Chương 13

When she came back home, Sobelle was greeted with wary faces and fearful glances. The only one who didn't act like this was her father, who smiled at her as she sat down. The atmosphere of the room was as cold as the winter air. No one opened their mouths to speak, not even her father. They waited for Sobelle to say something.

"Thetras and I talked." Sobelle dreaded their reactions and she had been right to do so. Everyone wore sour expressions and not a single one of her siblings looked happy for her. Creyla's was like she had eaten something bitter and her father... Her father was proud. Of course he was, he'd probably wanted this from the start.

"That's good Sobelle, it seems that you finally decided to set your eyes on someone." Saltor's tone rarely turned happy, so when it did, everyone knew that he was really happy.

"He'll be a good husband, I just know it."

"Father, can we please talk about all the things I did to get Thetras' attention? Only for him to ignore me? How can you say that Sobelle wouldn't end up in the same way?" Efree spoke up and as expected, she was against the whole thing. It'd be weird if she wasn't.

"She is less of a woman compared to me, Thetras wouldn't want a wife like her."

"Efree, Sobelle can change. I know she can. She just needs someone to make her see it." Saltor should have supported her, or at least done something that made Efree regret saying such cruel words. But he didn't. He agreed with her sister and just believed that Sobelle would one day change attitudes. Sobelle didn't speak up while everyone joined in on the conversation between Efree and their father.

"Oh, so she'll just change?" Creyla didn't sound aggressive but her words stung. To Sobelle, it was like Creyla mocked instead of asking a simple question. Saltor nodded and their step mother laughed, "I suppose so, I think it's about time she stops doing... Whatever it is she does every morning. Don't you think this is much better? Maybe she'll even learn how to cook."

"You are right, she will learn how to do that." Saltor proudly nodded.

"Thetras would bring her food every single day and all she needed to do was prepare meals for him. It sounds like an easy life."

"It is easy." Mason, her youngest brother, gave Sobelle a smug look. Next to him, Azil snickered.

"She'll always have an easy life, that's just how it is for people like her." Where did the youngest sibling even learn to say words like that? And so harshly too. Sobelle had her suspicions but she kept her mouth shut and just let them berate her, she didn't doubt that she wouldn't be able to survive out there. Blessings or not, she needed support.

"Well, let us all stop talking and be glad that your sister is finally getting married! Aren't you all happy?"

"Yeah, I am. We finally have more room." Not once did Azil look at Sobelle during dinner. Not even when he mentioned her indirectly.

"And she can finally stop talking about doing physical work and acting all manly." Childish banter, that was all there was to this. Sobelle quickly finished her dinner and stood up, she made sure she didn't do it loudly.

"Thank you for the meal." Anger simmered within her chest as she made her way to bed. Her own family had always insulted her like this, they treated her like she was some good for nothing when it was them who couldn't do anything right with their lives! And her father! He supported her but at times, she hated how was treated by her old man. Her only comfort now was the Gods' words and tasks. Just like always. [Beyond multiplication, you also need to subtract and add! Let's talk about the latter first: addition is when you put two numbers together, for example, you can add 2 + 1 and you'd end up with the number 3. This is useful for your everyday life as you would eventually need to buy your own items, food, and other similar stuff.] This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Addition. This was the Gods' next test, compared to multiplication, this one didn't seem all that hard.

The rest given to her ended up being fairly simple as well, though it was when she finished the first set that things truly became difficult. 237 + 450 143 + 325 125 + 581 263 + 194 These were just some of the questions the Gods now asked her to solve. There were 20 of them in total and each one took her several minutes to solve. It wasn't until the moon almost reached its zenith that Sobelle finally finished everything. And she only ended up being tired in the end.

Exhaustion would have greeted her come morning if it wasn't for [Inexhaustible Vessel]. Once more, Sobelle woke up with a mind that was far more tired than her body. Though things were different this time around, as the exhaustion she felt wasn't the type that made her stay in bed, it just gave her a headache instead. Which wasn't bad, as she could still leave her room and go on with her usual morning activities.

They were much easier to do compared to before, and Sobelle actually found herself enjoying some of them. The runs were especially stimulating and they even cured her aching mind. Her traps provided her with less meat than yesterday, though it was still plenty and she ate well. Few of the things she caught had parasites in them as well, so she decided to make another stew and this time, she boiled it until the meat was incredibly soft.

The gamey taste was worsened by the texture and Sobelle vowed not to do this again in the future. She did have vegetables to control it however, so Sobelle still finished everything in a single sitting. Her routine shifted when she finally got back to the village as this time around, she chose to head straight for Thetras and help with cutting logs. She'd love to do more chores but they didn't pay well and only really got the other village children angry.

And while foraging was useful, she felt that doing it twice a day—one when she checked her traps and another during the afternoon—was far too much foraging for one person to do. She hated the thought of doing it daily twice as much.

"Let us work hard again today, with our pace, I think we'll be able to cut all these logs before the merchants come around!" Thetras sounded excited, and Sobelle couldn't blame him. This was Levs they were dealing with.

"You'd get a pretty big cut if we keep up this pace Sobelle!" Sobelle smiled as well, Thetras' energy was simply far too infectious for her to not to. His excitement had also caused her to work harder than normal as well, and it felt incredibly good for her to cut one log after the next. She decided to count the logs she cut after a while and by the end ended up with around 40 logs or 80 firewood at the end of the day. Sobelle wiped the sweat off her brow and covered her mouth, "my hands hurt.

I think I'm gonna get blisters from this." She complained but didn't sound all too sad about it. Blisters were proof of hard work.

"And I can't believe I'm sweating so much."

"You'll eventually stop getting them after your hands start to grow callouses." Thetras' advice made Sobelle nod. She knew that already, her father talked to her about it at some point.

"And I know that I can't tell you this too many times but good job, your work allowed me to cut so much time and we'll be able to sell so much firewood thanks to you. It frees up some of my time as well!"

"Really?" Sobelle lifted some of her shirt to wipe her face, it was ineffective but she caught Thetras glancing at her stomach. It made her face heat up. Did he think she was attractive? No one ever said she was before. Her father did, and he said that she looked exactly like her mother but Sobelle didn't believe him. He was definitely lying for her sake, like all fathers. Yet Thetras also stole glances her way so maybe he was somewhat right?

"Thanks again, Sobelle."

"You're welcome." Sobelle giggled and waved him off. She cleared her throat and felt the warmth in her cheeks disappear, "make sure to treat my sister well okay?"

"Oh, of course!" Thetras was energetic as he laughed.

"I've been treating her well ever since you told me to do it, and I told her that it came from you as well!"

"Did you?" Sobelle smiled, maybe this time her sister would finally appreciate her and start treating her more kindly?

"Thank you, I didn't think you'd say that I told you to do that."

"Don't mind it, I want her to know that you care for her and watch over her." Thetras reached up and Sobelle couldn't help but notice the muscles in his arms flexed while he wiped his face.

"I need to go, I still have some stuff to do. I need to help my mother as well."

"Goodbye." Sobelle watched him too, unsure of how to truly feel about him. She'd always told herself that she wouldn't fall in love with Thetras, that she was different from everyone else. But they'd only interacted twice and Sobelle's heart was already racing from looking at him.