A Study Session and an Unexpected Visitor
Meilin crumpled up the candy wrapper.
"Ugh, shut up. Anyway, what did you even come all the way to the girls' dorm for?"
Simon clapped his hands with a bright, easygoing smile.
"Meilin, your style looks great today. Did you do something new with your hair?"
"Hey!!"
Her face flushed red as she shouted.
"Quit with those Dick-flavored compliments and just tell me what you want!"
Simon answered right away.
"Let's do a study group this weekend."
"Haah, so you did have an ulterior motive."
Meilin covered her forehead with a sigh, then crossed her arms with a blank expression.
"Why should I? I study better on my own."
"It's better together, though. We're all good at different subjects, so we can ask each other stuff... I mean, obviously you're good at everything, but teaching other people helps it stick in your memory too, you know?"
"I mean... that's true."
She pretended to think it over for a moment before speaking.
"Who's coming?"
Simon counted off on his fingers.
"Camibarez said she'd come right away, and Dick went down to Rochest, but he said he'd be here by this afternoon at the latest."
"Fine. I've got some studying to finish, so I can't come right now, but I'll drop by in an hour or two."
"See you then."
After parting with Meilin, Simon headed to an empty lecture hall he'd borrowed with permission from the groundskeeper. He pushed four desks together and spread out his textbooks.
Setup's done. Let's do this!
Simon was stretching his arms and gearing himself up when a knock sounded at the door.
"Simon! Are you in there?"
"Oh, Cami. Come on in."
The door swung open and Camibarez walked into the lecture hall in her casual clothes.
Wearing a cheerful pastel dress, she beamed as she took the seat across from Simon.
"I can't believe we get to study together even on the weekend! I'm so excited!"
Simon blinked.
"You really do love studying, huh."
"..."
Her eyes darted around for a moment, then she suddenly whipped her gaze toward the textbook Simon had laid open.
"Oh! Are you studying Hemomancy?"
"Yeah. Since you're here, I figured we'd start with Hemomancy. I've got a lot of things I want to ask you—is that okay?"
"Yes! Yes! As much as you want!"
Camibarez pulled her Summoning textbook out of her bag and flashed him a smile.
"Then can I ask you things too, Simon?"
"Of course! I don't know how much help I'll be, but at the very least I can think through things with you."
The two of them dove straight into exam prep.
It was peaceful.
Inside the lecture hall, the only sound was the soft scratch-scratch of quills moving across paper, while a cool breeze drifted in through the window, stirring the curtains.
For a moment it felt like a perfect little world, and Simon paused his quill to take a long, deep breath.
"Simon~"
Just then, Camibarez called out to him.
"I don't really get this one."
"Which one is it?"
Simon checked the question she'd marked with a star. His face lit up.
"Ah, it's a zombie question! You solve this one using the Decay Formula."
"The Decay Formula?"
"Yeah, I only just learned about it yesterday myself..."
Simon, delighted to have stumbled on a question he actually knew, launched into the explanation with enthusiasm.
Camibarez tilted her head as she listened.
"So you apply the formula like this. But if you read the question again, doesn't it say the season is hot and humid summer? In summer, decay progresses faster, so you factor in the acceleration value..."
...
Camibarez stared at Simon as if under a spell.
A breeze slipped in through the window, stirring his hair and the hem of his shirt.
The faint furrow in his brow as he concentrated. The taut line of muscle visible along his forearm as he rolled up his sleeve while explaining the problem.
The momentary pause when his words ran dry, the brief struggle to figure out how to phrase the explanation—and then the way he broke into a bright, boyish smile as he kept talking.
"Okay, so you add it all up like this and you've got your answer. Make sense?"
Simon looked up and asked, and Camibarez jolted back to life.
"Yes! Yes! I got it! The Decay Formula, and then you have to factor in the seasonal acceleration value on top of that, right?"
"That's right! Glad it seems to have clicked."
Simon smiled warmly at her, then turned his attention back to his own problem.
She pressed a hand to her chest and let out a small sigh of relief.
...Aaargh, why is it suddenly so much harder to focus?
The two of them resumed their exam prep, asking each other about the things they didn't know and filling in the gaps in their knowledge.
Simon, who had never had any experience with schoolwork before coming to Kizen, found Camibarez's hard-won study know-how a huge help.
"Make sure you check this part. Professor Silaje repeated it three whole times."
"Got it."
Simon had his notebook open and was jotting down the points Camibarez had flagged when—
Click!
Along with the sound of the door opening, Meilin waved and strolled into the lecture hall.
"You're here?"
"Welcome, Meilin!"
The two greeted her warmly.
"Be grateful. I'm only helping out because we're in the same squad. If either of you gets expelled, running the squad with whoever's left becomes a real pain."
Meilin muttered on and on as she sat down and unpacked her things.
Simon blinked in surprise at the textbooks and notebooks she pulled out. He hadn't really paid attention before, but her workload was clearly substantial—she was using more than two or three notebooks per subject.
She spread the notebooks out in a row, tied her hair back tightly with a hairband, and filled her quill with ink.
"You know, this place is really nice~"
Meilin said, looking around.
The room was spacious, there was hardly any noise, and a cool breeze drifted through—the atmosphere was perfect for studying.
"I'd say it beats the dorm study room. Glad you came, huh?"
"...I dunno."
She deflected awkwardly and pulled out her textbook. Simon and Camibarez exchanged a glance and quietly smiled.
"A-anyway! If there's anything you don't know, ask me anything."
As Meilin said this, her eyes flicked to Camibarez's textbook. There was a question marked with a star.
"Oh, this one uses the Decay Formula."
"Yes! Simon explained it to me!"
