Gate Guardian - Song Of The Frozen Soul

It"s been a week since we last came here in Brightmore Town, and I can safely say that we are quickly adapting to the surroundings. In fact, both Rikkun and I can imagine ourselves living the rest of our lives here in peace. We have blended in this town perfectly and mimicked their lifestyles. We also met different people and made friends with them.

Among our new friends in this very village is Heffy, a local teacher here in this town. Heffy is a dropout college student who once studied in Heightsburg, but for financial reasons, she was forced to stop. She"s one of the first people who made friends with us since she is not so different. I mean, she already had experience in meeting people in big cities, so she was easy to go along with.

Heffy teaches six kindergarten children. She"s doing it all for free because of her heroic principles, and she had this push-cart as her mobile cla.s.sroom. Her push-cart contains all the essential items for teaching such as blackboards, erasers, chalk, crayons, papers, and piles of recycled papers.

When I saw her determination to teach the children, I couldn"t help but be touched. Her willpower in teaching is to be commended, so I decided to have the Brightmore Shrine cla.s.srooms to be her workplace. Heffy was happy when I let her borrowed the cla.s.sroom so from then on, she and the children hiked to the shrine had their cla.s.ses there.

However, there was a problem.

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It"s the supposed first day of their cla.s.ses here in the shrine. Rikkun and I prepared the cla.s.sroom to be used, and everything is neat and tidy. We even decorated the place with balloons and toys so that the children would be happy to have this as their learning place.

Everything was supposed to go well. The six children managed to attend to the shrine on time. But one person is missing… It"s their teacher. We waited and waited… but she didn"t come.

"Where the heck is Heffy!?" Rikkun groaned. "She"s the teacher, and she"s now an hour late!"

I looked at the clock in the cla.s.sroom. It"s already ten, two hours before lunchtime. Their cla.s.ses should have started but Heffy is nowhere to be found. I lowered my face to talk to one of the kids in a mother-like tone.

"Hey, cute girl… Where"s your teacher?"

"U-Um, we went here with Teacher Heffy but she disappeared… Like whoos.h.!.+" The kid told her story with an explosive hand gesture.

"W-Whooos.h.!.+?" My eyes opened wide. 

"Yep yep!" The girl cheerfully smiled.

"Rikkun…" I looked at my lover, and he looked at me. Now I"m worried about Heffy.

"I think the girl might just be exaggerating. You know that idiotic kindergarten teacher. She might have lost her way." Rikkun said.

I wish Rikkun was right.

However! There is one more problem! Without a teacher, the kids will be wasting their time here! They must study so that they won"t turn into an idiot like me! 

Since I already had a lot of nursery books prepared in the cla.s.sroom, I might as well become the teacher of these cute kids! I have experienced teaching children before! I used to teach little Gate Guardians back in the Kozukata Shrine!

"T-Tiara… that determined pumping motion and excited look on your eyes… Don"t tell me you"re going to play teacher?" Rikkun cringed. My lover really knows me well.

"You"re right, Rikkun! I"m going to teach these kids! And you"re going to help me!"

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat…" Rikkun asked with unenthusiasm.

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 It"s been a while since I last taught children of their age so I started in a basic method, which is storytelling. While the kids a.s.semble in the cla.s.sroom and sit on the tatami mat, I sat on the teacher"s seat and told them the storybook my mother had written. 

The book I told is a fairytale adventure that involves a normal human soldier falling in love with the dragon queen. It took about an hour for me to finish the book but the kids seemed interested enough that they all paid attention until I finished.

"... and then, the dragon queen threw away her crown and lived with the knight in peace… the end~" I said in a jolly tone as I closed the book.

"Woooow!" ,  "The knight is awesome!" , "The queen is awesome too!" Those are the words the children said. It makes my heart filled with joy that they stuck their ears to hear the story up to the end.

Suddenly, one of the kids raised her hand. "Teacher Tiara! Teacher Tiara! Please tell us another story!"

"You want another story, big boy?" I asked with a cheerful smile as I browsed throughout the compendium of kiddy books.

