Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam

"Ave, what do you think?"

With dark circles under her eyes, Ave huddled sneakily with Ethan at Miss Keroy’s bedroom door, peeking at the little hen engrossed in reading with her back to them, immediately feeling a strange sense of guilt like a thief.

Moreover, why did she become like an assistant after spending some time with Ethan?

Wasn’t this question supposed to be asked by her to Ethan?

Nevertheless, Ave still honestly said, "This might be the effect of the werewolf collar. When the curse of the collar is activated, you and Miss Keroy establish a certain connection, and she will subtly develop similar interests as you."

Ethan’s hobby is reading books.

This was something all residents of Ximu Town knew. In his first year in this town, people found he was immersed in the town’s library almost every daylight hour. He went through all the mysticism books available in the town, and over time, people began to call him a "mysticism expert."

"Miss Keroy is reading an alchemy book. She even sneaked out of the apartment in the middle of the night to pick Snake Emperor Grass from the mountain!"

The books came with the apartment bookcase, just basic introductory texts on alchemy, and there’s an identical one in the town’s public library.

Alchemy is one of the few paths toward the extraordinary in this world that does not require faith in any divine spirit. Meanwhile, the by-product of alchemy, magic potion, is one of the hottest commodities in mysticism shops, often fetching sky-high prices at auctions when made by high-tier alchemists.

So, why is it that such a promising extraordinary profession has so few practitioners?

When Ethan posed the question with his copy of "Introduction to Alchemy Notebooks" to the guild president of Ximu Town two years ago, the well-versed mid-aged man gave him a wake-up call, "What kind of family do you have to just want to learn alchemy?"

The president then held out four fingers to Ethan.

In the vast town of Ximu, only four families had the means to support alchemical studies. Among them, Ave, being an Enlightenment Society graduate, was excluded. The other three families had no offspring with any alchemical aptitude, leading to a situation where the wealthy couldn’t study, and the poor... were busy working hard for money, completely unaware of whether they had the talent to become an alchemist.

Ethan’s dream of becoming an alchemist was shattered by harsh reality.

But what goes around comes around!

He looked at Miss Keroy, engrossed in reading the notebook, suddenly experiencing a surreal déjà vu — once, he had to abandon his dream of becoming an alchemist due to poverty. Now, he found a way to earn money, having more than 50 gold lions in his pocket within a week, and the kids at home no longer have to bow down to reality because of poverty...

"The Chronicles of Ximu Town’s Struggle," a grand serial!

It turns out, this is the heaviest aspect of the code name "Chicken Raiser"!

Ethan unconsciously fell into the role of a father again.

Ave and the golden fur atop her head looked at him sideways, "What odd idea are you dwelling on again?"

She and the golden fur reached a consensus — Ethan had a peculiar mind, always capable of bursting out with astonishing wisdom inadvertently. Just from the expression on his face, as if he had experienced the vicissitudes of life, it was evident that this guy was about to say, "I have a plan."

"Ave, do you think there’s a possibility Miss Keroy can become an alchemist?"

Even though she had prepared herself, Ave was still shocked by Ethan’s astonishing question. She didn’t even want to respond directly, instead, she retorted, "Do you even listen to what you’re saying?"

Allow a wolf chicken to become an alchemist?

Not to mention in a frontier city like Ximu Town, even in the imperial capital, those noble children who learn from high-tier alchemists from a young age don’t necessarily achieve much. In the journey toward the extraordinary, not having a clear belief system is not a good thing, as it may lead humans to become lost in the process of exploration.

Looking across the Empire, only those possessing both intelligence and talent could potentially embark on this path.

And Ethan’s current plan was to make a little hen into an alchemist.

If high-tier alchemists heard this, they would probably kick Ethan out of the Alchemy Association.

However, Ethan seemed completely unaware of how absurd his question was and began talking to himself, "Come to think of it, Miss Keroy is also at the age to choose a career, and she’s finally interested in something."

"You...!"

Though thousands of thoughts ran through her mind, Ave couldn’t string together a complete sentence. At this moment, she finally confirmed one thing.

There was definitely something wrong with Ethan’s thought process.

Something seriously wrong.

"Maybe Miss Keroy didn’t understand the content of the book at all."

In the end, Ave took a more circuitous approach, hinting, "The ’Introduction to Alchemy Notebooks’ includes many herbs and creatures needed for making magic potions, she might just like the illustrations in it."

She felt this was the normal thought process.

Could a little hen comprehend alchemy?

Based on her observation of Miss Keroy, although the collar enabled her to understand part of the human language and gained intelligence beyond little animals, still far from comparing to humans.

"Don’t jump to conclusions, haven’t you heard the saying? Interest is the best teacher for children."

Ethan pushed open the door and walked in first, "Let’s test it out then."

The two walked one after the other to Miss Keroy’s back. The little hen, hearing the noise behind her, got up from the floor and, seeing it was Ethan and Ave, suddenly raised her neck and smiled at them joyfully.

Although such a description was somewhat strange for a little hen, Ave felt that Miss Keroy’s eyes were shining with curiosity and longing for the world, just like a little child.

Then, Miss Keroy, in a slightly clumsy manner, used her beak to turn the notebook to a particular page, then clutched the entire book in her mouth and brought it to them.

The page was about a cauldron for concocting magic potions, the very foundation in alchemy.

Keroy needed this very much.

She could actually read the little hen’s eyes.

Ave stared at the illustration of the cauldron for a long time, before speaking as if compelled by some supernatural force, "The Reception Bureau’s research department really needs talents in alchemical areas, the costs of learning alchemy should be reimbursable by the branch."

...

Ave could hardly recall how she walked out of Ethan’s apartment. As she descended the steps back to the street, feeling the cold wind on her face, the golden fur on her head drooped with defeat.

By the God of Truth,

she must have been affected by Ethan’s bizarre thought process!

The level of contamination made her suspect that Ethan himself was some kind of humanoid cursed item they had never seen before.

And now, she, as the head of Ximu Town’s intelligence base, was about to write an application to the Gear City branch.

Yes, she was going to persuade the branch’s finance department with a letter to reimburse the cost of alchemical studies for a little hen.