"Wakey wakey~"

I felt something tickle my face as I opened my eyes.

"Milly?" I asked as she waved my plush rabbit in my face. It was extremely odd for Milly to be up before me.

"Ma told me to wake you up for breakfast."

"Breakfast?" A glance out the window told me the sun was already high in the sky, normally I had no trouble waking by myself.

"I'll help you brush your hair." She quickly hopped off my bed and grabbed my hairbrush."Do you want braids today?"

"…are you still feeling bad about yesterday?"

Milly looked down as she fidgeted with my hairbrush. Her lower lip trembled as she spoke.

"You fainted because of me…"

I shook my head. "I was the one who asked you to teach me magic, it's not your fault."

Milly still looked morose so I poked her in the side. "I won't feel better if you act so strangely around me. I want you to be you."

Milly's expression relaxed a bit, and she motioned for me to turn around. Since she insisted on helping, I didn't stop her.

"Your hair is pretty tangled, did you brush it before going to bed?" She asked, and after a moment she exclaimed, "You stink! You didn't wash before bed!"

I looked down and noticed that I didn't properly change clothes before sleeping last night. My clothes probably smelled like river water and my hair like sweat.

"I'll wash up before breakfast, you can go down without me." I said as I got out of bed.

Milly nodded and left the attic, as her footsteps disappeared down the stairs I opened my chest and grabbed some clothes. Since I was going to the temple for lessons today, I grabbed my usual blue and white apron and underclothes.

In this world, most people had one or two sets of nicer clothes, and three or four sets of daily clothes. My family was a little better off, but since I was still growing, I didn't have that many different outfits.

Downstairs in the cramped washroom shared by my siblings and I, I filled the sink with warm water and wiped down my body with a cloth before quickly washing my hair with a shampoo bar. While I really liked Milly's long red hair, I wasn't allowed to keep mine long until I got older.

While we did have a proper bath, we only filled it up every other day for a real soak. The bath was basically a big metal tub set over something like a fireplace so the water could be heated. Usually Grandpa came over and filled the tub with hot water so we didn't need to bother with firewood and stuff.

Thankfully the main house had warm water, it never got as warm as the faucets on earth but it was a lot better than the alternative.

Our house is actually one of the nicer houses in town, and because Grandpa always came to fill the water tank we basically always had running water.

I think Mother and Father had the house built after they retired from adventuring, and Father has a well paying job as a magic healer, so we could be considered middle class.

Mother said she worked at the guild before she had children, but I've only ever known her as a stay at home mom.

After cleaning up, I went downstairs and found Milly in the kitchen, everyone else was gone, including Mother.

"Where's Mother?" I asked as I took a seat at the table, where a plate of eggs and toast waited for me.

"Lin and Rhys were going for a run, so Ma went to watch them."

Running… It wasn't odd to see adventurers running in the morning, or even regular guild members. You could even sometimes see soldiers from the fort being punished to run with sandbags to the town and back.

Rhys and Linden had most likely reached that phase where they wanted to be warriors and adventurers so they decided to do this sort of regular training.

I heard the click of nails beneath my feet and looked down to see Bean under the table looking at me pitifully.

"Did Linden forget to feed Bean today?" I asked as I slipped Bean an egg.

Milly shrugged and I got up to check his trough. Bean was an uncommonly large dog, so he ate out of a hollowed out piece of firewood.

Pieces of grain were still stuck to the trough so I raised an eyebrow at Bean's begging behaviour.

Shamelessly wagging his tail, Bean looked expectantly at me as I scratched his ears.

"You've already eaten silly, you have to wait for dinner."

Once he figured out he wasn't getting any more food, Bean slunk away and settled himself in front of the fireplace.

Halfway through my breakfast, the boys returned full of sweat and dust.

"I wanna puke." Complained Linden as he slumped at the kitchen table.

Rhys wordlessly reached for the jug of milk and poured himself a glass. His tunic shirt had sweat stains around the collar and his face was unusually flushed.

"This is what happens when you eat right before running." Remarked Rhys.

"If you two can really keep this up for two weeks, I'll ask Bartel to train you." Said mother as she got herself a glass of milk as well.

