The story Durandal had told yesterday had been a huge hit, and she'd promised to continue today. So the moment she appeared, it wasn't just Aponia who came to greet her.
All the children from yesterday rushed over as well, and once they heard that Durandal really had come to keep her promise, they broke into cheers.
Durandal had originally planned to tell another fairy tale like yesterday's. But when she noticed several boys and girls around fifteen or sixteen among her audience, she changed her mind. She had plenty of stories to choose from anyway, so she picked one that people of any age could enjoy.
The story she chose was Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels and a tale almost everyone in China knew.
Come to think of it, Journey to the West was probably the only one of the four classics that was even remotely suitable for children. Even then, she'd have to cut out quite a few of the darker and bloodier parts from the original and lean more toward the television adaptation.
If she really thought about it, Journey to the West wasn't exactly a children's story either.
Still, none of the people listening were going to sit there analyzing the deeper meaning behind a journey west filled with demons, monsters, and battles. Durandal was telling it for fun, and everyone else was listening for the same reason.
The older boys and girls had spent quite a while listening to the younger children excitedly retell yesterday's fairy tales.
The stories had been fresh and carried good lessons, but older kids tended to think they'd already grown past the age of fairy tales. Because of that, they were a little distracted at first.
That changed once they realized Journey to the West wasn't a fairy tale at all. Before long, they were completely hooked. Even Elysia and Aponia gradually got drawn into the story.
The once noisy sanatorium soon fell silent, with only Durandal's voice filling the courtyard.
She spoke for almost two hours straight, making it all the way to the Monkey King's havoc in Heaven. Everyone was right at the most exciting part when the smell of food drifted over from the backyard, followed by a chorus of growling stomachs from the audience.
Durandal's own stomach hadn't made any noise, but after talking for so long, her mouth was dry and she was getting hungry too. She looked at the crowd, who were still completely absorbed in the story.
"That's all for today, at least for now. It's lunchtime, so everyone should eat first."
The children immediately protested. They surrounded Durandal and begged her to keep going, insisting they could eat while listening.
That sort of unreasonable demand was quickly shut down by Aponia and the older, more sensible teenagers.
Durandal had no choice but to promise she'd continue after the children's afternoon nap. Only then did the little commotion finally settle down.
After Durandal managed to escape the crowd of children, she immediately found herself face-to-face with Elysia. Elysia looked worried and was holding out a bottle of water.
Durandal smiled, took the bottle, and gulped down several mouthfuls. After wetting her dry throat and lips, she finally spoke in a voice that had gone a little hoarse.
"Why're you looking at me like that? I was only telling a story. I'll remember to drink more water this afternoon. I really didn't think that through just now."
Durandal had gotten so caught up in telling the story, and everyone else had gotten so caught up in listening, that nobody had noticed she'd gone the entire time without drinking anything.
That only made Elysia feel worse. She thought she'd failed to do her part as Durandal's partner and hadn't taken proper care of her.
Elysia forced a small smile at Durandal's words, but her thoughts were already focused on how to solve the problem.
--+--
At lunchtime, Eden heard that both Durandal and Elysia were at the sanatorium, so she came over for a free meal with Pardofelis, who'd just returned from shopping.
Pardofelis immediately noticed that Elysia seemed distracted. During a break in the meal, she ran over and asked what had happened. Elysia explained the whole situation and told her what she was worried about.
"Oh, that's all?"
Pardofelis had thought something serious had happened. Once she realized how simple the problem was, she thumped her chest with confidence.
"Don't worry, Elysia! I'll run home in a bit. This afternoon, I guarantee Dudu won't have to talk until her throat's smoking!"
Elysia's eyes lit up, and she quickly asked what Pardofelis had in mind.
After hearing her brilliant idea, Elysia's expression turned a little strange. Still, she nodded and patted Pardofelis on the shoulder.
"I know your rule. One thing for another, right? I've heard you really like shiny things. Bring it over later, and I'll have Eden pay you with a gemstone. How's that?"
"A-A gemstone?!"
Pardofelis's eyes went wide, and she nearly started drooling on the spot.
Realizing she'd lost control of herself, Pardofelis hurriedly sucked the drool back in before it could escape. Then she looked at Elysia and asked in a quiet voice, "Elysia... are you saying Eden has lots of shiny gemstones?"
"That's right!"
Elysia nodded. Eden had actually mentioned before that she'd wanted Aponia to use gemstones as bait to lure Pardofelis in.
But now Durandal had taken over Aponia's storytelling job, and there was no way Durandal would advertise Eden's gemstones for her. That meant Elysia would simply have to step in herself.
What did you call that? Killing two birds with one stone!
She'd make a deal with Pardofelis while also dangling Eden's bait in front of her.
Sure, Pardofelis wasn't a fish. She was more like a cat.
Close enough, right?
And Pardofelis was reacting exactly as Elysia had expected.
Until now, she'd only thought about how rich Eden was. She'd never gone one step further and considered the obvious truth that someone that wealthy would naturally own plenty of valuable treasures.
Shiny treasures, for example.
Her favorite kind.
That meant she'd have to seriously reconsider whether she still wanted to keep firmly rejecting Eden's invitation.
Besides, they'd already slept under the same roof, gone shopping together, and now they were even eating together. Saying no was becoming harder and harder.
More importantly, Pardofelis had started to realize that she actually liked spending time with Eden and the others.
She didn't want to go back to living as a lone wolf every day, wandering around gathering stock before returning to an empty home where there wasn't even anyone to talk to.
People said it was easy to go from simple living to luxury, but hard to go back again. Pardofelis had never heard that saying before, but she'd definitely come to understand the idea behind it.
So after finishing lunch, Pardofelis gave Eden a quick heads-up and slipped back home to dig through the various treasures she'd collected over the years.
--+--
At two-thirty that afternoon, once the children had finished their naps, they carried their little stools back into the courtyard.
This time, Durandal had prepared a table and chair for herself as well. A bottle of water sat right on the tabletop, so there wasn't much chance she'd forget to drink again.
But before Durandal could even sit down, Elysia pulled her into a corner.
Then Durandal found herself holding a large white megaphone...
The cheap kind you'd see all the time at an open-air market.
Durandal: ?
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL