Vol 1 Chapter 3.1 (2/2)
“I will.”
As Elaro walked back to the Holy Temple, his posture remained tall despite the blistering heat, his back as straight as a sword. Although he didn’t look hurried or slow, he was tall and had long legs, so his large strides were the same as a normal person’s jogging speed.
Dili hurried to follow by his side. Although he wasn’t short, he had no choice but to break out in a jog every now and then to catch up with Elaro’s strides.
Actually, no matter how fast they walked, riding a horse would be faster. However, the sun was truly bright today, and it was precisely noon at the moment, so Elaro would never let himself be in the sun for longer than five minutes. Therefore, he could only walk, and he walked under roofs the entire time. If he had no choice but to walk under the sun because there were no roofs, he would hasten his steps so that his time under the sun never surpa.s.sed ten seconds.
Dili had always thought this habit of Elaro’s to be very strange. It really didn’t seem like the behavior he would have, but it was true that Elaro really did not like being in the sun.
Dili took in the color of his captain’s skin. Although it wasn’t as white as snow like the current Sun Knight’s skin—using such a description to describe a man truly had a strangeness to it that was hard to voice— it could be considered fair, fairer than many girls’. To people who knew Elaro, it didn’t feel like Elaro would care about something like the color of his skin.
Besides, with Captain’s build, a bronze color would match him better! Dili deeply believed so.
“Is something wrong? Is there something strange about my appearance?”
Sensing Dili’s gaze, Elaro grew nervous, especially since his teacher would return today. If his teacher were to discover that Elaro’s appearance wasn’t perfect, then even if the punishment was light, he would still have to apply ten days’ worth of facial masks. He was already almost out of money to buy the essential oils… Come to think of it, he still needed to buy the essential oils on the way back.
He should have applied facial masks yesterday, but it wasn’t until nighttime that Elaro remembered he had forgotten to purchase the essential oils. He could only guiltily vow that he would definitely apply facial masks the next day!
“Nothing, my mind just wandered for a moment,” Dili hurriedly answered.
Relieved, Elaro nodded. Immediately after, he suddenly coughed once. With his vice-captain’s suspicious gaze on him, he said, “Dili, I need to buy some things. Wait here for a bit.”
“Got it.”
Dili knew inside his heart that his captain was going to go buy “that thing” again. Rhonelin had also experienced “stay in your original spot and wait for Captain to return for you.” Dili had always been very curious what exactly his captain was buying, and he’d discussed it with Rhonelin before. Although Rhonelin was not very interested in probing into people’s private matters, he still had his own guesses.
“Should be perfume.”
Dili had been stunned. “Captain uses perfume? I’ve never smelled it before.”
“One time when I sparred with Captain, I smelled the fragrance he gave off. The scent is very faint, so you have to be very close to smell it.”
“Does Captain like perfume?” Dili’s feelings were mixed, as he had discovered yet another habit that really didn’t match his captain. However, who didn’t have at least some sort of strange habit? It was just that his captain’s… strange habits were a bit numerous.
On his next birthday, maybe I should give Captain a bottle of perfume? I wonder what kind of perfume Captain likes?
“Floral!” Rhonelin was very certain. “What I smelled was a floral fragrance!”
“F-Floral, huh…”
Recalling this “past event“ that had happened not too long ago, Dili abruptly remembered the matter he was recently distressed about—should he buy a rose or a lavender perfume? The shop a.s.sistant said that these were the two most popular perfumes in their shop, and the scent was pretty good… coming from a girl, that was.
When Dili considered Elaro having these two fragrances coming from him, he was left completely speechless. Maybe he should go together with Rhonelin to the perfume shop so that he could smell and figure out just what kind of perfume their captain used…
Elaro turned his head to look around. He felt that there were eyes staring at him from behind, but he had been over thinking. There was no one behind him, only an empty alley.
Teacher had instructed him thousands and millions of times never to let anyone realize that his fair skin was the result of facial masks. Otherwise, it would destroy the public’s view of the Sun Knight. Furthermore…
If all the women in the city fought with us over the materials for our facial masks, then the prices of the materials would definitely greatly increase! That is definitely something that cannot be allowed to happen! My salary is already low enough! I already owe enough debts!
If the price of the materials keeps increasing, I’d rather go back and be the Demon King!
At the time, Elaro had thought his teacher to be too emotional. Then, as he grew older, he began carrying out missions, and later took on his teacher’s debt. The missions a.s.signed by the king were all highly difficult, but because they were not part of the Church of the G.o.d of Light’s duties, the Pope was pretty much unwilling to provide any financial help, so Elaro could only use his own salary to complete them.
The expenditures grew explosively just like his own height, but his salary was more like Hungri’s height… Perhaps he shouldn’t make such a comparison. In short, whenever there were any years with subpar harvests, causing the price of essential oils to rise by three percent, he would have the urge to serve as the Demon King’s subordinate.
Luckily, he had Ludia, who could help him a bit, no matter if it was a cleric’s ability to heal or… his sister’s salary.
