CH823

The muscles of every body he held were left sore after the long day so he stretched out at the end of it, trying to rub some life back into them while he cleaned up and began packing away his clones, his student following suit. Their talk still lingered in Delair’s thoughts in the days since, pushing her to work all the harder in her efforts to train and learn and with it, Ben himself was thinking about how best to help her grow.

His original goal had been to get her to the fourth levels in both her crafting and enchanting after all but since she’d already reached the third and second, there was no reason not to try and up the goal a bit more if that was what she herself wanted. It would pose no challenge to increase the speed she could think at more than he was already doing to let her enchant faster and when he reached a certain point in her lessons as well, they could easily change to having her work more at once if he got Thera to make her a few clones of her own. That sort of thing was certainly an advantage most people wouldn’t get after all and would easily reduce her leveling time significantly if she even only got two to use.

And she did ask if she could be turned into a demigod the other day but as for that, definitely waiting for the results the gods get testing it first before I let anyone perform surgery on my little student.

It was all things he needed to think about and consider. After all, with all of the knowledge he was making sure to give her, he was creating a foundation that would help her continue to grow, even if he wasn’t around, an all too real possibility for the future but even if that did come to pass, he wanted to help her do her best while he knew he’d be there to do it too.

Mmh, we’ll start on getting her to enchant faster tomorrow and then all of the rest we’ll leave for a bit later. For now though-

His thoughts were broken with two coming through one of his gates, Thera and Mora back from their day with one looking extra exhausted for it.

“Bad one I take it?”

“An entire legion of soldiers managed to be ambushed in an expedition and half of them came to me,” Thera explained, practically collapsing against him. “It was a very, very long day but at least a few of the others got levels from it.”

With Mora looking light beside her, neither of them had to guess if he’d contributed but Ben focused on rubbing Thera’s back for what comfort it would bring. Her work at the hospitals she would go to had slowly been getting easier but days like that would still pop up to make every healer’s time worse as they were forced to tear others from the jaws of death, leaving one of the greater resources on the planet perpetually stressed.

Hmm, but it’s not like the day is over yet and it’s been a while since we’ve had a nice outing… Okay, why not?

“Well, wanna come with me for a bit and take your mind off it?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Seeing as how we have all of these conveniently placed mini-gates just lying around the shop, what say we go through one and find a nice market?”

“Stay in sight you two,” Ben called out while Delair and Mora ran around.

Really it was more Delair dragging Mora with her as she explored but he didn’t want either getting lost. They’d chosen a market in Nare’s lands by virtue of the fact that it was the newest location he could access from the shop but there was plenty to enjoy about it.

Back when he’d first come to train Nati and Xilly, he hadn’t taken the time to give it a look but the environment created options for foods and ingredients he’d never normally get access to as he stopped at a stall to look at spice blends, Thera’s arm linked with his as he picked out everything he wanted before tapping cards to exchange funds and storing bag after bag in his rings as he went.

More ingredients meant more to experiment with as he cooked, only growing his range of recipes and what he could do with them while at the same time, adding to what he could teach Delair as well. Cooking fell under the umbrella of crafting after all and teaching her how to use a broader range of ingredients would only help her in the future.

Which reminds me, I’ve been content to just give her some theory lessons on the topic but I really should add some more hands-on lessons into the rotation for her. Man, so much to consider with having a student, I’ve definitely gotta thank Falk again sometime.

With the student in question having her eyes glued to a stall she’d found, Mora looking at her in curiosity more than what was being sold while he and Thera made their way over to see what exactly had claimed Delair’s attention, Ben giving a small laugh once he knew.

“We’ll take three please,” He said to the person there, being handed three confections as money was exchanged as he looked at what seemed like a small pastry that itself had been candied, taking a bite to get an explosion of fruit flavour from it after as he snuck glances at the other two to see both Thera and Delair’s eyes lighting up.

Hmm, if they both like it so much I should be able to replicate it pretty easily. I’ll have to think about what could make some other decent filling options later.

“Is that really so enjoyable?” Mora asked them, still looking curious, with Delair being the one to answer.

“It’s so good, Mora. I could eat another ten.”

She glanced at Ben as she said it, the hint there but he just laughed and ruffled her hair.

“No can do kiddo, you’ll make yourself sick and ruin your appetite for whatever meal your mom is going to have waiting for you. If you like them so much then we’ll work on figuring out how we can make them ourselves later, okay?”

“Mmh, okay.”

Mora still looked curious though in a way that Ben couldn’t help but feel bad for. His nature meant the boy was both freed from the chore of eating but also denied the pleasure of it while the unique nature of his birth that had mingled the thought structures of both spirit and succubus meant he might have felt some impulse for it, even if he wasn’t biologically equipped to carry it out.

But if he’d let me, I could let him experience what tasting things was like. Ben thought. Connect to him and let him share my senses as I eat something and then… No. No, I suppose that’s not actually a good idea.

He didn’t know if the boy would like that or not but if he did then that would be a curse more than anything else. Mora was immortal by his very nature, only destined to die if he either somehow expended all of the mana that made up his body or else had his soul damaged to an extent where it couldn’t be repaired, while Ben himself could only potentially have a few more centuries on the planet, so long as nothing killed him and he got the two third tier awakenings he wanted to expand his lifespan. Still though, however long he might live would be a blink of the eye against eternity and if he showed Mora the joys of food but was the only one who could safely do so then that meant the boy would have no way of reexperiencing it once Ben was gone, something he couldn’t help but think was a far sadder option than never getting to enjoy it at all.

So many things to think about when raising a kid and only more when you aren’t even the same species I guess. He thought with a sigh, wanting to give the boy what he could but knowing he needed to consider the child’s future as well. Just one more thing to worry about.

Once shopping was done, the three took Delair back home before returning themselves, finding Sonya already there with a book in hand while Ben went to prepare dinner with his new ingredients, tasting and testing as he went until he had something he was happy enough with to call the rest over to eat and talk about their days, indulging in each other’s companies as the evening wore on until the meal was done, with Sonya turning to Mora once it was.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

“Sweetheart, what do you say you join me for a few games until it’s time for bed, hmm?”

“Alright, what do you want to play?”

“You decide, I’ll be with you in a second,” She told him, letting the young spirit walk off to the living room as she turned back to the other two, giving them a wink. “And I don’t think you both have had time to relax together for a while, I can look after him for a few hours if you want to spend some time together.”

The two looked at each other when she said it. It was true that they’d both been busy, with the closest they’d gotten to spending quality time together other than the little bit they had before falling asleep each night being their time in the last tower and when he’d been training her in enchanting, with neither event exactly being pleasant. They were both important enough to the world by that point which meant they were both busy and now with him having taken on an apprentice and Mora in their lives too, they were all the more so.

But if Sonya’s going to offer…

“We could go for a walk for a bit?” He said, putting the idea out there. “Stroll through town and enjoy the night for an hour or two?”

“Yeah, that sounds really nice actually. Thanks, aunty.”

“Of course, you two kids have fun now.”

The setting sun left Stonewall quiet as they went, making their way through empty streets with only a few others out and about to be seen along the way, with Thera giving a content sigh as they did.

“You know, I really wish we could get a bit more time like this,” She told him as she leaned her head against his arm. “When did life get so busy?”