"Those with the ambitions of being great alchemists need to be great fighters otherwise how will they get the most precious ingredients that are usually found in danger-prone areas?
Without an extremely heightened sense of danger, would an alchemist be bold enough to experiment with new recipes that have a likelihood of causing a cauldron explosion or other alchemy-related mishaps? To develop such a sense other than being skilled in alchemy, one also needs to build it through fights.
I believe alchemy or even closing deals, is each a battlefield of its own, and as such, it needs a warrior's heart to maneuver through each of them.
The Golden robin nest manor was created with such a goal in mind. We are both alchemists and merchants and to be able to do both safely and for a long time, we need to be good combatants, which is why we spend a lot of resources to send some of our prized members to the Battle palace and have them tempered there.
