Chapter 68 – Lily’s Education
Chapter 68 – Lily's Education
In the rattling carriage as it bounced along, she threw her study tools out the window… over a dozen times.
Each time, Heart silently picked them all up.
I finally got why the Pope told us to teach his daughter how to read and write.
No one else could handle this spoiled little brat.
That damn raccoon. If I’d known it’d be like this, I never would’ve taken on her education.
After finishing dinner around the campfire, Fernet teamed up with Kirika to brew tea and pass it around.
“Hehe. Next time, maybe I’ll throw it even farther. What do you think, Heart?”
“Marie picked this stuff up easily when she was five.”
“Don’t say unnecessary things, escort boy. I’m way more important than you.”
Heart let out a wry smile and shook his head.
“You’re not important at all.”
“I’m the one giving Heart orders! Gain, butt out!”
Damn it.
Heart isn’t your servant or personal guard.
We’re just protecting you on orders from the Pope.
…I wanted to tell her that, but it’d go right over this spoiled girl’s head. Whatever.
Waste of energy. No reason to patiently teach her with that kind of obligation.
“If you can’t read or write, you can’t even stand in for Marie at age six.”
“Age six? What was Marie doing back then?”
“She worked in the document room, managing mountains of paperwork.”
Her parents, clearly interested, looked up at Heart.
“Marie got tossed into the document room right after joining the church and busted her butt every day.”
Heart turned to face the parents, speaking slowly as he alternated glances between them.
“Haha, she stuck with it without running away.”
“Yeah, she said if it was assigned to her, she’d see it through to the end.”
The parents couldn’t hide their shock hearing about little Marie from us.
She pulled it off brilliantly.
No matter how much we offered to talk to the higher-ups for her, she wouldn’t hear it.
Heh. That’s one of the things that makes her great.
“But she’s a Saintess now, right? She doesn’t need to study.”
“Doesn’t Lily know what a Saintess actually does?”
“Healing people and stuff. I know that much.”
“So you wanna just hand out recovery potions for a living?”
Heart dropped a brutally realistic point.
He’s right.
“No, it’s all sparkly lights falling down with petals dancing around.”
“That’s not a job. What do you want to do going forward, Lily?”
Lily put a hand to her chin and pondered for a bit.
This might be the first time I’ve seen such a serious look on her face.
“…You know, everyone kneeling before me, obeying my every command. And me, living surrounded by beautiful things.”
Hey.
“…To make that happen, reading and writing comes first.”
Ah, Heart’s thrown in the towel.
She broke that iron will of his so easily.
Impressive.
From then on, Heart kept a straight face as he forced Lily to study, tying her down if she tried to bolt.
Lily threw tantrum after tantrum, thrashing wildly each time.
Once she realized it was pointless, she started cozying up bit by bit.
“Heart, you okay on your own? Need any help?”
“Nah, I’m boxing her in with no escape routes. Leave it all to me.”
Heh. As expected from someone Sid trained.
He’s got real skill at this.
By the time she could write every family member’s name, the tantrums had completely stopped.
As usual, we sat around the campfire sipping tea.
Lily was over there showing Heart the paper from her practice session.
“See? You can do it when you try.”
“Hehe. If Heart were a little nicer to me, I might try even harder.”
“Once you nail all the basic characters.”
“Waaah. If you pat my head, I might give it my all~”
This spoiled girl cuddling up to Heart would play dumb or bat her eyes at her own fiancé if it meant manipulating someone.
Instinct? Or pure calculation?
Heart casually peeled her off and scooted over to my side.
Jeez. Like that’s gonna work on Heart—he’s never short on women.
Kirika’s dad was covering for him, but yeah, I’d do the exact same.
No way I’d let a catch like that slip.
“You good?”
“Hmph. No big deal.”
Heart claims he’s fine, but I feel bad dragging him into this role.
Mess it up, and she’ll have him wrapped around her finger like her mom.
Heart’s ironclad resolve makes him perfect for it, but it’s still a heavy load.
“Thanks so much for teaching her to read and write. Really, truly, thank you.”
The father plopped down next to us and bowed deeply, all formal-like.
Didn’t need him to say it—we could tell they’d been at their wits’ end.
“The village you’ll all be living in from now on makes recovery potions without using magic. They’re even experimenting with growing medicinal herbs the same way.”
“That’s a huge help!”
My announcement to the group got an instant reaction—but only from the father.
He sat down by Kirika, beaming as he explained it was work Lily could do together with her.
Heh. They look more like real parent and child.
Before we left, I’d explained about the housing plus the potion-making and herb-growing jobs.
They were too worked up back then to really hear me out.
“Marie researched and developed the methods for these herbs and potions. Nearly ten years of work, all on her own, to make a life without magic possible.”
Not just the parents—Kirika and Lily looked stunned too.
“Marie… to live without using magic?”
“That’s right. All by her lonesome. She holed up in the church’s backyard annex and tinkered away at it.”
“That kind of research… for almost ten years?”
“Yep. Did everything she could. She was super jealous of kids her age heading off to school in their uniforms, though.”
A bit catty? Maybe.
But I had to get it off my chest.
The father went pale and hung his head.
Lily looked baffled. “Why? I thought she went to school.”
“No, Lily. Your mom put Marie in the church.”
“She didn’t leave ’cause she was mad at me? Mom abandoned Marie?”
“I never meant to abandon her. But look how well she turned out.”
Hey, come on.
Taking credit for it, huh? Just like Lily.
The results weren’t because of you.
“Ma’am, that’s not how it was. Even if Marie had stayed in the village—or gone to school in the capital—I bet she’d have invented it anyway. No matter where she ended up. That’s just who she is.”
Even though you never saw that pained fake smile when her school dreams got crushed.
Even though you have no clue how we felt back then.
“Don’t you dare mock our daughter!”
I lost it there.
Heart and Fernet didn’t even try to stop me—they must feel the same.
The mother looked down, her face twisted in pain.
Ah, damn. I went too far. Yeah… she probably couldn’t forgive herself otherwise.
Sid would’ve phrased it better…
I slapped my cheeks with both hands.
The end of this trip is still a long way off.
If I don’t get my act together, who will?
“Ma’am, don’t worry. Marie—no, your daughter—grew into a fine adult. She’s independent now.”
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thanks for the chapter