Van watched for a bit as Luna slowly and repeatedly banged her head on the desk over and over again. His worry for his wife’s mental state growing…

“I need seeeeeeexxxxx….” Luna groaned as she once more banged her head, body slouched and looking somewhat miserable. On top of not being allowed to have sex or food, it was far too early for her to be studying, also wanting more sleep.

“Luna please… pay attention…” Van said quietly beside her, looking straight ahead.

“I can’t help it…” Luna groaned again. “I can feel my pussy slowly going back to how it was before we had sex… At this rate, I'll become a virgin again!” she mumbled loudly, her face pressed against the hardwood of her desk, and worse, it wasn’t even the kind of wood that she liked…

“I really didn’t need that image…” Van retorted, though inwardly it did kind of turn him on a little for when the month would finally be over and they could do it. “At least try to pretend to pay attention…” trying to help his wife from getting into trouble.

Luna groaned and mumbled something, not even bothering to look up.

“Luna…” Sheri called out, looking somewhat peeved at her students' antics, closing her hands and thereby the three-dimensional projection she had created with notes about their current subject. “Perhaps you would like to stand up and tell the class the major differences between eastern and western alchemy?” though knowing that Luna probably wasn’t paying attention and probably wouldn’t be able to answer.

Luna stopped banging her head and blinked, remembering where she was and paled a little at being put on the spot. Slowly she got up and tried to think of a quick answer all the while trying to figure out what was said a few minutes prior. “Umm… the difference is… that… uh…” she blinked a few more times before finally finishing her answer. “That we use potions… and they… use pills?”

“Is that a question or an answer?” Sheri asked, folding her arms, staring Luna down.

Luna froze. “Umm… an… answerrrrr???” trying to gauge Sheri’s response.

Sheri sighed and turned to Van. “Van, maybe you can answer?”

Van got up. “Yes, while the preconceived notion is that western alchemy uses potions and eastern alchemy uses pills, that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes down to the differences of both types of alchemy.” he began.

“For example. Eastern alchemy is not always considered a different branch of magic like we view it over here. For eastern alchemy, itself can be considered its own ‘type’ of what they call, ‘cultivation’. While in the west it is considered its own profession that anyone can do with enough learning and materials. In the east, it is an extension of their ‘cultivation’ that you would be lucky to learn or have the talent for.”

He then continued.

“Another major difference is that. In eastern alchemy, so far as we discovered, the only purpose of their alchemy is to create pills to help with their ‘cultivation’, and only in rare cases is it used to create pills that do something other than that. While in western alchemy, it is practically the backbone of several industries such as in Malor. Where alchemy is used to create new types of materials, such as metals and other things to help build and maintain complicated and sophisticated machinery that requires said rare materials that are hard to find naturally in the wild. Such as instead of waiting for ironwood trees to grow naturally, you can create your own ironwood and make it not only hard but very flexible and light, allowing it to be useful for a lot more things.”

“In conclusion. Eastern alchemy is very niched, with pills that have even stronger and more powerful effects than even some potions we can produce. But is considered nothing more than an extension of their ‘cultivation’ that only a few have access to. ‘While over here, western alchemy can not only be used for potion brewing but used for practically everything from strengthening arms and armor, to even help produce better seeds for farmland by combining several other seeds into one with all their best traits or creating materials needed for factories that can mass-produce even more materials later on. In the end, eastern alchemy can be considered more powerful in a few niche cases, while western alchemy can be considered more versatile.” Van finished and waited to be allowed to sit down again.

“Very good!” Sheri said, sounding rather proud of him. “While there are a few things that should be clarified… overall, that was a very decent and quick summary of the differences between eastern and western alchemy.”

She then looked at the rest of the class as a whole. Which honestly just consisted of Luna, Van, Agnès, and Gwen, Even Pepper too for some reason, her explanation being she just likes to listen in case she learns something new. As well as a few others that were allowed to join in while Sheri was here teaching.

“Alright then.” she gently clapped her hand. “I have with me a few samples of these pills from the east on the table right behind me. I want all of you to come up and examine them, don’t be afraid to touch them. But Don’t Eat Them… other than that, after you have examined them, I want you to write a one-page summary of what you have sensed out of them and your impressions. Don’t be afraid of writing down something silly, your instinctive feelings can open up new insights about the pills you didn’t even realize might be true!”

