A Maiden's Prayer

"So, first let me get an idea of where your fundamentals stand today." Xilutaiya was dressed in a white blouse and a plain blue skirt, looking quite bright and lively—a far cry from the plain black dress she had worn day in and day out previously. In the rest area off to the side of the training grounds, the young girl hung up a small blackboard and began tutoring her two classmates. After a round of discussion and assessment, she quickly had a clear grasp of their situations. Kemiya's issues were not actually very serious. Aside from a few deeper, more obscure concepts she struggled to grasp, she understood most of the material and had simply forgotten whatever she hadn't bothered to memorize. Kailun's problems, however, were severe. Not only did he merely recognize terms without understanding how they connected, but he also had numerous shortcomings in basic arithmetic, vocabulary, and writing. *It seems the road ahead is long and arduous,* the young girl thought to herself. Even so, she had to try. She couldn't just give up from the outset. She set about helping Kailun shore up his basics, while for Kemiya, all that was needed for now was to review and consolidate what she had forgotten. *** Two hours slipped by in no time. When the time was up, Xilutaiya did not run over, announcing that today's tutoring was finished. "Whew, I thought Tiya was going to keep lecturing forever." Kemiya slumped over the table. She had just watched Xilutaiya spend a great deal of time untangling fundamentals for Kailun. "Everyone has limits to what they can absorb in one sitting. Dumping too much in a single day does more harm than good. Besides, you two need to train as well; you can't neglect that on account of this." She put away her notebook. "Oh, right." Xilutaiya remembered something and looked at Kailun with mild curiosity. "Kailun, could you teach me how to shoot a bow?" She had never handled archery before. "You want to learn that, Tiya?" Kemiya was the first to look surprised. "Archery is actually exhausting. Drawing a bow takes quite a lot of strength." She had tried playing around with one before. "Still, the training grounds have very low-draw-weight bows. You could give those a try, Tiya. Well, some noble ladies occasionally shoot those for sport just to look graceful." With that, the three of them went to the archery range at the edge of the training grounds, quickly finding the training shortbows laid out on the racks. Under Kailun's attentive guidance, Xilutaiya grasped the general drawing posture and key points of caution. "Beginners shouldn't use a bow with too heavy a draw weight," Kailun advised. "For one, it's difficult to draw. For another, if you dry-fire it by mistake, the rebound of the bowstring can hurt you, and it causes damage to the bow itself." "I understand." Gripping the shortbow, Xilutaiya nocked an arrow, drew the bowstring back smoothly, and released it under Kailun's direction. The arrow barely reached the nearest target. *("Basic Archery" proficiency +12)* *Basic Archery Lv. 0: A skill still being learned. Current progress (12/100)* Having gained a glimmer of insight, Xilutaiya glanced at the arrow shaft sticking at an angle in the distance. When she loosed her second shot, her accuracy noticeably improved. By her fifth shot, the arrowhead finally struck the red bullseye, even if it was slightly off-center. *Whew. This is actually quite interesting—completely different from using a melee weapon,* the girl thought as she lowered the bow. Because an arrow was not held in the hand like a sword hilt, the instant it flew, she lost all control over it. She could not maneuver it with fine, nimble adjustments the way she handled a blade. It relied far more on preparation in advance, calculating force, trajectory, wind direction, and the state of the target. Reasonably speaking, if someone was skilled at archery, their mental arithmetic would not be poor either. Even if it felt like intuition, it was still a subconscious reaction calculated by the brain. Thinking about it that way, Kailun might not be dim at all—he had simply lacked proper education and guidance all along. *** Over the next few days, the three continued learning and training together until Baron and Mick recovered from their injuries and returned to class. When he first heard Teacher Haide mention that Xilutaiya would help tutor him, a surge of delight rose in Mick's chest, though he quickly suppressed it. *It's just tutoring. Don't read too much into it,* he told himself, trying his best to remain calm. Yet that afternoon, when he actually sat in the rest area and listened to the girl's clear, gentle voice, his focus inevitably wavered, and details he had never paid attention to before caught his eye. Tiya not only had a lovely voice, but her posture, figure, and skin were exceptionally fair and delicate. It was only a pity that those thick, heavy spectacles detracted from her beauty. "Pay attention, please." The girl tapped the blackboard lightly with a wooden stick, interrupting Mick's wandering thoughts. "Yes!" He hurried to sit up straight, drawing a muffled chuckle from Kemiya beside them, who hid her smile behind her hand. After a few days of tutoring