Chapter 41: The Maiden’s Prayer
“So, let me first understand your basics today.”
Xilutiya was wearing a white blouse today, with a plain blue skirt below, quite bright and lively, much better than the unchanged black plain dress from before.
In the rest area on one side of the training ground, this maiden hung a small blackboard and began tutoring the two classmates.
After some communication and understanding, she quickly grasped their situations.
Komiya’s issues were not big; except for some rather profound and obscure parts she didn’t understand, she grasped most knowledge, just forgetting some she hadn’t memorized much.
Karen’s problems were very serious; not only did she only know the names of most knowledge without understanding the connections, but she also had many issues with arithmetic basics and writing terms.
It seems a long and arduous task, the maiden thought.
Still, she had to try and not give up at the start; she began supplementing Karen’s basics, while for Komiya, she just needed to consolidate the forgotten knowledge in memory for now.
……
Two hours passed quickly, and at the end, Xilutiya did not drag on but announced the tutoring for today was over.
“Phew, I thought Tiya was going to keep lecturing.” Komiya sprawled on the table; she had just seen Xilutiya sorting out basics for Karen for a long time.
“Everyone’s understanding ability is limited; lecturing too much in one day is not good, and besides, you all need to train too and can’t neglect it because of this.” She packed up her notebook.
“Right.” Xilutiya remembered something and looked at Karen with some curiosity.
“Karen, can you teach me how to do archery?” She had never touched archery before.
“Tiya actually wants to learn this.” Komiya was surprised first.
“Archery is actually very tiring; drawing the bow requires quite a bit of strength.” She had tried playing with it before.
“But the training ground has bow and arrow with very low draw weight; Tiya can try it. Well, some noblewomen occasionally play with that to decorate.”
Saying that, the three came to the shooting range on one side of the training ground and soon found the placed training short bow.
Under Karen’s careful guidance, Xilutiya roughly understood the posture for drawing the bow and the precautions.
“Newbies are best not using bows with too high draw weight.” Karen reminded.
“First, it’s hard to draw; second, if released empty, the bowstring’s rebound can injure oneself and also damage the bow to some extent.”
“I understand.”
Xilutiya held the short bow, nocked an arrow, slowly drew the bowstring, then released under Karen’s guidance; 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 some basic enlightenment, Xilutiya looked at the arrow shaft slanted in the distance; when she shot the second arrow, the accuracy was clearly much better.
By the fifth shot, the arrowhead finally landed on the target’s bullseye, just not very straight.
Phew, it seems quite interesting, completely different from using close-combat weapons; the maiden put down the bow and thought.
Because the arrow unlike the sword hilt is not always held in hand, at the instant it’s shot, control is lost, so she couldn’t operate it as finely and flexibly as with a sword; more often it’s preparing in advance, calculating strength, trajectory, wind direction, and the target’s situation.
Logically, if someone has very good archery skill, their mental calculation ability won’t be bad either; even intuition is the subconscious reaction after brain calculation.
Thinking this way, Karen might not be dumb, just always lacking education and guidance.
……
In the following days, the three learned and trained with each other like this until Baron and Mike recovered from injuries and returned to class.
The first time Teacher Heide said Xilutiya would tutor him, joy rose in Mike’s heart, but he soon suppressed it.
It’s just tutoring; don’t think too much, he told himself to stay as calm as possible.
However, that afternoon, when he really sat in the rest area listening to this maiden’s clear and gentle voice, he couldn’t help being a bit distracted, noticing details he hadn’t before.
Tiya not only had a pleasant voice, but also an excellent figure and posture, and exceptionally fine skin; it’s just a pity that pair of thick glasses ruined the beauty.
“Listen to the lesson seriously.” The maiden lightly knocked the blackboard with a wooden club, interrupting Mike’s thoughts.
“Yes.” He had to straighten up properly, making Komiya beside him cover her mouth and chuckle softly.
After guiding Mike for a few days, Lei also joined; the two of them plus Karen were always the three at the bottom of secret history class grades.
