For the next week or so, Shiro repeated the process of helping Dimos in the school and hunting for Vasil to earn some money.
Thankfully, Terca were quite common in the forest so Shiro didn't need to worry about running out of food.
They were also rather active in reproduction so there was always an abundance of Terca. In addition to this, since she had been hunting every day and eating a hearty meal both at night and in the morning, she was looking less malnourished and her body started to return to normal.
During this time, she had also gotten used to working around her wounds so the hunts became easier over time.
While there were still a few parents that were displeased with her, some have opened up to her and even gave her some snacks that they had made.
In a short while, Shiro made herself known in the town as a hard working girl who was the teacher's assistant and a competent hunter. Vasil also decided to return the price back to normal once he saw how many Terca she could hunt without fail.
However, she still slept in a tree as she couldn't afford a house but she wasn't too bothered since she was used to sleeping outside.
Today was her second week working as Dimos' assistant and she was currently preparing the classroom for the next lesson.
Strangely enough, Dimos was arriving much later than usual today and Shiro had to usher the students in and conduct the lesson herself.
Since she remembered what Dimos had wanted to teach today, it wasn't that hard to conduct a lesson in his stead.
Once the lessons were over, Shiro started to tidy up.
Placing the notes on a makeshift wooden table that she had made, Shiro sat near the window and glanced out at the sky.
"Hm… He's taking a while to get here. Usually he should have arrived a few hours ago. Did something happen to him?" Shiro muttered with a frown.
Shaking her head, Shiro was about to leave when he heard the sound of horses in the distance.
Raising her eyebrow, she watched as a horse carriage stopped in front of the school.
Seeing Dimos hop off the carriage with a bag, Shiro paused with mild surprise.
"Welcome back sir. How come you were away today? I had to conduct the lesson in your place." Shiro asked, poking her head out of the window.
"Ah thank you for that. I was collecting something that I had ordered from another town. They ran into some trouble so I had to go quickly. I trusted you to conduct the lesson in my place and you didn't disappoint me." Dimos chuckled.
"Naturally. I have already memorised all the lessons that you wanted to cover so it wasn't hard." Shiro shrugged with a smug expression.
"Don't feel too complacent since it's a bad trait to have." Dimos chuckled.
"Well that's true." Shiro grinned.
Seeing the grin on his assistant that had made his life easier, Dimos shook his head with a soft smile.
"So what did you even go out to get? You didn't give me a notice." Shiro asked.
"I couldn't give you a notice since I didn't know where you live. But here, it's a small present I suppose." Dimos smiled and gave her the bag.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro looked into the bag and saw that it was a set of clothes that was neatly folded.
"I've seen you wear the same set of clothes and cloak everyday so I figured that you should probably have a different outfit. Plus, it'll be easier for you when we get into other cities since you know how people react to beggars." Dimos smiled.
"Well it doesn't really bother me but thank you. I'll go get changed now I suppose." Shiro chuckled.
Making her way inside the building, she made sure that no one could see her and changed into the outfit that Dimos had bought her.
After getting changed, Shiro had to admit that the outfit was well made and it was quite comfortable. It was a little big for her body as her stature was on the smaller side but it wasn't a problem.
The outfit consisted of a black shirt, a white jacket with long black sleeves and a black skirt that extended to her ankles. In the bag was also a pair of shoes that were much better than what she was currently wearing.
Unfortunately, there was nowhere that she could use to store her weapons so she could only carry them in the bag.
"So how is it?" Dimos asked with a smile after seeing Shiro walk out in the outfit.
"It's great. How much was it?" Shiro asked.
"You don't have to pay me. Think of it as my payment for helping me out these days. How are your wounds by the way? I also bought some ointment for you." Dimos asked while pulling out a box from his bag.
"Ah they're healing. As long as I don't overexert myself while fighting, it should be healed in a month or so." Shiro replied while tapping her hand over her thigh. After all, that's where her biggest wound was.
If she wasn't so malnourished and weak at that point, she could have avoided this unnecessary damage.
"A month or so huh? Hmm… it'll probably have healed when we move to the next town. Ah that reminds me, where do you live? I don't know so it was kind of hard to tell you about me having to leave." Dimos asked.
"Oh I don't have a house. I've just been camping in the forest." Shiro replied.
"Eh?"
"It's a bit uncomfortable but I got used to it. The trick is to find the right tree to sleep on. If you're curious, I can show you where I live." Shiro chuckled.
Nodding his head dumbfoundedly, Dimos waited for Shiro to lead the way.
Leaving the school, Shiro made her way to the forest with Dimos following behind her.
"This is the tree that I've been sleeping in for the last two weeks or so. There's the campfire where I cook the monsters that I've hunted." Shiro said while gesturing to her 'home'.
"Wait how do you keep yourself clean then?" Dimos asked as she didn't smell like she had been living in the wild. Normally, one would smell like blood or dirt if they had been living in the wild but Shiro wasn't like that.
"There's a large pool of water if you go deeper into the forest. I clean myself and dress my wounds there." Shiro explained.
"Ah…" Nodding his head, Dimos walked slightly further into the forest and saw that there were quite a few signs of combat such as cracks in the trees.
"Be careful, I've set up a few traps for Terca's." Shiro reminded.
"What do you mean?" Dimos asked with confusion.
Throwing one of her daggers towards one of the bushes, bone spikes that were attached to one of the branches dropped down with a hefty thud against the ground.
"This pins the Terca down on the ground and makes it easier for me to kill the Terca." Shiro explained while resetting the trap.
". . ." Staying silent, Dimos couldn't believe that this was how she had been living for the past week. He had thought that she had a room or something to live in as she kept herself relatively clean but no, she had been living in the forest.
"Do you want to live with me? I have a spare room." Dimos offered with a forced smile.
"Nah it's fine. It's easier for me to live here and hunt the Terca. Plus, I'm saving up some money so that I can afford to rent a room if we move to a new town since it's probably harder to hunt the monsters closer to the sections." Shiro shrugged.
"That is true. The monsters on the edge of this place are easy to kill while those inside require a strength based divinity." Dimos nodded.
"How about we make a house then? There's plenty of wood here so you can probably make a house if you wanted." He asked.
"I mean, we'll probably be leaving soon so there's no point. Don't worry about it sir, I can look after myself." Shiro chuckled.
After talking to Shiro for a little longer, Dimos walked back to his own home and sat on the chair.
Resting his elbows on his table, he sighed.
"What the hell." He muttered and massaged his eyes.
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