I woke up with a warmth beside me. I felt much better compared to yesterday. The difference was staggering. I opened up my eyes to see the likely reason for my good night's sleep.
She was lying on her side facing towards me. White tresses curtained her face as the rising sun gave her a golden tint. A stray lock snuck itself into her slightly open lips.
I admired the sight for a while before slipping out of the bed and went off to prepare breakfast for her. This should be the very least I can do in return for taking care of me.
I cooked us a simple breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast; plated it on a tray and brought it back up to my room.
I placed the tray on the desk and gently shook her awake. The stray lock earlier had managed to escape her mouth and was now sticking to her cheek; its tips wet from her drool. I chuckled at the sight.
She groaned out a weak "Dina?" as she gently sat up.
"Wake up. I brought you breakfast. Drink some water first."
Clearly still half-asleep, she just nodded and opened her mouth. Her waking habits were as bad as ever. This was usually a rare sight since she tended to wake up earlier than me, so I appreciated these kinds of moments as much as I could.
I tipped a cup of water to her lips and let her drink it. She closed her eyes as she finished drinking and laid back down. Having already expected it, I caught her back and pushed her to sit up again.
From the times I've done this before, she either wakes up fully after drinking water, washing her face, or after waking up after falling asleep again.
Since she didn't wake up after drinking water and we had to start our day early to discuss our plans moving forward, I couldn't just let her go back to sleep. No matter how much I wanted to spoil her.
"Go and wash your face."
She held her arms out in response to my words. I pulled her up and led her to the bathroom sink. With practiced movements, she turned the faucet and wet her face without opening her eyes. She started waking up. As she gave out a yawn, she finally opened her eyes fully and saw me behind her looking at her with a smile on my face.
Her mental faculties fully alert, I saw her eyes widen and a blush coming onto her cheeks as she realized what happened.
"Di-Di-Master! I-I'll be right there! So please! Go away!" She pushed me out of the door and quickly closed it.
Her embarrassment was at her peak. Thinking about it, for her, this would be the first time I'd see this side of her. She'd never had shown this aspect when she was fully in her maid phase so I see why she was so flustered.
She was as cute as ever.
I waited for her in my room and quickly ate my portion. She returned not long after, fully dressed in her maid outfit.
"M-Master, I'm back." She tried to keep her face neutral, but her growing blush betrayed her.
"Sit down and eat, I'll tell you what I've thought of while you're eating."
She sat down by the desk and started eating.
"Since my only clue is that girl who's looking for me, I'm planning to apply for Vier Academy. After that, I plan to get renown through Dungeon Diving. I just need to get famous enough so that when she starts looking for me, I'll be easy to find. Will you come with me? I know my plan's currently pretty bare-bones and it might be a long shot."
"By your will, Master." Apparently having gotten her emotions under control, she was graceful in her reply.
"By that I mean, you'll join me in the Academy as a student. Not as a maid."
"Surely, you jest! Master." Though she might have wanted to seem as though she was against the idea, the excitement hidden in her tone was undeniable.
"Okay, you're right. I was joking." A smile came on my face.
"Since you want me to join you as a student so bad, Master, I will obey. I am not one to go against my Master's words." She continued on as though she didn't hear my words.
"So it's settled then. Come spring, we'll head to the City of Vier for the Academy Test. We have half a year to start preparing for the exam. We'll also have to start training our bodies every day."
Her eyes twitched.
Chuckling at her, I added: "We'll also be making the trek to Vier on foot."
Her mouth opened.
"That should be around sixteen days of walking in total."
She closed her eyes.
"Eight hours of walking per day while carrying our bags."
"I don't want to go anymore, Master."
"Too late."
Clapping off the imaginary dust in my hands, I stood up.
"Come on, let's get started right away."
"Can't we put it off until tomorrow?" Her upturned eyes gained a shimmer as she pleaded with a quiver in her voice. Helpless to her look, I sighed out "Fine."
I turned to leave my room in order to start my morning exercise and to test my mana. Before I could open the door, I felt arms curl around me and softness nudged my back. Right as I tried to look at her, I heard a mumble.
"Don't look."
"Okay."
I felt her press her head against my neck.
"Belated Happy Birthday Dina. We didn't really properly celebrate it yesterday, so we're fixing that today. Okay?"
She really wasn't joking last night, huh.
I couldn't stop the smile on my face.
"Now, go and wash up first." She started pushing me towards the bathroom and left me there.
