About three days after I brought Viron to Mistress Kora's care, I received a letter saying he was finally well enough to talk about his situation. In the letter, it seemed Mistress Veronika had gone ahead and asked him a few questions, so they already had an idea, but they wanted me to come in if I was interested in hearing it.
Since I needed Viron's talents—not to mention he owed me five thousand gold—of course I was going to come. However, some things still needed to be settled right over at the Temple. We would be reaching the end of our first year as disciples, so the Abbot told me we would be having assessments to examine how much we had improved.
Should we not be able to pass the tests, there was a chance we would be expelled.
With this version of final exams coming up, I had to make arrangements so that the shop could run smoothly even without me coming by to check on it as frequently as before. I suspected I would be holed up for a while inside the Temple in order to focus more on my training. Don't mention visiting. I might not even have time to make perfumes.
Considering how tight my schedule was, making time to visit the Mistresses' house would not be feasible at the moment. Although I wanted to show my sincerity to Viron for dropping by, I had to forgo this plan for a while in consideration of my current priorities.
Exam week was just as hellish as I expected it would be. But with the Temple being the premier institution for learning martial arts, the standards were naturally much higher and more critical. It was unforgiving to some extent, but it was feasible.
Having finally done the preliminary physical assessments, Erlan and I wearily walked out in our fresh change of clothes, intending to head straight for the cafeteria.
"You and I have the same master," Erlan said as we walked out of the training grounds together. "The Abbot tends to lower his voice somewhere towards the end when he's tired."
"Probably because he's old?" I whispered.
He laughed. "Anyway...It gets really hard to know what he's saying. Do you still take those notes?"
"Ah...is it for the common lessons we have?" I asked. "I don't think I can share my personal training notes with you."
"Yes. The common lessons are fine."
I pulled out my notebook and handed them to Erlan.
Our education had a lot of written philosophies and some arts that encourage meditation, like chanting mantras and calligraphies—overall some related arts and activities that helped us "connect with the universe." Of course, considering how solid my "connection with the universe" was, I never really had to exert any particular effort to get that part done, but admittedly, my peers were not the same.
Erlan and I sat at the same table in the cafeteria as we continued discussing topics regarding our lessons.
Lunch served was usually vegetarian, and it wasn't because meat was sworn off—but because it was expensive and had to be bought.
The monks of this world were very different in practice, it would seem. As I studied their ways, it was made clear to me that they were the more hedonistic counterpart of the ones from my world. 'Live as you were, as you were born, but do not give to the extremes and abuse what you have borrowed,' was a very common philosophy. They did not deny worldly affairs, even embraced it. However, they did everything in moderation, and made stuck by their every choice in life.
"Hey, you two."
I looked up and found Miles sitting at our table with his tray.
"Evy, do you still take notes on our shortcomings?" Miles asked.
"Which shortcomings exactly?" I replied. "I have written many things her—that you're such a slob when eating in the cafeteria, or how you tripped on your face right when you were trying to look cool in front of that senior female disciple from last week?"
Miles's face burst into a bright shade of red. "H-how did you even know about that?" he asked. "Aren't you too busy to pay attention to these things?"
"Why shouldn't I pay attention?" I asked back. "The Temple hardly has over three hundred disciples. It's quite easy to hear news about everybody."
"Don't tell me you still have intel on three hundred others?"
"That depends. Just something general and worth paying attention to," I said. "I'm not that free to peer so much into other people's lives, after all."
"I didn't expect you to be such gossip."
"I'm not. Gossip is laced with lies. I don't write gossips. I only write down facts," I told him. "Do you still want that information?"
"Yes. How much?"
I held up three fingers.
"Tsk. Can you give me a discount? I'll give you a favor in return."
"Anything?"
"Yes. At least anything that doesn't go off the moral code."
"Fine. You owe me, then," I said with a smile. "For whatever that's worth..."
Miles's cheeks puffed in anger. "Why do I feel like you're mocking me?"
"Then your feeling's accurate," I replied, throwing him a piece of paper ripped from my notebook pages.
He caught it rudely, nearly tearing it in half. He neatly placed the money on the table and I took it, dumping it into my wallet. "Once it's off your notebook, do you no longer have a copy of it?"
"Well, you bought it, didn't you?" I asked. "Anyway, I have prettttyyy good memory."
Erlan huffed with a smile at Miles's annoyed face.
Miles was very easy to annoy, and he lost his temper more easily than the other disciples of our year. Erlan was more cheerful although also reserved, Arondite...ah, well, he was very collected, and Maun rarely got angry over things he didn't care about.
"Then, start eating. I don't want to argue with you," I said.
Although it was a little childish to get into an argument in this manner, I quite liked it.
