The SSS Ranked Villain's Return-Chapter 71: Alchemy Club Entrance Test

"Let go!" Emily shouted, struggling as Aurelia tightened her grip before protesting.

"No! Not until you say you will shut up!"

That seemed to upset Emily as she glanced at Neraxis, signaling for him to do something.

But he simply pretended not to notice, earning a frustrated sigh.

"Fine!" Emily shouted before grabbing Aurelia’s waist and tickling her.

"Aaah! Stop!" Aurelia shouted through giggles before suddenly pulling Emily’s hair. Before long, the two of them fell to the ground, cushioned by the mana Neraxis emitted at the last moment.

Emily glared at her sister before grabbing hold of her shoulders. "Ugh... you idiot. I was only playing around. Do that again, and I will confiscate all the sweets in the house."

As soon as her words fell, Aurelia mimed zipping her mouth shut as the two of them finally turned toward Neraxis.

"I am sorry you had to see that," Emily apologized with reddened cheeks, purely out of embarrassment.

Neraxis nodded, glancing at Aurelia, who seemed even more embarrassed than her sister.

She did this last time too, but just with the sweets I brought, he thought with amusement.

[It looks like she’s just very shy around those she doesn’t know and way too open with those she does,] Evangeline remarked, to which he agreed.

Seems like it. But I do hope they finally give me the schedule. I still need to get a schedule from Liora as well.

"Right!" Emily exclaimed before standing up and heading over to the lone desk in the room, swiftly pulling out a sheet of paper and handing it to him.

"These are the planned outings so far. As you can see, the first one is just next week," she explained before pointing at the three locations.

One in particular caught his eye—Stradon Fortress.

It was a fortress that was quite far away from his current city, yet from what he could recall, it held a gathering there every five years.

Coincidentally, the gathering happens to be next week.

"I see," Neraxis nodded in response before placing the schedule in his dimensional pocket and asking, "How many club members do you have?"

"With you two, ten," she answered with a smile, making his brow rise.

"Isn’t that a bit too low for a travel club?" Neraxis questioned, his voice laced with suspicion, but he was met with a shrug in response.

"I don’t make the rules—the headmaster does. He told me to keep the numbers low, and that’s what I did. In exchange, he’d send us on more fancy trips," Emily said, excitement in her tone.

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Neraxis understood what she meant. If it was really William’s doing, then the circumstances were truly unpredictable.

"I see. Well... Emily, Aurelia, see you later?"

"Yup, see you next time, Neraxis." Emily did a small wave before turning to Aurelia, who, without speaking, waved as well.

He took that as his cue to leave and slowly made his way to the Alchemy club, just a few hallways down.

Yet once he arrived, a mass of people greeted him, each one trying to get into the club room.

However, with each person that came in, two were thrown out.

Such a cycle continued until eventually, it was his turn to go in next, with people trying to push him aside but not even being able to make him budge.

As he walked through, he spotted multiple sets of potions, some of which he could tell at a glance were of the highest quality.

And then, at the very front, sat Liora, alongside two more people who were of similar age to Neraxis.

Just as Liora finally saw who had come in, she stood up with a huge smile on her face before saying, "Neraxis! You are finally here. Come, sit."

He spotted a chair by the side and picked it up, taking it over to where Liora was, and sat down.

"I’ve come to get the schedule, if you don’t mind," Neraxis said, earning a chuckle from her.

"Planning to leave so soon? Why don’t we play a little game?" she suggested, suddenly pulling out three vials and a flask, leaving him puzzled.

"I thought I already joined the club. Is there some entrance test I have to pass?" Neraxis asked as she lined up each of the vials, giving one to the two students beside her and a single one to him.

"You can refuse if you want," Liora said, twirling the flask in her hand. "This is a test I gave to the others, and as you can see, no one passed."

Neraxis furrowed his brow. I find it hard to believe that no one passed. I saw the Alchemy club had over 40 available slots. To not fill them would be a little...

As he trailed off, Evangeline finished his thought: [A little stupid. And she is likely lying about it.]

That’s probably the case. I guess she just wants to test me to make sure her investment won’t go to waste, he chuckled inwardly before meeting Liora’s gaze.

"What is this so-called game?"

As his words fell, a grin appeared on her face as she suddenly set the flask down, causing its contents to slightly rise in the air.

However, just as the contents began to rise, Liora quickly grabbed a vial from seemingly nowhere and caught them inside.

Neraxis stared at her like she was some sort of clown, before finally, she began explaining:

"The three of you will be going head to head, brewing a potion with the same materials and ingredients. But there is a little twist..." Liora trailed off as she pulled out a miniature alchemy furnace.

Before Neraxis could question what she was doing, the alchemy furnace’s flame lit up.

What surprised him the most, however, was that instead of placing a flask on top of it, she placed a vial.

Immediately, the effects were visible as the potion began bubbling, swirling into various colors while boiling at a much faster speed than with the flask.

Neraxis stared in wonder as she did what others could not—not even himself.

Liora twirled around with the vial multiple times, moving it on and off the flame nearly every second, until eventually, the potion was ready.

The two students beside her stared at the golden potion with widened eyes, and Neraxis was no exception.

Noticing these reactions, Liora put on a smug smile before announcing, "The test is simple. I want you three to try finishing the potion using a vial instead of a flask. The mixture is already premade, so you don’t need to worry about controlling the materials inside."

As her words hung in the air, she turned toward Neraxis.

"All you need to do is control the heat and finish the potion. Are you up for it?"

Can I even do it? he thought, masking his inner turmoil.

That was until Evangeline’s soft voice rang out. [How will you know if you can’t do it if you don’t even try? Worst case scenario, you fail. But in the off chance you don’t, your value to this woman will go up immensely.]

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Accentuating the last part, she continued:

[So? Will you give it a go?]