"What are you doing here?" Ren's voice sounded across the room. "You should be working." He wasn't looking at Rayen's direction, but touching a plant Rayen couldn't recognize.

"We already finished working for today, so I came here. I need to look for some plants."

"I see... Tell the me whole truth."

The Red Demon inside Rayen moved; he had to obey. "I got injured yesterday while trying to form my foundation."

He looked at Rayen, a green light flashed on his eyes. "So? You looked for me to cure you?"

"No, I know you won't do such a thing. I read on a book about a pill, and wanted to make it."

"That book?" Ren gestured toward the book. "A servant can't take books from the library. You're Kris' friend, right? That girl... doing whatever she pleases. Sigh... It's like they said. She isn't fit to be in the Red Demon."

Rayen looked around and was going to take a plant when Ren interrupted him.

"You think you can take them? These are property of the Red Demon."

"Am I not the Red Demon's property as well?"

"Yes."

"If the plants help me, they will help the Red Demon."

"They will be wasted on you." Ren went back to look at the plant.

"The only waste is having them here not being used."

"What can a kid who can't yet use magic do? Do you think you're able to concoct a good pill?"

"Yeah, I'm sure of it."

"Well, let's test it then. Good alchemists are always needed." He waved his hand and a dozen different plants and roots together with three rocks flew in front of Rayen. There were two or three of each plant and root. "Friend of Kris, let me see your alchemy skills. Some of these are what you need to concoct the pill you want, others will be lethal if you add them. You can concoct in that room over there. Go ahead."

Rayen recognized most of the plants and roots, except for two of them. Even if he recognized them, this was his first time seeing them in person. These were rare plants he saw on the books back at home. Of course, recognizing them didn't mean he could create a pill from them.

"I don't know, these aren't the ones in the book." He showed Ren the book.

"This pill isn't on that book. It's stronger and better. If you can't do it without following a book. Then you are worthless as an alchemist and you should leave."

Rayen took the plants and carefully touched each of their stems and leaves. He smelled them and observed every detail they had. He did the same with the roots and rocks. He closed his eyes and imagined them fusing with each other. "Can you at least give me a hint?" It was hopeless. He had no way of concocting it with just this much. He lacked the knowledge and experience.

Ren shook his head twice. "Disappointing. But I'll do it. Listen carefully. When the silver moon ghost reaches the red steel, the war elephants emerge just to be eaten by the blue birds. The northern sun rises on the green mountain made of the corpses of war elephants. The red birds, dyed green by the red steel, dance as the sun collapses on them. Got it? If you can't do it with that, you are a failure."

'What the heck does that mean?' Rayen thought, afraid of saying it out loud.

"I will give you ten minutes. A proficient alchemist can finish it up in five without magic, so ten is more than enough. Do it now."

'Let me think... I need to put the northern sun above the green mountain. To create the green mountain I need the the war elephants, which are made with red steel and silver moon ghost, then get their corpses with the blue birds. After that I get the green mountain with those corpses. Next, I get the northern sun over it. Then... how did it go? The dancing green birds? The birds were green because they were dyed by the red steel... I combine red steel with red birds and it will get me something green. They are dancing... That must be fire. I must heat them up so they jump around. I get the green mountain, the dancing birds and the sun and it's done. Now... Which of these plants is what? The red steel must be a metal. There aren't that many rocks here. Hmm... None of them look red. Their insides? Do I need to heat them first?'

Rayen took a knife and slashed the rocks. They were hard, so he had a hard time cutting them. He finally managed to cut them, but their insides weren't red. "Argh... This is too hard."

"Six minutes left. If you don't begin in the next minute, there won't be a chance for you to finish it up in time."

"Steel..." He said in a low tone. "Steel is a mixture of iron and carbon. So, red steel must be a mixture as well. But on what proportions? Most of one and a little of the other? I have three rocks here, which ones do I need to mix? I guess I will have to try all combinations." Rayen scratched a small portion of the rocks on a recipient. He mixed three parts of one rock with one part of the other. In the end, he made six different compounds. Two of them were red. "It's either one or the other..." He separated the two compounds from the others, and memorized which was which.

"Time is running." Ren didn't look at Rayen any longer and concentrated on the plants in the greenhouse.

Rayen looked at the plants, leaving red steel for later. He took one of them. 'This plant is cultivated in the north and glows when heated up. So it must be the northern sun.' He knew about that plant, so it was easy to guess. Rayen cut it into a paste and put it in a container. He heated up water and put the paste on a container on top. Between glancing at them in the book and his previous experiments, he got somewhat of an idea on how to use the instruments. It wasn't that hard.

The paste glowed slightly. It would take time before it was ready. "That has the northern sun complete. What about the rest?"

He looked at the others. He needed... birds, red and blue. "What's a bird? I mean... Not even a specific bird, but in general, birds... Birds represent what? Air? An elevated place? Something light that can fly?

"No, no, no." He shook his head. "I'm thinking it wrong. I shouldn't choose them based on their names, but on what properties do they have. How can those properties combine with each other to help me. I know them, except for those two plants. So I should be able to do it." Rayen closed his eyes and imagined the plants and roots mixing. 'Both birds react differently, the red ones change color when the red steel touches them, while the blue ones eat the war elephants. The blue ones must be acidic. None of the plants I know are like that, so it must be one of the ones I don't know. The red bird changes its color. Well, I guess its color should be red. But there are no blue plants, if it's the color, then why aren't there any blue ones? There're three red plants, so I should test it first.'

