ICE QUEEN
it was approximately 10:30 in the morning when we got back to the orphanage, Nola was teaching the kids on how to read and write, they looked bored out of their minds. I was starting to get frustrated that I had to rely on Masha to communicate with everyone so after teaching Nola about ice making, I will go back to learning the language on my own.
I sat right beside them and everyone looked at me confused, I looked at Nola and told her "teach me too please". The kids laughed, they thought I was joking but I was dead serious, Nola calmed the kids down then said, "I would be glad to teach you Claudio, where do you want to start?", I said "The alphabet, I want learn the letters"
I sat beside Irakis, the youngest boy in the orphanage, he was maybe two to three years old? Not sure, we shared the same book, it was a real humbling experience to say the least
Irakis: cah buh geh TAH hehehe
Claudio: I agree
I think he was teaching me about the letters, I am not sure. We spent 30 minutes learning and everyone was fired up since I sat beside them, after we were done Nola gave everyone a break before we continued which honestly surprised me, she was a good teacher. The letters were the same as old herathaian but there was 7 new letters that I had never seen in the book, right now I wanted nothing more than to communicate, even though I am not interested in learning Voratrae I will have to suck it up and study my ass off
Claudio: Nola, I need talk to you
Nola: Hm? What is wrong Claudio?
I called in Masha and we went to the private room at the back of the orphanage, I wanted to teach Nola how to make ice, I hope it won't be that difficult. I told Masha to activate his mageia
Claudio: listen Nola, I wanted to teach you something that is going to help you and the kids in the long run
Nola: oh? Please continue
Claudio: I wanted to teach you how to make ice so that you can sell it for more groshen
Masha and Nola both made out a "hah?" sound at the same time
Nola: but how? i am not an ice elemental mage
Claudio: I know this is going to sound weird, but please bear with me
I explained to her that she could control both fire and water elementals, she obviously knew about the fire part but water was a new fact she did not know about. She asked me how I knew, but I ignored her question and proceeded to explain how heat gets transferred from an object to another.
I told her that the same way she can take heat mageia from fire to store it in her body, she can also take it from water and turn it into ice. She was reasonably confused about the new scientific facts that I dropped on her, she eventually stopped thinking and decided to trust my words.
This was NOT an easy task at all, Masha brought a bucket, I told her to learn how to control the water element first, and to my surprise she learned that in an hour! She pillared the water into the air until it left the bucket completely and brought it back in with minor spillage, the book was not lying about her talent. Of course she looked like a shriveled raisin after she was done practicing
Claudio: good job Nola, do you by chance have an allergy to peanuts and walnuts?
Nola: not at all! In fact they are my favorite
Claudio: good good
I went to my backpack and pulled out a peanut butter chocolate energy bar. I handed it to Nola and she was confused about the shape of the brown block. I asked her "what's wrong? Never had chocolate?", she replied "this is chocolate?!" I only heard that it is an expensive bitter drink! How is it solid?"
Oh my, this is as medieval as it get, back then, the name Xocolati literally translated to bitter water, it was after a while that they added milk and sugar to it to make it edible, a new business idea popped in my head. Anyway, Nola is in for a rude awakening
Claudio: make sure to savor it Nola, it is probably the best dessert you will eat in a while
Nola: dessert? Oh whatever I trust you Claudio
Nola took a bite of the energy bar, air swirled around us aggressively as she let out an "MMMMMMMMMMMM" grunt, I did not know that she was a wind elemental as well, shouldn't she be taking over a country or something? Scary
Even though she only took one bite, she looked 10 years younger, her face was bright, all of the pimples and acne gone, she flexed her biceps under her grey long dress and it was almost as big as mine, what is the point of working out anymore in this world…
I wanted to learn how is that physically possible but I am in another world, so I eventually stopped thinking. She put down the bar and followed my advice, she turned around and said
Nola: thank you Claudio, I promise to make it up to you
Claudio: it is fine Nola you already did more than enough for me, anyways next step, try to take the heat from the water. This is going to be way difficult than before but I believe in you
Nola went to the bucket and tried to do as I instructed, I stopped her to check on the temperature of the water, I wanted to see if she was making it colder or not. In the middle of her practicing, the gluttons gremlin that is called Masha thought it was a good idea to reach for the energy bar, Nola threw a fire ball near him causing a mini explosion to happen
"Don't you dare Masha, you already had ice cream", she said in a scary voice, her eyes caused Masha to be frozen in fear.
After 45 minutes of practicing, there was a slow progress, sure the water felt colder but Nola was getting frustrated and distraught when she couldn't do it right away, "Claudio this is a waste of time, I will go prepare lunch for everyone"
I said "I will make the lunch don't worry about it, please continue your training", she wanted to protest but I already made my mind, I went to the kitchen to check the ingredients available for us. A shy girl with violet eyes was staring at my back the whole time so I called her in to help me, she smiled and ran towards the counter
Claudio: what is your name?
Violet: my name is Violet, I am Ayola's best friend
Claudio: nice meet you violet, can help me with cook lunch?
