Meanwhile...

Outside of the Alchemist organization, the Silver-haired lady was only just boarding her carriage and while she was attempting to hide her emotions, it was clear that the meeting with Hal had had an effect on her.

Once inside the carriage and it began to trudge away from the organization building, she looked out the window and tried not to think of the encounter.

Eventually, she could no longer hold it in,

"Garrett, do you know who that was?" She asked even though she knew that was not really possible since they had both only just met him.

Garrett looked thoughtful,

"He does look familiar" he said and the lady turned to nail him with her beautiful pale eyes,

"What?"

Garrett shrugged,

"He seems to match young master Pierre's description." He said with squinted eyes.

"My brother gave a description?" The lady asked and Garrett nodded,

"Yes, it's all your brother has talked about since he arrived two days ago. Apparently, he met a young man with blue eyes when he visited the Kirsten Barony." Garrett said and his words drew a sigh from the lady's lips.

"I still don't understand why father continues to make him do such demeaning tasks."

"The Duke surely has his reasons" Garrett reasoned and The lady took a deep breath and continued to look out the window while working even harder to out the whole encounter out of her mind.

However, she would still ask her brother for a description of the person he had met at the Barony.

Not that she was remotely interested in finding out... of course, she just needed to be sure.

"It's just for research purposes" she told herself.

...

Hal and Karmen followed behind Arya and the man who led them into the inner workings of the building while acting as demure as he possibly could.

He was so subordinate that Hal was caught off guard when someone bowed to him and called him "Branch Head".

The man had taken the title call with a stoic expression while introducing Arya as an important guest that they should prepare a grand welcome for.

Arya turned it down and said her only reason for being here was to certify her apprentice (Hal) as a true Alchemist.

The man eyed Hal and it was a little hard for him not to be doubtful because the young man before him was barely a youth and one he could tell for certain had not gone past the forty-year mark.

'Oh well, he might just be a genius' he thought but it all went out the window when Arya requested for a Rank 4 test right off the bat.

"R-r-rank 4? I'm sorry Alchemist Nadia but he needs to pass the preceding rank tests before he can be certified to take the Rank 4" the Branch head said.

Hal was about to tell Arya that that would be fine since even though he was in a hurry, he was not in too much of a hurry to complete the process in two days but she was already taking the matter into her own hands.

"No, no, I prefer he just take the Rank 4 test and be done with it." She said and seemed to be enjoying seeing the Branch head squirm.

And he did look uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry, but I can not bypass the required protocols. Even for you" he said.

When she looked disappointed, the Branch added,

"How about we bear the cost of the tests? Will that make it better?" He asked in an almost timid voice that caused Arya to cackle in her mind while Hal secretly shook his head at her ballbusting nature.

As for the Branch offering to bear the cost of the test, it was quite a generous offer as all the ingredients required for refining pills from rank one through to rank four were not going to be cheap.

Not to mention that as an Alchemist whose very occupation was built upon trial and error, he was bound to waste ingredients and in this case, it would not be him paying for the wastage.

Neither would he be penalized as long as he did not go past the limit.

Even then Arya still looked like she was only barely settling for this offer and was not truly satisfied.

That said, now that he would have to go through the tests from Rank One to Rank four, Hal had to admit he preferred the way things turned out, and maybe it would be better he go through it all and familiarize himself with the subtleties of Alchemy.

Since he came along with Arya who introduced him as her apprentice, he did not need to go through any of the normal processes and was instead led to the testing chamber.

However, the Branch head insisted that before the test began, Arya should grace him with the pleasure of meeting up with the other prestigious alchemists of the Silva Duchy.

All of them from prominent families who based their lives entirely on the brilliance of Spiritual sense and the occupation of Alchemy.

"You can leave your apprentice here. He can wait for you until you are done meeting up with them." The branch head said.

'No, I want to come along' Hal told Arya telepathically and she was quick on the uptake.

"Are you telling me they all left their apprentices out of the meeting?" She asked with a frown and the branch head looked down and seemed to struggle with his words.

Arya did not wait for him as she said,

"My apprentice will come with me"

The Branch head bowed,

"As you wish" he said and lead the way inside just as Arya retrieved a long black cloak out of her spatial ring and put it on before she followed after.

"Master, should I stay outside?" Karmen asked.

Hal shook his head,

"Why would you? Come inside with me. This is all good information, no knowledge is lost.

After all, I'm sure you've learned a lot today already" he told her with a smile.

Karmen nodded excitedly,

"Oh yes, I have. For example, Master is so good looking he sometimes attracts violent ladies who try to keep their attractions hidden by attacking him. So I need to be much more vigilant" she said.

"Probably not the words I'd use but accurate all the same" Hal said and proceeded after Arya into the meeting room.

-

The first thing Hal felt upon entry into that room was a very thriving headache. One that forced him to rein his Astral perception in as fast as possible.

He had only let it out a few meters away from him in a vigilant force of habit but that had still been enough for him to be pressured by the large amount of conjoined spiritual perception that had been let out in the room.

The six men sitting in the room from who the spiritual perception was radiating were also radiating an immense amount of pressure on account of their cultivation base and Hal could easily tell that four of them were at the late and peak stages of the Cosmic Pagoda realm while the two others were Semi-Saints!

It did not matter that none of those present was as powerful as the Dane patroness, Isabella, what mattered was that they could squash Hal and his party of two like a bug, and that was unsettling.

They had been conversing and suddenly stopped when Hal was inside the room after Arya who had just bowed in respect.

One of them looked over at Hal and pointed,

"Oh look, it's another pretty boy."