CHAPTER 43: APPRENTICE?

The next morning, Cecilia had breakfast with Mina and Aelindra, then went to Aberswan.

Thanks to the decrease of coin standards in the last centuries, she had more money than she could ever spend. For that reason, she wasn’t really pressed for anything and could buy whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.

They say video games are power fantasies in which you can go wild and live your fever dreams, like buying a house. Cecilia was familiar with the meme, as she often interacted with that side of the internet. That’s why she was smiling in amusement when she walked down the stairs of the inn.

"Morning, Miss Cecilia. I see you woke up in high spirits today."

"Good morning, Gertrude. Yeah, I’ve thought a lot about what you said yesterday."

Cecilia sat in her usual place at a table near the wall, and Gertrude brought her breakfast. She had already eaten, because she wanted to spend some time with Aelindra and Mina earlier, but she wouldn’t refuse a second breakfast.

"About you looking like someone who’s looking for a home?"

"Miss Cecilia!!!"

Marya had just entered the inn, bringing water from the well, and greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning, Marya. Hardworking as always, I see." Cecilia greeted Marya and turned back to Gertrude.

"Yeah. I think that you are right. I never had a home. Yet this place makes me feel like this is my home. So I thought, ’Why not buy a house here and make it official?’ and that’s it. I’ll be living here in Aberswan from now on."

"Reeallyyyy???"

Gertrude tried to say something, but it was drowned under Marya’s shout. The little girl was almost jumping in contentment. The only reason she didn’t jump was to avoid spilling the water.

"Yes, really. I like it here, and I have no reason to go anywhere else. I own a house in the capital, but that place doesn’t suit me. I would rather have my life here, then sometimes travel around, then come back here, and so on."

Marya went on to take the bucket of water to the kitchen, leaving the two women alone.

"That sounds great, Miss Cecilia. It would do great to improve Marya’s mood. She was devastated yesterday because she worked so much that she didn’t have time to learn new things from you."

"Yeah, I figured she would feel that way. She is a good kid, and I want to help her as much as I can."

"She is very fond of you and very talented. Say, Miss, do you plan on building a temple here? To your goddess?"

Cecilia flinched at the question, then paused to mull it over.

((A temple to Ephemerys? Should I? I don’t want to get tangled in Church politics all over again, or any sort of politics at all... But it could help to deal with the whole ’saint’ thing. If I direct the worship to the goddess instead of myself...))

"I don’t know. Maybe I could, but people nowadays aren’t very fond of gods..."

"But you changed that a bit here in Aberswan. With your display the other day, some people are even calling you a saint."

"I heard that yesterday. I asked them not to treat me as one..."

((And, now that I think about it, being an actual priestess would be such a pain... Having to do the masses and rituals, having to preach, holding the standard of morality in the people’s eyes, sanctify marriages, births, and deaths... Ugh.))

Thinking about the work that would be required of her if she followed that route, Cecilia quickly dismissed the idea in her mind. She then tried to change the subject.

"I suppose that to buy a house here I’ll have to talk with Mayor Otmar? Do you know if there are any houses available right now?"

Gertrude noticed the maneuver but answered the question all the same.

"Yes, it’s with him. There is one house near the central plaza. I think that the mayor can show it to you."

Because of some gameplay mechanics, in the foundational law of the kingdom of Drakestadt, it’s stated that all land belongs to the kingdom. For that reason, only the kingdom has the right to sell and rent properties. The law seemed to still apply.

But then Gertrude switched the conversation back to the earlier topic.

"I was thinking that if you opened a temple here, you could take Marya in as an acolyte. She’s very hardworking and smart. I think that she would make a good priestess. And you’ve already taught her a healing spell."

It’s true that Marya had some of the traits of what Cecilia thought that a good priestess would look like. And Cecilia also thought that her talents were wasted as an inn worker.

"I see... But taking her in shouldn’t be enough reason to open a temple. I could just teach her on her free time. There’s no need for the whole temple thing."

It was possible to hear Marya singing as she cheerfully washed dishes in the kitchen.

((Also, a child shouldn’t be working. I know that Gertrude means well and she seems to treat her very fairly, despite her being an orphan, but still...))

Marya lived with her biological mother for enough time for her to level up and learn about the system. Which means that she was already pretty grown up when Gertrude took her in, fifteen years ago.

In the lore of the game, half-elves didn’t have a unique set of traits. Though almost all of them had their ears halfway between human size and elf size, way bigger than any human’s and way smaller than any elf’s, the rest was left to the genes’ roulette.

And that included the lifespan. There were elves with practically the same lifespan as humans, while others lived as long as elves. Marya seemed to be in the second group, guessing by the time it’s been taking for her to reach adulthood.

Still, a child is a child. They need to play and study and not spend the whole day working.

"Would you take her in as an apprentice, Miss Cecilia? I’ve run out of things I could teach her, and it hurts me to look at the idea of her just working in here for the rest of her long life."

"Huh? Apprentice?"

"Yes. Not just learning with you part-time. But becoming a dedicated student."

Cecilia looked at the remainder of her breakfast on the plate in front of her and pondered for a moment.

((That’s too big of a responsibility...))

"I would need to think more about it. For now, what I could do is to teach her in her free time and see how it goes. Maybe as a test."

Gertrude smiled, satisfied.

"That’s perfect. I bet that she will live up to your expectations and even surpass them."