Meilin blinked.
"Cami, you seriously didn't know the Decay Formula? You scored in the 80s on Summoning in the last test, so surely..."
In an instant.
Camibarez's face flushed crimson, as if her true feelings had been laid bare.
"I-I didn't know it!!"
"Whoa, you startled me."
"I-I sort of knew the Decay Formula, but my answers kept coming out wrong! Because I didn't know about plugging in the seasonal value! S-so...!"
At her sudden torrent of mumbled excuses, Meilin's expression shifted to one of what's gotten into her?
Simon, absorbed in the next problem, didn't hear a word of it.
Knock knock.
Just then came the third knock on the lecture hall door. Simon called out.
"Yes, come in."
"..."
But there was no answer.
The door didn't open either.
"Simon."
Meilin set down her quill and turned her head.
"Is anyone else coming?"
"Just Dick at this point. But he went down to Rochest, so he shouldn't be back yet. Who could it be?"
Simon rose from his seat and approached the door.
And then.
-Ubbub! Ububbubbub! Ububbub!
A strange sound came from the other side of the door.
"Wh-who is it?"
Camibarez shrank back in fright, and Simon raised his palm to reassure her before flinging the door open.
"Mm heh! Pleez let uz in!"
"Dick!"
Dick was hugging what looked like a huge box in both arms, a wrapper clamped between his teeth.
"Udchapcha."
He set the box down on an empty desk.
"What is all this?"
"Supplies for the next Duel Evaluation. And—!"
Dick flung something through the air. Simon, who had just returned to his seat, shot his arm up and caught it.
"Snacks we can all share!"
"Kyaaa! Thank you, Dick!"
"Heh. Well, the kid's got some sense."
Dick unloaded all sorts of snacks he'd bought in Rochest onto the desk.
"Heh heh, studying goes better when you've got something to munch on, doesn't it?"
"Funny how the people who say that are always the ones who can't study."
And yet there was Meilin, tearing open wrappers faster than anyone else.
"Hey! Dick! How do I open this thing?!"
"Just start with a different one."
"But I want to eat this one!"
Meilin was wrestling with the wrapper of the grain cookies she'd picked as her favorite, groaning and straining at it with brute force.
Watching this, Simon held out his hand, took the wrapper from her, and with one smooth motion peeled it open along the perforated line on the back.
"..."
Feeling needlessly embarrassed, Meilin took the wrapper back and muttered a tiny "thanks."
"All set! Dig in!"
"Don't mind if I do!"
"Thank you for the food, Dick!"
Dick had called it "snacks," but the spread was honestly more than enough for a full meal. It ran from desserts and sweets all the way to fried chicken.
The four of them chatted noisily as they ate.
"Didn't you say you were going to Rochest? You got back fast."
Simon said, nudging Dick's elbow. Dick popped a piece of fried chicken in his mouth and grinned good-naturedly.
"Just went down to check on how things are progressing! It's exam season, so I figured I ought to get some studying in too."
"When I stopped by the necromancer shop, the owner asked about you. Wanted to know when you'd get cut from Kizen and come back?"
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
Dick's shoulders shook with laughter at Simon's joke before he stroked his chin.
"Ahem. Well, it's true that this magnificent body is the Rochest Merchants' Guild's top recruitment priority."
"Then go get recruited already. Why are you here studying for exams?"
Meilin said, tearing open two snack packages at once. Dick waved his fingers in dismissal.
"Well, some of my business ventures only work because I'm a Kizen student."
"Oh, Dick! Since we're on the subject—what business are you working on, exactly?"
Camibarez asked.
"I've got so many things in the works it'd be complicated to explain, but the simplest one is a delivery service."
"A delivery service?"
"Yep. Say it's a weekday and there's something you suddenly need from Rochest. You can't run down there dodging the Watchers every single day like me and Simon do. So we take orders for whatever people need, compile them into a list, then sneak it all into Kizen alongside the dorm supplies delivery the next day."
Simon blinked.
"Did you actually clear that with the dorm administration?"
"Of course! Worked it all out with the dorm supervisor. I flexed my business genius and even put together an order catalog pamphlet."
"That's amazing, Dick!"
Just then, Dick's hand, reaching for a castella, sliced through empty air.
"Huh? Where'd the castella go? It was right here."
Dick held up the package and peered inside. Empty. He turned to Meilin with an expression of pure, innocent awe.
"Wow, you ate the whole thing by yourself? Are you a pig?"
Meilin's face went red as she exploded.
"What did you call me? You wanna die?!"
"You lecture everyone about studying and yet your appetite is absolutely feral."
"That's because I haven't eaten anything since last night!"
"Ahaha! Stop fighting, you two!"
It felt like the exam prep had been more or less forgotten, but Simon was basking in a deep sense of happiness at this moment, all of them laughing and shouting together.
He couldn't help a twinge of regret, too—what if he'd gotten to have school life like this a little sooner?
Knock knock knock.
Just then, a knock sounded at the lecture hall door. Everyone's eyes turned toward it.
"Hey, Simon. Nobody else is coming, right?"
"Right. Nobody at all."
Simon got up from his seat and walked toward the door.
"Who is it?"
An answer came from outside.
"It's me!"
"...?"
The moment he heard that lazy, utterly blunt answer, Simon froze in front of the door as if someone had pressed a pause button.
That girl's voice—surely it couldn't be...
No, wait, why would she be here?
While Simon's mind spun like crazy, the door swung open with a click!
As the door opened, a petite girl appeared, a picturesque cascade of silver hair billowing around her.
She raised her hand high and broke into a radiant smile.
"Hiya, Simon! Long time no see!"
His prediction had become reality.