The good news quickly spread to the whole job site. The hundred workers were all happy. The way they looked at Henry changed.
Previously, they all avoided him and would stop following when he pushed a cart in front of them.
The human heart is fickle. Henry was calm as he took all of this in.
He didn't care about them nor did he care if they were fickle. He would answer their questions, but he would never ask them back.
Soon, the miners realized that Henry was not fun to converse with. They left one by one until peace returned around Henry.
He continued his fast pace and earned the respect of the miners. He was doing more work than they could.
Normally they'd sneer at him for showing off, but he didn't look tired. They could only accept that Henry was better than them.
Time passed, and the sun hid below the horizon as nighttime came. The workers in the jobsite gathered and anxiousness stared at Felicia carrying big pots and with some others who decided to help.
"Please feast!" Felicia shouted with a wide smile.
The workers rushed and fought over the plates. They all obediently lined up.
The first person curiously sniffed the food, and the strong aroma of meat and spices turned his eyes wide open. He seemed to regain a lot of strength at that moment.
He put lots of food onto his plate and left to a corner, far away from others. It seemed that he was afraid that the others would steal his food from him.
The others also wafted the delicious smell of the different foods. Varying meat soups were served together with optional rice.
Henry was also in line, and he nodded at her. Felicia took to herself and scooped the food onto his plate.
As his disciple and mother, she felt that this was right.
Henry ate the food at his seat and watched as everyone slowly got their portions. The last person was shaking as he received his. He saw everyone swallowing their food fast, and that made him very anxious to eat as he felt left out.
Felicia walked over to him while eating on a plate. She casually sat beside him and carefully gazed at the way he ate her food.
"Is it good?" Felicia blinked.
"It's all right. Just as I remember," Henry replied with a smile.
The workers almost lost their minds hearing his comment. This food to them was heavenly!
But they quickly realized that Henry had grown up used to this food. The anger they felt turned to looks of understanding before transforming into envy.
Felicia was happy to hear that. She stopped watching him and looked up at the stars.
She remembered his words last night, and they replayed in her mind.
(Everything comes and goes, but the starry sky will never change…)
At this moment, she truly understood what his words meant. She was a commoner yesterday and the others disdained her, and now, she was a magus and everyone praised her.
These things changed, but the stars above were all the same.
Her future was uncertain now. She couldn't imagine how much she would change in the next few months.
Felicia looked over at Henry and said with the utmost sincerity, "Thank you."
The moonlight seemed to make her more beautiful and charming. Her eyes were filled with hope and life.
"Mm."
Henry smiled back at her.
The difference of her now and the look in her eyes after she was raped by the hobgoblin was like heaven and earth. As her son, he was happy that she overcame it.
The workers watching the two didn't know the backstory between them, so they were all left wondering to themselves.
Dinner promptly ended, and everyone entered their huts, including the two.
"First, you need to know more about magic. What I will tell you next is the crux of magic. These things never changed even after eras rose and fell."
Henry stared into her eyes as they sat cross-legged in front of each other on the bed. Felicia nodded her head seriously.
There were seven elements of magic.
They were:
Fire that represents anything burning.
Wind represents anything related to air.
Water that represents anything containing water.
Earth that represents anything that forms the landscape.
Lightning that represents itself.
Life that assists in anything with life.
Death that controls over life that ended.
Henry had conjured these elements before. Most of which was when he was running from the hobgoblin.
When he healed Felicia's face, he used the life element. It accelerated her healing and restored her face's beauty.
Simple-class magic was very simple. As long as you could imagine it, and it was within the bounds of 'simple', you could conjure it.
"Magic is very versatile. If you want, you can also chant, but that's too slow, so I don't do it."
Henry's words were etched into Felicia's mind. She was wondering about that earlier, and she became enlightened upon hearing his words.
"Does chanting help?"
"It does make your spell sturdier and requires less imagining, but it also makes your spell predictable. I suggest that you only do it when you're not in combat."
Felicia blinked and a confused look appeared on her face.
"If you're wondering how, any capable magus can imagine your spell upon hearing the chant. Thus, they can quickly use a spell to counter it."
"Ohhh!"
Just like that, Felicia absorbed much of Henry's knowledge. He only taught her what he remembered, and he never mentioned that he didn't remember most of his memories.
She found out the reason Henry used a sword in his past life. It was because he used magic to supplement his sword skills. He found that using the sword made it easier to defeat his enemies.
The moon faded out of the sky as the sun rose over the horizon, obscuring it from vision.
Felicia listened to Henry's teachings throughout the night. She, who had no prior magus knowledge, became aware of different ways to transform her magic.
The two left the hut and continued with their jobs.
Felicia didn't have to cook breakfast as they were all given bread for the morning.
She cooked lunch, and as she did, she would sneakily wave her hand and increase the heat of the pan. The fragrance of her cooking could be smelled by half of the jobsite, making their stomachs grumble.
Henry would come by once in a while to test her practical use of magic. She kept waving her hand, and the feeling of fatigue enveloped her.
There was a limit to a magus' endurance as the mana reserves in their bodies would run out. If she used more, she would stop being a magus.
Henry had warned her a few times about not overdrawing her mana to prevent that from happening.
The day finished and the duo were inside the hut again. Felicia was dozing off a bit as she faced him.
"Do you really want to learn more?" Henry asked.
It was due to her insistence that she wasn't sleeping yet.
"Yes, Master…" Felicia responded in a prolonged voice. She sounded very tired.
"Forget it. You're too fanatic. That won't do you good."
Henry waved his hand and shooed her off his bed. Felicia was reluctant, but she still went back to her bed and instantly fell asleep.
"Not bad…"
A proud smile slowly appeared on Henry's face as he watched her sleeping face. Her earnestness to learn was a good trait.
Henry was tired after not sleeping yesterday, so he slept too.