Ms Killian was Rosa's teacher for the grand total of one month. In that time, she was cheerful and kind. The lessons she taught were easygoing and her attitude was optimistic.
That was before the wall.
"Ms Killian has been replaced. I am Mr Smallwood, the new teacher." Rosa looked up and up and up...
'Why is he a teacher?!' Rosa's eyes nearly popped out of her head. The man was huge. 'I would have believed him if he said he was a giant! Why isn't he a career tank!?' They were standing in the doorway to her classroom.
"Nice to meet you. I am Eleanor, Rosa's mother. I heard through the grapevine that the school wanted parents to come in today?" Rosa didn't react still gawking at the size of her new teacher.
"Nice to meet you. Please come in. There is much to discuss." Smallwood greeted gently as he stood aside to let them in. The teacher was gray haired, brown eyed and had calloused hands twice the size of a normal man's.
'His name is ironic. There's nothing small about him.' Rosa followed her mother inside to see everyone was already present. The children were clinging to whatever parent was closest, looking very unwilling to be there.
The class was halved. Most of the girls had traveled together on the wall, talking and laughing. Rosa had been part of that group. She had been one of three girls to make it out alive. The class was now mostly full of boys.
Rosa cursed a blue streak in her mind. The looks from the other children who clung to their parents were hostile.
Recalling previous life experiences, a saying floated through her mind.
'The tallest blade of grass gets cut down first.'
The whispering started when they caught sight of her.
"That's the girl right?"
"Yeah, poor thing was left behind and injured."
"Minor miracle-"
'I just became a target for bullying.' Rosa began to stare back at people rudely staring at her, making them advert their eyes. The two girls who had survived gave her the most venomous glares. Holly and Christina had maintained a polite but not friendly alliance with her in the past. Now it looked like they downright hated her. The boys weren't much better.
"Attention please." Smallwood said in a voice that seemed to carry over the room. The chatter stopped. "Please welcome our district's education director Miranda." Rosa hadn't noticed the scholarly looking woman amongst the group of adults. She had blended into the background of adults that she hadn't met. The woman stood in front of the teachers desk to speak.
"Good morning. Please forgive my directness because we are all busy people and time is precious." Rosa had the impression of a woman whom was overworked and underpaid.
'She looks tired.' Rosa mused. This person had bruised looking eyes and a pale pallor to her skin.
"Due to the boss raid incident, we have decided to take a more hands on approach to learning for this class. Therefore-"
'I don't like the sound of that.' Rosa began to tune out the educational jargon and political fluff. She just wanted the facts.
"-decided to extend learning time by including a physical education portion-"
'Longer hours at school to do P.E. class.' Rosa looked around. 'These are still working class people. Not everyone is going to be able to do that.'
"-increase the rate of learning by administering work from home policy-"
'She does realize we are first years right? We haven't been taught how to read yet and she wants us to do homework.'
"-and finally, opening up the training hall after school." Rosa blinked at the last bit of news.
'Interesting.' The training hall would give her access to a training dummy and some wooden weapons. 'Maybe I can learn a few skills.'
"If you think we're going to let our children stay here, you've got another thing coming." Rosa looked to where the voice came from and twitched, it was from Holly's father. There was a sudden influx of noise from angry people.
"I'm pulling my child out too!"
"Don't think just because-"
"-damage control-"
"Enough!" Smallwood bellowed. The room fell silent. "You are free to decide where your child gets educated. But what happened at the wall was not the school's fault. If you feel like we aren't doing enough, you can leave."
The room was quiet as several parents took their children and left, this wasn't the only school around. It was Rosa and five other boys who were left. Miranda looked deflated.
"Sorry Ethan." She said quietly.
"Not your fault. Just means I have a smaller class to teach is all." Smallwood stood up and took over for her at the front of the class.
"What happened to Ms Killian?" One of the boys asked. Rosa shot a look to see it was the shyest boy in class who asked the question, Jared.
"She went to the adventurers guild. She'll be back to teaching after she feels secure enough to do so." Miranda said with a smile, looking to reassure the children. No one was comforted, it confirmed that the sweet teacher was traumatized too. Smallwood cleared his throat.
"Thank you for staying. I promise that you will see results from our teaching. If you would please be patient with the school, we will do our best for the students." Smallwood bowed to the remaining people.
Rosa sighed. It was going to be a long year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The school let them leave early. There was to be a massive overhaul to the teaching plans. They were to come back after the weekend. For now, they got to go house shopping, with Madame Mulberry.
"As you can see-"
"It's too far away."
"This two story house-"
"There's no bedroom on the main floor."
Madame Mulberry was saying no to every option the real estate agent was producing. It must have been very frustrating.
"This lovely home-"
"There's no yard." Rosa was the first one to reject the offered house this time. It seemed the agent was at his wits end.
"This is the last one ladies."
It was the last one for a reason. It was nearly falling apart.
'It seems he's given up on us.' Rosa thought tiredly.
"Young man-" Madame Mulberry was getting angry.
"It has all your requirements. It has a yard, there's a bedroom on the bottom floor, there's a tall fence for privacy and it's near the shopping district." He interrupted before she could get started.
"It's falling apart." Eleanor deadpaned.
