The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 514 - No Need To Balk, Just Some Schoolhouse Chalk!

Kaland er Yecine woke to the sound of his younger brother coughing. A wet and miserable noise that made his own chest ache. The sandy substance beneath him shifted with each of his breaths, conforming to his jacketless arms’ flesh in ways that felt almost too responsive. Like the bed of material itself was reacting to him.

Monitoring every twitch of damaged tissue knitting back together and... doing something. His head pounded lightly still - the kind of deep, throbbing pain that came from breathing in something he shouldn’t have. He’d inhaled his drink once when younger and had to cough out the fluid, but this was thousands of times worse.

The memory of collapsing because of air that burned going in and just *wouldn’t* come back out... it almost made him want to curl up and never move again. But the containment barrier humming around his bed kept him flat on his back. Immobile in a way that he tried not to panic about, but was slowly failing that test of bravery. Luckily, or unluckily, someone was around to see that.

"How are you feeling?"

On his left, Rezzue was getting out of a strange looking chair. El had gone through the hassle to move the hammock seat there a while before, after hours of finding the floor to be very unsatisfactory - and while bringing her replacement ’watcher’ a book to pass the time. She still looked fatigued, with bags under her eyes despite the healing formation’s night of rest and despite managing to inhale a bit less of the ozone than they did.

The heiress wanted to stuff them all with tree bark sludge so they would have more physical energy to repair themselves with, but also knew none of them would effectively consume it in their states. More likely, it would be an extra strain on their system... as their stomach urged them to throw it back up. So the quickest route that would not be detrimental was used. Leaving one boy feeling-

"...Like I tried to breathe fire."

His answer came out deep and scratchy, like the worst throat cold any mortal had ever had. Ajoreal made a similar deep sound of agreement from the other bed. Their cousin-in-law nodded with sympathy over the older one before smiling. Not the polite expression she’d worn so much on the train ride or during the days before teleportation.

This was brighter, almost *excited*, and certainly didn’t fit the aesthetics of the Yecine. Though Kaland inwardly thought she looked a lot better this way. More like the girls at the Youth Guild - or the thin memories he had left of his mother, before he was old enough to be sequestered away for the usual family training.

"Elua said that’s normal. The exposure to some gas caused a lot of inflammation in your lungs, but you should be able to sit up by tomorrow. She’s trying to keep you from escaping and causing your essence fields more damage."

"When did you... talk to her?"

"Yesterday. After she put you inside here. And this morning, after she gave me this and let me out. She’s been checking on you every few hours. Very concerned with getting you well."

She showed off a medallion hanging on her chest, one which was producing a mobile barrier against the high essence density. The cultivator had acted for hours like everything was perfectly fine as her talking partner - or perhaps better termed as ’hostage’ - slowly assessed and tested Rezzue’s propensity for withstanding pain and uncomfortability. Of course, the boys didn’t really know any of that.

They only knew that what she just said sounded wrong - that the young mint eyed girl who had looked at them during the competition like they were particularly noisy insects was worried about them. Unfortunately, they had no time to express their disbelief as the Goltbred they were so wary of, despite or possibly even more so because of the stories Qat shared... walked in wearing a very Silver dress with her shoulder length brunette hair pinned back away from her face.

"Good. You’re both conscious. I was thinking I’d have to force that one awake."

Behind her, a tall man with an expression of irritation in his entire body language followed. Madrigil was carrying a large slate meant to be used as a chalkboard - something which the ancient cultivator still couldn’t fathom his reasons over. She had offered to provide a handful of other mediums for him to potentially teach with... but he insisted this was the only proper way to lecture those underneath his level of academia.

Assuming it had something to do with his homeland, Elua eventually gave up arguing. Rezzue immediately straightened to a stand and moved a bit out of the way so that both boys could see her in the center of the room.

"Madrigil is... we’ll call him my fellow Exclave resident to be polite. He’ll be handling some of your elementary instruction as you recover. Try not to interrupt him too much - he finds it annoying. Though not half as much as I find him annoying for-"

"I don’t actually mind interruptions all that much if it involves asking or answering questions. I get irritated only when you are clearly trying to gloss over the subject to move things along."

"That. For that. I’m trying really hard not to terrify them right now, so you get *one* free pass. Next time you’re going for another swim."

"You said last night that you would refrain from doing that for the length of their-"

"Did I? That doesn’t sound like something I would agree to or bring up to get you to do what I wished... now then, let’s discuss why the three of you are here. And what we’re going to do because of it."

