The next day I, once again, woke up with Aurora in my bed. She was just staring at me, waiting for me to wake up and start training. "Honestly… Do you have control over 'space' magic or something? That's the only acceptable answer for you to get here without waking me up. No, that's not it, you'd have to have an affinity for 'shadow' magic for that… Don't look at me like that! Get out!"
After breakfast, we went to a local bookstore. This establishment, while carrying mostly historical books and literature, was big enough to have some learning material as well. The owner - a short, elderly fella, was unhappy to see a beast man in his store, but that changed as soon as a huge bag of gold materialized in my hand. "How can I help you, good sir?" He asked while rubbing his hands together like an oversized fly.
"I'm looking for learning materials - anything from essentials - like reading and writing." I leaned in close so that Aurora wouldn't hear. "To utter useless bullshit like etiquette, embroidery and so on. The more, the better, I just want to occupy a freakishly talented student for as long as possible."
The store owner gave me a curious look, then looked at Aurora, who was browsing the selection, and said, "You aren't talking about that beast man over there, are you? You know it's useless to teach beast folk like her, you'd only be wasting your time…"
"Trust me on this, she has talent, she grasps everything that I throw at her with freakish spread, I'm at a loss on what to do, she's too smart."
"Humph… Well, if you say so, I can help you out on this one." He picked up a box and started going around his bookstore filling it up, murmuring something incoherent. Finally, after ten minutes or so, he came back with a box full of various books. "Just as you've asked - from essentials to, as you've called it, bullshit."
"Thanks for that. Now then, fill up a box for me as well, but this time I want combat techniques, how to acquire various combat skills, weapon handling and so on."
"Yes of course, sir, it's just that… Can you carry the box please? This old man's back is about to break…"
"No."
"Why? You look like a young, healthy man, why not?"
"Oh, I'm an asshole that loves seeing people suffer. Sorry."
The man sighed, picked up another box and got to work while I quietly stood there, admiring him struggling. Fifteen minutes later, I was presented with another box and a bill.
"Too expensive, give me a discount." I said calmly.
"What? No! I don't do discounts."
"In that case, no deal. You can now go and put all those books back into their places. C'mon, Aurora, we're leaving." I turned to the door.
"Wait, you little brat! Are you saying that all that work was for nothing? You can't leave now!"
"In that case, give me a discount."
"... Fine, ten, no five percent, how's that?"
"I want 20."
"That's, that's plain robbery! No way!"
"Ok, have a nice day…"
"... Wait! 15… I'll give you 15 percent off…"
I smiled behind my mask. "Deal."
"You weren't kidding, you really are an asshole…" The old man muttered while taking my money. "You have so much gold, so why are you so stingy?"
"I'm not, it's just fun doing business this way."
The man took a deep breath, then exhaled and smiled. "Dear customer, I hope you burn in hell and that I don't have to see you ever again. Best regards, don't come here ever again."
After that, we returned to the inn and started tortu-studying. We started with the most basic stuff - reading and writing. For the first 15 minutes, Aurora was excited and eager to study. That changed soon enough. First, she feigned hunger, then tiredness. When that didn't work, she started to feign excruciating stomach pain. I just handed her a healing potion. She wasn't happy.
"Look, I told you that once you start, I won't let you back out of this, remember?" She pouted. "I know, would you like some motivation?" She nodded. "OK, you're not getting dinner until you finish this. Fuck fairness, do I look like a fair person to you? Study. I'm not joking, no studying - no food." Begrudgingly she returned to the task at hand.
While she was doing that, I was frantically flipping through the pages of a book on mana manipulation for warriors - the basis for becoming a 'spell blade' - a warrior that coats his weapon and body in elemental mana to fight. While it was a difficult job class to train in, I decided to teach it to Aurora since she expressed her interest in not just strengthening herself with mana, but actually controlling the elements that she has an affinity for. Besides, she's smart enough to make it as a 'spell blade'.
Hours passed and the evening crept up on us. Aurora was still struggling with her assignment. I gave a quick glance to where she sat. Still not motivated enough, let's try this… I sighed and closed my book. "Well, time for dinner." I stood up and went for the door, Aurora followed. "Nope, you're staying. You still haven't finished your work. It seems that I'll be having dinner solo today. Too bad for you."
"Aw… Are you going to cry now? Do you really think that it will work? Get back to work or there won't be breakfast for you either. In fact, I might just start leaving you alone from now on…" I turned and left.
I went downstairs and was immediately greeted by the inn keep. "I see that beast woman isn't with you today. Good grief, did you get bored of her already? Good for you, for the life of me, I couldn't understand why you dragged her along everywhere you went."
"Shut up and bring food."
"Y-yes, sir."
A few hours went by until I came back to the room. I found Aurora frantically scribbling something on a sheath of paper. She looked pale with worry, her eyes red from crying. It seems that I went too far. I approached her and patted her head. "I see that you've been working hard, here." I retrieved a bowl of beef stew out of my dimensional ring. "It's your favorite. Did you really think that I would leave you without dinner?" Lowkey I almost did.