"So it's a little old. It means it has charm." The agent argued. Before anything else could be said, part of the roof caved in. Everyone sweatdropped at the same time. "Excuse me ladies."
'It does fit all of the requirements. Except for being liveable.' Rosa went around back while the agent was on the equivalent of a phone call by crystal.
"Oh!" Rosa was happy to discover a workshop built in the back in much better condition. It was besides an overgrown garden. The property was larger than she expected.
'What if we built rather than bought.' Rosa examined the inside of the workshop, it seemed like it was for woodworking. There were a few discarded tool stations in storage. A new plan began to form in her mind. She hurried back to her mother.
"I'm sorry, with what happened with the raid boss, everyone is trying to move into the middle city." The real estate agent apologized.
"You can't expect us to-"
"You can't expect us to pay for a house that ee can't live in." Rosa stated intercepting madame before there was an argument. "Ask your boss how much for the land."
"Rosa?" Eleanor asked confused. Rosa took both ladies hands and pulled them to the side. The realtor took the opportunity to speak to his supervisor again.
"We're not in a hurry to move out. If we buy the land, we can build a house." Rosa whispered.
"Building a house is expensive child." Madame Mulberry stated in a low voice. "There aren't that many stonecutters, bricklayers or carpenters around. It could take years."
"Or-" Rosa said with her voice low. "-we use 'that' to cheat."
"We can't expect you to-" Eleanor whispered fiercely.
"There's no limit." Rosa said quietly. Both women were stunned. "Mada- Granny. Why don't you negotiate a deal? Use the house as a demerit saying that it will cost us to demolish it." Madame Mulberry smile turned predatory.
"That I can do child."
The realtor didn't know what hit him.
Rosa was the proud owner of a piece of land in the city for half the cost by nightfall. It didn't even take up half of her reward money.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day, Rosa got up bright and early. Mother and daughter left a note for Madame Mulberry saying that they would meet at the house before lunch.
"Are you sure about this?" Eleanor asked as Rosa bought bedding and a huge trunk. They carried it to the house with a packed lunch.
"Yes. I have faith in my system. Trust me." Rosa said with conviction. The bedding was for meditation and the trunk was so she could finally offload the items in her Inventory.
"If you're sure." Eleanor was hesitant and Rosa didn't blame her. Building a house from scratch was no small feat.
'This will be fun.' The first thing Rosa did was to put the trunk in the workshop, dump everything out that wasn't a tool and locked it up. The next thing she did was put the ladder out so she climb up to the roof.
"Can you hold the bottom mom?" Rosa asked politely. Eleanor did as she asked and held the ladder steady.
'They make this look easier on TV.' Rosa complained as she climbed the ladder. The damage was extensive. 'OK system. Do your thing.'
"Item:house, is too big to disassemble."
Rosa chucked as she expected that.
"Item: roof, is too big to disassemble."
"Hm." Rosa cocked her head.
"You are trying to disassemble wooden support beam: roof. Please wait."
Rosa grinned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The roof was gone when Madame Mulberry arrived. It had been safe to explore inside the house.
It had been trashed.
"Ugh. What is that smell!?!" Eleanor complained. Part of the floor had molded away.
By what, Rosa didn't want to know.
"My word!" Madame exclaimed as she arrived. "Eleanor, Rosa are you in there?"
"Watch your step." Eleanor called out. Rosa was concentrating on disassembling one inside wall at a time.
"How?" Madame Mulberry was nearly breathless when she saw the work already done. Eleanor pointed to Rosa as part of a wall vanished.
"Apparently, my daughter can gather as well." Eleanor said grinning.
"It's more like reclaiming scrap to use." Rosa turned to Madame Mulberry with an excited grin. "This is the easy part. The hard part will be crafting a new house."
"Where-where does the material go?" Madame Mulberry stammered as another piece of wall disappeared.
"Into my inventory. That way I can try and craft something new." Both of the older women exchanged worried glances; there was such a thing as being too exceptional.
"I think it's lunch time dear. Let's take a break to eat." Eleanor said while opening the door to the backyard.
"Alright." They sat down to eat on a blanket. The sandwiches were consumed and light chatter filled the air. Most of it was planning and Rosa was quiet listening what the two women wanted.
"We should put the bathroom closer to the bedrooms." Madame Mulberry said.
"But that means getting a second water crystal and mana system installed." Eleanor pointed out.
"If Rosa can build it, we just have to come up with money for the materials." Madame Mulberry shot back.
"We still don't know if that's possible yet." Then, Rosa thought of something.
"What if we entered a gathering floor in a dungeon?" Rosa asked. The two older women stopped their argument.
"That's- your a little young sweetheart." Eleanor said quickly.
"Dungeons are dangerous." Madame Mulberry scoffed. "Even if the level is 'cleared', there can still be unexpected monsters hanging around."
"I'm not talking about higher level dungeons. I'm talking about first floor dungeons that everyone's already picked clean. I'm thinking I will need practice materials to get my crafting skills up."
"Like Green Hills?" Eleanor asked gently. Green Hills was a low level dungeon that was more like a garden. It was the first dungeon everyone in the city was introduced to.
"Yes! That's perfect! Can we go tomorrow?" Rosa asked excited. Eleanor looked at the house that was missing the roof and most of it's inner walls, she smiled.
"I don't see why not."