The teenager walked past and pat the red-haired woman on the shoulder before flopping into the chair. While she had thought about maintaining very formal boundaries and situations, figuring that it was enough of a Yecine staple that they might be able to get used to it in time... Elua decided against it. She had no desire to teach in the same way as those who had tried ruining Qat.

"First of all, you nearly died yesterday. My apologies for that. As the situation that led to this accident was caused by me, you owe me absolutely no sort of life-debt. So get that out of your head if it is starting to form. In fact, those are stupid and if you believe in them you should stop because people can and will manipulate a situation to place you under them."

She said it all so matter-of-factly, like she was discussing the weather instead of their near-death experience... or how she had been tricked twice into owing loyalty and favors to people that didn’t deserve them. Rezzue pulled out a small journal and quilltip pen from her satchel and started to take notes. Which pretty much amounted, in this case, to / Life Debt - No! /.

"In a few days, I’ll provide you with barrier charms like hers that will allow you to leave this room. You’ll need to wear them for at least several weeks while your bodies acclimate to the density here. Which means light exercise only and lots of guided meditation on how to resettle the frayed edges of your fields."

Continuing to take notes with quick, precise strokes, Kaland tried not to stare at his cousin’s wife’s obviously excessive enthusiasm for the lazily swinging young woman’s words. He’d seen some kids hanging on every word of an instructor, but never like this. Not to mention, the ages of that analogy was now in the opposite direction!... he thought.

One thing Qat had not exactly told anyone was the reincarnated nature of her wife. It was a secret she allowed her El to admit to once people came there... and she had not exactly had the time for these three. That is, she had time to have told the wife of her beloved’s most friendly relative... but still had not done so.

Because it was *interesting* to her how she just ran with whatever was said - despite not understanding how it came out of someone with thousands more years of life experience.

’Everyone coming through here knows or was told quickly enough. It’s kind of refreshing to just be looked at like a little prodigy again!’

"Tomorrow, we’re going to be starting your actual training. The important kind. The type I would be remiss not to perform if you expect me to ever enjoy teaching you at all. For you could spend many years training your bodies and ignoring your Elements and minds in your current state, eventually breakthrough, and slowly plod to Primalist like everyone else on the continent. Or..."

She leaned over the basket seat that suddenly froze in place... and smiled. It wasn’t a comforting one - more like the look the two boy’s father had given them when they both complained about how hard the sword training had gotten. The look of a spartan instructor who seemed to take a small amount of glee in their struggle, no matter how much they claimed they did not enjoy it.

"You could spend the next weeks getting smarter - and then spend the subsequent months mastering everything else far faster than you or your forebears ever imagined. Under me, you will reach Enchanter in your spiritual energy before I deign to instruct you on anything else, obtain your Astralisms, and train to actually use them. Ignoring them as tertiary is not an option. Or else I will send you all back the moment you recover, no matter what your mother is worried about."

Her declaration - at least the last part - was mostly bluster. Qat had not specifically asked for them to stay indefinitely, but the feeling behind the words she did write were *almost* insinuating that such should be the case. Therefore, her mint-drop had made the decision to keep the three of them busy for the remainder of her year.

Whatever strange situation was going on with a hidden cult - which sounded kind of boring to someone who had destroyed three or four of those in her last life - it didn’t seem like it would be solved before she returned.

"Can I ask what you mean by smarter?"

"Good. Ask questions when you don’t understand. That’s the first rule here. The second is to use your own head enough to be able to describe what you *think* you understand when I ask - or else you are wasting both of our time."

Answering the older woman, knowing that the boys were listening but not really ready to be speaking a lot... she gestured at Madrigil, who had finished setting up the board and now stood beside it with a stick of chalk at the ready. He had been given a lecture to memorize last night. Not just because she wanted to see how well he adhered to her lesson plan, but because she wanted to watch how well the three paid attention to him over her.

"Spiritual energy cultivation improves your mental processing, your ability to perceive and manipulate essence, and your overall capacity to learn. An Enchanter-level spiritualist memorizes combat forms an average of two times faster than-"

After all... some teachers just had a charisma to them that could make it easier to learn from. They were great people - and the Goltbred heiress respected them very much, even when the things they were teaching had some fallacies within it. She’d spent long periods of her life learning to emulate some of that, including the methods of one of her few husbands - whom she had lived a rather celibate lifestyle with in a nice city’s schoolhouse.

’Not this man, though. Why do my own words sound like that out of his mouth? And that scratching squeal on the slate is so ANNOYING! Is he doing this to me on purpose?’