She looked at me, then jumped at me, hugging with all her strength. Tears began flowing down her cheeks. "Relax, I won't ever abandon you… Now eat up, you've done enough studying for today, we'll resume tomorrow. Yes, you will have to study tomorrow. I know that it's boring and frustrating, but, at the very least, you have to learn the basics, the rest be damned."
After dinner was eaten and bath was taken, Aurora dossed off on the sofa with her head on my lap. After today's ordeal, she became even more clingy than usual. While I do appreciate the warmth, she has to learn some independence. I looked at her. She was sleeping so peacefully and looked so content. Baby steps… Got to use baby steps…
The next morning I, once again, awoke with someone sleeping in my bed. At this point, I wasn't even surprised. I tried the path of reason, now it's time for the path of violence. I moved so that I'd be at a 90 degrees angle with Aurora, my feet pointing at her and kicked her naked ass out of my bed.
She fell to the ground, which woke her up real quick. She looked around, confused, then our eyes met. "This is how it's gonna be from now on - if I find you in my bed in the morning, you get kicked out. Understood?" She pouted. "I don't care that you want to sleep here, deal with it." She looked bummed out, but then a thought crossed her mind, she smiled and nodded. What is that sneaky witch planning now?
I started spending all of my time with Aurora, teaching her everything I knew and I enjoyed every second of it. Everyday, more and more I neglected my search for a way back to my world, soon I stopped going to the great library of 'Babel' all together. Seeing Aurora's progress became the biggest joy in my life and I abandoned all else. I wonder if I like spending time with her that much or do I just hate studying to an abnormal degree?
Our days together were monotonous and peaceful, we ate in the morning, then studied until lunch, after lunch we did some exercising in the forest, then dinner, bath and sleep. Finally she had learned the lesson and started staying away from my bed. Who said that you can't fix a problem with violence? If violence isn't enough, just use more.
After a month or so, when her powers matured to a certain degree, I took her to get registered as an adventurer at the local adventurers guild. As expected the welcome for a beast person wasn't very nice, I didn't expect the red carpet, but some bastards even tried to throw her out. "This is a proper establishment, it's no place for filth like you." A burly, tall man said with a snare when we entered through the door.
Aurora, the new and improved version, with confidence of steel forged through countless battles with dangerous monsters wasn't going to take this kind of treatment. She was about to draw her twin 'Dragon' fang daggers - the legacy of Sara and take down the fool right in front of everyone.
I stopped her, stepped forward and addressed the man. "Where in the rule book does it state that a beast man can't become an adventurer? I've heard countless stories of former slaves - beast man slaves becoming adventurers."
"Humph, that might happen in the border towns - the back water of our kingdom, but this… This is the city of 'Babel', it's not a place for slaves to act as adventurers. Besides, what good can this stupid beast be in a fight anyway? She'll just drag the others down."
"Is that so? I should inform you that this 'stupid beast' is a full fledged 'A' class 'spell blade'. While she lacks experience, she's still strong enough to take a buffoon like you down in an instant."
This made him angry. "I should teach you not to run your mouth in front of someone older, brat." He threw a punch aimed at my gut, but was quickly intercepted by Aurora who caught his punch, redirected it to my side and twisted the idiot's arm, forcing him to his knees. The man screamed in pain. "Let go, you bitch!" Aurora held firm.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen, kneeling in front of some 'stupid beast'... Although this look strangely suits you, you should try kneeling more often, maybe then you'll understand your place."
"Shut up, you bastard! She caught me off guard, that's all! I would never lose to someone like this in a fair fight!" The man shouted.
"Okay, let's try that." I turned to Aurora. "Release him." She obeyed and the man was free. "Aurora, no daggers." She acknowledged my command and took up a fighting stance. The people around us started murmuring, some placing bets. The man stood up and without a word charged her, aiming at her face. Aurora dodged under his right hook and landed a liver punch, sending the man to his knees again, then backed off and waited for him to stand up again.
"What? One punch from a 'stupid beast' is all that it took to take you down? How laughable." I taunted.
The man stood up, staggered a bit and drew his sword, fully prepared to kill. This made me a bit uneasy. I was ready to stop the fight, but before I could, Aurora jumped on to his shoulders, wrapped her legs around his head and, using the inertia, plopped the man to the ground. Then the beating began.
She punched him in the face, over and over, releasing all the hatred for all the times that she was belittled and abused in her life. When she was done, she stood up and walked to me to receive her head pats, while the man was left lying on the floor, having far fewer teeth than before.
"Is there still anyone here that objects to her joining?!" I shouted. Silence. "Good…" We approached the counter. "I would like to sponsor her for a rank promotion test to 'mithril' rank."
"A-and you are?" The guild lady asked.
"Adam - the 'mithril' ranked adventurer, the last survivor of the 'Wolf's fang' - the seventh 'mithril' ranked party in the kingdom and this…" I gestured to Aurora. "Is our newest member."
Join me on patreon at patreon.com/BonsaiCat for early access to new chapters or buy my book 'How to rule a fantasy world' on Amazon. It's the same stuff that you read here, but I fucked up with the naming and the book is already out, so fuck it, let's go with this name for the book. I appreciate all of your support and your forgiveness for my utter incompetence. Best regards, BonsaiCat.