The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

"Unexpected consequences, huh… Well, there's only four hundred here, so it's not nearly enough."

She picked the golden puppy up in her arms before setting it on her lap.

"Well, why haven't you dug in already? Want me to feed you?"

Evelyn chuckled, slightly amused as she slipped the bead into Bree's mouth.

The little puppy seemed to gulp it down immediately before opening her mouth open wide, as if asking for more.

The pink haired girl considered simply downing the whole bowl into Bree's open mouth, but decided to be cautious.

Who knows, it might turn out to be quite potent. Too much at once could cause substantial harm, even if the probe only stated a demarcation point of a thousand droplets. Her little Bree was quite small and weak at the moment, after all.

The puppy happily gulped down one droplet after another, but the probe did not reveal any fluctuation in Bree's status.

Of course, Evelyn wasn't too disappointed. Her reaction to the beads itself was perhaps the greatest ray of hope she had felt for this situation in the past two years.

Moreover, she had felt a strong bond form between Bree and herself ever since that day on the royal carriage. And through that bond, she could feel that something within Bree was slowly improving from the moment she laid her eyes on the bowl of drops, even though the status said otherwise.

'Maybe Bree knew something about this, and was subconsciously attracted to it even though her mind isn't fully there. Maybe I don't have to gamble my life against that thing for now.'

Not only was that method full of risks to all their lives, it also had very low chances of success. In comparison, it was a far better plan to try out the 'unexpected effects' of this thing that Bree had taken a sudden interest in.

Of course, Evelyn did not have any extravagant hope of Bree completely going back to normal after a thousand of these droplets. Although she would obviously be ecstatic if that actually happened.

She just hoped that, at the very least, Bree became able to communicate with her, and became strong enough that Evelyn did not have to carefully protect her at all times. The current state of the little puppy was far too fragile, after all.

"By the way, Amara, are you really going to join as a newbie at this point?"

"Uh, no, I'm only here as Evelyn's attendant. Same for Vivi, although she'll be admitted as a student later."

Cecilia tilted her head in confusion. Didn't Evelyn seem to care about these two sisters a lot? In that case, knowing the girl, there's no way she would allow them to remain weak.

Vivian's future was secure, but if Amara never entered the academy, she would never learn a cultivation technique outside of extraordinary circumstances. 

After all, having it imparted onto someone required the original formula array, and perhaps only the creator of the technique could make one. And unless one reached the absolute pinnacle of that technique, it was impossible to recreate the formula array.

Of course, some ancient families did have their own formula arrays, but they were all strictly inferior to the ones at the academy. Imparting them onto their most gifted descendants was the same as limiting their future.

After all, the better your cultivation technique was, the higher you could go.

Evelyn knew what the girl was thinking, so she motioned for her to bring her ear closer.

"I'll tell you more about it when we're alone, but just so you're not curious for a whole two weeks, just know that she'll not be lagging behind us by the time we leave, alright?"

Cecilia's eyes were wide open as she realized what Evelyn wanted to do. Even if she didn't say it out loud, wasn't it obvious enough?

'This little fox! Does she plan to steal the academy's formula array or something?! No way, right?'

Still, this was not a place where she could openly scold her for it. She could not even ask the girl if her guess was correct. That would have to wait until later, when they're alone. 

'But for her to even hint this kind of thing to me…'

Cecilia felt moved when she thought about how much trust Evelyn must have for her.

'Is this what they call… cold outside but hot inside? Ah, it's kinda cute, isn't it?'

Of course, she didn't know Evelyn could read the stability of her affection like an open book, or she would definitely throw a tantrum.

At this moment, the serving ladies from before finally returned and started collecting the empty plates and glasses from those who had finished their meals. As for those who hadn't, theirs would simply have to remain on the table till the ladies came by for another round.

Vivian didn't seem to know that, though, and hurriedly gulped down the rest of her parfait in big mouthfuls when she saw the white apron lady coming her way.

Evelyn tried her best to suppress her giggle when she looked at Vivian's scrunched up face. Well, she couldn't fault Cecilia for calling her a hamster, after all. Especially not with her cheeks stuffed full. Too bad that she doesn't often eat due to her special physique.

