With Shiro’s new outfit, some of the parents were more accepting of her and even the students started to enjoy her lessons after her first stand in. There were a few times where Dimos would let Shiro do the lessons so that he could take a break.
Plus, the students enjoyed it and he knew that when one enjoys something, they learn better. With Shiro being a substitute teacher, more and more students started to come to the school. Some were around her age while others were slightly older.
After finishing the lesson, Shiro gave the students a small wave.
*Sigh
“I wonder if I should try to make some glasses so that I look more like a teacher.” She mused to herself in mild humour.
“What do you mean by glasses?” Dimos asked curiously.
“Oh nothing. It’s just a device to help one’s eyesight if they’re damaged. One can also use it to look smart.” Shiro shrugged.
“I can see the first use but why the second?” Dimos raised his eyebrows.
“You’d be surprised.” Shiro chuckled.
“Anyways, setting that aside, we’ll be leaving town in a week so you should make some preparations with your… home. Grab anything you want to take with you and we’ll leave by carriage.”
“Wait in a week’s time? Let me think hmm… damn I’ve already been here for a month and a half.” Shiro raised her eyebrow in mild surprise.
“Yes. And you’ve also become more open in this time.” Dimos chuckled. At the start, Shiro was a little reserved and wouldn’t speak much other than help out but now she was more proactive. A good sign in his eyes.
“Well I trust you a little more now, so.” Shiro shrugged.
“Cold hearted. Did you not trust me at the start?” Dimos laughed.
“Nope. I’m just a weak and delicate girl trying to find a divinity. I had no money and no home so everything had to be done with caution.”
“Does a weak and delicate girl make a living from killing Terca with ease despite being wounded?” Dimos asked with a smile.
“This one does.” Shiro grinned and pointed at herself.
“Haha, anyways take care on your way home I suppose. We’ll notify the students tomorrow.” Dimos smiled as Shiro nodded.
###
After notifying the students the next day, some of the younger ones became sad hearing that Shiro will be leaving. This made the lessons a little harder to conduct but Shiro let it be since she had a soft spot for these kids.
Asking Dimos’ permission to play around with the students for the day instead of continuing the lesson, Shiro had some fun doing a few crafts with them such as trying to carve something from wood. A few of them tried to carve her but to no avail. Though the attempts were rather cute in Shiro’s eyes.
Spending the rest of the week trying to teach them as much as she could, the day of departure finally arrived.
“I’m gonna miss you bringing Terca’s to my store every night.” Vasil laughed since Shiro had been a great help.
“I’m sure plenty of hunters will take my place.” Shiro smiled.
“I suppose but they’re not you. Take this and stay safe on your journey ok? Be careful since Terca’s are one of the weakest monsters.” Vasil chuckled and gave her a short sword that was wrapped in a hide sheath.
Since she had been using bone as her weapons, she had to replace them constantly. Now that she had a metal sword, hunting was definitely going to be easier.
“How much do I owe you?” Shiro asked while taking the sword with a grateful smile.
While she did earn some money to buy a sword, she had opted against using it to buy weapons for the time being as the bones were enough. She wanted to save the money for inns and travel just in case something had happened.
Now that Vasil had gifted her a sword, she might as well pay for it.
“It’s on the house. Just make sure you survive out there ok? If you can’t get a divinity, my store is always open for another hunter.” Vasil smiled.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Shiro nodded.
After bidding farewell to a few others that she had met in her time here, she sat inside the carriage.
“Have you finished saying goodbye?” Dimos asked with a smile.
“Yup. So where are we going now?”
“We’re going to be taking the carriage inland to the Section of Life where I’ll be teaching in a slightly bigger town than this place, though it’s not on the size of a city yet. However, teaching is secondary there as I am tasked with something else. There had been severe lack of nourishment in the land around this town and since I have the Divinity of Wisdom, they want to ask me to find out the cause. They have already tried to ask someone with the Divinity of Harvest but the problem persisted which led them to believe that something else is at work.” Dimos explained.
“Ohh so you’re doing some detective work. You’re like Sherlock and I’m kind of like a badass version of Watson.” Shiro grinned.
“I do not know the people you speak of nor do I know about this ‘detective work’. But we are to investigate the cause. You’ll be teaching the lessons in my stead while I investigate. I have an old friend in the town and he owns the school so we can teach one of the classes they have there.”
“So if I wasn’t around, you would have needed to do both?” Shiro raised her eyebrow.
“Somewhat. I would have probably set teaching aside as the lack of nutrients in the land is the biggest concern.” Dimos shook his head.
“So it’s good that you took me as your assistant. And you were against it at the start too.” Shiro chuckled.
“Well if I have someone incompetent as my assistant, I might as well not have one to begin with. It’s better not to teach at all than to spread false information.” Dimos shook his head.
“True. So how long will it take us to get to this town?”
“The town of Aegena is around two weeks worth of travel from our current location since we’re on the edge of the Section of Night and Aegena is in the Section of Life. It’s not on the edge nor is it deep in the Section of Life so the monsters and the influence of the tower is pretty weak. Still be careful though since as I have covered in my lessons, if you kill an animal inside, the forest will try to drain you. The pursuit isn’t as strong near the edge but it should still be dangerous for someone like you.” Dimos warned.
“I see… So in these two weeks, I suppose I’m allowed to hunt a little so that we can get some food?” Shiro asked as she was quite interested to see how well this short sword can cut.
“Yes as we are still in the Section of Night.” Dimos nodded.
“Great. If you don’t mind me, I’ll be sitting on the top of the carriage so that I can get some fresh air and see the world with my own eyes ok?” Shiro asked as Dimos sighed.
“Sure.”
Grinning slightly, Shiro grabbed the top of the window hole and swung herself to the top of the carriage in one swift movement.
‘This girl is not ladylike at all.’ Dimos shook his head with a small smile.
However, it wasn’t too bad to be around someone lively like her.
###
Sitting on the roof of the carriage, Shiro watched the town disappear into the distance and couldn’t help but wonder about her friends once more.
She had already spent almost two months in this place now and she was still nowhere near the trial that she wanted to complete. Hell, after the Tower of Nike, she still needed to complete the five primordial trials and god knows what was in there. Literally.
‘I’m sure they’re doing fine.’ Shiro thought with a smile however she couldn’t help but feel a little lonely.
Thinking back to it, she was glad that she made friends with Lyrica when they first met. If she continued by herself as a monster, life would be rather dull.
Shaking her head, she laid on the roof and looked up at the sky.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to pop her head back down.
“Say, I have a question.”
“Go on.” DImos looked up at Shiro.
“Has anyone tried to venture further beyond the edge of this place? Like, the town that we were just in is located around the edge of the Section of Night right? Has anyone tried to continue further down south?” Shiro asked.
“In fact there has. There had been several expeditions launched for them to explore the world. However, after a certain point, all life ceases to exist. There is no nutrient in the soil, no monsters, no animals, no humans. The longest ever expedition recorded was venturing out for half a year which caused severe losses to manpower but they were unable to discover anything.” Dimos shook his head.
Seeing some sadness in his eyes, Shiro knew that it might be a touchy subject so she stayed silent and let Dimos have some alone time.
