"Xing Chen, Xing Chen."
"What is it... let me sleep a bit more..."
Theresa's daily routine was more regular than most people's. Even when she overslept on a safe and comfortable bed without an alarm clock, she could still wake Xing Chen up right on time.
However, after Xing Chen woke up, she made no further moves, merely looking at him with a serious expression.
"What's wrong...?" Patting himself all over, Xing Chen also discovered something strange. "I remember I didn't sleep with clothes on... Wait a minute, how did these Assassin's wrappings come with me?"
"Wait, Xing Chen, you said 'came with you from where'?" Theresa grasped his hand tightly, as if clutching at a straw of hope.
"Actually, in my dream, I returned to Terra again, and even went to a small town called Originium Radish."
"I know, that town is on the border of Leimbieta."
"Before setting off, I needed some disguise, so I found a corpse and stripped it."
After saying that, Xing Chen took off the wrappings and handed them to Theresa. The Demon King took the wrappings and fell into deep thought.
"Actually, I have an idea. Since I can bring personal items from there, maybe I can also take things from here over there."
"I understand. Tonight, I'll sleep with you," Theresa suddenly said, as if a certain belief had solidified within her.
"That's not quite right, is it? According to our customs, only couples who have confirmed their relationship can sleep in the same bed." Xing Chen didn't mind getting some benefits from Theresa, but forcing something like that was a bit beyond his moral bottom line.
"You have such customs here?" Theresa was first shocked, then fell into thought. She was no longer the same person as two hundred years ago, able to disregard personal wishes for the future of the Sarkaz. Since she established Babel, respecting the ideas of various races had already taken root in her mind.
"Actually, we don't necessarily have to sleep in the same bed. You sleep on the bed, and I can sleep on the floor..." Although it would be a bit cold, just adding a few more quilts would be better than being a scoundrel.
"If... it's absolutely necessary..." Theresa's thoughts were in a mess. She had no mental preparation for discussions about marriage.
"Alright, don't be too hard on yourself." Xing Chen pried Theresa's hand from his. He didn't want to see her in such pain, and this wasn't the story he wanted. "Let's talk about future matters later. It's okay if I suffer a little. First, tell me what your plans are for today?"
Theresa should have had her own plans, but what had just happened had put her in a state of mental shutdown, causing her to completely forget her well-laid plans.
As for Xing Chen, his experience in the town had clearly taught him two things: first, language barriers make everything difficult; second, without sufficient combat power, you can't even put on a facade.
"How about this, Theresa, how about you teach me your language today?"
"That's fine," she said, adjusting her thoughts. The rational Theresa from before had returned. "Any other requests?"
"If possible, could you also teach me some combat techniques?"
"I'm a Caster, and you don't seem to be able to use Originium Arts. How about this, I'll teach you a few sets of my brother's swordsmanship, how does that sound?"
"That would be wonderful, Teacher Theresa."
...After breakfast, Theresa's lesson officially began.
"In the daily life of Kazdel, the frequently used words mainly include 'weapon', 'furnace', 'Originium', and 'death'..."
Weapon came first because if you didn't have enough martial prowess to defend yourself, you wouldn't even get half a potato, and even if you did, you couldn't keep it. Sarkaz society was basically a jungle law of the strong preying on the weak. The royal court had the Lord of the Royal Court overseeing them, making things a bit better, while the mixed-bloods largely relied on their own abilities.
"My father and mother passed away very early. After that, my brother supported our family by learning swordsmanship." As she spoke, Theresa gestured in the air, mimicking how Theresis practiced swordsmanship when he was young, as she remembered it.
Furnace ranked second. This was the source of energy for the Kazdel urban area. It was these furnaces, fueled by the souls of ancestors, that allowed the Sarkaz of the Kazdel urban area to avoid freezing at night like their kin in the wilderness.
"The Soul Furnace was one of the few legacies left by Lesh. Later, when building the mobile landmass, I slightly modified its structure to make it more compatible with the overall design of a mobile city." At this point, Theresa showed a very bitter expression. Her thoughts returned to a hundred years ago, when two problems constantly troubled her before the city was built: one was the immense amount of work involved in modifying the design, and the other was how to appease the irritable ancestors.
Originium and death, these two were the most common things in Sarkaz life. Originium brought power, but also Oripathy and conflict, ultimately leading to death... "I wonder if brother will keep the school." Looking at Xing Chen, Theresa recalled the scene when she personally taught the first batch of Sarkaz children to read.
At that time, she and Theresis had not yet fallen out, and the two of them worked together to allow the people of Kazdel to live a slightly better life.
Xing Chen drew the Sarkaz characters on paper. When he looked up, he saw Theresa with a relieved smile. To avoid ruining this scene, he didn't mention that after her death, those half-grown students picked up weapons and went to the battlefields of Londinium.
Seeing Xing Chen look up, Theresa took his draft paper, which was covered in Sarkaz characters, and said with a very approving tone, "You write well. You've already surpassed most of the Sarkaz."
What Theresa taught was the most basic Sarkaz language, that is, what could be used in daily life. More of the Sarkaz language was actually used in performing witchcraft. Only by understanding the opponent's type of witchcraft could one counter it.
There was no point in him learning this part; he couldn't use Originium Arts anyway.
"By the way, Theresa, can you still use Originium Arts now?"
"That, I don't know either."
"Why don't we try? It can also serve as a demonstration of the remaining Sarkaz characters for me." Xing Chen's desire to see Originium Arts was by no means a wild fantasy. "If Originium Arts can be used in a world completely without Originium, it means that Terra's insistence on a purely Originium technology route is not very meaningful."
Oripathy was the original sin that Terrans bore in their evolution, but reducing contact with Originium through various means could decrease the number of Oripathy cases.
Theresa thought it made sense, so she extended her index finger and pointed it at the crumpled paper ball she had used for practice.
"Dust."
A pale pink crystal appeared out of thin air, sending the paper ball flying.
"Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" For a two-hundred-year-old Oripathy patient, it was better to be careful.
"No, I even feel... my Oripathy is lessening," Theresa said with some disbelief.