As soon as Seneca stepped out of Yulia's house, she could no longer stand still.

  "I'm sorry, Kito. I need to head back to the orphanage right away."

  "I understand. Take care."

  "You too, Kito!"

  Before she could finish her sentence, Seneca dashed off.

  Bouncing eagerly as she made her way back to the orphanage, Seneca went straight to Emily's room as soon as she arrived.

  "Emily! Can you lend me some fabric and a needle? I’ll do as much sewing as needed!"

  Seeing the bright expression on Seneca’s face, Emily couldn’t help but smile in return.

  ...

  From there, Seneca sewed tirelessly.

  The orphanage's clothes were old and worn, with holes appearing quickly.

  Rather than fixing them one by one, it was far more efficient to repair them all at once.

  Seeing this need, Seneca took it upon herself to repair every piece of clothing in the orphanage.

  At first, she made plenty of mistakes.

  Her stitching was rough, and there were times when she didn’t quite know what she was doing.

  But after many days of repeating the same task, her mind grew sharper, and her sewing skills improved rapidly.

  She learned how to do basting stitches, overcasting, backstitching—everything.

  Since this was a task for the orphanage, even imperfect work was met with praise.

  Failure no longer bothered her.

  Once that was done, she began to sew the same fabric over and over again.

  With limited materials, she would sew the fabric together, then undo it, repeating the cycle.

  However, the time spent unravelling the fabric quickly became more tedious than she expected, and she soon grew bored.

  Eventually, Seneca asked Emily to introduce her to a work studio.

  She wasn’t yet in a position to work full-time, so she made a deal to accept commissions in exchange for payment.

  Emily managed to convey Seneca’s situation to the studio people with skill, something only possible because of the trust the studio had in Emily. Seneca was deeply grateful for that.

  Over time, Seneca’s sewing speed increased.

  Though she still couldn’t compare to Emily, she had become impressively skilled for someone just starting out.

  In the meantime, Seneca delivered medicinal herbs to Yulia three times.

  It seemed Seneca’s judgment was spot-on, as Yulia praised her for bringing high-quality herbs in excellent condition.

  Kito, the one who had introduced Seneca to Yulia, was relieved.

  Kito mentioned that, in the future, they would ask her to gather more difficult-to-find materials, but for now, normal herbs were necessary for Kito’s training, so Seneca decided to gather them proactively.

  She ventured into the forest three times, but since she stayed near the edges, she never encountered any wild animals.

  ...

  A month passed, and Seneca’s sewing skills had improved considerably.

  Compared to other skills, the amount of time Seneca could spend sewing was surprisingly long, and she began to see it as a blessing.

  Nord, too, was working hard on his sword training in the orphanage garden, but there were limits to how long he could swing his sword.

  In contrast, sewing was something that could be done for much longer.

  Seneca began to think that if she could use this to her advantage, perhaps a path forward would open up for her.

  Having become so absorbed in her sewing, Seneca realised she had neglected her adventurer duties despite having registered as one.

  Still, she felt she was on the verge of achieving something, so she chose to continue her life focused on sewing.

  ...

  For more than a month, Seneca continued to face her skills head-on.

  Aside from helping with simple tasks at the orphanage and gathering medicinal herbs, she spent virtually all of her time sewing.

  She worked tirelessly without taking many breaks, and before long, even Sister Cire and the others started to worry.

  When someone asked how she was feeling, Seneca always insisted she was fine, but her energy appeared to be waning.

  One day, Seneca even began dreaming about sewing fabric.

  She had repeated the motion of "stitch, stitch" so much that she occasionally finished a piece of sewing without even realising it.

  She had become so adept that she could sew with either hand, equally well.

  One day, Kito arrived at the orphanage.

  "Seneca's behaviour has started to become odd, so we should take away the fabric, thread, and needles for a while."

  Upon hearing this, Sister Cire, Emily, and the Headmaster all nodded in agreement.

  It had become clear that something needed to be done since Seneca began telling the younger children her own fairy tale about the "Prickly Mountain". Though they’d been hesitant to intervene, Seneca had become so absorbed in her projects that making a decision had proven difficult.

