This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 122

Herb Sorting

"What does it matter if my student won? Winning is winning! This is called winning! If a contestant doesn’t even have the courage to compete, then they must be considered defeated. How could they give 1st place to a coward who doesn’t dare to compete? Hmph! And now you all act like you’re dissatisfied. What are you dissatisfied about!?"

Gannon exhaled in frustration. How did his student suddenly become a disgraceful first place? His student had worked hard all along, not just Medik’s student.

While everyone else was fuming, Ellie and Professor Medik didn’t pay much attention. They simply waited for the next round of the competition. The upcoming event was crucial for Ellie, as she had decided to win and secure 1st place. It was none other than the Herb Sorting competition.

For all 8ht competitions, she was the sole representative of her institution. Even though she knew that other students didn’t initially want to participate in these uninteresting events, as soon as they knew Ellie had signed up, they all stepped aside for her, so she was determined to bring back some 1st-place titles for the institution. Ellie didn’t want the opportunity to go to waste.

Ellie was particularly focused on 2 events: the Herb Sorting competition and the Herbal Knowledge competition. With these 2 events, she believed her botanic powers would give her an easy edge. As for the other 6 events, she aimed to do well enough not to disgrace herself, like in the Quality of Potion competition where she might secure 3rd or 2nd place. However, winning 1st place in all of them seemed too far-fetched.

She saw potential in Timed Potion Concocting and Identifying Potion’s Defects, where she might place. But in events like Potion Concocting Quiz, Potion Concocting Guidance, and Medication Dispensing, Ellie wasn’t confident she could place at all. Nevertheless, she had reviewed all the fundamental knowledge, hoping to scrape by.

"The next competition is the Herb Sorting competition. Contestants, please proceed to the competition area," announced the new judges after they had prepared the venue.

In the Herb Sorting competition, participants had to sort herbs and arrange them according to a list in the first round. The herbs provided had similar characteristics, so those with only superficial knowledge might arrange them in a wrong order. Each contestant received a different list, but the pile of herbs was the same for everyone.

This meant copying others was impossible since they might end up making mistakes by following the wrong list.

The students competing in the next round all came down together. To ensure the utmost fairness, the judges didn’t let the students choose their own positions, as this could lead to suspicion or give an advantage to those who might have known the challenges beforehand. Nor could the judges assign positions themselves. Relying on human decisions was out of the question, so they turned to luck.

The students formed a circle, and then they grabbed pieces of paper thrown into the air. Whoever was lucky got the number they needed. However, no one knew which number corresponded to which table. Ellie ended up with number 8, while the other students had different numbers.

This time, Ellie encountered a first-year student, a disciple of Professor Lio, again. However, this first-year student wasn’t the same one she faced last time. It seemed Professor Lio was worried his students wouldn’t have enough time to learn everything, so each student specialized in one competition to become proficient.

Many noticed this strategy. While Professor Medik had only Ellie, Professor Lio, who dared to challenge Professor Medik, had 8 different students competing in each event. If this was considered fair, then nothing could be deemed unfair anymore.

There was gossip all around, but no rule required a single student to compete in all events. Only Ellie did so. Other institutions rotated their competitors according to their abilities.

"After you’ve received your numbers, proceed to your assigned tables. You will have 30 minutes to sort the herbs in this first round. Anyone who completes the sorting can raise their hand for the judges to inspect and score."

Ellie walked to her table. Number 8 was considered a lucky number. In front of her was a large pile of over 200 kinds of herbs, just like on the other tables. However, the list Ellie received made her frown.

The list consisted of simple herbs for concocting level 1-star potions. Even without using her botanic powers, she could sort them easily. The competition’s standard seemed lower than she initially thought, similar to the level 2 potion concocting contest where none of the students could succeed. If Ellie chose to continue competing, she might really take 1st place.

But...Professor Medik had asked her not to take too many 1st places this year. Otherwise, it would create pressure for future years. Although Ellie didn’t entirely agree, she didn’t want to cause her professor any trouble.

Her goal was to participate, not to win all the 1st-place prizes. The points from participating in all 8 events as the representative were enough for her to comfortably pass her first year. There was no need to attract more attention than being Professor Medik’s student already did.

"You may begin," announced the judge once everyone understood their task. Ellie started selecting the herbs according to the list, placing each type in the numbered boxes. It took her only 5 minutes to complete, making her the first to finish.

"I’m done," Ellie’s voice was neither too loud nor too soft. But because everyone was still frowning and deeply focused on sorting their herbs, so her voice was heard by all.

"Hmm? Isn’t that Professor Medik’s disciple? She finished sorting the herbs already? How is that possible?"

"Even if she’s good at potion concocting, it seems she’s not that impressive at herb sorting, is she?"

