I slowly back away with small step with a petrified smile as the man called Tzari made a smile too. I can feel goosebump encroaching my neck and a chill running down my spine. I glance over to Daisy and she also has the same stiff countenance.

“Oh my, why are you backing away, Miss Asagao?”

“Eh…Am I? Y-You must be mistaken. How did you even know my name…?”

“I wonder how? Hmm!~”

I am bad with this kind of people! I don’t even have the slightest clue how to deal with them because they seemed so whimsical.

If this is Alstroe’s master, I fear what he might have done to her in the past…

“Stop that, don’t scare Miss Asagao if you don’t want to incur the wrath of King Ashfon.”

“Ohoho, I wouldn’t want that.”

“Tzari, explain yourself carefully that it won’t cause misunderstanding! You always love inciting these kinds of shenanigans.”

“Well then, I shall clear my name of any evident suspicion.”

Tzari said as he walks closer to me with a glee smile.

“What…? Don’t come closer!”

“My, my, I’m getting a bad treatment.”

“You, what did you to Alstroe when she was staying here?!”

“Really, little girls are the best!”

“Gah!”

I want to hit this guy so hard!

“Ah, so that’s what you are misunderstanding!~”

“That’s obvious!”

“Ahahaha! I’ll explain everything on the way, Alstroe has gone ahead.”

“Well…we’ve come this way so there’s no way we are going back empty-handed.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

Seeing that Tzari beckoned me and Miss Cecille who is carrying Daisy to follow, I reluctantly picked up my pace to walk behind Miss Cecille who is walking behind Tzari.

Even though I said it’s warmer here than when we were climbing the mountain, feeling chilly here is still inevitable so I kept my coat. It’s like a wintry day with no snow falling but still manage to bring a cold breeze. Contrary to my sensitive skin, Tzari isn’t wearing anything similar to a coat or windbreaker, in fact, he is lightly dressed.

While we are walking leisurely, Tzari started talking.

“The teachings of Shiva solely relies on destruction while the teachings of Brahma relies on preservation, a two opposing concept but also interacts indefinitely. The general knowledge of Ki is about life energy within every single thing. Even a rock has Ki.”

“Yeah, I guessed as much. But…really, what does it have to do with you liking little girls?!”

“Geez, you really want to know?~ Are you really that interested in older men?~”

“……”

“Fine, fine, you just can’t take a joke, huh?”

I’m getting really tired of your shit.

“I am specifically identifying little girls as a gender that can utilize the power of Ki effectively than men.”

“…Eh? Really?! Wait, if you just said that first earlier, then I shouldn’t have suspected you as a…”

“What?”

“Nevermind. Please continue.”

“So, as I was saying, from my extensive research for my whole life about Ki, through countless statistics and trials and error, I’ve found out that women are prone to having stronger Ki growth than men.”

“Are you some sort of researcher or something?”

“That’s right. There’s no point in reaching greater heights of power without knowledge after all. In fact, I am a scholar in equal greatness with Mrothgir.”

I gave him a skeptic gaze trying to ascertain his words. From here on out, I can’t even read if he is being serious or not due to his earlier actions. It’s not wrong to say that he is just showing a little bit of façade at the same time, showing a little of himself not to be rude.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

However, what greatly pulled my interests is that he knew of Master. Master is only known in Demon Continent and Dragon Continent through his research exploits. This place is northeast of human continent…

“I’ll give you the simplified explanation of my research.”

“I feel like you are implying that I am too stupid to understand it.”

“Ahahaha! You are as snappy as I thought!”

“I just still can’t think of any merits that you deserved for respect, no, actually, it all crumbled when you started talking oddly like that.”

“I see, well, the thing is, little girls are specifically susceptible to Ki growth. Since they are small, their body easily gathers Ki. So, how does it differs from little boys?”

“H-How…?”

“Girls, in general, has richer life essence. They are the symbol of fertility after all and because of that, the flow of ki inside their body is a lot vigorous and they are a lot connected to the world that houses the largest sum of Ki.”

“In general, Ki is attracted to a person with a huge amount of life essence. If you put it that way, then it greatly differs from magic, however, like magic, Ki is something one can also train at a young age and will yield a better result. Right now, are you implying that a girl will develop in a large margin than a boy?”

“Most likely, however, not really in general. Like magic where one can only a have one or more affinities, the type of Ki that one would master will differ. Even if you are a little girl yourself and you are taking a wrong path or a path that you are not prepared for, the growth will be stunned.”

“If one will train in elemental magic when they have more affinity with enhancement magic, their potential would surely drop in the field that is not fit with.”

“That’s exactly it. There are two paths of Ki and that are the Teachings of Shiva and the Teachings of Brahma. However, those two also branches out in several forms and beliefs in which one should acknowledge that they are going to go down in that path.”

“And that’s one of the factors where little girls will further excel. Youth is the fuel in forming a solid belief in life and girls a prominently known to stick to their belief!”

“You are making it sounds like we are stubborn!”

“Exactly!”

Though I am getting the gist of it, I still don’t know why he is still fixated on little girls.

“Oh, you are actually accepting now that you are a little girl.”

“Keh?!”

I know that fact already but you, further rubbing it on my face. I am fully aware now but why did that still got me?

This man…he knows a lot, that for sure. This kind of people never ceases to surprise me with their knowledge, but this man goes too far. Tzari is implying that he even knows that I am originally a man. It’s not that I am going to hide that fact but to subtly tell me that, he is something greater than I expected.

The way he goes roundabout of things he really ticks me off…

He just grins widely at me as he pokes fun at me.

