This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 26

Thievish

"I think what matters now is to confirm that the abilities of scholarship student Ellie are accurate. Her power is exceedingly rare, not even magic devices or other checks can accurately identify it like the power she possesses. Professor Medik, it seems you have found a treasure worth cherishing."

Professor Gwen didn’t want the silence to linger too long. She took the initiative to summarize on behalf of everyone, subtly praising Ellie without directly criticizing Professor Lucien. This essentially meant she acknowledged who deserved to save face in this instance.

Medik didn’t want to boast too much about his own student, even though her power was indeed remarkable. Nonetheless, it wasn’t the strongest power. He simply smiled and moved the conversation forward.

"Thank you, Professor Gwen, for your favorable assessment of my student. And with her power proven, my student truly has the ability to track others’ locations, which was evidenced when she sent her mushroom to follow Professor Lucien’s student, confirming that she indeed entered her room."

Hearing Medik say this, Nara’s face immediately turned pale. Although she had guessed that Ellie might catch her by claiming to have location-tracking abilities, she couldn’t let herself be cornered like this.

"Professor Medik, it’s not true! Even though Ellie has the power to identify where I am, isn’t it a power that only she knows about? If she claims I was somewhere, should her word be fully trusted? If she wanted to..." Nara didn’t finish her sentence, but her eyes expressed her thoughts.

She wanted to imply that Ellie might have planned to incriminate her. How could the word of one person be taken as evidence?

"Are you suggesting that student Ellie is framing you?" Professor Gwen raised her eyebrows slightly upon hearing this accusation.

It seemed like someone would indeed have to leave the institution—either Lucien’s direct disciple, a student of the light element, or the only student of the botanic elemental with an interesting bonded plant...Losing either would be a loss for the institution!

"I...Actually, I don’t want to think this way, Professor. Ellie is from my village, the only person I truly trust. However, before this incident, I discovered a secret about Ellie. Maybe...that’s why it is."

Nara averted her face as if she didn’t want to discuss the "secret" of her only friend. Yet, her mentioning it only piqued others’ curiosity further.

"A secret?" Regan raised his eyebrows in surprise. Seeing that others were listening to her, Nara looked up with tears in her eyes.

"If it wasn’t for this secret, then...Ellie, what do these mushrooms mean?! Why suddenly use your mushroom power on Nara? Are you saying you didn’t trust Nara from the beginning? Isn’t that impossible? Everyone can attest to how close we were before."

“Even when Ellie and Nara helped each other on orientation day, everyone knew that we always stuck together. So...why then has Ellie used these mushrooms to track Nara’s location?! Is this not a plan devised from the start? Did you have the intention to use these mushrooms as evidence all along?!" Nara sobbed, questioning her friend from the same village with a heavy heart.

Even though her words mixed truth with deception, deep down, she still wondered...Why did Ellie suddenly become suspicious of her? Why think that she would intrude into her room? Why attach a mushroom to her?!

What would the situation be like if Ellie had not attached this mushroom to her?

"Or...are you saying you never really saw Nara as a friend?" Faced with this question, Ellie almost rolled her eyes in exasperation. Good thing she had encountered bosses at work who were far more frustrating than Nara, which had honed her patience. She stared into Nara’s eyes before shaking her head.

Was Nara just trying to gain sympathy for herself? Suddenly being doubted by a friend from the same village and having mushrooms attached to her without knowing since when...

"I would like to see you as a dear friend, Nara, but...it’s your fault for starting to steal money from the crops that my parents grow in the village. That’s why I can’t fully trust you anymore."

"Stealing money?" Professor Gwen raised her eyebrows in surprise. Nara frowned with displeasure slightly, but she had been thinking of a way out of this since she heard Ellie’s words in the Botanical Building, and so she was prepared with excuses!

"Ellie! Why frame Nara like that! Nara didn’t steal any money, you know that very well. Otherwise, where would you get the money to buy a 2-gold-coin meal set yesterday?! We all come from the same village. Everyone knows the value of 1 gold coin, and people from a poor area like ours wouldn’t have 2 gold coins for a meal! If Nara really stole your money, then where did that money come from?!"

Ellie’s brows knitted together. She hadn’t expected the story’s heroine to be so deceptive. Ellie thought that if she brought up the money stealing, the other party would inevitably have to admit it, given that the evidence of the money received would include the village chief as a witness. But upon reflection, those people didn’t know Nara had secretly taken the money.

