Sylvain huffed and denied their accusation self-righteously, "What scam? I didn't really scam her! Infact I've helped her hasten the book spirit's recovery!"
"Hmm.. it makes sense.." Ignis, with his deadpan face nodded without doubting Sylvain's reasoning.
"Yeah.. that must be the case.." The rest also followed, not feeling guilty anymore after hearing Sylvain's explanation.
The guardian's realm was also field with spiritual powers that Wisey needed for her recovery, so they didn't refute Sylvain's reason.
After that, they mumbled the password in their heart and opened the book, searching for the method on how to operate the burner.
While the four others were doing this, Little Han and Amihan sat quietly in the plushie playground.
Amihan's task was to look after Little Han while the rest prepared his food.
The two little creatures stared at each other. Little Han was comfortably sitting on the soft mat while Amihan was squatting in front looking at him full of curiosity.
"Godma????" Little Han titled his head, unsure about why his little godma stayed still on a certain distance from him, not moving at all.
"Godma is watching you.." Amihan answered Little Han's curious eyes.
Little Han did not understand Amihan's intention of just watching over him. All of his playmates like Estella and Benson had always been closely interacting with him. He thought that Amihan was feeling scared.
Little Han thought for a while, before crawling towards the area where the plushies were placed. He looked around and saw a cute white bunny plushie, he looked at Amihan who stayed at her spot, watching him intently.
He noticed that the plushie was white like Amihan's garment, so with a satisfied smile on his face, he dragged the plushie back to Amihan.
Little Han stopped right in front of Amihan and placed the white plush bunny gently. He looked at Amihan expectantly with his sparkling crystal blue eyes.
"For me?" Amihan was unsure of what to do. But being pressured by Little Han's gaze, she took the plushie with a smile and shyly said, "Thank you.."
"Jiheeeheee!!" Little Han grinned widely seeing his godma smiling. He started to crawl around the plushie playground delivering plushies to Amihan, much to her helplessness.
Soon Amihan also took the initiative to find a plushie that would suit Little Han too. With that, the little game of giving plushies to each other started.
This scene was witnessed by the other guardians who managed to finish a bottle of Little Han's milk with painstaking efforts.
"Little Han, my godson! This is your milk~~" Celeste grabbed the bottle and sprinted towards the plushie playground, joining Little Han and Amihan.
The three male guardians were shocked, clearly taken aback by Celeste's action. She snatched away the opportunity to feed Little Han!
"Aye!!" Little Han heard food and he was happy. He received the bottle of milk and let Celeste carry him in her arms.
Celeste felt a great sense of achievement seeing Little Han drink the milk without any hesitation. Soon, the rest observed Little Han quietly as he slowly drifted to sleep.
They gently laid him on the crib, making sure that he is tucked in nice and comfy. Seeing that he had drifted to sleep the guardians observed him, as a little silver ball of light twinkle in his heart area.
"It was as if this opportunity was arranged by the Overseer for us.." Celeste finally broke the silence and mumbled with a nostalgic smile.
"Indeed, how perfect the situation is, for us to let the young ones agree to take Little Han in this realm." Ignis also commented.
"What would happen if we were not able to nourish Little Han before he reached a year old? Why can't we do it in the land?" Zale was curious, in fact the three older guardians Celeste, Sylvain and Ignis had been adamant to think of a way to bring Little Han into the guardian realm.
"If we nourish Little Han in the land, it will again trigger the ringing of the bells, just like when he was born. With the chaos that was happening in the land, the people who only think of evil will no longer hide in the dark." Sylvain explained the answer to the two younger guardians, Zale and Amihan.
"Little Han needs spiritual nourishment as it would be detrimental to his health when he reaches a year old. His body will not be awakened until he is seven years old, he could not use the mana available in his surroundings. Moreover, what he needed was not mana but our holy powers, the thing inside him might throw his small body into chaos." He continued.
"That is why before he reaches a year old, we have to carefully place a seal in his body to ensure that the power in him is controlled until he reaches seven. While he is here, we nourish his body to prepare for that moment." Celeste continued.
"I see then.. Let's do our best." It was rare for Zale to act prim and proper. Perhaps it was because Little Han was his godson that he also took the matter seriously.
"Yes, this is all that we can do. Even as guardians, we cannot freely disrupt the people's destiny." Ignis concluded.
–
Back in the earthly realm, at the Temple Dungeon.
Eli was already facing the investigators and the High Priest.
It was already the start of her training. However, the rest of the team insisted on witnessing her first day to show support for her.
They were now in an underground training field. It was as big as a running race track, even the height could amount to several stories.
Eli wondered how the Temple managed to maintain these underground facilities when she thought that all the Temple people did was to pray, fast and read the scriptures.
"This is one of the training grounds we have for our newly recruited knights. We only have a handful of new recruits annually. The temple had specific requirements for being a knight, so we can freely use this space for your training." The High Priest explained.
He was still wearing his priestly robe, which seemed to be not appropriate for this kind of place.
Joab and Keren were standing silently behind him, waiting for his orders. Today, they wore training clothes, the same as Eli wore. It was obvious that they would be the ones to train Eli moving forward.
"This moment, we have to test your combat skills. Use everything that you have and fight these two people here. Survive for five minutes. The spar will stop when you are knocked unconcious." The High Priest gestured to Joab and Keren to step forward and spar with Eli.
Leon, General Farauld and Nathan stood in the spectator's area silently.
Although they are worried about Eli, they didn't find the activity too much because for them, this was the most common way to gauge how a trainer would craft their training plans for their disciples.
The teacher had to put their disciple to stress and pressure tests in order to capture all of the disciple's combat and survival abilities, habits and even temperament.
Joab and Keren stepped forward and stretched their bodies, looking at Eli with a meaningful gaze, "We won't hold back~"
Eli positioned herself in a battle pose, wielding her wooden short sword without any hint of fear in facing the vice captains of the temple knight.
"I'll be in your care!" She politely said, while her face was saying 'Bring it on!"