Rye headed directly home, arms burnt from all the carrying. It was just the first day and he'd looked this pitiful. His mana was low, his dignity even lower from Tomas' shouting. But at least he paid off one day. Nine more to go.
Festival in two weeks, though, that's what Eirin said. Rye had time before that. He needed to get those paper.
Mari greeted him just outside the front door, wearing her usual tattered brown vest with a matching skirt. This time—she held a basket full of slime and… meat? She had blood splattered all over her face too.
"What's the occasion?" Rye cringed, relunctantly backing off. Mari turned around and stared at him. He wanted to pass out.
"Oh, Dad is coming home. Too bad you're spending your days at a stranger's place. I wanted to cook for him. A feast." Mari replied. She lifted up the basket.
"Why slime?" That's an interesting cuisine choice. Meat is reasonable, but slime? "Did you get those yourself?"
"Yes I did! Dad is gonna be proud and I'll finally be an adventurer, like him." Mari beamed. A rare sight. But she snapped and immediately returned to a locked-in state. "Anyways, rest now. You look horrible."
Says you!
Rye nodded, entered his room, and plopped down his mattress, the sound of Mari washing the food calmed his senses.
She mentioned Mom going outside to buy more food - and that she didn't need to hunt - but Mari insisted because she wanted to look good in front of their father. She really wanted that adventuring job.
About Mom going outside, she was probably preparing for the feast. Eirin mentioned how important the Harvest Festival was, and it was true. Even Rye's family was involved.
It's also probably the reason why Tomas even visited this place as a merchant. And why Dad is coming home from work.
Either way, Rye only had one goal in mind and it's to get paper. He checked his stats and decided to stop pondering.
/-/
[Level 21]
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Four more levels to go before the first unlock.
For now he had to rest.
—
"Rye, come and help Mari forage some herbs!" Mom screamed from the front door, eyeing Rye who looked stupid, drawing on trees with his bottle of ink.
One more level… one more level…
He drew three more circles, pushed mana, and finally,,—BOOM!
[Leveled Up! Level 25!!]
[Leveled Up! Multi-layer-manifestation unlocked!]
Rye jumped in happiness, dropping the bottle in the process. It was fine. The bottle was drained of all ink, but at least he gained some progress. The jar fell and rolled off the ground.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Mom, why are you pinching my ear?!" Rye shrieked in pain, teary-eyed.
"Stop drawing and help Mari." She released him down and scuffled his hair. Mari walked forward then, and dragged him to the forest.
"The festival is starting. No drawing." Mari said.
It was true. Five days had passed and Rye didn't have time to level up. This was the only free time he had because of that damn job of Tomas. It was a relief he reached level 25. Rye wanted to scream inside the forest from joy.
He also drew with Eirin from time to time. But usually – he was too tired to teach her. One day, Tomas even dragged the work up to 5 hours. No child labor laws here, certainly. But not like they were the only workers. Tomas had a few older people on board.
Mari stopped in her tracks and crouched, picking up a lotus-like green herb and shoved it in a new basket.
Rye followed. He crouched as well in an attempt to help. He picked up random stuff and shoved it in the basket. After that, Mari's face paled, eyes shrinking as she stared at the contents.
"Why are you picking up grass and leaves?"
"Aren't we picking herbs? It's medicinal." A bluff. He didn't know shit about agriculture.
Mark sighed, then stared at Rye with a pitiful look. "Just hold this basket instead. I'll pick the herbs up." With that, she threw down Rye's hard-earned grass and emptied the basket.
The day flew by in this instant.
They cooked food and ate.
—
"Rye, it's Saturday. Why are you here?" Eirin asked as Rye walked to their shack, half-conscious. He helped Mom with cooking, feeding the chickens, and a lot of other stuff.
Winter was coming too and they prepared wood for that. They restocked water etc etc etc, and etc — To put it simply, Rye was dead. His sullen eyebags were proof of that.
Rye lost the sense of time and realized, yes, he didn't have work on Tomas for today. The man was probably resting right now too. Saturday was supposed to be a non-working day because of the area's religion.
Rye scrambled for an excuse to not be embarrassed. "Oh, you mentioned wanting to draw right? I want to teach you."
Indeed – and Eirin would probably hand him some ink and Rye could try out his new level-up skill. He hadn't after all this time. Not when the festival preparation and his work was on the way.
Also, Eirin had always restocked his ink bottle. As payment, they said, for teaching them how to draw. Rye was thankful as well since he actually got the time to forcefully study art, by teaching someone else.
They both improved and Eirin even made a proper chicken drawing. Using the outside animals as reference. Rye, too, drew a dairy cow. The anatomy was still messed up but it was way better. Eirin was a good friend.
"Eh? You seem messed up. You can rest first." Eirin offered.
Rye swung his head in desperation. He wanted to practice, actually. "No, no, no, I want to draw too. I haven't had the time because we were so busy with the festival." he said.
"Uh huh, if you say so." Eirin tilted their head, green hair spilling down their white sleeves. They picked up a parchment and showed off their drawing.
"Cute dog." Rye smiled, half-lying. He couldn't make out the scribbles of ink.
"Uhm, it's a cat."
"Oh."
At least it was close enough…
Eirin invited Rye over to their house. Tomas and his wife were in the other room, bedroom to be exact. Probably resting from the festival preparation. Well, none of that was his concern.
While sketching on a desk with Eirin at the side, Rye decided to ask Eirin their gender. It was eating him away the past few days. They looked like a girlish-boy, but he could be wrong.
"Yo, Eirin." Rye started, thinking of ways to ask without feeling awkward. Who knows? Maybe it's an awkward thing for Eirin. Much like being confronted as a femboy.
Nevermind.
Eirin continued sketching with their quill. That's right. They even provided a feather-tipped quill whenever they drew together. That was why Rye even wanted to go. It was pretty funny. Quill is usually used to write, and they use it as a pen. Absolute heresy.
With Rye's instructions of starting with simple shapes, Eirin began drawing boxes and squares on the parchment until they built guidelines for the lineart. Rye was proud.
"You say something?" Eirin asked, continuing to draw what looks like a… house? Rye continued sketching without looking up. A rough guideline for the face. Loomis method.
"What are you?"
"What sort of question is that, Rye? I'm a human being. Or are you asking if I'm a merchant?" Eirin replied, deadpanned. They continued sketching.
"No, no, your gender." To be fair, they had gotten close enough. Maybe it wasn't that big of a deal. These past few days, they chatted and hung out a lot, so maybe Eirin could understand Rye's confusion.
They looked up, finally, and huffed. "I am a girl. That's mean, Rye."
"I see.'
Rye erased the jawline and made it softer. He was drawing Eirin, and wanted to capture her in the way she wanted so she would be happy. Now he had the proper information.
And he showed her the portrait.