Chapter 24 - A Day With the Infamous Demon (Part 2)

#Continuing Celestine POV.

I suddenly broke through to tier 2!

After months of stagnation, I finally get through!

"Miss Celestine, congratulations on your break through"

"... Ah, thank you. By the way… did you put any kind of drug in this soup? Or in any of these dishes for that matter? Why did I suddenly break through when eating?"

I am still distracted by my sudden breakthrough when Emilio suddenly congratulates me. He is indeed a sharp guy. I also blurted out about his food on accident. That was impolite of me.

"I am also still learning so I don't exactly know but I have some hypotheses. You might have been ready to break through from a long time ago but there's something in your mind that blocks you from breaking through. Things like stress, fear, impatience, worry, and many other things could convince you that you could not break through, that you are still lacking. And when you feel relaxed because of these delicious meals , your relaxed state drives you to break through. That is just my assumption though, so you might want to address the issue with your teacher or maybe my master"

"So the meal is only a trigger? That is indeed logical. Wait, your master? Not teacher from the academy?"

"Yes, master. Yesterday, master Alfonse Thunderweb offered me to become his disciple and I accepted it"

"Alfonse Thunderweb? The great mage Thunderweb? The hero of Thunderwood?"

"And the grandfather of the third princess Isabella, yes. That could also be a proof of my character and identity, I guess"

"Why didn't you say so before? Nobody would look at people close to the great mage as villains. After all, Great mage Alfonse is famous for being a morally upright and steadfast character"

"Because I kinda forgot. It was just yesterday I accepted the offer to become his disciple after all. But then again, I don't think I will bring it up to defend myself"

"And can I ask why?"

"Well, let's just say that a certain someone is being too excited in accusing me that bringing up my status as Master's pupil would just backfire harder"

"... I can see that you are someone who hold grudges Sir Emilio"

"Well, I already forgave you for that as you have healed me. But it is still something that happened this morning so it is hard to forget that, right? Also, I am only talking about it in a logical manner. After all, will you stop suspecting me and ask for forgiveness for falsely accusing me if I told you about my master this morning?"

"... No, I still won't believe you and even made my suspicion deeper instead… I'm sorry for giving you troubles"

"Apology accepted. Now let's finish our lunch and join the kids to have a nap, shall we?"

"A nap?"

"Yes, a nap”

"Why a nap?”

"Let's just say that it is a good habit to have”

I kept on persisting him to answer my question and Emilio finally relented. He explained to me that rest is also a process of training. Resting after training will allow the body to grow. And what do the orphans need the most? To grow. So Emilio is trying to make the kids get used to this kind of daily activity Which is healthy for them.

He also said that I might need a nap too as I just broke through. I think he had a point there so I accepted his offer.

He then ordered one of the caretakers to take me to have a nap. A person with maid attire comes and asks me to follow her. But after I turned my gaze to her, I finally realized that she is a beastling. Emilio hired a beastling to take care of the children? Well, not that it is a problem, I think. It is just that most nobles are xenophobic and believe in human supremacy.

So I asked her about her treatment here. She happily answered me with a beaming smile that she is happy to work here as she can eat meat until she is full.

Indeed that is a good perk to have in your job. Even I want to join in too if not for my current status as a saintess in training. After all, I can realize my dream of becoming a hero if I work hard in this path.

The beastling girl has a weird accent when talking but overall, I don't feel repulsed by her. I heard a lot of bad things about beastling and how they slaughtered humans without mercy but that might also be a lie. Being proven wrong by Emilio made me think over many things that I've known.

I eventually reached the place where the girls stayed in the orphanage. When I came, the little girls came flocking at me asking me many kinds of questions and asking me to play. The beastling girl, or Sister Moon as the orphans call her, schold the little girls and told them to get a nap so they can grow big quicker.

The orphans seem to obey Moon’s command as they immediately scrambles to take their quilts and pillow into the middle hall

There seems to be many rooms connected to the middle hall, presumably the orphans’ room, but it seems that they prefer to take a nap together in the middle hall. They also ask me to join them.

