The next day, Mannat’s father returned to the clearing in the evening. He brought bedding for Mannat, his clothes, and other utilities, like soap that Mannat was very happy to see. Mannat had never thought he would one day miss something so basic, but he did and it was grieving. Later, the two dug a pit together at some distance from the hut and created a semi-private stall for Mannat to do his private business. It had three planked walls, a hole in the ground with a bucket inside, and an open roof. The wind made him queasy the first time Mannat relieved himself there. The sound of the various living insets that he could hear was charming in its own way.

They ate dinner at seven while the sky was still bright. The witch had disappeared somewhere again and refused to join them, but a guest did. The raven arrived with the cart. At first, it irritated Bhadur and later joined them for early dinner. Raesh wasn’t surprised to learn that it was the Witch’s bird; It was too feisty and contentious.

So feisty that one time it stole a thick rib from Raesh’s hands and flew away to a distant safe zone—the hut’s roof. Gande sent the ribs, and the gesture made Mannat warm inside.

“How’s Pandit? Is he still bedridden?”

“No, not anymore; he’s brought the ribs if you want to know,” Raesh said. They were both eating, slurping the meat off the bones. Gande really knew how to cook meat. It was delicious and made Mannat want to return home just so he could eat such a thing every day. Raesh threw a clean bone into the pot and licked his fingers. “A beer would have been perfect,” he said and let out a short burp. He rubbed his hands together then remember he was forgetting something. “Oh, yes, the boy also sent a message. Do you want to hear?”

“Sure...” Mannat said nonchalantly. He was too late to notice the sneer on his father’s face and could not stop him. He knew the kind of filth that filled his friend's mind. The foolish boy couldn’t have said something shameful to his father… Mannat’s face grew pale.

Raesh started. “He said, and I quote, ‘Tell him to come back soon or I’ll make my move, and you won’t have a wife waiting for you no more.’ End quote.”

It is by no means an exaggeration to say Mannat was speechless. Even his father’s loud booming laughter couldn’t lighten his mood. He was crushed, depressed, hopeless, and blushing. Seeing his son so serious and thoughtful, Raesh decided to tell him the truth.

“He was making a joke, son. The old man wouldn’t let him be so despicable.”

Mannat blushed harder, and even his neck turned red. He didn’t want to have this discussion with his father. A teeny-tiny part of him wished the Witch could return. The other parts of him dug it a hole and buried it in the depths of his mind. That would teach it a lesson.

“I have to say,” Raesh said. “I never thought you would take the girl so seriously.”

Mannat looked away. There was melancholy in his voice when he spoke. “I promised to marry her if I became a blacksmith.”

Raesh felt conflicted. Things had changed. He could have helped the boy in the matters of blacksmithing. So that even if Mannat hadn’t gotten the job at that time Raesh could have helped him become a smith. Now the whole village knew the Witch had taken Mannat under her wing, and so did the old man.

This… he never thought his son would also have to face the world for love. He had brought this upon the two kids. Eventually, he sighed and held Mannat’s shoulders.

“It’ll be all right,” Raesh said. “Now finish the pot before the sun goes down. I have to go back soon.”

“You have to take the pot back?”

Raesh grinned and ruffled Mannat’s hair. “I have to tell Gande that you ate every single rib and you liked it.”

“How’s the shop?”

“It is busy,” Raesh said. “I did lose a very good helper after all. He was good enough to make the assistants sent by the guild seem like mere laborers. It doesn’t feel fair to the boy to take them in.”

Mannat was speechless. He knew his father was merely praising him to lift his mood. However, it only made him feel bad. He held a rib in his fingers, but no longer had the appetite. He would feed it to the raven when it comes back. The bird wasn’t bad company, only a bit scary.

“I’m sorry,” Mannat said.

Raesh slurped down the meat from the last rib and threw the cleaned bone in the extra pot. He then put his hands on the lower back and stretched his stomach. A pop came from his back and he moaned in pleasure. “It’s not that bad.” He told the boy. “It’s overtime and long night shifts until my helper returns. However, that is nothing new. I used to spend nights at the workshop before he joined me. You should know.”

Mannat wasn’t feeling him so he ruffled his hair. When the boy did not wake up from his trance, Raesh bent forward and picked him up. Mannat hiccupped in horror when he realized his father’s intentions.

“NO!” he screamed, but Raesh had made up his mind. “Yes,” said the man showing his yellow-tinted teeth, and started tickling him all over. He forced Mannat to laugh until he cried. He only left after making sure Mannat could spend the night alone there.

He would have stayed if not for the Witch, and the boy didn’t want him there either. What could he do?

“I’ll come back tomorrow at the same time,” Raesh said from the cart before waving goodbye and leaving for the night. Understanding he couldn’t help Mannat formally, he had decided to give the boy a sense of security. He would make sure the boy knew he wasn’t’ alone. His family and friends were waiting for him back in the village. He wouldn’t let the boy guard his heart so tight that he loses his sense of humanity. This was a father’s vigilance and love for his son. Thankfully, the Witch didn’t particularly care or disturb their time together.

Mannat’s days passed working out the same routine. Every day, for the next four days, Raesh joined him at the clearing in the evening with cooked meat. They would have early dinner together before Raesh would leave for the night. They talked about meaningless things and talked about work.

Raesh told him about the wandering group of performers performing in the town and asked if he wanted to go look. Mannat politely declined.

On the seventh morning in the garden, Mannat pulled a juicy and plump carrot from the ground and threw it into the pot he was using as a container. The pot had almost no baby carrots. Including the one just now, Mannat had harvested ten carrots out of which only two were the size of a thumb. An efficiency rate of 80% was enough to graduate him from the garden.

The difficulty was much lower than he first anticipated and it had only gotten lower as he figured out the details. He only needed to check three things. The carrots age, the size of their stem, and the amount of mana it held. The biggest problem he faced was in differentiating a carrot that had a mana value of 1/1, and one with mana value over 10. Common sense dictated, the more mana there was in the root, the bigger it should be. He thought so too until he realized the value was an indication of mana surplus, not of quantity absorbed by the root.

Age was just a number for the carrots in the garden. The mana absorbed and digested by them was the only factor contributing to their growth. This was the reason why he kept finding baby carrots with an age of over seven weeks and mana value above thirty. Such roots were diseased and rotting. They only survived thanks to the constant stream of mana entering their nerves every day. Otherwise, they would have simply plopped over and died.

The result of this weeklong training was best visible through his increased Willpower. The cold and the night no longer disturbed him. The Witch and her antics no longer disturbed him. That was the biggest boon he had received from his increased mental attributes.

The skill ‘Inspection’ comfortably sat at level six. He was proud of the result but not jovial about it. Unfortunately, the garden had lost its value for him in the short run. His skill growth had stagnated. He knew his efficiency in gathering healthy carrots wouldn’t have a serious jump for a while, and he didn’t have time to waste.

Sighing, Mannat inspected another carrot. He looked at it and a transparent blue box appeared floating in front of his eyes. Inspection evolved when it reached level six, and now he no longer needed to touch objects to ‘Inspect’ them.

[Carrot] [Root plant] [Edible]

[Age: 5 day] [Mana: 1/1] [Status: Healthy]

He decided to leave it alone for now. With the capacity to absorb only one point of mana every day, there was a high chance of it being a baby carrot.

Finally, he ended the training for the day, picked up the pot, and walked out of the garden.