"I should be the first one not to trust you! Wasn’t it that the money from my father disappeared that day? And who else could enter my house without suspicion but you?!" Nara cried out, crafting a convincing fabrication.

Now everyone’s eyes were on Ellie as if the case had turned on its head. Theft of this magnitude should not occur in this institution, where everyone was expected to graduate and become great magicians. Wouldn’t persistent thieving habits be a disaster for the country?

Thieving traits or habits like this should never be kept within the institution! Even if one possesses immense, almost celestial powers...

"Does scholarship student Ellie have anything to say?" Professor Gwen furrowed her brows.

She gazed at Ellie’s freckled face, which alone revealed so much about what the girl’s life had been like before coming to the institution. And if she really did have gold coins, wouldn’t that be evident? A country girl without parents but with a lot of money saved up—if she didn’t come by it through wrongdoing, then what was the source of that money?

Ellie clenched her jaw in anger. It seemed she and this heroine could no longer maintain a friendship—were they now to become enemies?!

It was unfortunate that even if Ellie wanted to talk about the source of the money, it would mean revealing all her secrets at once! If people knew she could accelerate the growth of any plant, chaos would surely ensue.

As the saying goes... "The jade isn’t at fault; it is the fault of the person who possesses it." It means that having the power isn’t wrong, but the fault lies in her being too small to bear such greatness.

Weighing the pros and cons of staying in the institution and attracting danger to herself versus being expelled back to her village where she could hide her powers and still make money the old way, Ellie didn’t need a second thought about what to choose. However...this injustice was more than she could handle!

With rising anger, Ellie was unwilling to accept this. She didn’t want this heroine, who was a fake flower, to float by unscathed as if she had done nothing wrong! Otherwise, the deep-seated pain inside her might never heal, possibly becoming the greatest regret of her life!

She had traveled through dimension, but was she really must submit to the evil of others just like in her old world?

"Ellie, why aren’t you saying anything! Why...won’t you deny anything? Sob. Waah." Nara saw that Ellie couldn’t find a way forward, though she knew the truth of the matter. Could all the evidence truly speak the truth?

The issue of the stolen village chief’s money was still unresolved; if the institution were to inquire with the villagers, they would also say that Ellie was the suspect. Meanwhile, only Nara knew about the money from the harvest, no one else knew that Ellie didn’t receive the money. When combining with the fact that Ellie could afford to eat luxuriously, it only pointed more suspiciously at her!

However, as everyone looked at Ellie with suspicion, the door to the acting director’s office was rudely knocked on.

"Who is it now? Didn’t I say not to let anyone disturb us!" Regan frowned deeply.

It seemed the dispute between Nara and Ellie was now known to some students. When he went out to test Ellie’s abilities, he overheard students eagerly discussing how the two new scholarship students were at each other’s throats.

For those students, the dispute between the students was entertaining gossip. Often, their exaggerations were merely for the fun of discussion. For this reason, when Regan returned, he instructed the students of the acting director to prevent anyone from disturbing him during the investigation of this dispute.

But who would have thought that despite his orders, someone still dared to defy him!

The door hadn’t even been opened yet when a student outside shouted to announce the arrival of an honorable guest who wished to meet with everyone in this situation, causing everyone’s expressions to change.

"Deputy Director, “Lord Steven Setter” requests to see you."

"The head of the Setter family?" The acting director’s eyebrows furrowed in surprise.

The Setter family, if one spoke of their influence in the country, was so significant that no one dared claim to be first if they say they were second. They were an ancient and powerful family with roots deep in every corner.

Even the royal palace often relied on the Setter family, with each generation of the Setter bloodline producing strong descendants, making them the envy of many. This meant that this institution was also familiar with the talented individuals of the Setter family.

Professor Gwen, who was currently overseeing the talented Koross from the Setter family, was surprised when she saw that it was the head of the Setter family pushing the door open, with “Koross”, her student, silently following behind.

"How rude!" How could the dignified Regan be pleased with this situation? He himself had ordered that no one should disturb them, yet here was the head of the Setter family barging in, completely disregarding his command!

"My apologies, Professor Regan. To alleviate any distress, the Setter family will gift you 1 cultivating stone as an apology." The head of the Setter family was decisive. He did not dilly-dally but presented the cultivating stone immediately.

Regan’s eyes sparkled. He exhaled as if displeased, yet he said nothing further, silently accepting the gift.

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