I accepted the invitation and joined the little girls laying on the quilts that they had set up. The kids seem to be used to taking a nap as most of them let out a stable breathing soon after they put their head on a pillow. Looking at the angelic cuteness of the little girls’ sleeping face, sleepiness starts to befall me also and I soon join the girls in dreamland.

###

I can feel that someone is shaking my body. I am roused up from my slumber. One of the little girls is waking me up. She told me that it's time to play and ask me to join them.

I followed the kids to the playground. I can see that the kids in the orphanage are a happy and energetic bunch. I guess the rumor about Emilio torturing children is just lies then. There's no way these children run around happily like this if they are tortured. There's even some kids who lift feathers around and use it to play tag… wait, lifting feathers!?

I immediately approached the group of kids that played tag with feathers. That, that is a basic mana control training drill! These kids can do basic mana control drills? Since when?

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I asked the kids surrounding the one playing tag and asked them. It turns out that it was indeed Emilio who taught these children the basics of magic. Now that I see it like this, it is indeed scary to have all these kids become skillful in magic. This might be what Emilio is aiming for in the future. He wants to train these kids into his soldiers! … Which he has already done before with his current army.

I see, not only he could hire quality soldiers in his army, the orphans also got a steady job for them to survive. It is indeed in a way, a win win for all parties. Well, maybe except for the bandits and his enemies.

I can see why he became an eyesore in the eyes of other people with power. They are afraid that he will turn into their enemy but with his nobility status, they can't easily confront him directly so they try to destroy him by circulating bad rumors about him? That is a possibility.

While I am still lost in my thoughts, the little one that I asked invited me to play together with them. I'm afraid that I would be too strong and beat the kid easily but they insist. They also said that there is a rule that says the winner needs to face 1 more person as their opponent and it will continue on until you are defeated. So I guess I will lose eventually? The game is surprisingly ‘fair’ if I have to say.

And indeed the game is ‘fair’. I can't get past 3 opponents at once stage. I keep on getting surrounded and ambushed when I face 3 at once.

The kid told me that Emilio, or as everyone here calls him with his nickname, Milo, can face more than 10 kids at once by controlling multiple feathers to play tag. That man is indeed a monster. I can feel the distance between us. But it's not an impossible gap to close. I need to chase after him. I have a feeling that my path to become a hero could be possible if I stay close to him.

Although I'm just ‘playing’ with kids, I had a lot of fun and my mana control skill grew rapidly as I tried controlling multiple feathers at once just like how Emilio did. I feel like I have peeked in on one of his secrets in obtaining strength.

After playing for some time, we all had some afternoon snacks again. Just how many times do you eat here? And even when I say snack, it is a full blown meal for me on normal days. The menu is meat soup with fruits and veggies mixed in. The meat is diced in small sizes before being boiled with berries, citruses, some vegetables, and herbs. Milk is back again as the drink. All I can tell you about the meal is that when I realized, my plate was already empty. It was that delicious.

I asked Moon why they have a snack time in the afternoon and she answered because they will have their afternoon exercise after. ‘Playing’ also makes the kids hungry after all so they need to replenish their nutrition before training.

Training? Did the kids also have the same training like in the hunter guild that Emilio told me about before? Moon laughed when she heard my question. She told me that the orphans’ training is not the same as the training in the hunter guild. The training in the hunter guild is far harder than the training in the orphanage.

The training in the orphanage is packaged in the form of playing to not make the kids hate them. It is just in the form of an obstacle course. In terms of intensity, I need to finish the course a few times under a set amount of time to make it comparable to the training in the guild. If an orphan manages to satisfy that requirement, they can ‘graduate’ to do the formal training from the hunter guild.

That is how some of the orphans managed to join the work in the Tusk Plains. They already have a strong body as an asset. So it would be too bad if they just don't use it to work for money.

Emilio shows up again by the time the training starts. I didn't recognize him at first because he showed up in a full body armor that even covered his face. I only managed to recognize him when he talked to me.

He simply just invites me to join the training as he is also planning to join them. He said that I can measure my physical strength with this exercise. If I can fulfill the ‘graduating’ requirement for the course, I will do fine in the hunter guild's training.