She nodded enthusiastically. Checking out the storage, I had the current ingredients
Cheese? Check
Onions? Check
Carrots? Check
Potatoes? Check
Milk? Check
Black bread? Check
There was barley and oats as well. there was no meat obviously. What is something that is pretty easy to make that I can teach Violet how to make? After pondering for a while, I decided to make a cream stew, pretty simple and easy
Claudio: Violet, I want teach you something come and watch
I brought some quality of life seasonings from my backpack but it can work well without it, I cut the onions into thin slices and added it to the hot iron cask, while the onions were cooking, I cut the washed potatoes and carrots into cubes and boiled them for a little bit in a different pan. Violet was watching my every step like a hawk, she had a burning passion for cooking
I added the boiled potatoes and carrots into the onions so that they could get a nice sear before adding water and milk into the iron cask, i added chicken seasoning and the beef jerky that Rom gave me, after topping the stew with cheese I was finally done.
Claudio: Violet was everything clear?
Violet: um!
Claudio: good, take first bite
Violet was hesitant at first, she probably thought that everything is going to taste like milk. She took a bite and nodded her little head aggressively, looks like Violet approves
Claudio: tomorrow you make it ok?
Violet: um! I would love to!
We plated the stew on the table and called in everyone to lunch, they were all equally confused by the weird shape of the stew, I am sure they all thought, "Why is it white?", but when they took a bite they made a pleasant satisfied face
After the bowls were devoured, everyone had a bulge in their stomach, I asked Nola how her training was going and she said, "It is hard for me to do it today, the water only got slightly colder" At least she was trying, she will master it eventually
As for me, I needed to restock on supplies from the truck, the problem was that I was afraid the guards would give me trouble after searching my backpack, I got lucky and unlucky at the same time last time
Nola went back to her Spartan training near the bucket, Sasha was teaching the kids about reading and writing, Masha was doing some calisthenics that I taught him, I had nothing to do the whole day except learn the language better so I went with kids to learn. i spent 8 hours studying, it was late at night and only when everyone had dinner that I opened up my problem to Nola and Sasha
Sasha: you don't have to worry Claudio! There is a guard in the east gate who I know very well, he is friends with captin Aerov, he will not give you any trouble at all! He works in the morning though so we have to wake up early
Claudio: Aerov? Who is that? Never heard of him before
Nola was silent, she looked pretty annoyed at the mention of said person. Sasha explained to me
Sasha: he is one of the four captains of this city! He is friends with Nola and helps out with the orphanage and hangs out around us when he has free time
Oh… he was the one who brought them meat months ago, he must be a good man, but why is Nola…
Nola: thank you Sasha go to the room I need to talk to Claudio
Sasha: but…
Nola: Now
Sasha pouted as she walked slowly to Nola's room with a slouch, I was honestly surprised by this interaction, Nola was acting different all of a sudden, she pulled me by my shirt and dragged me to the kitchen
Nola: Claudio, it is about Aerov…
Claudio: what about him?
Nola: he is the one who will help us sell the gold and silver that you gave us
Claudio: is this not good?
Nola: it is… its just that Aerov is not a good man, he is mentally unstable and dangerous
Claudio: how come?
Nola sighed and started pacing back and forth, she released her tied up wavy hair and looked me dead in the eyes
Nola: you have to leave before he returns, it would be dangerous for you if he sees you in this orphanage, he goes crazy whenever a man is near me
Claudio: oh so like lovers? I understand…
Nola: NO!
Nola was angry, her voice rang through the whole neighborhood
Nola: he thinks that I love him! That sick bastard killed my last two lovers without my knowledge! I will never love him!
Oh HELL NO, I did not think it was that serious, I do not want to deal with a yandere please, I asked
Claudio: where is he!? When will he be back?!
Nola noticed that I was being vigilant all of a sudden, she relaxed her shoulders and answered
Nola: I believe he will be back in 11 days. He is currently with the new lord at a dungeon that is a 5 day carriage ride from here
I nodded my head and started thinking about what I would be doing before the psycho returns. We left kitchen at the same time and everyone was staring at us, Sasha did not have the balls to say anything because Nola was looking for a reason to crash out.
Nola: go to sleep everyone, it was only a sneeze
Everyone proceeded to lie down instantly as if it was a royal decree, Nola is terrifying when she is angry
***
On the morning of the next day, I was getting ready to head out to the forest to restock on supplies from my truck, before I left Nola was already practicing her ice making training. An idea suddenly popped in my head!
What if I can help her understand the process better if I made her pull the heat from heated/boiling water! She would definitely understand the concept better that way
Claudio: Nola, I have an idea, pour out the water and replace it with boiling water
Nola: I do not understand how that will help me with… wait!
Nola understood the assignment, Masha brought in a bucket filled with boiling water. Nola sat near the bucket, put both of her hands near the water and focused on every heat related mageia particle that was in front of her
At first, there were plenty! But after 2 minutes there was barely any, she deepened her focus she realized that there were a lot more of them that she never noticed before! Like a bird fishing in the river, she took every heat mageia in the bucket, one by one, she finally understood what Claudio meant before
After 6 minutes, Nola opened her eyes to see a half frozen bucket of water in front of her. She cried tears of joy, even if the gold somehow disappears now there was a way for them to survive, she no longer had to work as a house maid for 8 iron coins an hour, the choice of prostitution that she dreaded all the time since the new rule was now a distant nightmare
She got up and dashed towards their savior Claudio, she wanted to show her gratitude but Claudio had other plans, since learning about Aerov and his crazy obsession, he reasonably dodged her attempt at hugging, causing her to crash face first into the wall