As it suddenly became silent Yuki saw others, most of them got angry along with shock and shouted, "How dare she talk about master Kanesuke like that?"
"He is the only alchemist in our iron wall town; if he knows about this he will definitely punish her."
"The Kanakuba family and Hoshi family are doomed now, she offended master Kanesuke."
Megumi got worried and warned, "Sister Yuki, you have to apologize to master Kanesuke, he is the one who supplies pills for our entire town, if he knows that you said those words, my father and other families will punish you, you will be targeted."
Yuki felt awkward about their overreaction, without the care she said her opinion, "I want to become an alchemist, so I don't want anyone to disrespect alchemy due to scarcity of pills, he should be called trainee Kanesuke if you are not his disciple."
Yuki always had a sense of duty, no matter what she did; she would do it with concentration that was the reason she accepted her being a girl for the sake of doing a mission given by the universe.
Everyone lost hope in Yuki, some even felt happy that she was going to get punished soon and talked, "she is doomed, the first time can be written off as ignorance but now she said it again."
"The fragrance pill association shop won't let her or her family go."
"The Hoshi and Kanakuba families will be gone from iron wall town now."
Yuki got confused, "why are they overacting just for a trainee, he is not even a trainer."
As she knew about alchemy levels, for her, trainee meant a beginner.
Megumi got concerned for Yuki and explained, "Alchemists are rare and their techniques were only passed to the disciples, so ordinary people can't become alchemists. Due to this fact, alchemists are well respected and people will do anything to protect their reputation. Sister Yuki, your family will be implicated due to your words today. You can't blame them if they kick you out of their house."
That made Yuki excited and asked, "What? They will even kick out their daughter for an imposter?" She got happy about that, "if they really do that, that means I won't be restricted anymore; I will be a free man."
Everyone got dumb folded and Megumi said, "You are a girl, sister Yuki."
Yuki got embarrassed and covered it, "haha, I meant it like practice makes a man perfect, man. Sister Megumi, since when did you start learning from him and how much fee did he extract from you?"
"I have been learning alchemy for 6 years and I paid 1000 silver coins per month."
"Pay me 5000 silver coins and I will make you trainee in 3 months," Yuki offered with full of confidence.
Everyone got dumb folded and thought, 'she won't listen anymore.'
Megumi got wondered to see her with so much confidence and thought, 'where does she get so much confidence from, does she really have a powerful master? If what she said is true, this is a great chance if I believe her.
If she is bluffing then I will offend master Kanesuke, if I don't believe I will lose a great opportunity, what should I do? Should I...' then she asked, "are you sure you can make me trainee?" everyone got shocked.
Yuki with a big confident smile replied, "Yes."
Megumi also connect her smile and said, "Then I will take this gamble if you can make me a trainee, I will give you 20,000 silver coins I have been saving to buy herbs for my alchemy practice."
Everyone got shocked because, for them, 20,000 silver coins were by no means a small amount.
***
News about Yuki cursing Kanesuke spread around the town. Murata and the Nakamura families were celebrating because now they would be the only big families left in the town after Kanesuke come back to town.
Megumi was kneeling in front of the town lord with her head facing the floor and family elders were sitting in their seats at sides inside the town lord mansion.
"Megumi, do you know your crime?" asked Fumihiro Mori-Megumi's father in a condescending way, "What possess you today? Why did you do such a stupid thing? It's a good thing that master Kanesuke is out of the town now, go and kneel in front of his house until he comes back and beg for his forgiveness."
Megumi felt ashamed when her father said that, she tried to convince him by saying, "father, sister Yuki is taken by a fairy master, I am sure she has alchemy methods, she promised me to make me a trainee level alchemist in 3 months," she didn't dare to raise her head though.
That made him rage, "Foolishness," Megumi got jerked due to a sudden shout, she knew better than anyone about her father, "you are not only feeling not guilty but also supporting that little bitch? I will ask one last time, will you kneel or not?" He couldn't hide his bootlicking side very well.
Megumi believed in Yuki strongly and tried to convince him, "father listen to me, don't..." She tried her best to change her bootlicking father to a true man but
"Take her away and imprison her," he ordered by giving up on her, while walking away, he said, "when master Kanesuke comes, we will hand her over to him, let him do whatever he wants after that, from today onwards I don't have such daughter." Megumi got devastated, all of her confidence and determination was fallen from sky to ground, the guards took her away and she didn't retaliate.
In the Hoshi family, Yuki was standing in front of Akihiko in the Hoshi family hall, many elders were glaring at her, Kanakuba family elders and Gakuto were also there, Yuki was not showing any kind of nervousness and she was bored for making her stand and discussing among themselves.
Then Gakuto seriously asked, "Yuki, do you know your fault?"
Yuki agreed, "Yes."
Greedy elders got happy that she would be willing to surrender to Kanesuke. Gakuto asked, "What is it?"
"Not cursing that imposter thoroughly," replied Yuki.
Many people there got angry for her arrogance and not thinking about family troubles. Gakuto said, "brother Akihiko, she is your family now, so I can't do anything, it's your choice what to do with her."
Akihiko looked at her for a few seconds Yuki stared back at him.
Fuminori with anger mixed with fear of Kanesuke demanded, "What is there to talk, we should hand over her to master Kanesuke immediately if our family doesn't want to be implicated and send gifts (huge amount of money and costly things) to master Kanesuke."
Most of them supported him, "yes, she brought doom for our families, even if we lose some fortune, we have to suck it up and beg for master Kanesuke's forgiveness."
"She is playing with fire and will get all of us burnt with her." They all were shaken to the core with fear.
Then some elders, to Yuki's surprise, supported her by saying, "you should be ashamed to say such things to a little girl."
"Yes, what did she say wrong, Kanesuke is just a trainee and calling him master is a disgrace to real master alchemists."
"Yes, she is also training to become an alchemist, if we support her fully, in a few years, she will also become an alchemist."
They were only supporting her because of her talent, not because she was their family member.
One elder argued, "But our families can't hold for a few years, we must hand her over and real masters are only legends, no one saw such people," The elders started to argue among themselves about this matter and it became noisy.
Akihiko got annoyed and shouted, "stop everyone," everyone stopped and looked at him in fear and respect. It was completely silent.
Akihiko seriously asked, "Yuki, what do you say about this matter. You know we will be targeted by other forces for disrespecting an alchemist to gain favors from him right?" Yuki nodded as yes.
"Do you have a solution?" Akihiko asked, "This is caused by you, so if you don't have a solution, then we have to hand you over to master Kanesuke but if you have a solution and it is a reasonable one, we will support you even if we have to suffer some losses."
Yuki looked at Gakuto and asked, "what about you father?"
Gakuto replied, "Same goes for me," but by their looks, Yuki could feel that Gakuto and Akihiko would protect her even if there were no solution.
Yuki looked at the elders and got a brilliant idea to use that situation for her advantage, so she asked, "Is there anyone who doesn't want to give me a chance?"
Then few elders replied, "We won't."
"Father, father-in-law, I do have a solution," Yuki continued, "but I will only tell this if you kick those people out of our family." Everyone got shocked because she was just a junior, saying those words were disrespectful to elders.
The greedy elders all at once stood up with rage and shouted, "How bold of you to say those words?"
"You are nothing but a little girl, how can you make decisions in the family?"
"We are the pillars of the family; do you think we will leave just because you said so?"
Akihiko became serious because of their opposition but he couldn't go against so many elders, so he said to Yuki, "Yuki, you don't have a say in this. First, tell us what the solution is, the elders are the pillars of the family, you don't have authority to request to kick them out."