The Silly Alchemist

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“Mm?”

Although Tigress was asleep, this was a very familiar feeling and she was almost awake. She would’ve come completely conscious if it wasn’t for the fact that she was exhausted.

Yeah, she was. Let’s not forget she’d been fully immersed in the ‘war’ for a long time. Tigress was already getting little sleep as a commander and strategist but entering the battle herself was even more exhausting.

She didn’t rest after meeting Ye Lang either, they’d been talking for hours!

Perhaps it was also because she enjoyed sleeping in his arms. She didn’t want to wake up, she wanted this moment to last forever...

Unfortunately...

“Tigress, wake up! The sun is shining!”

Ye Lang was not understanding at all, nudging at Tigress to wake her up.

“Oh, it’s late! Wait a moment, Master, I’ll get you a tub to wash your face...” Tigress opened her eyes, took a look at the time and got up. She was always patient with Ye Lang.

Even if she was very sleepy, she still wouldn’t rage at him for waking her up- much less right now, when she was refreshed after many hours of sleep.

Creak—

The moment she opened her wooden bedroom door, she was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to react to what she saw.

Still, in a state of confusion, she wondered if she was in her house.

“What’s the matter?”

Ye Lang noticed her reaction, then walked over. However, he had no reaction other than, “There’s nothing there, why are you standing here?”

“No...” Tigress sighed. Only Ye Lang would be so clueless.

The house was standing but broken pieces of various things were scattered on the floor as if they were broken into last night!

“What is going on? I can’t believe I slept through it all, after whoever made this mess...” Not only was she confused, but she was also shocked at her lack of awareness.

Well, she shouldn’t blame herself because all of this happened very quickly (although it looked like it took a while) and the culprits were deliberately muffling their sounds in fear of waking them up.

Before Tigress could think, they heard voices. “So you’re here! You’re both a lady and a gentleman, don’t you think this is inappropriate?”

Turning towards the source of the voice, she saw a fox.

“Athena, what are you doing in my house?” Tigress asked, annoyed. The fox was Athena, and Tigress was still unhappy about the ‘kidnapping’.

Athena wasn’t alone. There was a cat with her— Taeya, from the feline race!

“Oh, Taeya! You’re here too! You’re both early,” Ye Lang greeted them with a grin. He didn’t hate them, instead, he found himself liking Taeya too. He liked her- but not that much.

“Early...” Athena and Taeya were speechless. It was true they arrived at Tigress’ house early but it was no longer ‘early’ now!

“Master, why are you still so nice to them? Let’s not talk to them anymore, they’re not good people.” Tigress knew Ye Lang was a slow kid and never noticed when he was hoodwinked by scammers and liars.

“But they’re not bad people either!” he said.

Athena and Tigress both had very different understandings of this one sentence.

Athena came to the conclusion that Ye Lang was defending them by implying they were good people. He said they weren’t bad people, hence they were good people!

Of course, both parties soon realised it was neither an insult of a compliment.

Tigress nodded. “Well, you’re not wrong. They’re not bad people, but they’re not good people either.”

“...” Athena was speechless for a moment. She had no rebuttals to such a comment. Perhaps it was already a good thing Tigress said they weren’t bad, given their situation.

“Although that entire war was just a mock, and I knew you would never hurt him, I’m still very upset about the fact you used him to blackmail me. You’re both not welcomed in my home, you should leave!” Tigress was probably going to remember this for the rest of her life. It wasn’t going to be a crime easily forgiven.

Tigress wouldn’t have taken anything to heart if Athena had used the cruellest, dirtiest tricks against her as long as it didn’t involve Ye Lang.

However, Ye Lang was her limit. He was not to be touched!

“Since you know that, why did you give up so easily? Is he THAT important to you?” Athena asked once again. The more she thought about it, the less it made sense.

She was fully prepared to negotiate terms with Tigress that day. She assumed Tigress would not accept her initial conditions and would attempt negotiations. What she didn’t expect was for Tigress to accept defeat without hesitation.

“I refuse to answer your question. The bottom line is, I would never let anyone hurt or cause any inconvenience to him, not even a little bit!” Tigress said mildly. As she spoke, she had already prepared a tub of water and helped him wash up, even fussing over his clothes...

“...”

Athena fell silent, touched by Tigress’ words. She now understood how important he was to Tigress, which was a lot more important than she expected.

What she didn’t understand was why Tigress loved him so much despite being his slave for years. And she was still serving him now!

“Why aren’t you leaving?” Once she was done with Ye Lang, Tigress realised the two ladies were still standing there, speechless. Athena was deep in thought while Taeya was spacing out.

Tigress could care less. She thought Taeya might be admiring her life because they both had a similar history- though Tigress met Ye Lang and Taeya met a horrible master. Her master was at the other end of the spectrum compared to Ye Lang.

In reality, Taeya was indeed comparing between them both. However, not only was she thinking about their fate, she was also observing how Tigress helped Ye Lang with his washing up. She had been playing servant to him during the past few days and did the same thing.

Before meeting Tigress, Taeya thought she’d played the part perfectly but right now she realised she didn’t do a very good job at all compared to this.

It was no wonder he missed her so much and could recognise Tigress with one look. Although he did make a mistake, it did not affect their relationship at all...