Alchemists do not need self-cultivation

"Give me."

"This is my food money."

The boy had a fierce look on his face and grabbed Isaac by the collar.

"You bastard! Are you trying to defy me?"

"Oppose violence..."

The boy ignored him, and the people around him didn't try to stop him; they were all gloating and waiting for Isaac to make a fool of himself.

"Believe it or not, I'll beat you up!"

"...The money is in my schoolbag."

The boy put him down and began roughly rummaging through Isaac's backpack, scattering books all over the floor.

Finally, he found a crumpled five-dollar bill.

"Next time, pay up quickly." With that, he shoved Isaac to the ground.

Watching the boy's departing figure, Isaac sighed and squatted down to start tidying up the books scattered on the ground, while the surrounding classmates still made occasional murmurs.

Clearly, this kind of thing has been commonplace since he enrolled in school.

"I'm out of lunch again today."

Jingle Bell!

The school bell rang, and Isaac quickly gathered his things and returned to his seat.

-

Noon, lunchtime.

Chika went straight to Isaac's class and invited him to have dinner with her in the garden outside.

She opened her lunchbox, which was filled with sandwiches she had bought from the cafeteria.

Then she realized that Isaac hadn't bought any food.

"Didn't you go buy food?"

“…I’m not hungry.” Isaac turned his head away.

Chika stared at Isaac for a while before forcibly turning his head to her side.

"You got robbed of your meal money again?"

"..."

"Who did this? I'll settle the score with him right now!" Qianxia's face was gloomy. She just wanted to find the person who dared to bully Isaac and break his arms and legs.

Seeing that Chika was acting impulsively, Isaac quickly pulled her back: "Let it go, it's not the first time."

Qianxia sat back down and looked at Isaac angrily, saying, "You always have such a good temper, and you even swallow your anger when you're bullied. I promised Auntie I would take care of you, but how am I supposed to explain this to her now!"

"If I don't tell you and you don't tell you, my mom won't know."

"but……"

Chika still felt a little guilty.

"Don't worry about it. There's an old saying in my country that 'losing money is averting disaster.' I've lost my money, but at least I didn't get beaten up today, right?" Isaac himself was very optimistic.

"You..."

Chika sighed and rubbed her forehead. She glanced at the sandwich in the box and handed it to Isaac.

"Eat."

"Huh? Is it really okay?"

"You can't go to class hungry in the afternoon, can you?"

"……Thanks."

The two eventually split the sandwiches in the box in half.

While eating, Chika said, "Do you remember the scene when you protected me at that concert? You were so strong and handsome back then."

“I don’t remember much about what happened back then,” Isaac said vaguely.

Isaac was at a concert with his parents and Erica when Chinatsu and her parents were there. They didn't know each other yet, but their seats were right next to each other.

Then suddenly someone pulled out a submachine gun and opened fire on the stadium, leaving many people lying in pools of blood, including Chika's parents. Isaac was also shot through the right hand.

Just as the thug noticed Chika crying, he aimed his gun at her.

However, Isaac, whose right hand had been pierced, suddenly felt a malice covering his entire body. He pushed aside Chika next to him, took out a pen from his pocket, and stabbed the assailant in the chest.

This scene shocked Chika, Isaac's parents, and Erica.

Chapter 465: A Family

What drove young Isaac to attack was a sudden surge of malice within him. He still remembers that malice; it was like an aggressive personality, or rather, it was his own subconscious.

Just as he was stabbing the assailant in the chest with the pen, he moved behind him, attempting to snap his neck.

Fortunately, Isaac's father reacted first, punching the assailant unconscious and quickly dragging Isaac back.

When Isaac came to his senses, he found the thug lying in a pool of blood and was unable to accept what he had done.

His right hand, which had been pierced by a bullet, somehow healed.

When the police finally arrived, after routine questioning and taking statements, Isaac's family was released, and the parents decided to adopt Chika, who had survived.

At that time, Isaac fell into a long period of self-doubt and even refused to go to school.

He did indeed have murderous intent at that time, and he proved that he was unwilling to believe that he would one day have murderous intent towards someone and act on it.

Even now, he still doesn't want to recall what happened back then. What truly terrifies him is not the tragedy that occurred at the concert and the corpses scattered all over the ground, but the fact that he is actually a villain with murderous impulses.

……

Chika looked at Isaac, who was unwilling to say anything, and didn't ask any further questions.

She packed up her lunchbox and headed towards the classroom.

"If you encounter any difficulties, be sure to tell me."

"Ah."

Isaac agreed absentmindedly.

Seeing that Isaac seemed to be in low spirits, Chika suddenly leaned forward, cupped his head, and gently kissed his forehead.

"Huh? What are you doing!"

Isaac was startled by the sudden attack and took a few steps back, his face flushed.

"Cheer up, you're my hero!" Qianxia said with a grin. "You can be even braver."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Haha, what an adorable reaction."

"Don't tease me!"

Isaac was very shy and hurriedly packed his things and ran towards the classroom.

Watching Isaac walk away, Chika whispered, "I've always been looking forward to you coming back then."

The day passed quickly.

Chika and Isaac boarded the school bus back to the city once again.

When they got home, it seemed only their mother was there. After seeing Isaac and Chinatsu return, she asked, "How was your school day?"

"Good……"

“His meal money was stolen again,” Qianxia answered first.

"Huh? Didn't we agree not to tell?"

Lying is wrong.

Looking at Isaac, his mother was both amused and exasperated. "Were you bullied again? Your dad used to teach you martial arts, right? How could you let yourself be bullied like that?"

"I don't like fighting."

Currently, only Mom, Chinatsu, and Isaac are at home. Isaac's father is an attending physician at the hospital, so he gets off work a little later. As for Erika, she is currently in middle school, so she also gets out of school a little later.

We were almost at the restaurant when the other two finally arrived late.

"We're back, honey. What's for dinner tonight?"

"steak."

At the dinner table, Mom and Dad talked about how Isaac was being bullied at school.

"You got bullied again? I think I taught you martial arts before, so why don't you fight back?" Isaac's father said helplessly to Isaac. "I don't remember ever teaching you to be a good-for-nothing."

"When will this cycle of revenge end..."

Erica, who had been eating silently, suddenly turned fierce upon hearing that Isaac had been bullied at school.

"Kill him."

"Don't be so impulsive," Isaac quickly told his nominal older sister to calm down.

Erika came to this family before Chinatsu, supposedly because she had some kind of illness and needed to go to her father's hospital for regular checkups.

Ping is a taciturn person, but he always reveals a terrifying side when it comes to Isaac.

Her fighting prowess is terrifying. Once, Isaac was almost hit by a car while walking on the road, and the driver was cursing. Erica saw this and immediately stepped forward and smashed the windshield of the car with a punch.

"Dad, have you never been bullied before?"

“How could anyone dare to bully me? Your dad was pretty powerful when he was young.” After hearing his son say this, he got up from his seat, went into his room, and placed a photo in front of Isaac.

“Look, this is what your dad looked like when he was young, isn’t he cool?” The father said this with his nose in the air.

Isaac looked at the photo.

His upper body was naked, revealing his muscular physique, and his face looked younger than it does now, along with... a huge reflection on his head.

"Why is he bald?"