“You all have two hours to examine and write the report. Discuss your findings with your friends, then use the remainder of your time to write down what you have discovered. After which, you will turn in your papers and we will go through them together and what actually the pills are and what they do and see if they match up with everything we learned so far. Everyone can also take this time to take out their lunch or grab a quick bite to eat so long as you're not gone for more than half an hour. I’ll be at my desk grading yesterday's test if you need me for anything. Have fun!” then walked to her desk, allowing the students to get up and walk about.

Van was very interested, quickly getting up and getting close to the two dozen or so marble-sized pills evenly placed around the table in front of the room, each with their own little cushion, placed with a small oriental style lacquered box. Probably bought directly from the east along with the pills inside.

As he examined the pills alongside Agnès and Gwen, they couldn’t help but marvel at the strange colorful marbles. Each is different from the last, and each with their own swirls of different colors. Some glossy, others shiny, and even a few dull or muddy looking.

The group then slowly started to take a more hands-on approach, touching them and sniffing them. Some felt smooth, while others were rough. Some smelled like flowers, a few smelled like garbage. There was even one that somehow smelled like poison, if poison had a smell, and another that smelled like the ocean. Some felt like they were humming or vibrating and a few even felt tingly, like they had electricity going through them.

All in all, the pills were fascinating enigmas.

After spending a few minutes on each pill, making sure he got all the information he could out of it that he could with only his sight, touch, smell, and mana. He went back to his desk, joined by Agnès and Gwen, discussing what they had learned so far. Luna tried to join in, but they rebuffed her.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“Don’t even think about it, Luna. You just want to copy off our work.” Van admonished. “Go back and at least try to discover something that can be added to our papers. If you at least do that much, we will share the rest of what we learned.” making sure to remain firm for his wife’s sake. Hoping she would take this to heart and actually try to study the pills instead of just looking at them.

Luna though never looked so betrayed before… she really didn’t want to have to study a bunch of stupid pills. With a groan, she turned back to stare hard at the colorful marbles in the hopes of learning something.

After that, the group spent the rest of the time talking amongst themselves discussing what the pills were, how they could have been made, what they did, and why they had what colors, smells, and touch that they had. Luna joined in far later with a few simple views of what she saw, largely amounting to how they were different colors.

With a sigh, the group moved forward with their papers and began to write a report of what they had learned so far.

“Very good!” Sheri said, after receiving the papers near the end of the time limit. “For students that have just started to learn about eastern alchemy, your insights are very close to the facts of what is already known about them.” She then started to go through them one by one, pausing a bit at Luna’s paper, before a sigh of defeat, adding them to the growing pile and moving on.

“Alright then, now that that is done, it is time for our next task before we end the class,” Sheri said, getting up and taking center stage in front of the class once more. “Before we finish today’s class, we will be doing a little lab experiment using some rare materials to try and create pills of our own. I’m spending out of pocket for this, so I hope you listen closely before you try doing something you shouldn’t…” her eyes glancing over to Luna for a brief second.

“But before we start with that. Who here can tell me why we have spent the last few days studying and learning about eastern alchemy in the first place. Someone who isn’t Van…” shutting down Van’s raised hand, since he already had a few ideas as to why.

Sheri then glanced expectedly towards Agnès and Gwen, them being the second most knowledgeable after Van in class.

Agnès slowly raised her hand and was called on. “Is it because… it would help broaden our understanding of what alchemy is and can be? And because it could grow our creativity when it comes to it? As well as maybe grow our repertoire of recipes?”

“That is it indeed Agnès,” Sheri said with a proud smile. “Too many people look down on eastern alchemy as something not worth their time due to the strict criteria of entry. Not to mention the requirement of Ki energy in order to use it in the first place. But by understanding it a bit more, I believe you can improve your own skill in western alchemy, most likely when it comes to potion-making. One example would be the nutrient pills that have become more common over the years, thanks to eastern influences. And another would be Agnès’s mother, thanks to her, we have been able to improve and learn so much more about what potion-making can be.”

“Let us not forget that soup they made just a few weeks prior, not only did it increase regeneration but had the added effect of heat and cold protection! A simple soup, when combined with alchemy, became far more than simple food. There are a lot of chiefs in Istra and around the world that probably would have killed for the knowledge that Alecto shared with us that day. Never forget to always have an open mind when it comes to exploring new frontiers of knowledge, you never know where it might lead and how much it would help later on.”

“Now that we are done with that, I have asked Lorenzo to help out in this class as well. Once he arrives, we will begin trying to make some makeshift pills using some of these strange cauldrons I bought from the east. After that, we will try making pills the western way, and see if there are any differences, the ingredients can also be anything you want. And before anyone asks, if you succeed in making a safe consumable pill, you may eat it.” Sheri finished.