Heeding her command, I showered. Just as I finished my shower, I heard her voice through the bathroom door. "Are you decent, Master?"
Quickly wrapping a towel around my waist, I started drying myself and allowed her to come in.
She walked in carrying clothes and an adjustable chair. She placed the chair by the sink and made me change my clothes while she waited outside.
"You didn't wash your hair properly, did you? Take a seat, Master."
Caught, I shrugged in reply. I sat down and leaned my head back to the sink. She promptly started washing my hair. I leaned back to the feeling of her fingers deftly massaging my scalp as she started the hair spa.
Relaxing back into the chair, the pressure of her movements gently lulled my mind. I woke up to her finishing up the hair spa by gently combing my short hair with a wide-toothed comb.
She gave me a smile as soon as she saw me awake. "Did you like it?"
"I loved it."
Her smile turned just a little bit sweeter as she pulled me up and started leading me downstairs with hands intertwined.
"So what's next on the agenda?"
"We'll be baking your cake, Master."
"You're gonna let the birthday celebrant make his own cake?" I raised a brow.
Her shoulders slouched a little, her knees bent a little, her face upturned and looked at me, her mouth in a small pout, and she trembled her eyes.
"You don't want to?"
Seeing me weak to her look earlier seemed to have emboldened her to keep doing it. I sighed with a slight smile.
"I never said that. Now, come on."
She clearly already had everything for today all mapped out in her head as the ingredients for making the cake were all placed on top of the kitchen counter.
"Since you kept bragging about learning how to cook from her, I wanted for us to make your cake together. Surely, she taught you how to bake as well, right?" She ended her tone with a cheeky grin. I just gave up.
"So? What are we making?"
"Vanilla Chiffon Cake."
"I thought this was for my birthday?"
"Don't be pedantic, Master. That's a bad habit."
Our conversation flowed smoothly as we continued our back and forth. All the while, our hands were busy. I made the yolk mixture while she made the meringue. Once done, she started folding the meringue into the batter while I started on the frosting.
Seeing how she left the frosting to me showed just how much trust she placed in me and in my Vera. There was no way she'd ever let me handle making her favorite part of her favorite cake if I had even a slight chance of messing up the ratio of ingredients and whipping it.
Once she placed the cake into the oven to bake and I stored the frosting in the fridge, we would find ourselves with some time in our hands. And I had the perfect idea of what to do while waiting.
Since I finished mine earlier, I didn't store all of the frosting. Instead, I saved a little bit of frosting in a piping bag while waiting for her.
She was humming a gentle tune while filling the pan with the batter. After leveling the surface, she knelt as she smoothly placed the cake into the oven. She closed the oven, stood up and turned to look at me. "Now, we're goi—"
I struck with the piping bag just as she looked my way, leaving a dash of frosting on her cheek. Quickly hiding it behind my back, I batted my eyes.
"You were saying?"
Her cheeks puffed up as she glared at me. "Nevermind." She cutely crossed her arms.
"I was just letting you taste test the frosting, I swear. I just missed your mouth."
"Uh-huh. Sure." She held her stare, not blinking even once.
"It's true. Look." I wiped her cheek with a cloth and reached out the piping bag to her. I put a little frosting on the finger she held out so she could have a taste.
Gently licking her finger, happiness filled her face as she closed her eyes as she savored the flavor. "Are you satisfied?"
"Mmmmm…" She wagged her head side to side with her finger on her lips. "You need more practice."
This time, it was my turn to unblinkingly stare at her. I know I did it perfectly, there's no way she wasn't satisfied with that.
"You just want me to keep making it for you, don't you?"
"I never said that, Master. Your words; not mine." Her eyes sarcastically wide made her attitude as endearing as ever.
We kept talking while waiting for the cake to finish baking when she suddenly asked.
"So did we learn how to use mana, Master?"
"Yes, we did. Sensing and using mana took the most time to handle."
"Can you use it right now? Do you even need to go to the Academy to learn, Master?"
"Oh yeah, that reminds me. I haven't actually tried it yet. Let's go outside."
I took a deep breath as I sat down in a meditative position on the snow. I steadied my breathing as I turned my mind inwards looking for that certain feeling of mana. That flowing river of energy within. I focused on the beating of my heart, the rhythmic expansion and contraction of my lungs and diaphragm, the scent of crisp pine, her breathing beside me as she looked at me in my mind's eye. I stayed meditating for minutes and minutes on end… and nothing. Nearly half an hour passed, and I still couldn't sense the mana inside me at all.
