The last day of our quest in the orphanage came. I was truly looking forward to seeing my disciple again, and so was Durian and Aria to the other children,
But...
"Oh my, are you three the people who took care of the kids for me?"
An old woman who still had some traces of black with her white hair greeted us the moment we entered the building where the orphan kids slept. Apparently, she was the caretaker who fell sick these past few days. The kids were surrounding her like ducks, crying aloud and hugging her knees after missing her for a long time.
"Yes, we are. You seem well now, miss Caretaker."
"Thank you very much for taking care of them in my stead. They are very easy to get lonely so I was very worried."
The old lady said while gently caressing the hair of a young girl. She seemed to be anxious this whole time. But maybe we can still work?
"Can we still work for this day?"
The caretaker gave us an appraising look and smiled warmly. I could see from her expression that she was very surprised.
"Why, yes. It's okay."
Looks like our stay here will last until today. By the way, we had extra company getting here. I bought the scholar looking adventurer from the last orc subjugation quest. His name is Ronald.
"Hey, Jesse! Your sensei is back!"
I was in the courtyard again. As always, Jesse is alone reading books. But his hand was held out in front of him for some reason I don't know.
"Good morning, sensei."
"What are you doing?"
His lips curled into a slight smirk. I can feel that he's going to tell me good news.
"I can feel the flow of magic power now. It was around midnight while I was training."
I was shocked and happy at the same time, but I shouldn't overreact and just give a simple smile.
"By the way, this is Ronald. I hired him to measure your magic aptitudes."
It turns out that the aptitude testing magic tool can't be used by non-adventurers. I mean, why would the guild even allow a big ass and expensive machine out of the building just to be used by one D-Rank Adventurer?
"You must be, Jesse. You can call me Ronald. I'm here to measure your magic aptitude, care to lend me a hand?"
Jesse stood up from his seat quietly and walked over to Ronald, stretching out his hand. Ronald examined Jesse's palm and placed two of his fingers at the surface. I can see from his eyes that he was in deep concentration.
"Have you entered the 3rd Stage yet?"
"I can use it."
"Please use it for 3 seconds."
The two of them went quiet for a while and I could see particles of light exiting Jesse's body. I've seen this plenty of times whenever mages use magic but I still can't help but think it's cool.
"A magic aptitude of 90 above. And a physical aptitude of 40. That's quite higher than the average mage."
Ronald released Jesse' hand with a broad smile. It's amazing how much of a professional he looked. Truly one deserving the title of our guild's Scholar Adventurer.
"You have quite the talent. Congratulations."
I was expecting Jesse to shrug it off and simply nod. But turns out that was an incorrect evaluation, Although he's silent, I could see his teary eyes and tremulous lips.
Hold on, if that level of aptitude is already outstanding, then should I be crying right now for having a 100 in both aptitudes? Nah, no way. I'm an otherworldly person so that's normal.
"Hey Seven, do you think we should report this to the Magic Tower? They train mages there like an academy, he will definitely have a bright future if he's raised there."
Ronald walked over and whispered this to me. I could see Aria's glaring from a distance. It gives me the goosebumps.
"It's up to him to decide."
I looked at Jesse wiping off his tears with a piece of his clothing.
Suddenly, I sensed someone lunge at my back and cling onto my neck. I felt like getting choked.
"Guess who?"
Said a woman's voice from behind me. I can tell who it is already with how childish she is. Only one person comes to mind.
"Arlet, what are you doing here?"
"I just visited, is it bad to see my wife at work?"
I nodded violently and I felt the burden on my back suddenly lighten. It turns out Aria lifted her off my back. My life saver.
"What's wrong, Aria? Jealous~?"
Arlet continued her teasing with a mischievous smile. A vein was popping out of Aria's cheek which I found scary.
"Don't cause any trouble here, Hunter."
Aria said with a sigh that indicated fear of Arlet's malignant nature.
"Let's play~!"
Arlet swiftly disappeared from Aria's grasps and was already hogging up the children, teaching them how to climb trees. Aria instantly became both dumbfounded and furious.
"ARLET!"
Aria screamed, Durian looked scared while wearing an apron. He was currently feeding babies with milk by the way. A man mother!
"U-Um, thank you for going out of your way to come here Ronald-san."
I said to Ronald during this awkward situation. He was smiling softly while watching the children play with the others. I handed to him a pouch containing 3 silver and 5 gold coins for his payment in coming here.
"Well, I'll be leaving then. See you next time, Seven."
And off he went to the exit, waving at us then to the nuns who was outside. I waved back pretty late and set my eyes on Jesse who was currently meditating to refine his magic core, he got over his tears quickly. I should make his training a bit more difficult but productive. I can't stand seeing him meditate lazily.
"Hey Jesse, we're going to make your training harder."
He opened his eyes and nodded expressionlessly. Looks like he's up for anything if it's for magic.
I told him to do push ups while gathering mana and refining his magic core. I felt this is worse than child abuse. Because I know it's already hard to maintain a synchrony between mana absorption and magic core refinement. He's 10 year old but he's already done more than 50 push ups within 12 minutes before collapsing.
"S-Sensei... My magic power ran out so my refinement stopped..."
"You can rest. It will probably refill in an hour. You can rest for now."
I commanded while rubbing his head, his body completely drained out of energy. His glasses were removed since he didn't need it for his training, it will just break when he collapses so might as well put it away. Now looking at those glasses, it looks pretty well designed. I picked it up and examined it's figure. It's made of some dark alloy with a tiny golden scorpion design on it's frame.
