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Author’s note: I decided to write a little side arc for a breather.

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Fina woke up early in the morning. She was a good sleeper like all children, sleeping well since the previous day and waking up as the sun would come out.

Maria also woke up at the same time, and after washing their faces together, they headed for breakfast.

Finia also helped her with it, while also asking Maria the tales of her sister who wasn’t around, imagining her gallant figure in her mind.

“Nicole also used to help me like you, you know?”
“Big sis Nico did? So Fii is a good girl?”
“Of course. You’re a good girl for helping me.”
“Yaay!”

For Fina, Nicole was a respectable sister, as well as a hero who went around ‘saving troubled people’ as an Adventurer.

She felt very proud to be helping her mother like Nicole did.

Seeing Fina breathing heavily as she kneaded the leavening agent, Maria remembered Nicole’s younger days and started giggling.

It had already been eight years since Nicole left this house. She did often come to show her face, but she still felt sad that she didn’t live here with them.

The existences of the boisterous Cortina and Fina who could blow away her loneliness were already indispensable parts of her life.

“Tina should just live here too.”
“Tina with us? Fii likes that!”
“Right. I’ll try persuading her again.”

Fina was shy of strangers, but she was also quick to get attached to people.

Cortina already had lived with them for over two months, so she thought of her like a sister. Cortina also cared for Fina a lot, perhaps remembering Nicole’s younger days.

There were no longer any traces of the shadows that used to bind her after Reid’s death. For better or worse, Nicole and Fina served to clear her heart of those shadows.

And Reid, too, had fortunately reincarnated and had come back.

“I really am blessed, aren’t I?”
“Hmm?”

Her old comrade had returned, and her best friend’s heart had cleared up. And she also had kids and she was here helping her prepare breakfast like this.

She was a little concerned that her elder daughter had no sweetheart, but she thought this was due to the childishness that she still had and something that would eventually fix itself.

“Mowningh. You two sure are up early as always.”
“Morning, Tina. We’ll get the breakfast ready soon, so go wash up.”
“Yeah yeah. Are you my mom or something?”
“No, I’m Fina’s mom.”

Cortina headed to the mansion’s back where the washroom was, in somewhat unsteady steps, having just woken up.

This mansion drew water straight from the well and used it for waterworks, so you could wash your face inside too.

Seeing Cortina had become a familiar sight to her after these two months.

Before long, as the maid came to help her set out the dishes, Lyell also woke up.

Once they were all present, they started eating together. The maid was going to have hers a little late since she had to serve the table, but other than that, this tradition of having meals together had continued ever since Nicole lived here due to Maria’s will.

“Speaking of which, that white girl hadn’t shown herself ever since.”
“You mean the girl calling herself God of Destruction? I’m not sure whether that’s true or not, but considering how she healed Nicole, it might be true.”
“You must be feeling quite conflicted about that.”

Being the priest of the World Tree Religion, God of Destruction was something like an archnemesis for her.

At first, she thought it was just childish nonsense and didn’t mind it, but even after she realized she wasn’t an ordinary person after she healed Nicole, she couldn’t treat her impolitely.

“Fina’s pharmacy lessons have been halted too, huh?”
“Well, she did leave some textbook-looking things so I’m reading them to her now.”
“Do you understand them, Tina?”
“It’s half gibberish, honestly. Fina might be understanding them better. As expected of a Gift holder.”

The books that were entrusted to Cortina were filled with various knowledge about medicinal herbs. They had a lot of difficult words, so Cortina was reading them out loud to Fina in place of the lessons.

Since her vocabulary wasn’t big, Fina couldn’t read by herself alone, but after hearing Cortina’s broken-down explanations, she understood those contents.

Hearing her explanations, Fina’s medicinal herb knowledge accumulated abundantly, and it had reached the point where it exceeded even Cortina’s, who was the one reading the books to her.

“But with no teacher around, it’s still a shallow knowledge. It’s an area we can’t handle, so I hope she comes back soon.”
“Yeah. drugs need to be actually compounded in practice to learn properly…”

Cortina assented to Lyell’s words, but then children’s voices came from the outside.

“Finaaa, let’s play!”
“Ah, okay!”

Though she replied so, she still glanced at Maria.

There were no kids her age in this village, but she still had friends near her age. They were too young to help with work, so at this time they usually played together.

Since Fina was receiving special education due to her Gift, she needed Maria’s approval whether it was time to play or not.

“It’s okay. You’re still a child, Fina, so you should play more.”
“But learning about drugs is fun too.”

Since she had the Gift of Pharmacy, her skill as a pharmacist was growing rapidly. Feeling your growth made things fun, and it went the same both for adults and children. The children found it more delightful even, considering that they were in a rapid growth period.

Fina was right in the middle of that, so she had a hard time balancing her pharmacy studies with playing with friends.

“You really should go play. I ended up collapsing first when we study.”
“You should study too, Tina!”
“It’s not my field, so consider how hard it is to keep up with you. Plus it’s my day off today, so no pharmacy for today! Okay?”
“Mghh… Then I’ll go play too!”
“Do that, do that.”

Cortina slumped over the table with bad manners, so Fina puffed her cheeks and answered back, and ran off towards the entrance.

“Fina, you should never leave the village, okay? You’ll get attacked by wild beasts like Nicole.”
“Okaay!”

Fina had heard the story of how Nicole got attacked by Kobolds when she slipped out of the village when she was young.

Because of that, she had never left the village with just children with her even once.

Even so, she was still a mischievous child, so Lyell reminded her every time she was about to head out.