It was as though Mel were just waiting for young Master Louise to open his mouth; the exact moment he praised the girl from his own bloodline, Mel coaxed the fourth bud to burst into bloom.
"Hold on, I'll remember! What was this kid's name again?"
While Cantankerous Hanry muttered to himself, Mel, whose name he struggled to remember, became the center of attention for every candidate. Even the young prodigy of the Gloove lineage felt forced to lift her head and look at him; after all, he was exactly one bud ahead of her.
"Not now, my old friend. Let the noble kids go first. A full minute after they make their buds bloom, you can start helping our side!"
The tree with crimson-emerald leaves was filled with impatience, and it wasn't the only one feeling that way. Mel heard another familiar voice echo in his mind.
"Listen up, brat, it's Hanry!"
The Senior Master, who couldn't even remember his name, started talking to him right in the middle of the trial, but Mel kept acting like he hadn't heard a single word.
"Did popping four buds make you cocky? I'm talking to you, peasant boy!"
When Cantankerous Hanry started acting exactly like his nickname, Mel looked at him from the corner of his eye without making a big deal out of it; the look was just another way of saying, 'I hear you.'
"Go as far as you can, but if you make more flowers bloom than that girl across from you, I'll hand over ten Ten-Budded Phantom Orchids to you!"
Mel's eyes, which had ignored the Senior Master a minute ago, widened to twice their size; as the trial entered its twentieth minute, he was in the lead with four blooming buds. The prize offered was no small amount; the tree inside the cavern was thrashing its branches in a frenzy, showing the pure joy it got from this news.
"Grandpa told me I should avoid drawing attention, but surely something like this won't ruin everything. Come on, let's speed things up!"
Mel tried his best to stick to the advice of the man who had left him everything, but fate kept rolling out totally different paths in front of him.
When Maria Gloove made her fourth bud bloom at the twenty-fifth minute, the young master was happy, but this time, he didn't open his mouth to say a single word. It seemed he had already convinced himself that the others were motivated enough by what he said earlier.
"My young colleague, the little prodigy of your lineage just made her fourth bud bloom; aren't we going to talk about it? Or is this victory too pathetic to mention for your esteemed Gloove family?"
Hanry refused to stay quiet. When the Division Head sitting in the middle looked his way, something unexpected happened.
"Master Hanry, my Gloove lineage has dedicated itself to the botanical sciences for generations. We can't lower ourselves by competing over the quick victories won by commoners with clear limits!"
It looked like the Division Head was going to give a harsh warning to Hanry, but the young master on the other side had already taken the bait. Mel and his old partner, the tree, jumped into action as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.
Mel made his fifth bud bloom fully, while the tree pushed some youths from the commoner ranks to the second bud, and others to the third.
"These kids owe you a lot this year, my young friend! Thanks on behalf of all of them."
Hanry started mocking the man he had pulled into his trap, but the Division Head refused to take it anymore.
"From this moment on, I forbid both of you from talking; defy me, and I'll sentence you to a year of secluded meditation!"
That gentle tone was gone, replaced by a look that gave orders with total severity. Whether the Division Head was more mad about their fighting or the sudden wins by the commoner kids remained a mystery.
Quiet returned once more; as the half-hour mark passed, the Ten-Budded Phantom Orchids in front of Mel and Maria had five blooms, while the best among the rest were stuck at three. The ancient Division Head broke the silence he had just made; he wanted to give a little advice to the candidates.
"The fifth bud will be just as hard as the first awakening. If you have vital essences with you, you are allowed to use them!"
A massive cheer erupted from the side with the noble candidates; a shortcut had just appeared in a trial where a person was supposed to advance using only their own skill, and it was handed out by the highest boss in the room.
Without wasting a breath, the noble disciples let the fluids inside the small glass vials that appeared in their hands drip into the pots holding the Ten-Budded Phantom Orchids. On the commoner side, however, there was total silence; it was obvious they didn't have anything like vital essences.
Hanry turned red from head to toe; in contrast, Louise of the Gloove lineage watched the noble youths with total joy. And why wouldn't he? Within five minutes, the prodigy of his bloodline had reached the seventh bud, while the others easily hit the fifth.
After this sudden break in balance, the faces of the commoner youths dropped in despair. The hands that used to hold the pots of their Ten-Budded Phantom Orchids now hung dead at their sides.
"Is this really the place Grandpa wanted me to enter? The Division Head himself helps the noble kids with obvious favoritism!"
Mel gave up on the trial too, choosing to watch the kids on his own side instead. His face had that specific confusion of someone who understands what is happening, but has no idea why.
"Don't you dare give up, peasant boy! At least try to make as many buds bloom as the rest of these nobles. As long as you try your best, those ten Ten-Budded Phantom Orchids are yours!"
Forced to stay quiet, Hanry tried to boost Mel's drive through mind-speak; he must have taken the boy's confused look as giving up, just like the others.
As the fortieth minute started, Mel saw that he had five blooming buds, while his friends from the common ranks had three each. Standing up slowly from his seat, he walked right up to Cantankerous Hanry, drawing everyone's eyes.
"Master, can I borrow your knife?"
Hearing the young boy's request, the middle-aged man didn't get what he was doing at first, but unable to stand Mel's unbroken stare any longer, he unhooked the sickle-shaped blade from his belt and held it out.
"This blade was given to me by the Division Head back when I first entered the Green Shadow Academy. I worked hard with it all day when I was just a young herb gatherer, so make sure you don't break it!"
Nodding his head to show he knew how serious the request was, Mel took the curved blade and went back to his seat.
The moment he sat down, he rolled up his sleeves. Then, while everyone watched, he cut two lines into his palms, letting his blood drip right onto the soil of the Ten-Budded Phantom Orchid.
When he was done, he gently put the blade on the desk and started stroking the closed buds of the plant with his blood-soaked hands. A minute later, the sixth bud bloomed; before five minutes had passed, the seventh bud followed. Mel kept going with the trial, completely ignoring his bleeding hands.
Suddenly, he felt a hand reach across his desk. When the ugly boy who had broken his nails in pure anger earlier grabbed the blade and copied him, a faint smile showed up on Mel's face.
"It's your turn, my old friend. You can send energy into the plants of the ones who cut their flesh and offer their blood! Don't let them waste their own life force!"
This whole show was set up to build a logical cover for what was about to happen. Faced with such obvious unfairness, Mel chose to fight it instead of staying quiet. If he only cared about his own fate, this trial would have been easy, but he thought it was right to pull the commoner youths up with him, even if it meant shedding his own blood.
"Division Head, this is against the rules! These kids are feeding the plants with their own blood!"
Unable to hold it back, Louise yelled out; it was funny how the Division Head seemed to have forgotten the very rule he had just brought up.
Rolling his eyes toward the old man like he was trying to figure out his next move, his thoughts were crushed by a roar coming from the other side.
"Against the rules? I've heard a lot of stupid things today, but this takes the crown. It's fine when the pampered kids of noble families use vital essences distilled from the purest plants, but when the others use the pure essence of their own life force, it's against the rules, is it?"