  Thanks to Kito's suggestion, Seneca was temporarily taken into her care.

  At Kito's house, Seneca spent her days in a daze.

  Kito, noticing the ck of direction in her routine, handed her a wooden sword.

  Immediately, Seneca, recalling the energy she had when Lucius was around, began practising her sword swings once more.

  Her radiant smile returned.

  ...

  Three days had passed since Seneca had been brought to Kito's house.

  Today, Seneca ventured out into the city.

  She needed to look at some armour, for she intended to become a fully-fledged adventurer. At the orphanage, she only had hand-me-downs, but once she had saved enough money, she hoped to buy her own set.

  She made her way to "Pepeck’s Shop", a store known for its abundant selection of beginner armour.

  Pepeck, a friendly and affable man, ran the store, and his prices were fair, earning the recommendation of the guild.

  Upon entering the shop, Seneca’s eyes were immediately drawn to a suit of armour made from wild bear leather, dispyed just inside the entrance.

  "Ah!!"

  Seneca’s sudden excmation startled Pepeck, who hurried over from the back of the shop.

  "Is something the matter?"

  "Hey, Mr. Pepeck, is this armour stitched with thread?"

  "Yes, it is..."

  "Please teach me how to do it! Also, I need some leather scraps and tools! I’m really good at sewing!"

  Pepeck, initially taken aback, soon warmed to her enthusiasm and kindly agreed to show Seneca the ropes.

  ...

  After receiving Pepeck's guidance, Seneca began practising sewing monster leather at Kito's house.

  Kito, seeing the spark of excitement in her eyes, allowed it, but set clear limits on the time she could spend working.

  For the first two days, Seneca used an awl to punch holes into the leather before stitching it together, as Pepeck had instructed.

  It had cost her a fair bit of money to gather the necessary tools, but she was confident that, with time, she would be able to save up again, and so didn’t dwell on it.

  Although there were differences between sewing cloth and leather, the basic techniques were the same.

  Once she got accustomed to it, Seneca was certain she would improve quickly.

  Though she had eagerly thrown herself into sewing once more, she didn’t feel that the situation had changed much from when she had obsessively stitched fabric.

  ...

  When Kito stopped her from sewing, Seneca resorted to practising sword swings instead.

  However, even her sword practice was becoming excessive, and Kito began to consider putting a stop to it as well.

  As Seneca swung her sword, she pondered what path she should take next.

  Her interest in leather had stemmed from her belief that it would help her in her adventuring.

  For instance, continuing to use the awl had allowed her to better understand the properties of leather.

  This knowledge might prove useful when cutting through monsters with a bde in the future.

  However, Seneca had initially hoped that her skills would directly benefit her in combat.

  But no matter how much she thought about it, the answer eluded her.

  ...

  Perhaps she should practice cutting leather with a bde instead. That could be more useful for her adventuring career.

  Yet, for now, Seneca remained focused on following Yulia’s advice and working on honing her skills.

  "If only I could sew leather directly with a needle..."

  Seneca swung her sword in a wide arc.

  The force was enough to slice through a kobold with ease.

  It was a perfect strike.

  Satisfied with her practice, Seneca recalled her earlier words and suddenly had a revetion.

  "That’s it! If I could sew leather directly, that could be useful in combat!"

  ...

  With newfound determination, Seneca dove into a flurry of experimentation.

  However, Kito quickly intervened and stopped her.

  Kito didn’t want to hinder Seneca’s enthusiasm, but she knew that trying to force the process would get her nowhere.

  This was because Seneca had begun to wildly jab the leather with her needle, as though attacking it with the relentless force of a woodpecker.

  Kito’s friend, Lucius, was a genius, but at times his intelligence would falter greatly. In such moments, it was up to Kito and Lucius to step in.

  When Seneca was tired, she sometimes lost the ability to think properly.

  At that moment, Seneca had been exhausting herself by overdoing the stitching.

  Although she had begun to recover, the prospect of her falling back into that same frenzy was something Kito could not allow.

  Kito’s parents, too, stepped in and succeeded in persuading Seneca to stop.

  Soon, Seneca refocused all her energy on thinking things through.

  As a result, she swiftly arrived at a solution.