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“I use everything I can get my hands on, be it boogers or ragweed!”

And with that, she started to bathe every single day, while I was in charge of being her burner, adjusting the flame to control the temperature of her water. Regina, who was always wearing her bad mood and grumpiness like it was her clothes, was in a good mood exclusively at such times. “I don’t need charcoal, firewood, or even kindlings. At the very least, you have one good use!” And then she hummed away…

Is being her water heater my whole raison d’être or what?

Well, either way, thanks to this daily routine, the accuracy and power of both my Water and Fire improved so much that I began to believe that she deliberately tasked me with this role as a mentor wanting to develop the talents of her apprentice… right? I didn’t become good at it as a complete byproduct of your pursuit of luxury, right? Though, it’s hard to say that I am happy with it…

I was allowed to use the hot water after her, so in terms of hygiene, it wasn’t so different from when I was in Japan. Funnily enough, I was much cleaner in the hermitage than when I was an aristocrat. I kept the leftover water and used it for washing clothes about once every three days. Incidentally, water made by magic arts was not suitable for drinking because, chemically, it was close to distilled water.

After the bath, I helped prepare dinner. The menu wasn’t particularly variable, but it did change depending on the wild vegetables and plants I foraged in the morning, so on days I mistakenly uprooted mandrakes instead of mandreads or something like that, she would give me an earful then punished me by having me stir the soup, which was really shaving away on my mental health as the ingredients were screaming all over the boiling pot.

Naturally, the dining scene on such days was terrible.

“…” Regina wordlessly mulled over her soup, veins popping out on her forehead.

“…” While I washed down the mandrake soup—which was surprisingly tasty, like a combination of taro and turnip—down my throat shamefully. I couldn’t savor well since I was dripping with cold sweat. Rather than this kind of tense, stomach-churning dinner, I’d rather have her berate me.

In the evening, Regina gave me classroom lectures on magic theories, history, literature, sociology, and more. On top of being highly knowledgeable, she possessed a critical mind—and, as most expected, her method of teaching was spartan—ergo, I could barely keep up with her even with the leverages of having the knowledge of my previous life and the brain of an 11-year-old, said to be the most absorptive throughout life, unless I did daily reviews and pre-class preps.

“You can’t even recite the founding principles of your own country, you damned ragweed?!”
“Emigdio, not Emidio! Emidio is the adopted son of the grandfather of the cousin of the wife of your uncle! You don’t even know such a simple family tree by heart!”

The test at the end of each class was followed by angry shouts night after night.

“You can’t think straight for the life of you, Jill.” That was her general comment about the state of my brain.

“Uuu… My deepest apology, Mentor…”
“Well, at least you’re somewhat better than those half-wits from Imperial Capital’s theological school or those muscle-for-brain from the military academy.”

So, true to her words, Regina was squeezing me up, physically and mentally, day after day.

♢♦♢♦♢

“…Well, I’m happy that my limbs have slimmed down and all those flabs are diminishing.” I was practically an off-season sumo champion four months ago, but nowadays I am more on the chubby side. Fortunately, thanks to hitting a growth spurt, the flaccid belly skin had tightened enough for me to pinch it to actually check it.

However, there were still some parts of my body that refused to lose their flab, especially around my chest and waist, which remained large nevertheless. My chest even flopped up and down every time I ran, irking me further. If anything, they got even fatter instead, making me wonder how in the world they could gain fat with my diet.

As I was musing about my future diet plans with Maya running next to me, the view suddenly opened up and we came to a road that had been cleared by human hands. On both sides of the road were endless fields planted with upland rice, corn, and other crops.

“—Phew. We made it here at least. Thank you, Maya. Let’s take our time from here.”

When Maya replied lightly, we slowly made our way along the road to the pioneering village. Not including the first time Regina brought me here, this was the fifth time I had been here, so I had been here about once every half a month.

The first two, or three times, I was so exhausted I didn’t have any time to look around, but thanks to my daily training and the stamina I had gained gradually, I still had enough juice in me to take a few side trips.

“…they’re not as well nourished as I thought.”

I went to a nearby field and looked at the crops. Compared to the rice paddy I went to on a study field and the vegetable garden my mother had planted, an elaborate gardener that she was, the carrots, corn, and upland rice here looked much more meager and seedy-looking.

“I wonder if it’s because the soil is more sandy than clay-like. The good drainage system also becomes faulty. If they could at least improve the crop varieties and make compost from humus and chicken manure for the soil, it would make a huge difference…”

I bent down and lightly dug into the soil and found almost no earthworms. At least if there were earthworms, they would improve the moisture retention and aeration of the field, and their feces would play a huge role in revitalizing the plants… I thought, as I dug deeper and found burnt soil.

“Slash-and-burn farming, is it? No wonder there are no nutrients in the ground.”

Was this world not very developed when it came to agriculture, or if this area was just isolated and left behind in terms of technology, I wondered as I stood up and rubbed my hands together to brush off the dirt.

At first, I thought it would be a good idea to teach them at least about humus, but then again I wasn’t sure they would listen to a kid and an outsider.

“I’m sorry, Maya. I got distracted. —Ah, please don’t tell your master about this, okay?”

I asked her mischievously, and Maya wagged her tail as if to affirm it. After which, she grabbed the hood of my robe with her tentacles and pulled it over my head.

“Thank you. You’re right, we’re at a settlement already. You never know where you’ll be seen.”

I pulled my hood up to hide my ugly, ragweed face and set out on foot, with my mana detection cranked up to 11 so that I could make sure nobody saw me.

Summary of Author’s Note :
Regina is asking MC university-level questions mainly because MC keeps keeping up with her even though she keeps raising the bar higher and higher.
No one can actually continuously use Fire and Water in the bathtub. They have no one to set the standard, so neither know MC is doing something absurd.
Also, MC is oblivious of her own secondary sexual characteristics.