I woke up feeling comfortably refreshed. Then I noticed that the room was dark, and Anortha was sleeping soundly besides me. I was confused since I remembered taking a nap after lunch, but surely I wouldn’t sleep for that long.

I quietly slipped out of bed to look at the clock. The longer hand was pointing at the “—”, and the shorter one was pointing at “— —”. The dash was a 4, so it was 8:16? Wait, no, the longer hand is the hour hand so it’s 4:32? Ugh, I still am not used to their clocks even after all this time.

But if it is already 4, that means I slept for a really long time. No wonder I felt hungry. When I went to grab my clothes to wear, I passed by the chalkboard, only to see that Anortha had written something. The handwriting was small, and it was dark, but I managed to make out that she wrote:

Since you were so tired because of me, and you have always said for me to just admit to mom that I was not the one cooking, I didn’t wake you up and told mom why dinner wasn’t made. It turns out she actually knew that you were the one cooking all along! We ended up eating at the restaurant for dinner instead. Although it is expensive, one day, I’ll save up enough allowance to take you out to eat there. It tastes really good, so maybe you could try imitating it.

I was worried that you were sleeping like a log the entire time, but when I asked my parents, they said that it is completely normal and you won’t be this tired once you get used to mana depletion.

I realized that I may have taken your existence for granted, with you always accompanying me with whatever game I wanted to play, or even cooking when I should have been the one to do it. It shames me to say that after all this time together with you, I still have no idea what you actually like to do, what’s your favorite food, or any of your preferences, so tomorrow, you can come up with what to do.

-Anortha

So it looks like she finally did admit it to her parents. As for the restaurant, I always wondered what I should spend my wages on, so I might want to give it a try. I doubt that whatever establishment they went to would take kindly to a lone lupo walking in, so I probably have to get Anortha to accompany me. I doubt they went to some really high end restaurant given how Anortha keeps complaining about money issues, so surely what I have saved up would be enough for a meal for two.

It was comforting to know that being this tired was normal, but I'd prefer to gradually get used to mana depletion instead of going all out. Well at least I know my health isn’t in jeopardy.

As for the last paragraph she wrote, I never knew that’s how Anortha thought of me. Or rather, I feel like I’m the one taking advantage of her. Who else would offer me free education, a free place to stay, and then have their parents pay me to do very basic chores while playing around most of the day? And while she might not know my favorite things because I never explicitly told her, she does a good job choosing things I enjoy and avoiding ones I don’t. Or rather, even I don’t know exactly what my favorite is, since my actual favorite would involve a computer which doesn’t exist here.

Feeling hungry, I decided to make food for myself. Since I would be cooking for only myself for once, I decided I’d make all the dishes that are toxic to the elves but not to me, as it has been awhile. Naturally, they didn’t have any of them in stock, but they were growing all over the place outside the settlement, so I got dressed and headed out to forage.

As I was exiting, the gatekeepers didn’t react at all as a sauntered out, probably since they recognized me every time I went out with Anortha. Although rather than actually recognize me, they probably just know me as that lupo that wears clothes that belongs to Anortha or something. I’m pretty certain if I got Cabg or even my parents to wear my clothes, they wouldn’t bat an eye, but if I tried to enter naked, they’d stop me instantly.

My main target was those neon pink mushrooms, and they were abundant. It took only a few minutes for me to gather enough of them. I then gathered branches and dried plant matter on the floor to start a fire. As I was cursing in my mind, rubbing two sticks together in vain, I thought how convenient it would be if I actually could use magic here. Back when I was still living with the rest of my family, if I had to start a fire, I’d simply just borrow some from my neighbors so I never really got the hang of starting a fire from scratch.

While the elves don’t use a live flame to heat their food, they still use candles as their light source. Thus, I got a long branch and headed back to the settlement to borrow some fire. Although I wonder, is it really borrowing if you don’t actually take fire away from the original fire?

The gate to the settlement conveniently had candles, so ignoring the weird stares from the gatekeepers, I held the branch over the open flame until my branch caught on fire. Upon seeing this, the gatekeepers moved as if to block my way into the settlement. Did they think I was going to burn the settlement or something? Since my destination was back to my campfire anyways, I turned back and left.

I heard them say to each other, “Are we just going to let it potentially burn down the forest?”

“It … should be fine? Anortha had it well trained. It shouldn’t go crazy and set fire to everything.”

“Maybe, but what is it going to do with the fire? Or rather, why is it out so late at night without Anortha?”

“Dunno, but it ain’t our problem.”

Wow, that lack of trust. Although I suppose since I never really spoke or interacted with them, I suppose they still thought of me as some lowly beast.

Once I gently touched my gradually shortening stick onto the campfire, the rest of it quickly caught on fire. After getting the fire under control, I skewered the mushrooms and began roasting them over the fire. When they were ready, I took out the seasoning shaker out of my pockets and sprinkled the mushrooms with them. As for exactly what the seasoning was comprised of, I had no clue, but whatever it was, the combination was great, and I devoured the delicious food.

When I was about to extinguish the campfire, I thought that it would be a great idea to get another long stick and ignite the tip to light my way in the night. It definitely wasn’t because I felt slighted by the gatekeepers and wanted to see how they’d react if I tried to bring a flaming stick through the gate.

When I walked toward the gate, fire in hand, the gatekeeper looked at each other, and then continued to stare at me. Did they talk beforehand on what to do? By the time I got close enough to see the whites of their eyes, the guard on my left had his hand glow faintly, and before I knew it, a small sphere of water flew right at my makeshift torch and extinguished it. Of course, the water didn’t just stop there, and the rest splashed on me. Well I guess that was an appropriate response, but did they have to get me wet too?

I know I deserved it, but that didn’t stop me from chucking the stick at his feet and then leaving my middle finger offensively upright as I walked past him.

Behind me, I heard the guard ask, “Did it just flip me off?”

“Seems like it.”

“But where did it learn such behavior?”

“Probably just copied it from someone.”
“Anortha is a well behaved child though. I can’t imagine her flipping others off.”

“Maybe it learned it from Tiffany? She can act rather vulgarly at times. Back when I was working on the berry farm, I got lazy and just sprayed water everywhere. It just happens that Tiffany was underneath and the water splashed all over her. Man, she could give a drunken sailor a run for their money with all that colorful language she was spouting. Well, she supposedly mellowed out a bit after having Anortha, but still, wouldn’t be too surprised if she kept her old ways.”

“According to my friend who is a colleague of hers, she hasn’t. Five years ago…”

While stories of Anortha’s mother might be interesting, I didn’t want to stop walking and listen, and pretty soon they were out of earshot.

Since Anortha was still asleep when I got back home, I decided to pass the time by studying under the moonlight.