The Maiden's Prayer

"So, let me first get an idea of your foundations today."

Sylutia was dressed in a white blouse and a plain blue skirt today, looking quite bright and lively—a vast improvement over the unchanging black dress she had worn for the past while.

In the rest area on one side of the training grounds, the young girl hung up a small blackboard and began to tutor her two classmates.

After some communication and assessment, she quickly grasped the situation of both.

Comia's problems were actually minor; aside from some more profound and obscure parts she didn't understand, she grasped most of the knowledge, having simply forgotten some of it through a lack of review.

Karen's problems, however, were severe. Not only did she only know the terminology for most subjects without understanding the connections, but she also struggled significantly with basic arithmetic and written vocabulary.

It seems the road ahead is long and arduous, the girl thought to herself.

Still, she had to try; she couldn't give up at the start. She began to fill in the foundations for Karen, while for Comia, she only needed to consolidate the knowledge she had forgotten.

Two hours passed quickly. When they finished, Sylutia did not drag out the lesson, instead announcing that the tutoring was over for the day.

"Phew, I thought Tia was going to keep talking forever." Comia slumped over the table; she had just watched Sylutia help Karen sort through her foundations for a long time.

"Everyone's ability to comprehend is limited; lecturing too much in one day isn't a good thing. Besides, you need to train as well; you can't let that go to waste." She put away her notes.

"Oh, right." Sylutia remembered something and looked at Karen with a hint of curiosity.

"Karen, could you teach me how to shoot a bow?" She had never had any contact with archery before.

"Tia actually wants to learn this?" Comia was the first to be surprised.

"Archery is actually very tiring; it takes quite a bit of strength to draw the bow." She had tried playing with it before.

"But the training grounds have bows with very low draw weights. Tia could give it a try. Well, some noblewomen use them to play around with occasionally just for show."

As they spoke, the three of them arrived at the archery range on the side of the training grounds and quickly found the short training bows on display.

Under Karen's careful guidance, Sylutia roughly understood the posture for drawing the bow and the necessary precautions.

"It's best for beginners not to use bows with too high a draw weight," Karen reminded her.

"First, they are hard to draw. Second, if you accidentally dry-fire, the recoil of the bowstring can hurt you, and it also causes a certain amount of damage to the bow itself."

"I understand."

Sylutia gripped the short bow, nocked an arrow, and slowly pulled back the string. Then, under Karen's instruction, she released it. The arrow barely managed to reach the nearest target.

(Basic Archery proficiency +12)

Basic Archery Lv.0: A skill still being learned. Current progress (12/100)

Having gained a rough epiphany, Sylutia looked at the arrow shaft stuck diagonally in the distance. When she shot a second time, her accuracy was noticeably better.

By the fifth shot, the arrowhead finally landed on the red center of the target, though it wasn't quite centered.

Phew, it's actually quite interesting. It's completely different from using melee weapons, the girl thought as she put down the bow.

Because an arrow isn't held in the hand like a sword hilt, it loses all control the instant it is fired. She couldn't perform the fine, flexible, and ever-changing maneuvers she could with a sword. It required more preparation beforehand: calculating the force, the trajectory, the wind direction, and the state of the target.

Logically speaking, if someone's archery skills were excellent, their mental calculation abilities wouldn't be bad either; even intuition was just a subconscious reaction after the brain had performed the calculations.

Thinking about it this way, Karen might not be stupid; she had simply lacked educational guidance all along.

Over the next few days, the three of them studied and trained together like this until Baron and Mick recovered from their injuries and returned to class.

When he first heard from Heide that Sylutia would be tutoring him, a surge of joy rose in Mick's heart, but he quickly suppressed it.

It's just tutoring, don't overthink it, he told himself, trying to remain as calm and composed as possible.

However, that afternoon, when he was actually sitting in the rest area, listening to the girl's clear and soft voice, he couldn't help but be slightly distracted. He noticed details he hadn't paid attention to in the past.

Tia didn't just have a pleasant voice; her figure, posture, and skin were exceptionally beautiful. It was just a pity that those thick glasses ruined the aesthetic.

"Pay attention to the lesson." The girl tapped the blackboard lightly with a wooden stick, interrupting Mick's thoughts.

"Yes." He had to sit up straight, which made Comia, sitting to the side, cover her mouth and giggle.

