"Now, how do you read this?" asked an agitated Alfraed who is now showing a word for a piece of furniture with a flat top and four legs.
"Table!" answered Emma confidently while raising her spheroidal fists to the sky.
"Good job! You're getting better"
"Hehehe"
Alfraed complimented Emma while patting her head, and the little girl was delighted to receive such acknowledgment from someone she admired, and that feeling could be seen from her ears and tail that were moving excitedly.
At this moment, Alfraed was teaching Emma, and her twin brother Evan how to read inside his store, as he promised. Fortunately, or not, there was no customer, allowing him to give the twins his undivided attention.
Two days were all it took for Emma to remember all the letters in the alphabet, and starting today she had already moved on to the next phase, which was pronouncing words. The girl stumbled at first, but her progress was astounding. As a teacher, witnessing the one he taught making notable improvement was emotionally rewarding.
Did his master ever feel this way? He genuinely hoped that was the case.
On the other hand, Evan, it was hard to put it into words, but, he might be someone who deserved to be called exceptionally intellectual. The boy already remembered the alphabet on day one. On the second day, he could already get his tongue around words almost without mistake. Currently, Evan was reading one of Alfraed's books about the basics of potion-making, and he seemed to enjoy this newfound activity, and his tail was moving happily just like Emma.
Personally, Alfraed wanted Evan to start by reading storybooks suitable for his age. That being said, he did not have any storybooks, so he gave him the easiest book he owned for the time being. He promised to buy them the intended books when he had more financial leeway.
Aside from reading, Alfraed also taught them how to write. Contrary to reading, Evan struggled in marking coherent words on a paper, whereas Emma could do it with relative ease. They may be twins, but each has their own personality and strengths, and, as someone who was in charge of their education -temporarily-, Alfraed must remember this point, so he could guide them properly and made them realize that studying could be made enjoyable.
Regardless, with this kind of pace, Alfraed planned to start introducing them to numbers and calculations next week.
"Excuse me"
When Alfraed was thinking about the study session, the door to his shop was gently opened by someone with a fruity voice, even Emma and Evan were made curious as to what kind of person owned such speech.
Simultaneously, this situation was enough to put Alfraed to tears because a person other than the twins and himself finally came to his shop, but he endured such unfitting behavior.
On top of the approaching figure's clothing, she wore a dark-colored, sleeveless outer garment from the shoulders until her slender waist. The figure was none other than Vanessa, a senior counselor from the Association.
"Welcome, Ms. Welsh" Alfraed greeted his guest properly.
"Thank you Mr. Logick. Are you occupied with other activities at the moment?" asked Vanessa after seeing Alfraed attending two children.
"I'm preparing writing practice for these two. Is it okay if they remain here? I assure you, they won't disturb us"
"Perfectly fine. You need to check on their result later on, right?"
"Yes, I do. A moment please"
Following Vanessa's apprehension, Alfraed prepared a piece of paper that already had words and simple sentences for Emma and Evan to re-write down on their own papers. Afterward, Vanessa looked around the shop, accompanied by Alfraed.
According to Vanessa, the shop was compact, and the interior was reflecting enough brightness, allowing her sight to see everything clearly. And, all the products, though, there were names she never heard before, were arranged neatly, enabling any customer, including her, to find what they were looking for easily. Overall, Vanessa was comfortable being here. Having said that, judging the shop's design was not the reason she was here today.
"Mr. Logick, these are Greater Grade Health and Mana Potions, right?" inquired Vanessa, while carefully holding a potion-filled bottle in each hand, as if not to put unnecessary damage to the valuable items.
"Yes, Ms. Welsh"
"…You know, having such rare products, you should have mentioned it -at once- when coming to me"
"Is that so?"
"Yes. If not for that unfortunate incident, or fortunate, I don't know anymore, I wouldn't know you have these…"
Vanessa still vividly remembered what transpired three days prior in the Association after she rejected Alfraed's product presentation.
-------
A teleportation magic was invoked from an undisclosed location to the Association, and two figures appeared from the magic circle. They were gold-ranked, the Association's elite adventurers. Regrettably, their current condition was far from the image of glorious.
The first gold-ranked, a human male, got his face and well-built, full-body armor heavily disfigured, some parts of the armor even sharply bent inward, pushing and piercing his own flesh. The equipment that should be protecting the wearer from harm, was now the one inflicting harm to the owner. Furthermore, his crushed left arm was turned in the most unnatural way possible, imagining the pain would make anyone shuddered.
The second gold-ranked, a female dark elf, had no visible injury on her body. Yet, she was sweating profusely and struggling to draw a full breath, unable to get enough breath into her body, and unable to do it quickly enough.
"Heavens above…"
Vanessa was acquainted with both of them, and immediately asked, or gave orders to other adventurers to make way and gave enough space for medics to treat them on site.
--One of the medics informed Vanessa that the dark elf's condition was caused by severe mana deficiency because she forced herself to activate the teleportation magic, an advanced spell that required sizeable mana to be performed when her mana was in a low state. They already gave her a High-Grade Mana Potion, but not enough to recover her rapidly diminishing mana. At this rate, her magic circuit might crumble.
No, it was inevitable.