"Well… it seems like I can't."
Hmmm. Ah. I see. So that's why I couldn't feel my mana at all. Okay, I understand. If that's the case, then…
Confused by my inability to use mana, she asked more questions.
"Why can't you? You already know how to, right? You know how it feels. Shouldn't you be able to, Master?" Her inquisitive gaze shined.
"Let's talk this through after taking out the cake."
We went back inside and took out the cake from the oven to let it cool.
"To answer your earlier question, it's probably because of the mana inside me."
She nodded her head. "Go on."
"What do you think mana is?"
"It's a kind of energy that only permeates in the atmosphere of the Northern World. Outside the Northern World, there's no mana in the air at all."
"And the mana inside us?"
"It's — uh — both the mana that our bodies stored from the atmosphere and the mana that our body innately produces."
"Why did both of us think that I could use mana?"
"Because you already knew how to use it in the future, so it should be a given that you could do the same right now."
"But it's not."
"Right."
"What do you think a person needs in order to use mana?"
"Knowing how to and the mana itself?"
"Why do you think it's common sense that someone needs to have someone else teach them how to use mana?"
She scrunched her nose, thinking. Prematurely giving up, she crossed her arms and pouted. "Give me a hint, Master."
"Think of a rubber band. Everyone knows how to stretch out a rubber band, right? But stretching out a completely new rubber band is different from stretching out a used overstretched rubber band. There's much more resistance when stretching a new rubber band."
"Ah! So the mana inside you is stagnant and inert, and is resistant to being used. Even though you know how to do it, it doesn't mean you can actually do it. So the reason why people need to go to an institute or have someone teach them is because they need someone to stimulate the mana inside us. Once the mana is stimulated and has been used once, then it becomes much easier to use it again."
"Yeah. So basically, using mana for the first time is the biggest hurdle in self-learning since it's the mana itself that's unresponsive. It's essentially locked in place and it needs external help to unlock it."
She ooh-ed and nodded her head as I took out the frosting that I cooled in the fridge. Having judged that the cake was ready, we started frosting the cake as we continued talking.
Vera's understanding of mana was much better than mine, so it's no surprise that she's able to keep up with my thoughts even though she hasn't used mana at all yet.
"What books in mana have you read already?"
"Only 'Introduction to Mana'. I can't open the other books."
"Ah, right. I forgot."
Most books about mana in our library had a sort of locking system where I first needed to unlock them using my own mana in order to open them. I can then lock and unlock them at will afterwards.
"Speaking of books; when we leave, what are we gonna do about the books? It would be a waste if we leave all the books behind." Her tone shifted with gloom, her love for books in clear view.
"There's something in the library just for that. You'd love it a lot, actually; though, you'd still love physical books more. It does need my mana to start working so we'll only be able to use it later. Vera found it in a hidden compartment in the desk by the bottom of the stairs."
Her smile, a bit off; she quickly replied as she looked away from me. "I'd have found it too, Master, you know."
I leaned myself towards her line of sight and spoke as I looked into her eyes. "I know."
Her troubled eyes cleared; she took a deep breath.
She lightly pushed me and quickly changed gears. "It's time for the taste test! And for that, you need to go upstairs!"
"Huh, why?"
"Just do it, Master." She pretty much pushed me up the stairs. "Alright, alright."
"Okay, I'm here. Now, what?" I looked down at her from the top of the stairs with my hands on my hips.
She just smiled a bit and ran away. "Okay, you can go down now!" I heard her shout from the kitchen
"God, this girl…" I let out a slight chuckle and started walking down.
As soon as I stepped foot on the hardwood floor; she jumped out from the kitchen, with the cake in her hands, and yelled out: "Surprise! Happy Birthday Dina!"
I couldn't help myself from laughing in surprise. Well, that's definitely out of the blue.
"Thank you; though, I think you need to open up a dictionary for the word 'surprise'."
"What do you mean?" She tilted her head, a finger on her cheek. "Aren't you surprised?"
"I'm more surprised by the gall of your attempt, than surprised by the birthday greeting."
"You're still surprised, aren't you? Gosh, Master. You're still being so pedantic. People won't like you if you keep acting like that." She puffed her chest out and raised her chin in cheekiness.
Lost for words, I could only just smile gently at her.
She's still Vera, I guess.