After tutoring Mick for a few days, Ray joined in as well. The two of them, along with Karen, had consistently been the three students with the lowest grades in the Secret History Class.

Teaching one was teaching, and teaching three was the same. Sylutia felt no discomfort with this, and in the process of teaching the three, she gradually came to understand what much of this knowledge looked like through the eyes of ordinary people.

For her, because she had received a complete 16-year Earth-based education in her past life, she understood the internal interconnections of various knowledge and the cognitive framework of the entire world, making it very easy to grasp many things. But for ordinary commoner students who were completely ignorant and had never even heard of many concepts, learning certain things was a completely different matter.

Take an engine, for example: she would know that this engine required a metal alloy of sufficient strength to be cast, relied on some kind of internal chemical combustion reaction to provide energy, and then transmitted power to various parts through physical mechanical transmission. There was also the interlocking of various gears and connecting rods, the use of differentials to adjust, and so on.

A single engine actually involved the combined application of materials science, metallurgy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, mechanics, and more.

However, someone who only understood one of these areas and had never been exposed to the others could easily develop a biased understanding due to the lack of a framework.

In the process of teaching these classmates, Sylutia also did a great job of sorting through the knowledge framework from her past life that she remembered.

Come to think of it, it was strange; even though it was such distant knowledge, she could recall it clearly now. She could even remember the names of her elementary school classmates. It was almost unbelievable.

Life began to grow plain and stable. In the mornings, Sylutia and her classmates listened to the teachers' lectures; in the afternoons, she tutored the three struggling students; in her spare time, she practiced archery; in the evenings and mornings, she tended to the flowers and plants in the backyard; and at night, she chatted with Talia, listening to her recount the fresh and interesting happenings in Scorched Stone City before going to sleep.

Before she knew it, a month had passed just like that.

The "Swan Orchid" she had painstakingly cultivated was finally ready to bloom.

Crouching down carefully, Sylutia cradled the delicate, tender green bud, her heart filled with joy.

Regardless of anything else, this was the first plant she had nurtured with such care; it had cost her a great deal of time and effort, and she felt both anticipation and delight.

[Swan Orchid](Rare-82): Blooming. Humidity is not at optimal levels, requires an additional 23.53% moisture. Ambient temperature is slightly low, requires an increase of 7.4 degrees. Ventilation is optimal, nutrients are sufficient, trace nutrients satisfied...

From the bud, a mix of pale and tender green, a few fine shoots emerged. In this place teeming with vitality, the faint power of the "Emerald Nectar" Aspect Power coalesced, just one step away from a complete "First Order-Emerald Nectar" Aspect Power.

Closing her eyes, even without looking, she could sense the faint, grassy fragrance and the invisible ripples radiating from the bud before her.

It was still missing a little something. If she could fill in that final missing piece of the puzzle, she would likely be able to bloom a flower with the complete "First Order-Emerald Nectar" Aspect Power.

Temperature, humidity—she stood up and gazed around the small courtyard.

Building a greenhouse with glass panels would take too much time, and she lacked the necessary funds.

Therefore, she had to find another way for now.

After making some inquiries, Sylutia found a glass workshop in Scorched Stone City. She spent 6 silver coins to have the workers craft three large glass domes, which she then carefully transported back to her residence.

Selecting the three "Swan Orchids" in the best condition and state in her backyard, she carefully covered them with the glass domes, digging narrow trenches underneath for ventilation and watering. While this wasn't perfect, it was a significant improvement over the previous environment.

Facing the three "Swan Orchids" on the verge of blooming, she added a bit more "Emerald Dew Water" to ensure the condensation of the "Emerald Nectar" Aspect Power.

Once finished, Sylutia stood beside the glass domes, gently stroking them with her hand, thinking to herself.

Even if they didn't bloom with the complete "Emerald Nectar" Aspect Power, she wouldn't feel sad or regretful; this was already the best result she could achieve at the moment.

Still, she hoped they would bloom perfectly, because she looked forward to seeing that happen.

Standing before the "Swan Orchids," the young girl prayed silently.

The autumn breeze carried a few fallen leaves into the small courtyard, lifting her soft, fine hair. As the girl prayed with her eyes closed, the tender green buds inside the glass domes stretched slightly, and the closed petals began to reveal their first sliver of an opening.