This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 326: Maple Burn · Water Bearer · Coward

Every few days, Maple Mu would take her to train her flying skills because she believed Maple Cang was too concerned with her hairstyle and hairline, flying too slowly, which could be a disadvantage in escape and combat situations.

One day, Maple Cang couldn’t take it anymore. She mustered the courage to speak up: "I don’t want to fly that fast. I’m only 8 years old, it’s the age for growing my hair."

Maple Mu: ?

Rita, who had just bitten into a particularly crispy fruit, froze, afraid to move a muscle. The fruit she was eating was especially crunchy, and the sound it made when bitten was strangely amusing. She tried to shrink into the background as much as possible.

Maple Cang, possibly realizing that she had reached her breaking point, took a deep breath and continued: "Don’t you think your forehead is the brightest in the house?"

Maple Mu smiled. A smile that was equal parts amused and irritated.

Rita quietly rummaged through the small bag that Maple Mu had made for her, pulling out a few fruit that could boost mana, preparing for her healing skills.

That evening, Maple Cang, with a new, messy hairstyle like a bird’s nest, was sobbing and complaining to Maple Syrup.

Maple Mu, arms crossed, looked completely refreshed.

Eventually, Maple Syrup promised to find a potion recipe that could help Maple Cang grow her hair back, which stopped her tears. She shyly wiped away her tears, possibly feeling embarrassed. After all, even though Maple Mu had been angry, she didn’t actually pull out her precious hair. She had just… well, given her a good beating.

Maple Cang gave Maple Mu a smile, indicating she wasn’t mad anymore, and said, "Well, when I make it, I’ll give it to you first, Sister."

Maple Mu: ?

Maple Syrup & Rita: …

Within ten minutes, Maple Cang was crying again after another beating from Maple Mu. Maple Syrup didn’t even try to stop it… The key issue was that Maple Mu’s hairline seemed to be a bit higher than the norm.

Over time, Maple Syrup formed a regular team, though most of her teammates were wild oak owls she met outside, with only a small portion being her close family members.

It’s worth noting that Maple Syrup had twelve siblings in total, and she had so many younger relatives that Rita couldn’t keep track. Thankfully, Maple Syrup’s relationship with them wasn’t very close. She thought that all nine of her sisters and three brothers were idiots for choosing such terrible partners.

Since one of Maple Syrup’s sisters had decided to have a mixed-blood oak owl with her partner—and even with her parents’ consent—Maple Syrup had moved with her three daughters to a distant place, afraid that her daughters might be influenced negatively.

Using her Legion Orders, she formed a legion. With that, her daily gains increased, and she frequently brought home spoils of war for her three daughters. Sometimes it was skills, sometimes items, sometimes equipment—but each time, it was fair and equal. Stay connected through novelbuddy

She would always bring back three items of similar value and then have the three sisters roll a wooden dice to determine who would pick first.

This wooden dice was handmade by Maple Syrup. It could block any interference with luck, and the more skillful the user, the lower the roll. It was her special dice used for dungeon runs.

If, on any given day, one of the items she brought back was particularly great, and the other two were less impressive, she’d place the best item at the top of a cupboard and wait to accumulate two more good items before letting the three sisters pick.

The sisters would often exchange items privately or make compromises, but Maple Syrup never interfered. She only ensured that when the items were distributed, she remained absolutely impartial.

She would declare that Maple Mu would eventually accomplish feats that even Maple Syrup herself couldn’t surpass—Maple Mu was her pride.

She would say that Maple Cang was the most irreplaceable and precious one in the family, a divine treasure granted to her.

She swore on the heavens that Maple Burn was the most adorable and promising oak owl in all of Forest Sea, fulfilling every aspect of what she imagined a daughter could be. And she could even present solid proof: After giving birth to Maple Burn, she had no plans to have any more offspring.

Rita could only think: See? I told you, being around strong people really helps you learn!

It hadn’t been long, and yet here she was, already learning how to "carry water" like a pro.

And clearly, Maple Mu and Maple Cang were all for this. They were so amused they could barely hold their laughter.

Maple Cang glanced at Maple Burn and, taking out a handkerchief to wipe the corner of her mouth, helplessly said, "How old are you, and you’re still drooling when you laugh?"

Rita: ?

As Maple Burn grew, she began to show an interest in cooking and gradually took over the family’s meals. If it weren’t for the fact that she had acquired an S-level skill called Personal Settings over the past few centuries, which allowed her to turn off the effects of certain skills, she wouldn’t dare cook for Maple Syrup and the others.

Currently, she was only able to cook dishes with a score below 85, but if she kept cooking like this for several more years, it would be unacceptable. If, by then, she managed to cook dishes that could add stat points to Maple Syrup and the others, she wouldn’t be able to explain herself.

Once Maple Syrup and Maple Mu noticed Maple Burn’s talent for cooking, they started gathering recipes for her—both from Forest Sea and Lania Kaia.

Maple Cang, having acquired two jewelry crafting recipes by chance, also began to immerse herself in jewelry making.

As Maple Mu leveled up, she began to believe she was strong enough to protect both Maple Burn and Maple Cang, so when Maple Syrup wasn’t around, she would take her two younger sisters out to level up. The dungeons of Forest Sea didn’t belong to anyone in particular—usually, whoever grabbed the loot got it—but most people adhered to an unwritten rule of waiting until the group was full before triggering the boss. Once inside, everyone would just fight their own battles.

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However, many of their teammates would pay Maple Burn for healing, since her healing talents had become famous throughout the area.

Cotton Candy’s five skills were, respectively, the equivalent of Expert-level healing skills, a buff, a five-minute window where she could cast all skills without triggering cooldowns, a reduction in all skill cooldowns, and… the fifth skill—Revival!

"I say Cotton Candy has not expired until it’s expired": Revives a soul that has been dead for no longer than one full day. The casting time is five minutes, and the cooldown time is ten days (the cooldown cannot be reduced by any means; the countdown only begins after a successful resurrection).

But Rita never allowed outsiders to use her fifth skill. Even if the owl in question had orange-red wings, she wouldn’t compromise.

For example, now… A group of owls with orange-red wings were blocking their doorstep, asking her to use her skill to revive an oak owl who had just died.

Rita refused. She lowered her head, tightly gripping the wings of Maple Mu and Maple Cang, saying, "I want to save this skill for Maple Syrup, Maple Mu, and Maple Cang. I don’t want to take any risks."

One of the owls became enraged and, disregarding the others’ attempts to stop him, shouted angrily, "They’re fine! They don’t even need this skill! Is it that you just don’t want to save him? He just turned 14 yesterday!"

Rita didn’t hesitate. She refused again.

Historical records about the oak owl leaders’ evaluations of Maple Syrup’s two fallen daughters helped shape their image, but there was a clear difference in tone.

The leaders either mourned, admired, or lamented Maple Mu, but when it came to Maple Burn, their words were often overly polite, with an undertone of dissatisfaction.

Even if Maple Burn had been timid and cowardly in the past, she must have had her own convictions—otherwise, how could she have deserved the love and pain of Maple Syrup and Maple Cang? Her contribution to the oak owls must have been extraordinarily subtle, or else everyone wouldn’t have treated her with such ambivalence despite her resurrection skill.

A coward’s courage is scarce. It will always be used in the places she cares about the most.