Mick, Lei joined in as well. Together with Kailun, the three of them had consistently ranked at the very bottom of the class in secret history. Teaching one was teaching, and teaching three was no different. Tiya felt no discomfort with it. In fact, through the process of instructing them, she gradually came to understand how various pieces of knowledge appeared in the eyes of ordinary people. For her part, having received nearly sixteen years of comprehensive Earth-based education in her past life, she understood the internal connections between different fields of knowledge and possessed an overall cognitive framework of the world, making it effortless to grasp many things. But for ordinary commoner students who were completely blank and had never encountered many basic concepts, learning was an entirely different matter. Take an engine, for instance: she knew that it required metal alloys of sufficient strength to cast, that it relied on a combustion chemical reaction inside to provide energy, and that mechanical transmission then delivered the power to various parts, with different gears and linkages meshing together to adjust differential speeds, and so forth. A single engine actually involved the combined application of materials science, metallurgy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and mechanics. Yet someone who knew only one of those areas and had never touched the others could easily develop skewed understanding due to the absence of a foundational framework. In teaching these classmates, Xilutaiya also thoroughly reorganized the knowledge framework from her past life stored in her memory. Come to think of it, though that knowledge belonged to such a distant past, her recollection was crystal clear now—she could even recall the names of her primary school classmates, which felt somewhat miraculous. *** Life settled into a peaceful, steady rhythm. In the mornings, Xilutaiya listened to the teacher's lectures alongside her classmates. In the afternoons, she tutored the three struggling students and practiced archery in her spare time. Early mornings and twilights were spent tending to the herbs in the backyard, while evenings were for chatting with Taliel, listening to her recount the latest happenings around Burnt Stone City, followed by sleep. Without realizing it, a month passed by. The Swan Orchids she had meticulously cultivated were finally about to bloom. Crouching down carefully, Xilutaiya cupped the petite, tender green bud in her hands, her heart filled with joy. No matter what, this was the very first pot of herbs she had personally raised. It had taken a great deal of her time and effort, carrying both anticipation and delight. *[Swan Orchid] (Rare - 82): Blooming. Humidity is not optimal; needs 23.53% more humidification. Ambient temperature is slightly low; needs to be raised by 7.4 degrees. Breathability optimal, nutrients sufficient, trace minerals satisfied...* Between the pale and tender green of the bud, several slender shoots poked out. At this spot where vitality was at its peak, faint Emerald Honey attribute power condensed, merely a single step away from a complete first-order Emerald Honey attribute. Closing her eyes, even without looking, she could sense the faint herbal fragrance and intangible ripples radiating from the bud before her. *Just a tiny bit left.* If she could supply this final missing puzzle piece, it would likely blossom into a flower carrying the full power of the first-order Emerald Honey attribute. Temperature, humidity... She straightened up and surveyed the small courtyard. Building a glass greenhouse was out of the question—there wasn't enough time, nor did she have sufficient funds. For now, she had to find another way. After asking around, Xilutaiya located a glass workshop in Burnt Stone City. Paying six silver coins, she hired the craftsmen to blow three large glass cloches specifically for her, then carefully transported them back to her lodgings. Selecting the three Swan Orchids in the backyard with the finest appearance and condition, she placed the glass cloches over them with care, digging several narrow trenches underneath for ventilation and watering. While this still fell short of absolute perfection, the environmental conditions were significantly improved compared to before. Facing the three Swan Orchids on the verge of blooming, she added a little extra Emerald Dew Water to ensure the condensation of the Emerald Honey attribute. When she finished, Xilutaiya stood beside the glass cloches, stroking them gently with her hand as thoughts drifted through her mind. *Even if they fail to bloom with the complete Emerald Honey attribute, I won't feel sad or regretful. This is already the best I can manage under the circumstances.* *Still, I hope you blossom to your fullest, because I truly look forward to seeing that happen.* Standing before the Swan Orchids, the young girl prayed in silence. An autumn breeze carried a scattering of fallen leaves into the little courtyard, stirring her soft, slender strands of hair. As the girl closed her eyes in prayer, the tender green bud beneath the glass cloche stretched slightly, and the closed petals began to reveal their very first seam.