CH 15

lurelia9-12 minutes 18.03.2023

***

It’s common for everyone to have a night where they can’t sleep.

Last night, when I heard shuffling steps beyond the wall, I realized that it was one of those nights for Leo.

I immediately took out a multi-tiered approach to put him to sleep. A three step bedtime routine that could never fail.

The cozy atmosphere of a secret hideaway.

A warm glass of milk.

And a fairy tale to be read by his bedside.

This would work, because it worked for me!

On sleepless nights, I would crawl under my desk without my aunt’s knowledge and read and reread fairy tale books until my eyes got tired and I fell asleep.

…..Now that I think about it, something seems a little different.

“Ahem, Ratchet?”

“Yes!”

Eh? He’s so cheerful today.

“I have a job for you today. A very special task that only my humble servant can do.”

Leo’s face lit up like a firework exploding behind him.

If he had a puppy tail, he would have wagged it vigorously.

“Yes! I can do it! I’ll definitely do well!”

Ugh… I feel a little guilty because he’s so excited.

“Here you go.”

Avoiding Leo’s twinkling eyes, I handed him a delicately shaped quill pen made from the feathers of a peacock.

“……?”

Leo held the pen carefully with both hands and tilted his head in confusion.

He glanced over at me and clumsily held the pen in his hand, examining it.

Then, the tip of the quill tickled his chin.

“Ah!”

At that moment, Leo seemed to have an exclamation point floating above his head.

Leo immediately grasped the pen tip and began to brush off the dust on the window frame….. with the end of the pen.

“This is for dusting…!”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes.”

Leo looked crestfallen.

It seems like he had never held a pen before, let alone learned to write.

‘We’ve got a long way to go.’

I laid a sheet of good quality paper on the desk and sat down in front of Leo.

And in a sterner, more commanding tone than usual, I declared, “From now on, I’m going to teach you how to write.”

“Teach……me?”

Leo blinked, as he held the quill upside down. As if he had no idea exactly what to do or how to do it.

“First of all, that’s not how you hold a pen.”

I took out a new pen and showed him a demonstration by writing on the paper.

The Belinda translator also works with handwriting, but thankfully I was able to write meaningless words that had nothing to do with my emotions.

Leo dipped his pen into the ink and began to copy what I had written on the paper.

I swallowed my laughter secretly, finding it cute how he pouted his lips while concentrating.

I wonder if he’ll find out one day.

That the first word he ever wrote was his name.

It’s the first time he’s ever written anything. My Leo must be a genius.

I smiled from ear to ear with satisfaction.

Then Leo turned to look at me.

I quickly turned my head away and forced the corners of my mouth down.

Ugh, this is what happens when you let your guard down.

“From now on, you’ll learn three words a day and take a test every week.”

Gulp. I heard Leo swallow his dry saliva.

Indeed, the word test seemed to have the power to make anyone instinctively tense up.

“If you don’t pass the test……” Suddenly, I felt a desire to tease Leo and said with a wicked smile. “I’ll hit your head like last time.”

“T-that incident was…!”

Leo’s face turned as red as a ripe tomato as he recalled the previous misunderstanding.

* * *

Life in the annex was comfortable.

There were dispatched servants from the main building to clean and cook our meals, so it wasn’t much different from living in the main building.

However, our living space on the second floor, where Leo and I resided, was off-limits to the employees, so cleaning our room was our responsibility.

Actually, I didn’t want to ask Leo to do household chores. 

But I couldn’t simply tell him not to do it either…

‘Cleaning reduces his stress level.’

I sighed as I picked out a book for Leo’s writing study in the library.

Apparently, he was nervous about his first dictation test, so he wiped the window to calm himself down.

He’s probably blowing on it and wiping it clean.

I muttered “status window” to myself to check his stress levels and stats, and immediately a translucent window appeared in front of me.

Your Intelligence and Divine Power have increased slightly from the last time I checked.

Intelligence… Well, I didn’t expect much of an increase, considering the fact that I was only able to help him learn how to write.

‘Divine Power hasn’t increased much.’

The day I faced the Holy Sword and thought about Leo’s true ending.

I realized later that I didn’t ask Leo what he wanted to be when he grew up because I was afraid that he would be unable to answer, just like me when I was in elementary school.

I knew how fleeting the dreams of a child without any adult support around them could be.

Similarly, the protagonist’s world before he meets Ophelia is very limited and the walls of his world are extremely high, so it would take a lot of courage for Leo to have a childlike dream.

The only thing I can do for him, when all I have is money.

‘Is to protect him from the irrationality of reality.’

I don’t want him to be held back by reasons like “I can’t afford to dream,” “I need to grow up,” or “the world is so vast”.

So, I’ll help Leo’s world gradually expand by letting him experience everything.

And later on, if Leo has a dream, I can help him with it…….

‘Let’s make sure to get the three basic stats to 100 first.’

Health, magic, and divine power. If you have those three stats at 100 at age 10, then you can start doing whatever you want.

Therefore, I focused on improving divine power first, which can be easily increased in the early stages if you have money.

Divine power can be increased through constant worship and donations, but the efficiency is not very good compared to the amount of money donated.

Perhaps it was because the cardinal who was currently representing the shrine to King Xenos was a low-ranking person.

‘Come to think of it, there was a parade when a new cardinal arrived at the beginning of the game.’

I hadn’t paid attention to the event because it didn’t involve the protagonist, but now that I think about it, he’s the guy who boosts the protagonist’s divine power.

‘Unfortunately, for now, we can only increase spirituality little by little.’

Magic and divine power are opposing forces, so if one is even slightly higher, the other stat is reduced by that amount.

For example, if you had 10 Divine Power and 8 Magic, the two forces would work against each other, and you would end up with only 2 Divine Power.

Luckily, you don’t need to balance magic and divine power right away, as you need an Awakening Event to unleash the divine power.

Now I just need to find a teacher to teach him magic.

‘Vivian is late.’

I had planned to personally sponsor Vivian and entrust her with Leo’s magical education.

However, for some reason, her visit was delayed more than expected.

‘Perhaps she hasn’t gone to the place depicted on the map.’

Sooner or later, I’d have to find Vivian and visit the tower.

I turned off the status window and carefully started to choose books that could be used as class materials.

I flicked through books that seemed difficult and heavy with cloudy eyes.

〈Powers That Shone in The History of The Kingdom〉

My gaze was immediately drawn to it. It was a book about the abilities of the kingdom’s skilled individuals.

In this world, there are occasionally individuals born with abilities called ‘talents’. Ophelia was also a talented individual born with the ‘cultivator’ talent.

With this talent, whatever she cared for with affection would grow healthy and special, be it a plant or an animal.

In other words, Ophelia was the perfect caretaker to raise a warrior.

Curious, I took the book out and flicked through it, and a familiar image caught my eye.

The crest of a crown tied with a purple ribbon.

‘Where have I seen this before?’

As I pondered, my vision drew me to the huge tapestry that adorned the walls of the study.

I looked back and forth between the crest on the tapestry and the one in the book.

“This is the Blanche family crest.”

My goodness, there was someone with a talent in the Blanche family too?

I quickly skimmed through the contents.

Lazy potato who loves to dive into other worlds through books ✌(ツ)