Even the serving lady smiled as she came to their table. Seeing how Evelyn was only halfway through a single bowl of serenity dewdrops, she even offered to cancel her order for the extra bowls, if she wanted.

"No, please, I would still like to have them. Actually, how many would I be able to get, if I wanted to order more?"

The serving lady looked at her dumbfounded for a moment before making an audible gulping sound.

'Is this some super rich young lady? Could it be… a princess? But this is the Lavinian compartment, right? And a Lavinian princess would definitely have purple hair!'

"Um, are you okay?"

The lady shook her head to clear her thoughts. "My apologies, miss, I got a little distracted. Um, to answer your question, this is a rare material, so the amount we have on board is limited. And we can't sell you all of it, or we would have to strike it off the menu."

"So… how many can I get?"

"I think around twenty bowls should be the limit, more or less. That should still leave enough for any future orders."

"Okay, thank you. Please add that to my order. Twenty bowls, or more, if possible."

The lady was about to ask her again if she was sure to make such an absurd order, but then she saw the girl feed the serenity drop to the golden puppy on her lap.

Her scalp went numb.

'That's 125 silver coins per drop, aaah! How can you feed it to a dog?!'

"Would you like advance payment?"

The serving lady hurriedly waved her hands. No matter how rich this young lady was, she couldn't accept that kind of large amount before delivering the goods.

"No no no, like I said, please pay when you get it! I'll take you order now, thank you."

The lady hurriedly left after talking to the other three. Evelyn expected that they must get some commission from the sales, but she couldn't be sure. Either way, since it was a useful thing, and she couldn't be sure when or where she could acquire more... she might as well get it while she could.

Noticing that her friend was looking at her a little strangely, the pink haired girl couldn't help but ask.

"What's with that look, Cecilia?"

The ash blonde chuckled. "Hm, I'm thinking, you really know how to splurge! Even I would think it over a few times before ordering so much expensive food. And to feed it to my puppy... well, you must really love it. I can't imagine spending so much on a pet myself."

Evelyn smiled. "She's very dear to me, after all. No amount is too much. And for you to preach to me about splurging... seems silly from the girl who insisted on throwing away money earlier."

Cecilia rolled her eyes. "That's different. Spending it on my best friend differs greatly from throwing it away, alright?"

When Evelyn actually thought it through, Cecilia actually had a point. Well, acknowledging when you are wrong is also a part of growing up, isn't it?

"Actually, when I think about it, it makes sense. I would also be a little angry if Amara or Vivian insisted too much against me spending on them."

The ash blonde laughed triumphantly.

"Ahahaha… It's good that you get it! Now I won't have to argue too much when your order finally comes."

"That's what you took out from what I said earlier?! Let me make this clear, you silly goose, I'm not letting you pay for the rest of it, alright? That's an enormous amount of wealth that I'm spending because I have good reason to do so. You should not be the one to foot that cost."

Cecilia couldn't help but pout. Now that her friend was just a newbie, if she didn't get to show off now, when would she? Given that Evelyn wasn't any less outstanding than herself, she wouldn't really need her much later on, anyway.

"Geez, and I thought we were over this already? Well, maybe you don't understand, so I'll tell you how much I earn. I'll be getting a stipend of a hundred spirit stones per week, just by being a prefect. So, this is really not a big deal to me, got it?"

The pink haired girl couldn't help but gape. The weekly stipend for a prefect is the same as what she got from the Knox family for a whole year of expenses?

And she knew that they hadn't been stingy at all, because the academy's yearly fee was only a hundred gold coins, which was equivalent to just a single spirit stone.

She had been given an amount equivalent to a hundred times her school's fee as spending money, which was far more than what she really needed. But for the academy to give out that much every week to all of its prefects was just plain absurd.

How exactly do their finances work, even? They probably don't even have that many students. Given the Lavinian compartment only contained around fifty in total, with two compartments, that's just a hundred students per country, per year.

That means the total number of students in the academy probably didn't exceed around five thousand. If she's being super generous, maybe even ten thousand, but that's it.

'This must mean the fee is just there as a formality. Their actual income must come from somewhere else. But Cecilia never mentioned this to me, meaning she doesn't understand it herself. Strange.'

Lost in her thoughts, Evelyn even forgot to respond to Cecilia. And the girl triumphantly assumed victory in their argument.