"Where did you buy these glasses?"
Jesse flinched. Although he suddenly lifted his head and glared at me with eerie eyes that reeks of killing intent, he didn't snatch away the item knowing it might break if he does.
"Be careful with that, it's something precious to me."
"..."
It's definitely not because I felt intimidated or anything, I just felt empathetic. I placed the glasses back to the table. The moment I did, the killing intent subsided and he faced the ground once again.
"Can you tell me something about yourself before you became an orphan?"
Although skeptical, he answered me while laying on the ground and absorbing mana to refill his core. I still can't get over how intelligent this kid is, it's even comprehensive to him if I speak to him like an adult.
"I don't know anything besides my name and that the glasses is a memento from my family."
I see. So that's why he suddenly became extremely violent to even me, his teacher. I completely understand that. Even I felt like that in my previous world when the ring given to me by my deceased father was stolen by my friends to tease me, I lost my sanity when they accidentally threw it to a river. I went on a rampage and hurt everyone, but in the end, they fought back and I was overwhelmed in numbers. I lost all my friends that same day and had some almost serious injuries.
"I'm sorry for touching it."
"It's fine."
It turns out he doesn't remember much. But that aside, isn't it rare for a man to have magic and a decent amount of strength? Quite a lucky brat.
Ah, he fell asleep. I guess a nap is inevitable. He's still a kid afterall.
When the agreement of a 1 hour rest was over. He recovered all his mana and some of his stamina, so this time I went easy on him and made him do squats while refining his magic core. He'll definitely have a nice figure when he grows up.
"Hey Aria!"
I called out to Aria since she had nothing to do. Arlet was doing all the playing while she was bored out of her wits. She heard me and looked to my direction.
"Come here and help me with something!"
At first, she tilted her head slightly but she walked over while glancing at the sweaty Jesse for a second.
"Can you hold down my legs?"
"Like this?"
I laid down on the ground with my back against the grass. Aria pinned my feet down tightly.
"Yeah, like that."
I lifted my upper body up, dropped it and upwards again. Everytime I get up I come face to face with Aria.
"Um, what are you doing Seven?"
"This is a method to improve my body's health. This is essential for close combatants like me."
"Oh so it's a kind of training."
I forgot to say but, I already told Aria about my dual aptitudes while Arlet found out on her own by questioning Nina. Which means she's aware about both my magic and strength, but still unknown to them that I have inexhaustible stamina. My fellow adventurers thought my technique during the Orc Subjugation was a fruit of my swordsmanship due to the magic being in the form of swords.
If I can consider how lovely it is that our face comes so close to each other everytime I do abdominal crunches, I can even kiss her from here. But no! I shouldn't! There are people here! The kids playing with Arlet, Durian taking care of the babies, the nuns watching over the children and Jesse doing squats which attracts most of the attention to our direction. The nuns are probably thinking we're just playing.
"Uhmp—"
Did Aria just kiss me?
I could see this lady looking determined to do it again.
"Hey, Aria. Do you want to kiss everytime I come up? The others can't see what we're doing so it's okay."
The nuns were watching the children from the entrance and Aria had her back against them. While Arlet, Durian, and the children were behind me. The only problem now was Jesse— nevermind. He's watching Durian feed the babies, probably bored. Thanks for the cooperation, everyone!
"Nope..."
Eh?!
"I only did that by reflex. Don't kiss me too much or we'll both get sick of it, idiot."
Ah, so that's how it is. What she said does make sense so I'll let go of the idea and go with a conversation.
"So, how many babies would you like?"
"What's with the question all of a sudden?!"
Well, who wouldn't ask when seeing this many children? I find the current pinkness of her cheeks very alluring so I pecked her cheeks out of affection.
"Why? You don't want to have babies?"
"I-I do..."
Ah, so cute. By the way, I know we're the same gender but as I previously stated, this world is so magical it's possible to have a child between two same sexes which exponentially reduced discrimination. There's a method but I don't see a need to explain it this early since I'm not planning to have children yet.
"I want two babies, is that okay?"
"Two?"
For some reason, she looked disappointed but I'll ignore that because I'm still too young to think about that. This body is still 16 years old afterall while deep inside I'm only 2 years older.
"By the way, Aria. Where did you learn to use magic?"
"My master taught me. He was my father's best friend so he acted as me and my little sister's godfather by supporting us until I was able to earn money by myself. He specializes in using both Wind and Fire."
"I see."
Such good people. Hold on, this is suspicious! Why haven't I met evil people like bandits and thieves like protagonists do in novels?!
Well. I guess that's a good thing...
I would rather want this world to be peaceful than have any chances to lose people I've made relations with in this wonderful place. Afterall, humans are worse than monsters when they're evil.
"Seven?"
I've been thinking too much that I forgot I was talking to Aria.
"Aria, would you like to join Aries Magic Academy with me?"
"Eh? You're joining that prestigious academy? Why?"
Well, my reason is mainly for magic but half is also to see Leyla again. Because she told me that she works as a teacher there.
"Magic."
Aria stared at me for a while with a troubled face.
"Enrollment there is expensive. And I still need to take care of my little sister..."
The enrollment fee for the magic academy is roughly 70,000 Mithras which would cost atleast 70 Platinum Coins or 140 Large Gold Coins. It's truly an overwhelming amount but I have a fun plan for that.
"I'll fix that for you."
Besides.
I already wasted my 15 years in that wretched world, it's time to make my time worthwhile in this one. Watch over me, mother and father.