Back to Normal (3)“No--Nothing,” waved Athena. She knew Ye Lang might not even react if he actually heard her, and it was possible he didn"t hear her at all!
“Let"s clean up.” Ye Lang didn"t care either. He dusted his hands and started to clean up the house. His methods were unconventional though, for he used alchemy to return all the broken furniture back to their original states.
As long as the pieces were still here, he could always return them back to their original state. However, these were just surface illusions. Any changes in internal molecular structure would remain the same unless it was an object he was very familiar with that he could fix.
“??” Athena stared at the miraculous scene. She didn"t know Ye Lang was an alchemist- though even if she did, she wouldn"t have expected him to be able to do this.
She had heard of the miracles of alchemy, where alchemists were theoretically able to manipulate matter. Although they couldn"t conjure objects out of thin air and needed materials, this skill was still what many people could only dream of.
Ye Lang"s ability to perform such a task perfectly was impressive. Although this was a common skill, few alchemists could do it as effortlessly and flawlessly as Ye Lang!
“Master, your noodles are ready!” Tigress showed no signs of surprised when she walked out of the kitchen. It was almost as if she didn"t notice her house was clean once again.
“What… What was that?” At least Taeya"s reaction was normal unlike Tigress" lack of expression. Taeya"s mouth was open wide enough to fit an egg!
“Noodles!” Ye Lang rushed over to eat, leaving everything else behind. Then again, there was nothing left to do.
“Athena, what was that?! Weren"t they all in pieces a few seconds ago? Am I dreaming?” The cat girl was very confused, and her look of confusion only made her more adorable.
“Yeah. You"re not dreaming, they were all broken,” replied Athena.
“Then… Why are they all…” You could see question marks above Taeya"s head.
“Master used alchemy so they would go back to normal. This isn"t difficult to him,” replied Tigress before Athena could speak. Athena now understood why Tigress did not show any signs of surprise- she was already used to it.
“Oh…”
Taeya thought for a moment then sat with Ye Lang for lunch. She was hungry too, she"d been waiting for a long time.
And just like that, the very unlikely group of people sat eating noodles together. These girls would never have sat together especially not after the mock war.
Right now, due to Ye Lang"s presence, they were all seated at the same table eating noodles. Although there was tension between them, at the dinner table, they were civil and friendly.
…
Within the conference hall, another group was enjoying lunch too. It was a late lunch, for it had been delayed due to heated discussions earlier- the key characters of this discussion were still eating noodles though.
“Tai Ya and the rest aren"t here yet?” An important person looked up from his meal to ask.
“No,” answered everyone else.
“What are the kids doing?! One hasn"t returned since yesterday, and the two messengers we sent for them disappeared too!” The important person felt a headache coming on, though he put his worries aside to do his job.
Although Tai Ya and the rest were important characters, their presence was not needed yet. At least not until the official results were out.
After lunch, one of them immediately pulled everyone back into their heated debate…
“Blue wins this battle. Thomas and Athena from blue should have the right.”
“No, I disagree. Athena took a person hostage to blackmail the tiger girl, Tai Ya. If it wasn"t for that, blue would"ve lost…” Another person objected immediately.
“Let"s not forget that blue was winning before that. Without the presence of that impressive tiger girl, blue would"ve won. We cannot deny that blue was very strong.”
“Let"s ALSO not forget blue was winning only because of that human.”
“So what if the human helped? When you are at war, you get all the help you can- even if they are an outsider! There isn"t a problem with that, all we need is results.”
“Results? And if it"s all about results, then what"s the use of this trial? We aim to look at individual performances here…”
Both parties started to argue again. These figures were obviously talking about the mock war results, each representing the red and the blue army.
However, other than these two teams, there was a separate neutral party in the room. They were in charge of making the final decision, also the target of the representatives" persuasions.
This neutral party consisted of professional judges too. Obviously, they a.n.a.lysed the situation with clear heads and facts, never swayed by persuasion.
“We are choosing the best among us, not deciding which team wins. Both parties may submit your most worthy candidates to us and we will determine the final winner,” declared the judge.
“Athena, Thomas, Taeya of the feline tribe…” The blue team immediately presented all the suitable candidates from their camp, naturally disregarding red"s candidates.
Like blue, red team also put forward their best names and never once mentioned their opponents.
The neutral party had, of course, expected this. It was alright since they were looking for a list to choose from anyway.
However, the most worrying part for them was that both parties would definitely continue to argue after they announced the results because there was no way they could produce an outcome where both would be satisfied. It was either blue or red.
The arguments carried on…
“What"s all this about?” A clear voice rang across the hall, with a hint of confusion in its tone.