Lilia's Tale

Chapter 8: Dihydrogen

The next day, I woke up early as always, and noticed I was awake before Father. As such, I decided to cook him breakfast. He eventually woke up. When he arrived, he seemed surprised I had cooked breakfast for everyone and sat on the table to start eating. During his morning meal, I went to check up on Miyu. I knocked on the door and heard her say:

"I'm busy."

"Breakfast is ready, you should come eat," I replied.

"In a moment."

As it seemed she was quite immersed in her work, I left her to finish her current activity and expected her to come eat sooner or later. When I came back, I asked Father to pick up some food in town so I could continue cooking for lunch and dinner, having found quite the enjoyable hobby in it. I asked for a few specific ingredients, as I had certain meals in mind, as well as some spices. He agreed and went to town, as Miyu came from her room, taking a break with some food. I ate with her, asking how it was going, and was given little to no answers. I brushed it off as her wanting to focus on the work, and went to practice my summoning magic.

Father came back and notified me of it, so I could check the ingredients he had bought. I then started cooking lunch to make sure it would be ready in time and told everyone about it when it was done. Afterwards, I went back to try to continue practicing summoning magic, until it was time to cook dinner. I did the same as I did with lunch, we ate together and took turns taking a bath, then went to sleep.

The next few days were exactly the same, baring the occasional day where Father did not have to go to town to buy food, as we already had enough. Eventually, I managed to create a corporeal goblin and was quite excited about it, asking the goblin to follow me as I went to show Father. He expressed a lot of happiness as he told me more about the way corporeal summons work for the summoner, more specifically their mental relationship, and went back to his laboratory.

I dismissed the goblin, and as he disappeared into the air, I went outside only to notice it was already quite late and I should cook dinner, so I went on my wooden plank and started preparing food. I had also gotten much more used to having my board float while I was atop it, making it possible to stay on it without much disturbance as it was rising. The rest of the day continued as a routine day would.

For the next few days, nothing happened either, as I learned to control summoning now that I was capable of producing corporeal summons. Eventually, one day, during dinner, as we were eating:

"I should be done by tomorrow," Miyu said.

"Oh? How many days has it been...Eight?" I tried to remember.

"That is good news. It means I will finally be able to show you the city." explained Jirou as he was smiling at me.

"I suppose that is one good side of things, yes. I also won't need you to go buy things for me, I can do it myself."

"That is true," he replied. "Not that I really mind, though. I will accompany you the first few times to see how you're doing, though."

"I don't mind. I have a lot of things to learn after all."

"You said you were ten, do you even know how to read?" Miyu asked out of the blue.

"I mean. I know how to read, but I don't know if I will be able to read your language's writing."

"Can you read this then?" Father followed up by creating weird symbols in the air out of fire magic.

"I can't, no."

"I'll have to teach you then... That is going to take quite a bit of time, although since you already know the language you should be fine."

"Why not put her in school?" Miyu offered.