Ludia had gotten into the habit of directly handing Elaro half of her salary whenever she got it. Even so, he was often still unable to make ends meet. There were several times when he had to borrow money from Shuis. Shuis never asked any questions.
There was once when he really had no choice and even had to borrow money from Valica. However, when Elaro saw how hard Valica had to try to squash the suspicion in his eyes, Elaro vowed that he would never borrow money from Valica again, unless he was completely cornered. Three months later, the king a.s.signed him two missions at the same time, completely cornering Elaro.
Elaro had an endless amount of things he had to do, frequently cornered with no way out, and only able to complete the tasks a.s.signed by the king on his own, since there was absolutely no way he could explain to other people why he had to take care of these matters. Sometimes, he wondered if he might be able to lower a lot of his stress if he told Dili and Rhonelin about things like applying facial masks. Then, at least he could borrow money when necessary.
“For the sake of whitening my skin, I apply facial masks every week. Actually, it’s not exactly ‘facial masks,’ since I have to take off all of my clothes. That’s why the amount of essential oil necessary is alarming. I often can’t make ends meet. Please lend me money…”
No, no, I better keep it a secret from them for now! Elaro felt a headache coming on.
The moment he entered the essential oils shop, the shop a.s.sistant greeted him familiarly, “Good afternoon, holy knight Elaro. Are you here to buy the oil for your sister today as well?”
Elaro smiled brightly as he said, “Yes.”
“It’s being used up so quickly!” The shop a.s.sistant exclaimed, “Your sister must love this type of oil, huh? This type isn’t cheap at all!”
“…It’s true that it’s not cheap.” Elaro’s smile faded a bit.
“Elaro, do you know what the Sun Knight’s number one task is?”
Elaro nodded at his teacher. “Recruit wors.h.i.+ppers!”
“Wrong, that’s the most important task, but not the first task you must do! ‘Whitening’ is the true first task. Your skin is really very dark. You must be in the sun a lot, right?”
“Every day during daytime, I’m in the sun.” Elaro felt that this was a given.
“I’m sure you aren’t maintaining your skin?”
“What’s maintaining?”
Elaro was a little puzzled, but he didn’t receive an answer. Instead, his cheeks were grabbed and kneaded.
“My G.o.d of Light, your skin is as rough as sand! Aren’t you a child who should have soft skin and tender cheeks? You—“
Elaro, whose cheeks were currently pulled into a deformed shape from both sides, stared at his teacher with wide eyes, not understanding why his teacher had suddenly stopped in the middle of his words. In the next moment, his cheeks were released. Elaro rubbed his face and heard his teacher’s question.
“You and Ludia are orphans, right? How did you solve the problem of eating and staying clothed?”
The jump in topic was too big. Elaro was stumped for a moment before he could respond. Then, he recounted the means one by one. “There are lots of fruits that can be picked during the summer. I know how to make traps to catch rabbits and squirrels. I can also use rocks to hit them. Sometimes, the hunters would be in a good mood and lend me a bow. I could shoot down a lot of prey and exchange for bread, clothes, and blankets. That’s how we escaped the cold during the winters.”
Elaro paused, remembering the winters he went through during those times… He sucked in several deep breaths before he could continue. “Winters are troublesome. They’re cold, and I can’t catch any animals. It’s very hard to get anything to eat. When we really had no choice, we could only seek the villagers out.”
Teacher stayed silent for a long time. He didn’t say anything and only took out an entire row of bottles the size of a pinkie from a cabinet. He said, “Following the usual practice of the Sun Knight, choose your favorite scent.”
Following that, Elaro fought bravely through the various fragrances. Suddenly, he smelled a very familiar fragrance and exclaimed, “Teacher, is this the scent you give off?”
“That’s right. This is lavender essential oil. It has many uses, but most importantly, it’s quite cheap among essential oils—”
“Teacher, this one smells so good!” Elaro cried out in surprise, holding a small bottle in his hands.
“This one is… Are you sure you really like this one?”
Elaro made sure by smelling it again. He nodded his head up and down. “Yeah! I only like this one!”
“Only like this one?” His teacher was silent for a moment, and then muttered, “At least, it’s a little cheaper than ‘roses’ which my teacher picked… Elaro, remember this!”
“Yes!” Elaro was very serious.
“This essential oil was chosen by ‘yourself.’ Don’t hate me in the future!”
But Teacher, sometimes I really do hate that you didn’t stop me then… Elaro took hold of the familiar small bottle, smelling the fragrance that he’d liked then and still liked now, his heart conflicted.
“Three bottles, like usual?” The shop a.s.sistant smoothly took out the essential oils.
“Yes.”
The shop a.s.sistant said apologetically, “However, the harvest this year hasn’t been good. The prices of the essential oils have all risen by around ten percent, while this is the only one that has risen by twenty percent. Do you still want three bottles?”
Teacher, I, I really want to hate you!
“Yes…”
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