Chapter 65: Courtesy of making plans for the day

"This is... amazing..."

Rather than screaming my excitement out, I whispered it through my trembling lips.

I could feel my slight hangover vanishing into the thin air with just a single sip. And as I took another, this time a much greater one...

It was hard to describe how exactly I felt. As if all the bad effects of a lazy lifestyle and unhealthy food I've consumed in the past were now lifting from my body, cleansed of my flesh by just a single wash of this tea?

'This drink...' I thought, pulling my lips away from the cup and staring at it as if I suddenly held a holy grail in my hands instead.

"Hon, are you up yet?" Fay asked with a muffled voice, once again struggling to get herself awake. Looking down, I could see her slowly moving up while reaching out for the sheet of flowers to keep her breasts covered.

'Good, she's learning,' I thought, more and more certain that at the current rate, it was only a matter of days before she would be ready to set out of the shed and experience the modern world for what it really was.

Before long, Fay managed to shake herself awake and raise her eyes, only to instantly lock them on the cup in my hand.

"It's the herbal tea that I wanted to test out," I explained only to pass the cup to the girl.

"But I feel great, though?" Fay protested, puzzled by my intent, but grabbed the cup anyway. She then brought it up to her nose, took a short whiff... and despite clearly disliking the smell, she angled the cup and took a careful sip. "Ugh, bitter," she commented right away... but obediently swallowed the brew.

"I guess this tea really works," I muttered, accepting the cup back and staring at its leftover content before pouring it all down my throat.

"Now then, what's your plan for the day?" Madam then asked as she approached and leaned her back against one of the few trees that Leinei cultivated amidst her plants.

I opened my mouth to reply... Only to put them back together before I could utter a single sound.

'Now that I think about it, I was doing whatever the heck I wanted whenever in this world,' I thought, finally noticing the rudeness of doing so.

"I'm sorry I'm only asking this now, but don't you guys have your own plans for the day?" I asked, my lips forming an awkward grimace that perfectly reflected the conflicted feeling I had in my soul.

Yet, contrary to my worries, Madam only laughed out.

"Don't mind us. Life in this forest, as boring as it might be, is pretty peaceful. Laid-back, you could even say," she explained. "In fact, it can get so boring here that we decided not to stop humans from invading. In a sense, fighting them off is the only amusement you can find in this place."

I raised my eyes a little, taken aback by Madam's point of view.

'I guess the values in this world are just that much different from what I'm used to,' I thought, opting not to judge Madam's way of living. Who I was even to say that a perfectly peaceful life most of the people led on earth was better than what she had going here?

"In that case, I would like to pay a visit to the misty valley you mentioned before," I revealed, to a simple nod of acknowledgment from Madam... and a sudden, piercing glare from Leinei. "Just like the starlight plains, I hope I will be able to grow a little bit stronger just by challenging that place."

While I could gain attribute points by raising my level... I still couldn't really agree with the idea of going out to hunt for some fellow humans. And as long as I had any alternative or unless the humans themselves would come knocking, I was determined to look for other ways of reaching this fifth level I so desired.

"And before you ask, I have no idea why I grew stronger while on the starlight plains. So, even if I indeed grow stronger in that misty valley, I still won't know how it happened, besides that it happened."