Going Back Uphill

The sun rises, shining its celestial glow to the face of the earth, shaping the early morning in the Raskiel Mountains Region. The dawning skies are filled with scattered clouds, with the moon fading into the rising brightness of the day.

Enter the second day of Oria Argentora's training.

She's already awake, all thanks to Faruk's cogent and forcing way to wake her up. Faruk tells her to wash her face in the water spring. She nods and heads there, accompanied by the Silver Dragon, of course.

*splash*

The sound of the water flushing on her face as she dived her hands into the water and rub it on her cute face. The splashes created by her hands causes a small ripple on the clear water, disturbing the calmness it retained. Her towel, carried by Faruk on top of the Observer ball, is given to her as she's done washing her face.

"I'm really sorry for troubling you..." she apologized; her tiny hands reached out the towel on the floating iron ball.

"Think nothing of it," Faruk replied in his refined voice. Though, something has bothered him long enough until now. "Hm... I wonder, you have a habit of saying sorry most of the time, don't you?"

"Eh? I... I guess... y-yeah," Oria replied in an unsure voice. She hangs the towel on her shoulders, then continues speaking. "I... I was taught that if I ever made trouble to someone, I must say sorry to that person."

"From where you learned that, if I may inquire?"

"Erm..." she looked away, scratching her just dried cheek with her index finger. "It's from that slave camp..." she finally answered.

"From that c-camp, huh...?" Faruk just realized he again stepped across the line. "A-Ahem...! We, uhh... we need to reform that manner of yours by a little bit."

"I'm sorry?" Oria replied, not understanding.

"...*sigh*... It's your 'sorry-soothsaying' attitude. Your habit of saying sorry most of the time if that wasn't clear enough."

"Huh? Is it wrong to err... say sorry?" she tilted her head.

"Apologizing isn't a wrong thing to do. In fact, it is a way to reconcile with someone that you're having trouble with."

"O-Oh..." she responded, giving out a somewhat relieved breath.

"Like when you accidentally ram people, you involuntarily insulted someone, and more... that's when you should send your pardons. Though, listen well, Oria. Saying sorry all the time might backfire on you one day, especially when you are NOT in the wrong."

Faruk looks at the tree by the edge of the water spring. The reflection on the water is clear once again as the ripples disappear. Birds can be heard chirping up there on the trees. He looks again to the child. Her furrowed eyebrows tell how clueless she is as to what he's saying.

"...If anyone ever offered you their help, stop thinking that you are troubling them, Oria. Instead of saying 'sorry for troubling you', try replacing those words with 'thank you for your help'."

"T-Thank you for your help?"

"Yes... it is far more effective and the psychological effect on people will make them feel like they're helpful to you and that makes them quite comfortable. If you say sorry to them after they help you out, they might think they're the nuisance and often mislead their ideas about you. ...Tooooo put it simply, it's just that saying thank you is much better than saying sorry."

"I, I see... I guess that explains why Master Dux looks fazed when I say sorry to him..." Oria said. "Hm! I think I get what you're saying, Faruk. Thank you. I will try to do what you've taught me."

"Good."

"Oh, and by the way... what are we going to do today?" she asked.

"Today, we're going to implement those magics you've learned from Dux."

Oria's face brightened up greater than the morning's sunshine. She's extremely excited to undergo magic training with him. And then, the Silver Dragon stalls her euphoric face.

"...But we are not doing it here, mind you."

"E-Eh? Then, where?"

Faruk flies to the direction of the mountain. He then looks back at her in the eyes and says:

"We're going up the mountain again, child. Pack the tent, please."

"W-What!?"

"Don't complain. The concentration of mana energy at this open grassland is too sparse to fully utilize magic. Me in this Observer ball, Oria, can only hold on to around a day and a half since this ball eats off mana energy in the air to fly."

"O-Oh... is that so..."

"And unlike me in my true form, my mana supply is very limited in the Observer ball. I will automatically teleport back to my dragon form if I run out of mana, lo and behold you'll be alone."

"Ah-hahaha... please let's not let that happen..." said Oria chuckling a bit, thinking that her master was joking. "Though, where shall we go?" she asked.

"Hm. Glad you asked. We're heading to the Raskiel Ancient Shrine."

...

..

.

It took about an hour for Oria to take a quick breakfast and pack the entire campsite to one big backpack again. Ever since her training yesterday, she became much more agile and quicker in packing her stuff.