Teaching one is teaching, teaching three is also teaching; Tiya felt no discomfort with this and gradually understood in the process of teaching the three what many kinds of knowledge looked like in the eyes of ordinary people.
For her, having received nearly 16 years of complete Earth system education in her previous life, understanding the internal connections of various knowledge and the cognitive framework of the whole world, grasping many things was easy; but for ordinary commoner students completely ignorant and unaware of many concepts, learning some things was completely different.
For example, an engine: she knew it required casting with metal alloys strong enough, inside relying on a certain combustion chemical reaction to provide energy, then through physical mechanical transmission to convey motivation to various parts, and the mutual riveting of different gears and rods inside creating differential speeds for adjustment, etc.
Just one engine actually involved composite application of materials, metallurgy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, mechanics, and other knowledge.
Yet someone only knowing one part and never contacting other knowledge easily had biased understanding due to lack of framework.
In the process of teaching these classmates, Xilutiya also nicely sorted through the knowledge framework from her previous life’s memory.
Speaking of which, those were such distant knowledge, yet she recalled them crystal clear now, even remembering elementary school classmates’ names; it was almost unbelievable.
……
Life began to become peaceful and stable: mornings Xilutiya and the classmates listened to the teacher lecture, afternoons she tutored the three poor students, then free time practicing archery, evenings and mornings tending the flowers and grass in the backyard at home, nights chatting idly with Talil, listening to her tell today’s fresh interesting stories in Jiaoshi City, then sleeping.
Unknowingly, a month passed like this.
The ‘Swan Orchid’ she carefully nurtured finally reached flowering time.
Carefully squatting down, Xilutiya held that small tender green flower bud, joyful inside.
No matter what, it was the first pot of flowers and grass she carefully nurtured, costing her much time and effort, also with expectation and joy.
【Swan Orchid】（Rare-82）: Flowering, humidity not at optimal state, still needs 23.53% more humidification, ambient temperature slightly low, still needs 7.4 degrees increase, ventilation optimal, nutrients sufficient, trace nutrients satisfied……
In the flower bud intermixed with light green and tender green, several fine buds emerged; at this most vibrant place, faint ‘Emerald Honey’ nature power condensed, just one step away from complete ‘First Order-Emerald Honey’ nature.
Closing her eyes, even without looking, she could sense the slight plants fragrance and invisible ripples emanating from the flower bud in front.
Still a bit short; if the last missing puzzle piece is filled, it should bloom a complete ‘First Order-Emerald Honey’ nature power flower.
Temperature, humidity; she stood up and looked toward this small courtyard.
If making a greenhouse glass shed, time was a bit too short, and she also lacked sufficient funds.
So, currently she could only use other methods instead.
Through some inquiring, Xilutiya found a glass workshop in Jiaoshi City, spent 6 silver coins to have the workers specially craft three large glass covers for her, then carefully transported them back home.
Finding the three ‘Swan Orchid’ with the best appearance and state in the backyard, she carefully covered them with glass covers, digging several narrow trenches below for ventilation and watering; thus though not reaching perfection, the environmental state improved much compared to before.
Facing the three ‘Swan Orchid’ about to bloom, she added a bit more ‘Emerald Dew Water’ to ensure ‘Emerald Honey’ nature condensation.
After finishing, Xilutiya stood by the glass cover, gently stroking it with her hand, thinking to herself.
Even if it doesn’t bloom complete ‘Emerald Honey’ nature flowers, she wouldn’t feel sad or regretful; this was already the best result she could achieve currently.
Still, she hoped they could fully bloom splendidly, because she anticipated that happening.
Standing before the ‘Swan Orchid’, the maiden silently prayed.
Autumn wind carrying some fallen leaves blew into this small courtyard, lifting her fine soft hair; as the maiden closed eyes in prayer, the tender green flower bud inside the glass cover slightly unfurled, the closed flower bud beginning to show the first slit.
Thanks to Ninefold Dome, Xi Tan,
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