Later that night, after the incident with the prince, back at Malaya’s dormitory…

“One of the main issues that past voyagers faced when traveling across the seas was the lack of food and proper nourishment, as well as diseases such as Scurvy. Fifty percent of sailors in the age of sails on Earth died as a result of that disease.” Malaya dropped her chalk as she returned her gaze to her two students. “Do you have any questions?”

Rein and Dorris both focused their eyes on her.

“Umm, what is Scurvy disease?” Dorris raised her hands.

“It is a disease due to lack of Vitamin C.”

“Vitamin C?” Dorris’ eyes were already spinning from confusion.. There were so many things she didn’t understand right now.

“It means they don’t eat enough oranges, potatoes, and peppers,” Malaya explained.

“Oh!” Dorris’ eyes sparkled.

“What is Earth?” Rein inquired.

“It’s an imaginary world I created.” Malaya gave a wolfish grin.

Rein simply gave his lady a skeptical gaze. Since she became obsessed with voyaging, she had a plethora of strange ideas kept coming out from her. “So, according to your main point, we needed to properly prepare some food for the trip. That is quite completely obvious.”

“Yup!” Malaya nodded in response to Rein’s words. ‘With the advanced technology from the modern world I got with me, I should ensure that there are no issues with our food preservation when our journey begins.’

“Do we need, like just a lot of salt, food drying and even preservation magics? What’s the issue with such methods?” Dorris queried.

“Hmm. All of it is something we could do. But there was something considerably more appealing. The refrigerator, as well as a few other items I asked our beloved craftsmen to complete, should be finished by now.”

“Ref-ergerator? You mean the one you asked to build a year ago?” Dorris asked.

“Yes. It’s about time we paid her a visit.” Malaya took off her spectacles and stared at them with a sparkling expression.

Rein sighed. He just left it be no matter how bizarre the ideas her lady came up with. Because he knew it would all work out in the end.

—————————-

Earlier the next day…

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to school right now, my lady?” Dorris inquired as they were once again cloaked in hoods and commoners’ clothes. They were now going through Morayana’s busy market.

“There’s no reason to. I completed all of the tasks I required for the month.” Malaya responded in a nonchalant manner. ‘Plus, when I said I’d be gone for a month, the instructors seemed overjoyed to hear that. They despise me so much that they are relieved to see me move? Good grief. I wonder why is that? I have no recollection of being a troubled kid.’

Rein merely stared at Malaya with a puzzled expression. ‘Is it because she was bothered by that scumbag prince again?’ He can’t help but worry for her lady. Even if she didn’t inform them, they were completely aware of what is going on within the campus. They just didn’t dare to do anything because their lady didn’t instruct them to do anything and she concealed everything with a grin.

‘But is it really okay to leave it like that? She continued telling them she wanted to be a voyager, and they’ve all been preparing for it since that terrible day.’

Malaya had the impression that someone was staring at her. “What exactly is it, mother? You appear pallid.” Malaya muttered, her gaze fixed on Rein.

“My lady, don’t call me a mother.” He grumbled and averted his eyes.

Malaya stiffened. ‘What? ‘Did I make a mistake again? or does he hate to be called like that too much. Hehe. I should keep that in mind.’

As they proceeded to wander around, the crowd thinned out. They turned around in the alley, where some beggars were resting on the ground. ‘Even in a different world, there are sights like these here. But…’ Malaya kept walking. ‘They aren’t my issue right now.’

They continued down a few more alleyways until they came to a small house with a cloud of black smoke billowing from its chimney. The dark oak door swung open unexpectedly. When Malaya spotted the familiar red hair of the person who had just come out, she quickly tightened her hood even more. ‘What are they doing here?’

It was none other than Kristopher Taleba, although he was accompanied by another individual. Oliver Caramis, the nephew of the academy’s headmaster and also a member of Hyun Jae’s entourage. His hair was green, and his eyes were golden. ‘In case I failed to mention it, her entourage consists of seven members in all. And I don’t want to go into detail about all of them. Good grief.’ Malaya tightened the hold of her hood. She didn’t want these two to notice her and caused trouble.

