate.
Leon placed his cauldron upon the fixed fireplace after reassuring himself that there was nothing but a bit of ash in the pit, added wood and lit the fire. Nothing but a bit of heat and flames came from the pit, so Leon lowered his guard and began to deal with the herbs. It required the delicate pink leaves of the Sakura Fennel Herb, the roots of Weeping Grass, the whole of the cotton-tailed river reed and the flowers of the three season flowering wild mountain roses.
Leon could not help but frown for none of these herbs could be considered common. While only the Sakura Fennel was rare, the others were either slow-growing or preferred specific habitats so they were still considered uncommon amongst herbs. He felt that it was a complete waste to turn these into a pill that was only for beautifying. Still, this was his assignment, so he placed the herbs into his cauldron bit at a time as each would dissolve into liquid or powder while influenced by a high, but constant heat.
When all four had broken down inside the cauldron, he used his spiritual energy to try combine them, only, the herbs seemed to repel each other, refusing his will. With half a mind on his cauldron, he reread the instructions, but saw nothing wrong and tried once more, pouring more of himself into completing the task. The herbs came together finally, while sweat poured from his forehead, but it was only for a brief moment.
The contents of the cauldron exploded and Leon's unprepared body flew back from the shockwave and smacked against the wall. He gasped as almost every nerve ending screamed in pain, before collapsing to the floor in an unconscious heap.
When Leon came to, the first thing he noticed was that his body ached. It was a painful sort of ache, like echoes of a trauma that had been far worse to his nerve endings, the type that would make one glad to be or fall unconscious. His left arm felt heavy, constricted and the majority of the discomfort seemed to be coming from it. He also felt as if he lacked some ability to move.
His vision was fuzzy, his glasses missing and all around him seemed quite white, although he could tell he was lying upon his back. His throat was quite dry, longing for a drink to soothe it. With a slight frown, he turned his neck to one side and there he saw a blur of colour.
"You're finally awake!" The clearly feminine voice sighed with relief.
"Maimai?" Leon croaked slightly, before swallowing, drying to ease the dryness.
"Oh! Let me get you something to drink!" He heard the sound of water filling a small vessel and the soft shimmer of silk rustling as the colour began to form some shape before his poor vision. "Can you sit up?"
There was some struggle as Leon summoned the strength to raise his upper body enough that he could drink without the water spilling everywhere. After most of the cup was emptied, he lie back down with a relieved huff. "C-Could you p-pass me my g-glasses?" He asked her.
"Oh, they were broken," Maimai admitted. "Smashed beyond repair this time. So I took the liberties of purchasing a new pair. Hope you don't mind!"
His vision cleared as the new frames settled upon his nose. "I will p-pay you b-back," he told her, earnestly. But she waved her hand in dismissal.
"No need," Maimai looked a little shamefaced. "I'm partially responsible for what happened, so let's forget it!"
"What exactly d-did happen?" Leon asked, his memory vaguely recalling last that he was attempting to make an unfamiliar pill, but beyond that...
From what Maimai advised him, he was the victim of a prank gone horribly wrong. His Master had left him instructions to practice forming a pill, but those were switched with a false recipe. That recipe listed half the ingredients of not the White Lotus pill, but a pill called the Seven Lotus pill, a completely different pill that required an adept hand due to its six opposing ingredients and the seventh which would bring the whole creation together.
Leon's senior had given him the new instructions and ingredients, but he was not responsible for the accident. Hue was a successful alchemist, but very slow of thought and was the type to need clear instructions. However, he also had a retentive memory, so only needed those instructions once. It was just, he never thought too deeply about the fact that the name of the pill did not match the recipe, his trust completely in his Master. He did, however, recall exactly which student had passed on the instructions.
That student had dragged several others down into the pit with him once he had realised that they would not escape punishment, clearly not the magnanimous type and Maimai was upset to admit that these students, mostly first years with a couple of seniors who should have known better, were from her father's sect.
Maimai's father had several children, most being shu born, though the man never divided his love unfairly between his legitimate and illegitimate children. He also was known to be highly protective of his daughters, thus their future spouses would have had to attain his acknowledgment, something that was worth much more than the wealth he would surely provide for his daughters' dowries. Of course, most standard sect members could only dream of such things, but it never hurt to get on the good side of the sect leader or his children.
When Merylin and Maimai enrolled in the school (with several sect members who saw their opportunity to shine), the sect member students saw their chance to not only get close to the two girls, but prove their worth to the sect leader by 'protecting them' from 'undesirable elements' or at least that was what they told themselves. They could not accept the fact that 'outsiders' were becoming close to their Lotuses.
Of course not all of them were so low as to bully and prank, Justin, for example chose to directly confront Jin Li who he felt was trying to take away the girl he held affections for. Others simply took a page from Merylin's book and chose to try to impress with their talents. So it was a minor few who were lowering the reputation of the sect with their disgraceful actions.
"They panicked when they realised what had happened," Maimai mentioned, as she continued to explain, her tone clearly unhappy. The prank had left Leon wounded and unconscious and he had been sent to the Healers Hall. "They didn't expect the recipe to blow up in your face, just expected the pill to fail and herbs to be ruined. They were trying to get you into trouble for wasting valuable herbs. But when the accident happened, they stole away the note and the leftover herbs before running away. They are in detention, waiting for punishment at the moment."
"Ah, Leo, you are awake!"
Leon glanced behind Maimai, who turned towards the speaker. The man was a robust looking individual with a really long, grey beard, but lacking hair upon his shiny head. He wore robes not unlike Leon's off-white linen ones, but his rounded stomach protruded over his belt. He approached the bed Leon was lying on, nodding to the girl sitting beside him.
"My name is Quint, I am one of the Healers of the Institute," he advised Leon. "You experienced quite the backlash during that incident. There was some damage to your internal organs and your left arm was broken, the rest was superficial surface wounds." He went on to explain that Leon had consumed two Blood Pills over the two days he had been unconscious and that his arm was wrapped in Fox Bandages as it was not good to consume too many healing pills in a short frame of time, so his internal injuries had been prioritised first.
While he was speaking, he placed his fingers upon Leon's wrist, taking his pulse for a fresh diagnosis. Afterwards, he stroked his long beard with his fingers.
"You should be fine to take a Bone Replacement Pill now," the man said, leaving the room and patient to go and get one. As he opened the door, he almost collided with a couple of students in the hallway. "Take care, there!"
"My apologies, sir" came the response, which caused Leon's brows to rise in question.
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GOT IT