But before anything else, I need to ask him one thing. Why did he wear such heavy looking full body armor? Is he going to fight someone in those armor?

His answer surprised me. He is wearing the armor for training, not for fighting. As he said to me, he is already a tier 2 knight now and doing the obstacle course is not challenging enough for him so he added some handicap for himself.

I want to ask whether he is crazy or not but then again, I don't know how strong a tier 2 knight is. Those bulky heavy armor might feel as light as normal clothing for them.

Well, let's not bother about other people first then. Let's try the obstacle course first. I want to know how will I fare with the training.

And long story short, I am terrible at it. Granted I choose the hardest route from the start as I think this course is made for kids, I looked down on the things that the monstrous prodigy made.

The obstacles are just… out if this world. Yes, that is the correct description for those, out of this world. Like this one place where I need to climb vertical wall or even one that sticks outward that just seem to have its main purpose to make the climber fall. I latter heard from Emilio that it is called an overhang but I fell a lot in that place.

Thankfully, Emilio is following me and have me put on a safety ropes that is attached to him. So even when I am falling, he could still catch me.

I was beyond miserable when I managed to climb the cliff. I feel sorry for Emilio once because I feel that I disturbing his exercise time but he said that hanging over and staying still is already a form of exercise so I shouldn't mind him. He is doing his duty to guide a guest after all so I should just try to get familiar with all the obstacles in my own pace.

Well, too bad for you then Sir Emilio, but I hate losing. So I keep charging through the obstacle course even when I fail a lot.

There are a lot of obstacles. There are balancing beam, monkey bar, rope swing, spider wall, bamboo steps, and alot more thing that I can't remember. I’ve fallen into the water a lot. It was miserable.

For my second lap, i tried the easiest course and yeah, it is far easier than the most difficult one but it is still challenging for me in some part.

After seeing that I choose the easiest course, Emilio went on his own going on the hardest course again. He told me that if there's anything I don't understand, I can ask the kids for help. Only the hardest course need professional help to prevent injuries so he doesn't need to personally guide me anymore.

I tried all the course that day and I must said, although I feel very tired afterwards, running the obstacle course is ultimately a fun thing to do. Maybe this is why not many children hate doing this kind of exercise.

Another surprise wait for me after training. Moon, who also joined in running the obstacle course before, invited me to take a bath together with the orphans. I readily agree as my body is just dirty from falling down into the mud many times. Moon also said that I can also help wash the kids while at it. Well, that is the least I can do to return their hospitality.

I don't think much about the bath until I reach the place. There are a room before the bath to take off my clothing so I take off my dirty clothes there following the kids’ example. By the way, this training clothing was lend to me by the orphanage, just like my disguise before in the morning. I can see my battle priest outfit in the changing room so I can wear that after I take a bath.

When I enter the bath area, I am astonished. There is a large pool in the middle and I can see water vapor rising up from it. Hot water? In such a large pool? In an orphanage? Are you for real?

Moon then noticed my surprised face and laughs. She then told me that it is easy to get hot water as everyone here could use some degree of magic so heating water is not a problem. She told me to wash up first before entering the hot water pool so it won't get dirty and guide me to the washing area.

Then came the second surprise. There are soap! And there are also another miraculous thing called shampoo here. I know soap as I regularly use it in the church but I never knew about shampoo. Isn't soap supposed to be something expensive? And again, Moon told me that the soap and shampoo are made in the ranch so it is cheaper than buying it from others.

My mind is filled with questions about the ranch but my thoughts got disturbed by the kids asking me to wash them. The kids also keep on praising my body and beauty, heh, it's doesn't feel bad to get praised from time to time.

Well, the experience is just heavenly. I feel like moving to the orphanage for good because of this.

I start to feel glad that I took the risk to condemn Emilio this morning or I won't be able to experience the food, the training, and the bath like this.

###

Meanwhile, Emilio at that time.

Hmm, using fruits as condiments seems to have reach its limit. It is not yet satisfactory. I need more spices for increasing my gourmet enjoyment level. I need chillies! How can a hot pot be hot pot if it isn't spicy? I hope Robin could send me his report on plants that could be used as condiments quickly. Well, one step at a time I guess.