“Thank you for your patronage!” A female dwarf appeared and followed after them. Despite her tiny stature, she had a deep voice. She was dressed in orange work clothes and wore a large goggle on her head.

“Seraphina!” Dorris shouted. Malaya’s group drew the three’s attention. “We came here to grab the referee.” She further said.

‘Dorris toned down! We are not getting any referees, it’s a refrigerator. They might discover your identity! Particularly Oliver. Among the saintess’ harem, he was the one I had to be most wary of. Unlike the others, he was clever and cunning if you’re not careful.’

“Oh! I’ve been waiting for all of you! Please come inside.” Seraphina motioned for Malaya, and the others nodded in agreement. Malaya didn’t dare to speak for fear of being discovered through her voice.

‘Just act normally, and everything would be fine.’ Malaya walked past the other two youths casually. But then…

“What are you doing here?” Oliver suddenly spoke. But Malaya didn’t stop walking. ‘He must be talking with someone else. I should just quietly walked past him. “I’m talking to you, Lady Malaya.”

“What?! That spiteful woman is here!” Kristopher said with a hateful tone.

‘Ah. So he was talking with someone whose name is the same as mine. Ha.ha.ha’ Malaya felt dreadful as she turned around. ‘Good grief. I planned to work during school days. That was because all students are supposed to be having class during the weekdays. And the less chance I would encounter any problem students.’

“I also want to ask you the same. What are the both of you doing here in the middle of classes?” Malaya said as she took off her hood. There was no use hiding now that they knew already who they were.

“We are doing some errands! We’ve got the school permission. Unlike you, you must be scheming again something this time?!” Kristopher asked in a shout. “No matter what you do, I’ll protect Hyun Jae and you won’t get away easily!” He pointed at her with a look of disdain in his eyes.

*Scrawch!* “Ahhh!” Kristopher shouted as Dorris bit his finger hard.

“Bleh!” She stuck out her tongue. “Don’t point to my Lady like that!”

“How dare you?! A mere maid like you dare to bit me! Do you know who am I?!”

“Dorris that was mean. He is the youngest son of Duke Taleba.” Rein reprimanded.

“That is right! But as expected of the servants of a spiteful woman, her servants are all so low.” Kristopher said with arrogance.

“You should have shown proper discourtesy by simply hitting him instead. What if you catch whatever idiocy disease he might have.” Rein patted Dorris’ head.

“Is that so? Then I’ll just hit him with these. Can I hit him now?” Out of nowhere, a long black scythe appeared in Dorris’ hands. She looked at Rein with a pleading face.

“No. You can’t right now.” Rein replied.

“Aww. That’s too bad.” Dorris looked down, disappointment can be seen in her silver eyes.

“Good girl, I’m glad you understand.” Rein patted her head more.

They completely disregarded Kristopher, who was furious now. “Pfft.” Malaya tried her hardest not to giggle. ‘Well done, you two.’ That’s what she wanted to say. ‘But let’s simply get past this.’ She turned to face Oliver, with whom she could still reason.

“Sir Oliver, we also got approval from the academy to leave its grounds. But I can’t say anything about what we’ve been up to here. But be certain that it has nothing to do with the Saintess.”

For a little period, they lock their gazes on each other. “I see…If that’s the case, I don’t see any problem.” Oliver said, in the end. “We’ll be on our way now. Lady Malaya, please accept my apologies for the inconvenience we created.” He offered a brief bow before pulling Kristopher away.

‘Oh. That came as a surprise. I expected him to question me further.’ Malaya stood there watching as the two left the store.

“Hey! Why are you apologizing to her?!” Malaya could still hear Kristopher’s scream even after Oliver had pulled him out and the door had been shut. After a few seconds, the entire area was silent.

“The show had come to an end.” Malaya turned to face Seraphina, who was watching the entire scene while eating some skewers from wherever she had gotten them.

“Shall we get on with our business?” Malaya smiled.