"Why does she have to be so arrogant? It’s good that she’s finished sorting, but shouldn’t she check for accuracy? Isn’t there a lot of herbs she hasn’t even touched yet? It might be a misunderstanding."

"Professor Medik is thorough in everything he does, but it seems his disciple hasn’t inherited that trait."

"Well, this is good. She’ll learn a valuable lesson. Next time and in the future, she’ll overcome obstacles better. Consider this a beneficial experience of failure."

As the spectators saw Ellie raise her hand to call the judge, they speculated among themselves. Some students, even when using the full allotted time, still made mistakes with herbs that looked similar. Most took times to make it well spent. Let alone 5 minutes, even Professor Medik used the entire 30 minutes when he sorted herbs.

What they didn’t know was that Ellie could have finished even faster if not for the last type of herb being small and hidden among the 200 types. The judges, making the competition challenging, randomly placed the herbs to make them harder to find.

While other students had to examine each herb one by one, taking a long time, many even failing to finish within 30 minutes, Ellie also struggled a bit though she had a super-fast speed right now. This was exactly the judges’ plan.

However, Ellie didn’t need to check each herb individually. Just by looking and using her powers, she could work quickly. Moreover, she had a more effective method: releasing spores to do the work. The more spores she released, the easier it was to find the herbs hidden beneath the pile.

It wasn’t surprising that the 5 minutes she spent included waiting for the spores to root through all the herbs...

A judge approached her after being called to inspect. He looked at the small girl and asked for confirmation.

"Are you confident in your answers?"

"Yes, sir," Ellie responded directly.

The head examiner nodded to signal, and then all 5 judges began inspecting Ellie’s sorting results to ensure fairness. They actually wished Ellie had taken a bit more time to be certain of her answers. They knew from her first-round performance that she was highly skilled, but she also seemed overly confident.

Sorting a pile of over 200 herbs in just 5 minutes seemed like random tossing. Out of respect for Professor Medik, they had asked her again, but she had confidently ignored their caution.

"First herb, mmm...correct."

"Next herb, mmm, also correct."

"Correct, correct, correct, correct." The judges’ voices rang out continuously. Many students lost their concentration, turning their attention to the inspection of Ellie, who had managed to sort the huge pile of herbs in just 5 minutes.

"Correct. All 17 herbs are correct." After the inspection, the head examining judge looked at the girl, who showed no pride in her accomplishment, as if sorting all these herbs was no big deal. They swallowed hard, realizing that...this girl was...the real deal!

"What? All correct?"

"No way!! She did it in just 5 minutes? Did she cheat or did the judges help her?"

"If I hadn’t seen her sort through the huge pile of herbs with my own eyes, I might have thought the judges placed the correct herbs in front of her."

"Heh, heh, heh. Professor Medik’s disciple wasn’t careless at all. She was confident in her abilities. Those who said she needed to experience failure this time—aren’t you the ones experiencing a slap in the face now?"

The spectators murmured as their disbelief was evident in their eyes. This success not only impacted the audience but also put immense pressure on the competing students. While Ellie finished in 5 minutes, some hadn’t even found their first herb, let alone all 17!

No! If anyone was accusing Ellie of cheating, then consider this: her task was to find 17 herbs, while the rest of them had to find only 15. Who really looked like the cheater here!?

Crash!!

As many students were feeling pressured and scared, one student suddenly collapsed. Both Professor Lio and Professor Gannon sprang to their feet.

And yes! The student who fainted from fear was none other than the first-year representative of Professor Lio.

"What happened? What’s wrong with that student?"

"He’s bleeding from his nose. What happened to him!?"

"Exam proctors, check on the student quickly. How did this happen?"

"Isn’t that the student from the second-ranked institute, Hestia? The disciple of the successor of Professor Medik."

"Stop talking about that ridiculous successor nonsense! He’s not Professor Medik’s successor. And what’s wrong with his disciple!?"

The tall, slender first-year student, renowned for his herb sorting knowledge at Hestia Institute, was assisted by the judges. After checking, the judges sighed and announced to everyone.

"Everyone, don’t worry. This student is not seriously ill. He just felt too much pressure. The others can continue the competition..."

Upon hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, except for Professor Gannon, who felt a deep sense of shame.

"Lio, this child...abandon him."

"P-Professor!"

"Why? A cowardly child who can’t handle a bit of pressure and gives up so easily—how can he be your disciple? He’ll only tarnish your reputation."

"........Yes, Professor." Seeing Lio’s compliance, Gannon turned to look away.

If he hadn’t just called Ellie a coward, he wouldn’t feel so humiliated now. Even if others didn’t know, he knew very well...this humiliation, he would repay one day!!

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