"Phew... I'm ready, Faruk!" she waved her arms at the floating sphere.

"Hm. Good. Let us move."

They walk through the dirt road where they got out from the mountain. It proved to be harder for Oria to climb the mountain, although the slope isn't steep.

"Come on, now, we're not even half-way and you're already tired?" Faruk teased.

"Uuuuh... it's heavy with all these stuffs I'm bringing..." she moaned.

"Well, it can't be helped, can it? They're the source of our primary needs, so bear with it for the moment, eh?"

"Urgh... easy for you to say..."

"Hm? He-hey... don't slow down. See me, I'm still full of energy to climb."

"Uhh... (Says the one who FLIES!)"

For the next hour, they trace their way uphill, getting over the gigantic roots again, and finally back in the deep forest of Raskiel Mountains. Since they are heading back to the mountains, they are within the proximity of Faruk's interstellar [Intimidation] skill. As a result, no monster is in sight.

After a short yet tiring journey, Oria rests herself against a tree.

"Is it still *huff* far, Faruk?" she asked in a panting voice.

"Hm... the shrine is not that far anymore, I suppose. Come on, now... you could run around to your heart's content when you leveled up yesterday, but now, you can hardly keep up?"

"It's different when you're bringing so *huff* many goods with you... *haah*"

"Really, now?" Faruk replied in an insulting tone. "Are you going to give up now?"

"No! I won't. I want to learn more about magics!" she said as she's clenching her fists. Her determination is crystal clear to learn magic.

Faruk—impressed by her words—replies on the spot, "Very well, then! Let us continue!"

They journey through the deep forest for up to thirty minutes long with Faruk leading his protege. Oria at first naturally had a hard time to keep up with Faruk's moderate flying speed, but now, she can chase up and walk steadily beside him.

"You adapt quite quickly. I commend you for that."

"Thank you...?"

They stop by a place in the middle of the forest. "I-Isn't this place..."

Oria realizes the sight in front of her, a dead tree timber is lying on the ground with its roots in midair. Not far from it, a medium-sized plant about her height is blooming beautiful flowers.

"Well, lookie here... the rozferul seeds you've planted here yesterday just bloomed some flowers."

"Wow... the flower is so... beautiful! It's so pretty! The color, its petals reflect light like iron, the cute red color that covers most of the flower's color is also great. The smell... *sniff-sniff* it smells kinda weird..."

"Heh, I'm surprised you can explain in quite detail. Indeed, the smell of the rozferul flowers are hideous. After all, it is a smell of iron mixed with the aroma of rose flowers."

"Uwaaah...!"

Oria couldn't stop her mouth from awing. She drops her backpack to the pillow of grass, rushing herself close to the plant. She's captivated by the looks of the flower. Eventually, she's eager to pick them up.

"Can I pick them up, please, Faruk?" she asked beggingly. Her eyes are gleaming like twinkling stars.

"One. Only one. Is that clear?" Faruk walled her euphoria immediately.

"Yaay! You got it, I'll take only one of them, heehee."

As she goes to choose the best-looking flower to pick, Faruk, behind her, watches as how her happy expression is painted brightly on her face. Looking at her having a hard time to choose like a child that can't choose which one's their favorite toy somewhat makes a comforting sense to him. Waiting till the kid finishes her pick, Faruk thought to himself.

"(Going back up isn't optional, but it's obliged that we do so. Staying still on the plains will have the risk of being found out by the duchy's troops. I—in this abysmal form, the Observer ball—couldn't perform much defense nor offense to guard her little life, thus the reason behind our leave.)"

"I pick... ah! This one is really nice! Faruk, look, look! This flower is big, isn't it?" she asked gleefully while showing off a rozferul flower about the size of her palm.

"Hm. The flower bloomed quicker than I thought, though... anyway, it's nice to see a plant that you supplied with mana has grown significantly well and even have bloomed flowers, no?"

"Heehee. That's right! It is really pretty!"

"Alright, alright. Enough bantering around. It seems you're pretty energized. Pick up your bag, we'll leave right away."

"E-Eh? Oh, yeah... we're going to... uh... sorry, where again?"

"...*sigh*... we might also need to work on your focusing skills... anyway, we are heading to a place where you can train your magic to your heart's content."

"Oooh...! Do tell!"

"It's called the Raskiel Ancient Shrine. (I actually just introduced it twice to this human...)"