"Can I have more eggs?" Asked Linden.

"I thought you just said you were going to vomit?" Replied Mother as she stood up and opened the warming cupboard in the oven anyways.

She added, "You can't slack off at the temple either, I don't want to hear from Joelle that you've snuck away from classes again."

"Aren't you going to train them?" I asked curiously after I finished my toast.

Mother was a former adventurer, and used to be in the same party as a high ranker. Bartel was also a retired adventurer, and he currently worked as a guard to the town, but it made more sense for Mother to teach the boys.

"It's been years since I've been active, I won't be able to help them set a good foundation like Bartel can." Replied Mother.

"I'm taking all of you to the temple early today, I've got a lot of cleaning to do and a meeting at the Guild" said mother as she started washing the dishes. "And Milly, don't forget you're going to  help your Grandfather in the afternoon."

Milly huffed but didn't complain, it seems that this was the punishment after the sneaking out was discovered.

Mother packed us cheese and sausage sandwiches for lunch and then we put on our shoes and walked down to the temple. Even though they spent the morning running, Linden and Rhys were still energetic and ran ahead despite Mother telling them to watch for horses and mounts.

As we walked down the main street, I saw a lot of adventurers milling around in groups as they prepared to head out to the dungeon, a half a day's walk from the town itself.

In a way, the town reminded me of the wild west from old spaghetti films. The adventurers were a lot like cowboys and gold miners looking for work, and the tavern could be compared to a saloon where gunslingers hung out.

Unlike an old western town, this dungeon town didn't really have farmland around it. The city lord had a road built and land cleared solely because of the dungeon, before that this place was just forest. So most of the food and supplies were brought in by carriage from Caris, a real town that had a big enough population to warrant a train station.

Some adventurer's waved at us as we passed by, and I waved back not to be rude. I only recognised a few regulars by their equipment.

The majority of adventurers in town were people just starting out, veteran adventurers only showed up when a large culling mission was released by the guild. From my understanding, a culling mission requires a lot of adventurers to enter the dungeon at once, though the other details escape me.

Ahead of us, I noticed that Linden and Rhys were petting two carrow birds that were tied in front of the dry goods store. Carrow birds are larger than an ostrich with dark grey plumage and a big beak similar to Dodo birds.

Carrow birds were meant for carrying a single light person, and I've only seen them once or twice around town. As soon as Mother saw what the boys were doing she immediately called them back and forced Linden to hold her hand.

"One kick from a carrow bird can break your leg! Never stand behind one!" She scolded as we were quickly herded towards the temple.

Joelle happily greeted us and we headed to the back of the temple where the teaching area was. This area had the function of a classroom, but it didn't have anything like desks or boards. Instead there's a seating area similar to bleachers made of logs and a big sand pit. The sand pit here wasn't for children to play in, but for Joelle to write on in a way that was easily seen by others but also erasable.

I should mention a temple in this world isn't the same as a religious building back on earth, rather it's more of an all in one community centre, classroom, and clinic.

Larger temples in cities were like hospitals or academies, and had more matrons and masters. The real religious buildings in this world are called shrines, and supposedly contain a piece of divinity in them.

Even though temples don't have religious authority, a person can still come and ask for sanctuary or charity, and some temples act as orphanages or halfway homes.

This temple is actually one of the reasons why many rookie adventurers come to this town. Joelle is willing to teach adults how to read and do maths twice a week, which is something harder to find in larger temples and communities.

While waiting for the other children to arrive, Joelle handed us birchwood paper, willow charcoal, and writing boards.

Linden, who is normally full of energy, had a sour look on his face as he received his writing tools.

Because Milly's a super genius, I had some leeway in revealing how well I could actually read and write, but Linden was just a normal energetic kid. It's quite normal for him to want to go and play, and feel stifled by the small learning environment.

I think on earth, Linden would be the type of kid who fools around in the classroom and gets scolded by the teacher a lot, but would shine when it comes to sports and other activities. He'd probably grow up to be a sunny boy popular with both guys and girls, or maybe a determined sports star.