"Yes! Yes! We want a story about how babies are made!" The second kid followed up. "I want to know how we are made!"

"Pffffffft!!!"

I almost puked my breakfast. I never would have thought that these kids are already curious about that thing! I need to calm these kids for good.

"W-Well, when a man loves a woman, a stork delivers-"

"Eeeeeh, that is a lie, Teacher Tiara!" One of the smarter kids shouted. "My father cooks storks, and we did not found any baby inside!"

T-They kill and eat storks!? Just how absurd is this town! Moreover, I want to try it too! What does it taste like!?

I was dumbstruck, trying to process my thoughts and formulate another excuse about this vulgar topic on hand. I have to make a story that will keep their innocence until they grow up and learn the truth in this evil-tainted world.

Suddenly, the kids started to swarm to Rikkun who is just there on standby. They started to pull Rikkun"s hand as their curiosity dominated their mind. "Teacher Ric! Teacher Ric! Where do babies come from!?"

"In the v.a.g.i.n.a," Rikkun answered without any brakes!

"Ooooooh…" The poor children finally had their lightbulb brightened.

In an instant, my fist flew off towards Rikkun"s nose, blasting him out of the cla.s.sroom!

"Kapwachack!!!" Rikkun cried.

"YOU SHOULDN"T HAVE ANSWERED THAT!!!" 

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It"s already afternoon. Since it"s almost summer, the children are already soaked with sweat. There are no electric lines here, so we can"t even rely on air-condition or electric fan. Good thing there is a small lake on the backside of the shrine. The lake supplies water to the small waterfall that flows into the river of the Brightmore Town, so we expect that the waters there are cool enough to refresh the children.

From being a teacher into a caretaker. I did very well in interacting with the kids. I let them soak into the water and they started swimming and playing games. Since they are kids, it is inevitable for them to play around even in a hazardous manner.

"Hey, don"t run around the lake! You might slip!" I sermoned the boys who are playing tag.

"Don"t throw the stones to the lake! You might hit someone" I sermoned the others who are playing skipping stones.

"Don"t recklessly jump unto the water! The rocks may injure you!" I sermoned to the kid who was about to take a dive in the shallow lake.

I held my chest and sighed. Being a caretaker of these energetic kids stress me a little, but I"m used to it. The kids here are surprisingly obedient and not so stubborn. I think I"ll become a great kindergarten teacher… or even a mother.

Speaking of kid"s stubbornness and being a mother... 

I heard a familiar shout near me. I also heard sets of footsteps as if somebody is running towards the lake.

"CANNONBALL!!!"

Rikkun dived unto the lake and made a big splash, big enough to blast a tsunami that made everyone soaking wet. The worse victim is me since I"m the one nearest to his cras.h.i.+ng site. I"ve not changed to my bathing suit yet, and now my shrine maiden dress is all wet.

"Ahahaha! That was fun!" Rikkun laughed. The children laughed too.

"Ahahaha~" I laughed too… all while materializing my gauntlet Weapon Gem. Slowly, I went to the lake and approached Rikkun.

"W-Wait, Tiara… W-What are you going to do with that gauntlet-" Rikkun"s voice cracked as if he was already begging for mercy?

"DISCIPLINARY ACTION!!!"

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Two hours before the sunset, Heffy finally made her appearance in the shrine. She is filled with twigs, branches, and even rocks on her hair and clothes that made her look like a survivor of the jungle. 

She said that she slipped when trekking this morning so she rolled all the way to the foot of the mountain. Unfortunately, since there"s no more guide to the place she had fallen unto, she was lost in the woods and had to climb the rocks just to return to the trail. It took her a whole day in the process, so when she went to the shrine, the kids have already ended their cla.s.ses with me.

"Goodbye Teacher Tiara! Goodbye Teacher Ric! We"ll see you again tomorrow!" The kids waved their farewell to us.

"Goodbye! Take care!" I cheerfully waved my hand as I see them off the horizon.

Ah, teaching kids is so fun. I want to teach them another time, but I think that would be impossible. Not at least when Rikkun is around.

Seriously, Rikkun is a perfect bad example for the kids.