“Any questions?” she asked.

Everyone remained silent.

“Good! Now just take a recess until Lorenzo arrives, maybe use this chance to complete any homework you need to finish.” Sheri said, before leaving and returning to her desk to grade the papers she received.

After that, the class began to quietly talk amongst themselves. While Luna… was forming a devious scheme in her mind… if they were allowed to eat whatever they made… then she knew what materials she was going to use… an evil smile blooming on her face.

Not long after, Lorenzo arrived with a few extra materials needed for today's lab class and began to set them down. He and then Sheri began to instruct everyone on proper lab safety and started to slowly tell them step-by-step instructions of what to do and how to do it. Especially to watch out for certain signs that might indicate something going wrong that could cause any pill they might make to explode, rather than crumble like it normally is supposed to.

Once that was done, the students began to go through the ingredients provided to them, and examine the strange cauldrons in front of them. Sheri and Lorenzo going over how to use the cauldrons and telling them they will have to use their own magical power instead of a normal fire.

First up was Van, who tried to come up with an idea of a simple healing pill, using the ingredients that he would normally use for a healing potion. He understood the concept of turning that into a pill the western way… but this would be his first time doing it the eastern way. With the help of Lorenzo, he tried making a pill using only the cauldron and his mana. Only for him to fail, not once, not twice, but four times! It was honestly perplexing to him how in the world he could continue to mess up so many times. He felt that he was close to a breakthrough in understanding how it works… but for the life of him he couldn't figure it out.

He wasn’t the only one having trouble though, everyone else was having the same amount of trouble as he was. Even when using the simplest of ingredients, or trying to make recipes that require the fewest of them, they still couldn’t make a single pill. And everyone was solely becoming a little flustered and depressed by this.

Everyone but Luna who seemed to be doing her best to simply smash as much chocolate and sweets as she could into the ‘eastern furnace’. Earning the worried looks of her fellow students and teachers.

It became worse when she started to refine a pill out of the heap of sweets into a pill.

“Umm… Luna… maybe you shouldn’t do that…” Van asked from the side, looking fearful.

“Yes… if you're really that hungry, we can make an exception and feed you another nutrient pill if you desire.” Sheri said, also looking very worried as Luna tried shoving even more chocolate into the cauldron.

“No, don’t worry guys. I got this!” Luna said full of conviction and belief in herself, she knew they just were afraid that she would be able to have a lot of those sweets as her reward because she was definitely going to succeed!

She then began pouring her magical power into the cauldron. The eastern furnace slowly glowing with energy. Soon it started to heat up and float. But Luna kept pouring more and more of her desire, her power into the chocolatey baby. Determined to get her treat at all costs…

“Luna… LUNA!!!” Van said, inching away as the glow of the cauldron became brighter and brighter and waves of heat began cascade from the furnace into the surroundings. The other students were forced to step far away while the teachers tried to take control of the situation.

But Luna could not be stopped… her eyes were aglow with expectations for what was to come. Pouring her heart and soul into the cauldron and all the surgery treats inside. Lorenzo and Sheri tried to get close to put a stop to it, but it was too late…

With a boom the cauldron exploded, revealing a single brown pill… glowing and shooting off rays of light everywhere. Its aroma wafting into the room and making everyone salivate.

Luna let it slowly fall into her hands, and without a second thought, popped it in her mouth. “Oh… gods… it’s soooooooo goooooodd!” Luna moaned tears in her eyes. “I’ve never had something this good in my entire liiiiiffffee!!!”

“Luna? LUNA!” Van said as he watched her body began to heat up.

“SOOOO GOOOD!” she moaned once more, collapsing to the ground.

Van and the teachers rushed forward. Van putting a hand on Luna’s head as she moaned beneath him.

“What’s wrong with her!” Van asked as Sheri came down next to him and started to check her body.

“All that chocolate must have become some sort of strong aphrodisiac!” Sheri exclaimed. “She's going into heat! At his rate, without an outlet, she will become very sick!” looking extremely worried.

Van looked at his wife, her body becoming hotter and hotter. “Shit…” he thought as he realized he knew what he had to do. “Hopefully this will only be considered masturbation instead of sex…” and moved some of Luna’s clothes out of the way.

He then proceeded to finger bang her. Luna moaned as he went. For the next fifteen minutes, he worked on her, making her orgasm over and over again before her body finally relaxed and her eyes glazed over in bliss.

“Totally… worth it…” her last words were before she passed out into blissful sleep.

Since that day. She has been banned from alchemy classes indefinitely until further notice…