“You…knew…?”

“Who knows.~”

“Please…don’t be like this…”

It really ticks me off but at the same time, I know that he also took care of Alstroe. He served as her family when she was kicked out of her town.

As much as possible, I want to keep a degree of respect to him. I am a little conflicted and at the same time, a little pissed. All I could do is to sprout a grim expression…

“Well, I’m glad you are not emotionally broken. I think it was worth to see if you can feel emotions normally.”

“I can…”

“I see, I’m glad. Thank you for being a friend to Alstroe. Just saying but, you are a lot better of a person than I am.”

“I hate this kind of tests…”

“Ahahaha! That’s quite the right reaction I am looking for!”

I sprouted a sour face this time as he gives a friendly smirk.

“Are you having fun, Tzari?”

“Yeah, Cecille, I am thankful for bringing Alstroemeria and her friends here.”

“Even though this is the first time you met Miss Asagao and Miss Daisy?”

“Well, I would be! Like what I said, I love little girls.”

“We have special circumstances here, Tzari. You should already be aware of why we are here.”

“Jumping into the subject at hand, that’s seemingly a fitting character for you, Cecille.”

“Where are the other practitioners, by the way, Tzari?”

“I’ve sent them home.”

He sent them home?

“They’ll freak out if they see Alstroemeria!”

“Ah, I’ve heard of that story from Alstroemeria. She was too strong for the other students that each time she challenges someone, they bound to have one or two broken bones.”

“Yeah, about that. Because the majority of the older students petitioned for Alstroemeria to leave, I have no choice back then. Well, since we are offseason, we won’t be getting any tourists, instead, our shrined below the mountain will receive them.”

“You have a shrine at the base of the mountain, huh?”

“We can’t have them climbing up here all the time, you see. Just in special events. By the way, Alstroemeria tends to both shrines back then. However, since she loves fights back then, she…continuously racked up a hefty amount of debt in my name.”

“I don’t want you claiming of her custody now because of those said debts. I’ll pay you double, no, even triple the amount just to keep your hands away from her.”

“D’aw! What loving mother!~”

“Sister…I prefer that!”

“Well then, how much are we talking about here?”

“Two platinum coins.”

“Uh…well…that’s too much…”

Even Tzari is quite flabbergasted by that amount of coins. It’s a little relieved that there’s still a modesty somewhere in that body of his.

It’s best to say that I don’t have a better impression of him.

“Hmm…? I haven’t heard the little cub spoke. Is there something wrong?”

“Ah, Miss Daisy?”

When Tzari mentioned that, I turn my sight to Daisy who is still on Miss Cecille’s back. At the same time, Tzari sprouted yet another smile.

Daisy snoozes silently as she dug the side of her head on Miss Cecille’s back. She must be really exhausted trying to keep all that excitement inside just to put up a strong front. I bet it took so much toll on her mind that she just fell asleep.

Since Alstroe carted off a while ago with a blinding speed, she is nowhere to be seen, however, we are moving closer to the temple with our pace. If possible, I want to keep this pace so we won’t bother Daisy.

After a while of walking again, we reached the temple.

But…

What can I say…

It’s freaking huge, or so I want to say but that should only be natural since it houses a lot of students and there should be a lot of training facilities or meditation room.

However, in front of the temple is a huge brass bell hanged by a multi-knotted rope. It has an eerie design as it hangs above a donation box sitting on a pedestal. This just shows that it is a proper temple, however, the master of it seems to have a few loose screws.

And so, Tzari led us inside as we made our way to another series of a short staircase and met with a large door. The large door has a smaller door made for easy access and since there is no need to move it, we used the small door.

There, we met a huge paved hall with the ceiling far above us constructed with a lot of thick wooden beams to support the earthen roof. However, this hall seems normal as it doesn’t have much decoration and the only eye-catching thing here is the huge statue colored in jade. A statue of a man with six arms with each brandishing various weapons like a sword. In its forehead lies a jewel deeply embedded. The statue wore an elegant garb that can only be depicted as epic with its multilayered coats underneath an armor.

This must be their depiction of Shiva.

After that, he led us to a specific place where a strong smell wafts, the smell of food, most likely the curry he said he cooked for Alstroe.

What beheld us is a huge dining hall with a lot of long tables lined in columns and rows. It’s a lot less lively since Tzari sent all of the students home, however, one table is being occupied right now.

Alstroe is there sitting with five plates and spoon and fork respectively laid down with a huge pot in the center, most likely the curry. As she saw us, she waves her hand happily and stands up from her chair.

“Master, what took you guys so long? I’m starving!”

“Ooof! Alstroemeria…did you prepared this?”

“Yeah! We should all eat together, right?”

“You…hardly do this back then.”

As Alstroemeria dove on Tzari’s stomach, Tzari opened his eyes wide from the simple spectacle. If I do say myself, even though Alstroe acts like a glutton when she can fast for more than a month, she properly waits for people to sit down beside her and eat.

“Ah, I see, you really have grown too. Thanks, Cecille.”

“It was Miss Asagao who taught her properly.”

“I see.”

Tzari faces me and bows his head.

“It seems you properly taught her, not only in dining etiquette which I myself has given up long ago but also for seeing to it that Alstroemeria can properly control her strength.”

“Ah, how do you say so?”

“Her simple hug back then is backbreaking, you know? For her to hug earnestly while not exerting strength, you must have taught her how to become this gentle.”

“…Alstroe is, after all, a family for me.”

“You’ve done well as a family I suppose, ahahaha!”