By the end of the day, I was not able to get through everything that I wanted to, So I asked if it was okay to continue the lesson tomorrow after it reached midday. Mr. Xia considered for a moment before agreeing and asking how long the lesson might take. That response took me off guard and made me consider all of what it was that I wanted to teach. After a few seconds, I had an answer and told him that I might need the library for a few days from midday to nightfall.
This answer hooked him for a moment. Apparently, he did not think that there was so much that I had to teach on the subject. Eventually, though, he said that I would be able to use the library for as long as I needed before grumbling something about needing to change his schedule under his breath. That, however, did not bother me as I walked out of the room and towards the dining hall, as it was now dinner time.
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The food was delicious, as always, and the conversation at the table this time was far more lively. Lou Xia constantly asked questions about how certain principles worked, which challenged my understanding of them, after asking me at least twenty times when I was going to start working on the next realm. Next to us, both Mrs. Xia and Raina were showering me with praise for the lesson, and whenever I answered one of Lou Xia's questions. Throughout all of this, Mr. Xia sat at the head of the table with a smile on his face.
By this time, it was after dinner, and I was walking through the doors of my room following Raina. Apparently, this is her room when she stays here, and I was allowed to use it as I was her daughter. Knowing this did not change much, though, and I went to the bathroom after entering, hoping that there would be some hot water ready in the tub. Thankfully, there is, And I strip down so I can climb into it. The water was very relaxing and was perfect after what happened today, so I sat there, probably spending longer than I should have, letting my body relax and letting out tension.
Raina came in after a bit, saying that she was checking up on me to make sure that I did not fall asleep, as I had been in here for quite a while. Choosing this as a good stopping point, I got out of the tub and dried myself off. Thankfully(or not), Raina had grabbed a few clothes from the nearby store that were supposedly in my size, which included nightwear. Most of it felt like it was made for a little kid so I had to pick one of the more sensible looking.
With myself prepped and ready for bed, I climb in and bury myself under the covers like a fox disappearing into her burrow. This resulted in some laughing that I could hear from the other side of the room. Not daring to come out because of the shame caused by my forgetting that there was someone else in the room. A few seconds later, the lights in the room went out, and I could feel someone join me on the mattress. This person I was refusing to acknowledge then sat back and tucked themselves into bed. I did not think about this long as soon sleep embraced me as, I started to vaguely feel something warm and fluffy wrap around me.
In the morning, I woke up to find myself wrapped up in Raina's arms and tail, like I was some sort of teddy bear. It was a challenge trying to find a way to extricate myself from her arms, but in the end, it was not that difficult and just time-consuming. When I was finally free, I walked over to the bathroom to wash myself up for the morning while hoping that this would not become a daily occurrence.
After my bath, Raina woke up in time to help me brush my tail, making the process go far faster than it normally would. Now that I was ready for the day, I walked out of the room, heading for the shrine in the garden in accordance with my normal daily routine. This day was not normal, however, as when I got to the shrine, I found some of the maids cleaning it of some things that I would rather not talk about. One of the maids, upon seeing me, walked over to me and explained that at some point during the night, someone had come into the garden and defiled the shrine without alerting any of the staff. She also informed me that they were almost finished with the cleanup.
I told them to wait for a moment and walked up to the shrine, opening its interface.
[Statue of the goddess Elinaria]
{Level: 1}
{Description: A shrine to the goddess Elinaria made by her first-ever Champion in a new world.}
{Ablity: Serves as a link to the goddess through which she becomes anchored to the world and can give her blessing while her influence is still weak.}
{Modifier: Well-made shrine (Natural Qi gathering formation), Open dragon vain (Qi gathering efficiency increased by 300%), Made by the first (Gives Aura of Tempering), Aura of Tempering (Removes the requirement of needing any tempering supplies for the body tempering stage)}
[Repair: Requires 5 wood, 3 stone, 2 buckets of soapy water]
{Requierments met. Proceed <YES/NO>}
[Upgrade: Requires 500 silver bars, 50 gold bars, 30 concrete, 70 Qi-infused wood]
{Requirements not met]
Selecting to repair the shrine caused the entire place to be momentarily filled with light. When the light faded, the shrine was fully repaired and cleaned, with not a speck of dust left anywhere to be found. The maids were shocked for a moment before one of them pointed out that all the water in the buckets was gone. Smiling at this, I explained that what I did still needed resources to complete and that it could only be done on things like the shrine, allowing them to calm down and not think that their jobs were now in danger.
With the shrine now clean and most of the maids off to do their jobs, I walked up to the statue and began my normal prayers. This lasted for a few moments until I heard the footfalls of someone familiar and ended the prayers looking behind me. There, Silica was standing, waiting for me to finish and guide us to the dining hall. Giving her the signal that I was ready, she then walked off, guiding us into the dining hall right next to the shrine.
Unlike normal, though, there was a smug addition to the table that was watching me as I walked in. Ignoring him, I walk with Raina to the normal place where we sit at the table, only for Raina to switch it up and place me next to the head of the table, with her sitting on the other side of me. For some reason, the boy's face goes pale as we sit down in our seats and Raina starts to give off this feeling that makes the fur on my tail stand on end. Nonetheless, the meal gets served, and as usual I give a small prayer before the meal, and Mr. Xia observes the normal customs.
After most of us are finished with the meal(all but the boy), Mr. Xia speaks up before I can get up and leave the room, saying, "Valaria, I am sorry for what my son has done to you yesterday, and I am sure that he would like to say something to you as well."
Looking over to the boy, I see him choke on his food for a moment before swallowing and saying, "Yes, I am very sorry about what said yesterday. Please forgive me."
The tone he used was the one that every child who has ever been forced to say an apology would use, and given what he was talking about yesterday, I would not forgive him so easily if this was how he was going to treat it. Not even knowing what to say and not wanting to make it worse by trying to explain to someone who would not listen anyway, I simply shook my head in the negative. With that, he dropped all pretense and started shouting at me some of the things that he said yesterday again when Raina made a motion with her hands, and he went quiet. Looking around the room, I see that everyone is looking at the boy with some level of hostility while the cooks that were at the back of the room needed to be held back by some of the maids to prevent them from beating the poor lad. This made an invisible weight that I did not even know was there lift off my shoulders.
I was brought back to reality when Raina tapped on my shoulder and said, "My dear, could you please go outside to the shrine? There are some things that I and the others here need to take care of, and I know that you wanted to use the shrine today anyways."