Rayen cut two small portions of the three plants and mixed them with the compounds. "Yes!" He jumped around. Only one of them became green. "This means that this is the red bird and that is the red steel." He touched the red bird. "Hmmm..." He touched the two unknown plants. "This feels similar. I'm not sure." The only way for him to be sure was to test it with the war elephants, but by that step it will be too late in case of being wrong.

"Northern sun, done. Red birds, done. Blue birds, I hope done. Red steel, done. All I need now is the silver moon ghost." He looked at the plants and roots. "None of them are silver..."

Rayen sat on the ground. "Moon... Moon. It should be night. Darkness? In the darkness, they are silver." He stood up and put his hands around a plant. He saw nothing. One by one. He tested them all. Until finally a root glowed with a slim silver light. "That's it. Silver moon ghost."

"I'm almost certain these are what I need. Let's start..."

He scratched the two rocks and mixed them to form a red compound. He dropped half of the compound onto what he believed was the red bird. Green patches extended all around the plant. He took it and dropped it on a container. "How much heat does it need?" He wasn't sure. He read the book. He saw a procedure there. It described how to use one of the equipments that was filled with sand. He put the container with the red birds above the sand and heated it up.

"Now the silver moon ghost on the red steel." He took the silver moon ghost and was about to mix it with the red steel, but he stopped. "No, this is wrong. This is silver moon, it glows silver under the moon, but what about the ghost? Where is the ghost part of the silver moon ghost here? I don't need the whole root, just its spirit." He took out a knife on the table and scratched the root. "That's it."

*Brrrr* The red steel reacted to the silver moon. Big red bubbles appeared as the recipient shook. "What's that?" *Boom boom boom* The bubbles exploded and even bigger bubbles formed. He jumped back. "I need to stop it." Rayen looked from one side to the other. *Booom booom* The explosions continued, each worse the last. If this continued, the container would break. "Waaah. Calm, calm, calm. Think about it. This must be the war elephant. To stop it I need... the blue birds." He took the plants he didn't recognize. "Wait. Are they the blue birds? The plants don't need to be acidic, since they need to calm this down. Are they even acidic? They aren't blue either." *Boooom* Cracks appeared on the container. "Waaaah" He threw them into the red bubbles. The substance calmed down and the plants disappeared into a paste. A green paste. "Green mountain!"

He looked at the side. The other paste was shining. "Northern sun." Then at the green plants who were jumping. "Jumping birds. It's almost done." He took the green mountain and dropped it near the jumping birds, then threw the northern sun above them. "Please work." He stepped back. The northern sun collapsed on the mountain and mixed with it. A strange smell filled the room, like that of dead rats. "Go go." The two substances fell into the jumping birds and fused with them. Even if they were now one, you could still notice the three of them.

"This needs more fire. You can never go wrong with more fire." He put the container on the oven. Then, he took a metal rod and mixed the three from far away. He was too nervous to get close to it. The three substances mixed and formed a strange viscous silver liquid. After the three were completely fused, he stopped the fire. "Ufff..." He exhaled and fell to the ground. The silver liquid solidified as it got colder. It didn't even look like a pill, just some silver mass. Rayen looked at Ren. "I'm done."

"You failed," Ren said.

"Ugh..." Rayen was taken aback. "Why? It worked so well. How can this be a failure?"

"It took you twenty-three minutes to complete it. Over twice the allowed time. You have failed."

"But is the pill correct?"

"If you are confident in your abilities, eat it. If you aren't, then don't. But how can you be an alchemist, if you cannot trust yourself? How can anyone eat your pills, if even you cannot do it? Trust your judgment. Do you think the one you made was the correct one or do you think it's not?"

After hearing him, Rayen didn't hesitate any longer. He put the silver mass in his mouth and swallowed it. It was the sourest thing Rayen had ever tasted. He wanted to puke, but he refrained from doing so, or he will waste the pill. He fell to the ground once more. "Ugh..."

"You will have to wait and see if it's the right one. Since you failed, leave."

Rayen struggled to get up and left the greenhouse. The road back was hard; he could hardly walk. Once he reached his room, he fell on the bed and slept.

"Servants, come," Yuhal said. "It's time to clean the library."

Rayen woke up. He didn't really want to go, but he had no other choice. The other servants were eager to go, since this was the only chance they had to learn.

"You have one hour to clean."

Rayen cleaned with listlessness. He didn't have much interest in looking at the books now, since he had his own in his room. The same was true for his group. They got their abilities already and just wanted to train. However, this attitude caused the other servants to glare at them. They still needed to learn the techniques, so they didn't like people being lazy.

After cleaning, Rayen read to the book he saw yesterday. The one that had the palace technique. He compared the symbols on his head with the ones on paper. Most of them were correct, but the ones that failed had slight differences. "Now I see... I failed because I remembered them wrong." Even if the symbols were mostly right, those little differences meant the difference between a working foundation and one that could kill you. He fixed the symbols on his mind. He wasn't going to use that technique, but he kept it as a reference for creating his own technique. He spent the rest of the time looking for books he may ask Kris next time.

Just like yesterday, after cleaning the library, the servants went to the great hall to eat dinner. They ate the follower's leftovers.

After a long and hard day, Rayen sat down on his bed. He closed his eyes and imagined inside his body. He inhaled and exhaled. "I promised Yune to use her technique, but it's just a quick look." He needed mana to be able to look inside his body. The mana flowed inside. "Let's see if the pill worked."

*Paaam* The door slammed against the wall. Rayen opened his eyes. He saw six servants with sticks on their hands walking toward him.