Unfortunately looking at the current 'class' of seven students, with only two girls and one of them being his blood related little sister…poor Linden would not get to enjoy the experience of being popular at school…

Rhys on the other hand, he's more level headed than Linden and takes his studies seriously. While his communication skill is low, I could see him being the sort of cool type guy when he grows up.

As for Milly…well she barely attended class. She had long gone past the reading level that Joelle taught the others at, so she spent her time in the reason room. Based on her habit of hyperfocusing on certain topics and disregard for things like friendliness and politeness… she probably would have few friends at school.

Speaking of friends, I may have accidentally got in the way of her socialising with other children yesterday. I fainted so Milly spent all her time by my side.

oops…

I apologised internally to Milly as the other children arrived.

The three sandy haired boys showed up dragging their feet with looks of despair similar to Linden's as they took their seats, followed by Fiolla, who sat next to me.

"Are you feeling better?" Fiolla asked quietly as she handed me an apple.

I nodded as I put the apple into my lunch bundle, right as Joelle tapped her pointer stick against the edge of the sand pit to signal the start of class.

Everyone in class was beyond the level of learning basic letters, so Joelle taught us grammar and spelling by writing passages from various books on the ground for us to copy and read.

Most of the learning materials are taken from works written by the great sage king Arai, like today's excerpt from his work 'Household Law'.

"If a man or woman wishes to spread the branches and leaves of their family, they may take more than one spouse. To prevent envy and discontent, the rooms and servants must be divided equally, and the inheritance must be uniformly dispersed. Dowry will be passed within the same line, from water to water." Recited Joelle.

Based on this excerpt, I felt that the original emperor Arai (a likely reincarnator or transmigrator) had introduced the concept of gender equality to this world.

"Now can any of you tell me what it means to spread the branches and leaves?" Asked Joelle as she surveyed the row of small heads.

Immediately everyone tried their best to stay still and avoid eye contact, a universal skill among students. Seeing that there was no response, Joelle pointed to Rhys.

"Rhys, what do you think 'branches and leaves' mean in the passage?

"Uh…Does it mean h-having kids?" Replied Rhys with his voice cracking midway through the sentence, his ears turning red as the blacksmith trio giggled at him.

"You are correct! Some noble families have special abilities within their bloodline, and in order to ensure that the ability doesn't die out they have many children." Explained Joelle. "The royal lineage is one such family, with the eyes of truth being inherited from the original emperor himself."

The giggles from the trio continued and Joelle turned towards the boys, eyes gleaming. "Bronwyn!" she called sharply, turning to the eldest of the brothers.

"Ah!" Bronwyn squeaked as Joelle called his name, while his brothers immediately clammed up.

"What does 'water to water' mean?" Asked Joelle.

"Er…" Bronwyn had no response.

"Bevan, do you know what a dowry is?" Joelle asked the second brother.

"No Ma'am…"

"Dugan! What does discontent mean?"

The final brother scrunched his brow as he tried to remember. "It means…unhappy?"

"Correct." Joelle nodded and finally turned her strict gaze from the boys.

I looked down as Joelle scanned everyone else. When she was in teaching mode, the friendly neighbourhood grandma completely disappeared. As expected of someone used to teaching adventurers.

"A dowry is the wealth that belongs to a woman when she gets married, this wealth is a gift from her family and her personal property. It can include family relics, wealth, or even property. A woman's dowry will be passed down to her daughters, separate from their inheritance." Explained Joelle.

"In the five elements theory, female is represented by water, which is why water to water means mother to daughter."

"How come boys don't get a dowry?" Asked Linden. 

"It's rare, but a man can receive a dowry too, technically speaking if he is taking on his wife's name he is becoming part of her lineage and not the other way around. In ancient tradition a dowry is passed down from mother to daughter so that they can retain a part of their heritage."

"What does lineage mean?" Asked Fiolla.

After Joelle explained the concept of lineage and family names, she had us copy down the passage and check our spelling. While the special skill I received from that mysterious entity allowed me to understand words and read them, I still had to practise writing and sometimes made spelling mistakes.

Carthel, the language of the empire and one of the few written languages in this world, had an alphabet composed of angular shapes. These shapes all had a sound associated to them, and were added together to form a word that usually fit within a square. Since the language was made entirely out of right angles and straight lines, it was easy to carve into tablets or stone.

