The next morning,
Elena woke later than she should have—again.
After washing up, she made her way downstairs, still brushing a stray lock of hair from her face. A maid was already waiting for her with breakfast laid out neatly.
She now resided in a small two-story cottage tucked into the corner of the estate. Along with it came a maid, assigned to maintain the house and attend to her needs. Such were the privileges of a house tutor.
She had moved in just yesterday, after confirming her position as Olen's teacher.
Though it would have been more comfortable for her tutors to remain in the main building, Elena decided not to, as she wouldn't be able to relax. So, taking the opportunity, she asked Bianca for a separate living space.
At first, she wanted to live outside the Alden Family's household. But there was no way Bianca would allow that. The suggestion was directly shot down immediately. However, seeing Elena's reluctance, Bianca decided to compromise a bit. She gave this small two-story hut within the household boundary.
It was mainly used to store goods, but was kept unused for a while. Bianca had it cleaned up and made it more livable.
It wasn't as convenient for Elena, but it was ok for now. As for the maid, it was obvious that Bianca wouldn't hire a maid only to take care of Elena. She was probably here to keep an eye on her. But Elena didn't care about the set of prying eyes of a mundane human.
Under the contract, she is to teach Olen Math and Etiquette. And she would be paid a full five hundred gold a month. (which is about the total income of a year for an average family)
(The currency here is a hundred copper coins for a silver coin. And ten silver coins for a gold coin.)
The price she is offered is too much for the tutors of other nobles, about ten times as much. But Bianca was still willing to pay the price. The Barony may be on the lower side of nobility. But the Aldens were quite wealthy because of their business. So they could afford the expense.
Elena, however, didn't understand the value of the gold in this area. To her, it seemed a pitifully low amount. So didn't feel anything odd with Bianca offering her this much.
Well, she didn't argue about it for being so low, at least.
Bianca, on the other hand, considered her payment an investment, despite the high cost. She regarded it as a significant advantage to have someone of such high caliber in the house for only five hundred gold.
When the time came, they would surely protect the place she was staying.
Bianca, on the other hand, considered it a bargain.
To have someone of Elena's caliber under her roof—for such a price—was an investment worth making.
When the time came, someone like her might protect the household.
If Bianca could guarantee that, she would have paid ten times more.
But for now, this was enough—to keep Elena close and perhaps build trust.
Though this wasn't the ideal situation for her, Elena didn't have much to complain about. In a place where the heavenly energy is so poor, she couldn't get a better environment to recuperate than this. Physically, she was quite fine now. But using spiritual techniques will put strain on her already injured spirit. So, long-distance travel and fighting are a 'no-no' for now.
Right now, what she needs is to find some resources. But Elena could guess it to be almost impossible.
Getting the alchemical pills she needed will be the most difficult. If there were some alchemists with such skills, strong guys like Jon would be found in abundance in the area.
The best thing she can hope for is to get some rare spirit fruits that can heal wounds. But even that would be a hard task. High-level spiritual plants tend to grow in areas with denser heavenly energy. She would have to look far and wide to find someone who could help her.
Though back at home, her family would grow those spiritual medicines in bulk, here she couldn't even see a trace of them. She was getting even more frustrated.
Though she wasn't an alchemy genius, she had studied alchemy a bit. Given enough materials for a few tries, she can concoct a few medicines herself. There were quite a lot of alchemy books in her storage pocket and quite rare ones at that.
If she doesn't get the rare spiritual fruits, she might have to try her hand at alchemy.
If she failed…
Then recovery would take ten—perhaps twenty—years naturally.
By then, her treacherous brothers would have secured power. And who knew what they would do to the family? For all she knew, they might lead to the destruction of her Broyd house, as there isn't any shortage of enemies for her family.
For now, all she could do was try to recover as soon as possible.
"Hmm, it's good." -While thinking of this and that, she started stuffing her mouth.
The food here is surprisingly tasty. Elena wasn't really picky about her food. She had to travel a lot for training, and not so surprisingly, most of the time they are in perilous places. So, she always found herself eating whatever she could find edible.
However, who doesn't want to eat food that tastes good? As a member of a renowned family, she always had refined taste. So she is always concerned about her food whenever she's traveling.
Though she is a genius when it comes to cultivation, she has little talent in her household choirs. She did learn a bit of this and that of everything. But that can only be good enough to keep her alive. Truth be told, she hated eating food she herself cooked. And through those ordeals, she came to respect those who could do those things, especially cooking. She was glad that the cook of the Alden house was this good.
Though the food is new to her, the taste is top-notch.
No, she wasn't talking about the quality of the ingredients themselves. She had food of a lot better quality. She was talking about the mixture of spices, the cooking methods, and such. The food was utterly delightful.
After her light meal, she started thinking about what to do next.
She went outside, around the garden, and then came to a place that looked like a training ground for the houseguards.
She quickly found Olen and Jon training in a corner of the training ground.
Both of them wielded long swords, which appeared to be a customary choice rather than a specialized one. All guards are trained using identical gear.