"Don't you have a lot of money?" Erlan asked. "Why do you still charge for these things?"
"I don't know. I like to be clear-cut about things, I guess. "I don't really like the feeling of owing kindness whether it's me owing or the one being owed."
"Don't you think debt of gratitude is better than money in the long-term?"
"You can cash in on those when you need them."
"It's a waste."
"A waste?"
"Think about it. You can't pay favors and expect a bank where you can withdraw good feelings at anytime. People are wired different. Some are naturally creditable, some are not," I explained. "I mean...if I need help, it'll be on my responsibility to ask for it and owe for it then. It's a little stubborn of me, but it's not a guarantee anyway that those people will pay your debt of gratitude as you expect them to. Isn't it more an assurance to settle accounts immediately? It's not like you can't choose the people that owe you."
Erlan's eyes brightened. "Choose the people that owe you—why have I never come across this philosophy?! Indeed, you are a business savant, Evy!"
"That's a principle you can see in the bank. That's not a new philosophy. Ever heard of credit score?" I replied blandly as I forked through my plate and popped a bite into my mouth.
"Ah..." he muttered.
"Wait. Are you saying I'm not a reliable person to owe favors?" Miles asked.
"What? You still haven't paid up on the debt you owed me last month and you said you'd give it in a week. Where do you think I list down accounts? On water? You pay up, maybe I'll consider trusting you next time."
Erlan laughed at Miles's distraught face.
"Tch. I say you're cold and unsympathetic," he said.
I couldn't say I wasn't annoyed, since in some ways, I was. "Call it what you want. But I don't want to waste kindness on people who would only use it to be cruel to others. I'm not a saint."
It wasn't like I could just sit there and let people take advantage of me.
"You say that, but you help those people in the camp so unreservedly," Erlan said.
"They aren't just those people. They're my people. I have to help them because they are my own."
At my words, their eyes seemed to stare at my appearance. I was the best of both worlds—both Erindalian and Vertvaldenian. I guess, to some extent, it was quite exotic, and I could easily pass off as any of the other half of my blood if I tried. However, I did not feel comfortable doing that, so it would probably be of best interest if I played it as low key as possible.
I pulled down the hood around my face a little more.
"Why do you hide your face all the time, though? You know, you're very pretty," Miles said.
"I appreciate your frankness," I replied, but I did not appreciate the compliment itself because...well, coming from Miles, it felt a little spiteful. At the same though, I could sense that he was somewhat sincere. "But people generally like to stare, not because I feel ugly."
"So arrogant!" Miles harrumphed.
"Not like you're any better."
"Agh—you!"
"Hey, Evyionne?" A disciple came up to our table.
We all looked up.
"Yeah, there's someone at the gates asking for you. I think the name was Elion. He asked to send you a message."
I stood up and bowed gratefully. "I'm sorry to bother. Can you tell me what the problem is or should I go?"
"They said if they could meet with you sometime today after you're done with classes. It's rather important."
"Thank you so much. Have you had lunch yet?" I asked. "How about you sit and it's on me?" I offered.
The male disciple grew flustered. "Oh...you're too polite. It was nothing, really."
"Ah, please. It's no burden. Please take it as my thanks. I don't really like to owe anyone," I said. I then went over to the counter, leaving the other no more room for negotiation.
I got him settled with a good serving of the good food. Although he insisted he didn't need to ear so much, I still packed up an extra portion for him to take along.
I quickly went back to my seat after settling matters and went back to eating my food.
Erlan and Miles were watching me, like observing an animal in the zoo.
"No wonder people still think you're a very nice person even though you're an occasional bitch," Miles said. "Was that your philosophy in action?"
"Thanking people should be everyone's philosophy," I replied. "And I'm not an occasional bitch. I always am."
"Evyionne, you're so amazing!" Erlan said, eyes shining as he clasped his hands together. "Please take me as your disciple!"
"I thought you're prohibited from worshipping other teachers while your education is ongoing with the Temple."
Erlan wilted with disappointment. "Is that so?"
"Yeah. Either way, I won't accept you since I don't have time to teach anyone."
"Can I at least follow you around, then?"
"Of course not. I don't want a tail either."
"You won't even know I'm there!" he exclaimed determinedly.
"No."
"Ahhhhh, so mean, so mean...!" He sobbed dramatically. "Ah...then should I pay you?"
I gazed at him. "How much?"
Erlan's eyes glinted and I could tell his mind was running very fast. I didn't know exactly what he was thinking, but I would bet my money that it was either how much he had to pay or how he was going to gather the money.
Miles looked at us with disgust.
Well, who could blame me for being swamped with cash? Saving the world should need some pretty heavy funding, right? Every cent counted!