Writing it and making it look neat by hand was a bit more difficult, as a stray line or accidental smudge could create a mistake. Because each word is read from top to bottom, the script of this world is also written from top to bottom, so you either have to write each individual line far apart to prevent smudging, or write carefully and slowly.

After checking our work and correcting mistakes, Joelle provided us with a fable, once again written by the Sage King Arai. Not only was the fable longer, but because it contained many metaphors and symbolism, the lesson stretched out longer.

While learning new things about this world was interesting, I was being taught at essentially a grade school level. I couldn't stop my brain melting from boredom, and towards the end I drifted off to sleep, folded over my writing board.

"Clover!" Whispered Fiolla.

"Hueh?" I asked.

"Quickly copy the passage!"

I looked around to see that everyone had their heads down and were diligently copying down the tale of the deer without a heart. I quickly began to copy the passage onto my paper and found that the willow charcoal had smudged onto my clothes, hands, and face.

I kept my face down and tried to write seriously, but in the corner of my eye I could see the trio of boys pointing at me and giggling.

Even though I had the maturity of an adult on the inside, my ears flushed as they laughed. I can't help but be influenced by my physical age and the fact that I had mana hypersensitivity meant that I could literally feel their eyes on me.

The worse thing is, this isn't the first time that this has happened! No matter how hard I try I can't help but fall asleep in class. Thankfully because I could read and write well combined with the fact that I'm only five, Joelle never commented on it in front of the class.

As class finished, Joelle called me inside and helped me wipe my face.

"Clover, you should ask more questions in class." Gently chided Joelle as she used a damp cloth to wipe the side of my face that had marks on it.

"Ever since you were a baby, you were quiet as a mouse. If you don't speak up, people will take advantage of you!" Continued Joelle. I nodded, pretending to understand.

"You are a smart girl, but don't be afraid to ask questions!" said Joelle as she finished. She patted my head and let me go outside.

Fiolla was waiting for me as always, but surprisingly the boys were as well.

"Come on! We can go to the river again!" Bronwyn was trying to convince Linden to come with the trio to play.

"If you get scolded today, Auntie El won't ask Bartel to teach us." Reminded Rhys. (Auntie El = Elania = Mother)

"Stay out of this!" Replied Bronwyn angrily.

"Teach you what?" Asked Dugan innocently.

"Ma said that if we can show our dedication, she'll ask Bartel to teach us five form!" answered Linden.

(Five form is the short way of saying 'five elements movement')

""Really?!"" exclaimed Bevan and Dugan almost in unison.

"I want to learn!"(Bevan)

Bronwyn still looked irritated at Rhys for being a spoilsport, but his younger brothers had a fire lit under them.

"Bron! We should ask dad to ask Bartel too!" Spouted Dugan, almost toppling Bronwyn with the force of his enthusiasm.

Bronwyn looked like he wanted to say more, but was almost dragged off his feet by his younger siblings.  He shot a glare at Rhys before leaving.

I'm not sure why, but Bronwyn and Rhys never got along, despite both of them being friends with Linden.

After the commotion, I turned to Fiolla with a plan in mind.

"Fiolla, do you want to come to Grandpa's today? We can watch him use magic."

"Oh, sure! Wait- is Milly going to be there?"

Ah… it seems she caught onto my plan. I was hoping for Milly to interact with someone her age more. Fiolla seemed reluctant so I sweetened the pot.

"Probably, but Grandpa recently bought some candy from the trading store and we can try all the flavours!"

That convinced her, and we went inside to get Milly to walk with us to Grandpa's followed by the two boys.

Milly sighed as I pulled her away from her book.

"We can't go alone, Ma said that Grandpa had to pick us up."

Because Mother wasn't picking us up today, and Milly was supposed to be supervised, we had to wait for Grandpa. Milly wanted to keep reading, but unfortunately for her, Grandpa arrived almost immediately after she said that.

"Ah, all of you are coming today? Well I've got the space." Laughed Grandpa as he picked me up.

Reluctantly Milly got up and we all headed to Grandpa's house.