At the Broyd house, every descendant of the house used custom equipment and techniques depending on their personality, preference, body type, reflexes, or even looks. But mostly it depended on the integrated spirits to make full use of the potential of each individual. After all, the direct descendant would hardly fight wars on the front line. Being able to command the troops and having the capability to protect oneself in a dangerous situation is all that is required of them.
This method of training is quite good for the guards. But for house decedents? That's hardly a fitting way to go by. With the wrong weapon, a person will never be able to make use of their full potential.
Like, you can't give a coward a vanguard's job. Or an assassin without proper instincts would die without knowing what got him. Well, training like this… Elena wasn't too sure just how good it was for an individual, as she had always trained with her master alone.
There were two little girls on the sidelines. They were cheering for Olen, who was currently too busy taking a beating from Jon.
They seem to be the two twins of Lord Baron's fourth wife, Chlera and Petra.
They are some of the few playmates Olen has. They should be about ten years old. Elena easily recognized them from the description she heard.
The baron has a total of four wives. Olen is the son of the third wife. And seeing Bianca, she could guess the others should be equally beautiful. She had seen them from afar but hadn't talked to them. So, she doesn't know who is who.
Anyway, seeing Olen getting beaten up, she only shook her head. This is their family matter, so she doesn't want to point out the problems. Jon, being an expert, must know what the problem is... or, maybe not?
"Ha, ha" -Olen was exhausted. He was always frustrated. He could never land a blow on Jon. And while training, Jon was rather ruthless.
"Hey kid, how long do you plan on lying on the ground for?" Jon said, holding the training sword over his shoulder.
"Hey, don't bully my brother." Said Chlera. She hated Jon for beating her brother. While she said that, Petra also shook her head from the side in agreement. This Jon is a bad bully. His brother is always trying so hard. But he always bullies him.
"What are you talking about? I'm not bullying him. I just pushed him a little." Jon defended himself.
These two are like snot that just doesn't go away. They are just too attached to the kid. Even when training, they always come to look, and when they see their brother a bit bruised, they wouldn't stop bickering.
They look at him as if he is the worst person in the world. What did he do? He can only teach the way he was taught.
But when he looked behind them, he suddenly turned into a stone.
Is he seeing things?
Why does he see the calamity standing there? Quietly, as if it couldn't even hurt an ant.
He didn't know what to do.
Bianca has hired this calamity. Just what was she thinking? He warned her about her, didn't he? Then why? He couldn't even fathom.
Why would people want to keep an untamed tiger in their house? Aren't they afraid of getting bitten?
Seeing Jon staring at her like a statue, Elena smiled and waved at him.
'Don't Smile. Don't wave. Don't do anything.' -Jon thought in his mind.
"How are you doing, Jon? That looks fun." -Chlera and Petra looked behind them and just noticed a beautiful big sister standing behind them. They couldn't believe how beautiful she looked.
She's so beautiful and has such a gentle voice. Unknowingly, they felt drawn to her.
Elena is a truly good-looking lady. Enough to attract everyone's attention. It's just... she is hard to approach.
'Fuck...' -Jon cursed in his mind.
"What are you talking about? It is no fun at all. You should go see the market. There are a lot of interesting things to watch there," Jon said. He knew it was bad news for him if she were to stay here or take any interest in what he was doing.
He just wanted to stay the Fuck away.
"What are you talking about? It's just practice. And I'm getting rusty from sitting around. I should rest my spirit. But I'll become fat at this rate. So why don't you become my partner?" Elena said smilingly.
"Big sis, you can fight?" Petra said curiously.
"Well, yeah," Elena said a bit awkwardly. Everyone can fight back at home. But it seems women don't fight much here. They are not trained as men are.
"Big sis, you shouldn't fight Jon. He is too strong. You will get hurt," Chlera said. She hates Jon. But she also knows that he is strong. And he never shows mercy. It will be bad for her to fight him.
"Don't worry. I'm strong too." Elena said with a smile that could light up the world. Olen saw the scene and was literally in a trance.
Elena went to the weapon case. Swords and Axes were all the weapons there were.
She turned to Jon and said, "There's no short sword here? I'm no good with the long ones."
Hearing that, Jon was very pleased.
"Yeah, there isn't any. So it would be to your disadvantage. We shouldn't fight after all." -Though he was smiling, he said the last part rather seriously. He felt relieved. He has somehow avoided the fight.
"What are you talking about? If there isn't any dummy weapon, we can just use the real ones. It's better that way." Saying so, she took out a normal short sword. They weren't going to use spirit power. So, any type of artifact was unnecessary.
Jon wanted to refuse. But looking at Elena, he could only bitterly pull a steel sword.
They both took their stances.
Elena stood in a defensive position, putting her weight on her right foot so she could move freely at the moment's notice. While Jon held his sword with both hands, leaning forward, looking to invade his enemy's territory.
It is agreed upon that both of them wouldn't be using spirit power in practice. Only physical skills would be considered. So, Jon got a bit more confidence and was trying to take the initiative. And as the weaker one, he must take the initiative.