At the Library
Even on the day I confirmed she was a virgin, and the day after that, I had nothing worth calling progress.
All I'd managed to glean was the rather useless information that Hoyeon liked large animals and that the divine beasts feared her.
Thankfully her mood seemed to have improved, but in the end we'd taken one step back and one step forward — which left us right back where we started.
My relationships with the other heroines were still stagnating, and I hadn't even managed to meet Camilla or Iris at all, so things were arguably worse than before. On top of that, Hoyeon would keep following me around, so I couldn't so much as speak to the other heroines.
Still, I wasn't too worried. Eventually we'd get tangled up somehow during the midterms. Hoyeon was an unpredictable variable that left me uneasy, but since there was nothing I could do about her, I didn't bother fretting over it. I couldn't interfere with the PE exam groupings, after all, so the only thing I could do for now was deepen my bond with Hoyeon before midterms arrived.
"You don't seem worried about the exams at all, Lady Hoyeon."
I asked her during lunch break. With only about two and a half weeks left until the tests, half the class was starting to settle into study mode.
As a test held early in the semester, it was more of a knowledge-level assessment. But since nearly all the students at Amauros Academy were nobles — a few exceptions aside — the standards were quite high. And if your grades were bad, even a prince or princess would be held back without mercy.
Hoyeon alone, however, spent class time dozing off or reading other books.
"Pfft. Are most of them not mere memorization subjects? Such things need only be crammed a week beforehand."
She seemed confident. With a rare look of smug satisfaction, she declared that last-minute studying would be enough.
"And what of you? Are you preparing well for the exams?"
"I can manage the memorization subjects somehow… but math is the problem."
Even on the college entrance exams back home, I'd scored in the first or second tier for everything else — math alone had been a fifth-tier disaster. What they taught here was high-school-level math, but even that was honestly beyond me. Just looking at numbers made me nauseous.
"Oh? Math troubles you, does it?"
"Yes."
"Then I could teach you."
"…Pardon?"
It wasn't that I doubted her academic ability, but she didn't exactly look like someone who got along with math.
"I know not the level of your math scores, but I can assert with certainty that mine are higher than yours."
Higher than mine, sure. Her private tutoring would have been more advanced than Academy classes. And since this was the first time I'd seen her so confident, it didn't seem like she was lying.
"…Then might I ask for your instruction?"
Raising my affinity with Hoyeon while improving my grades — getting lessons from her didn't seem like a bad idea. Failing math alone wouldn't get me held back, but better grades always felt better.
"For one who seeks instruction, your attitude is rather arrogant. Call me Teacher, and I shall consider it."
Hoyeon looked at me with a smile full of mischief. After offering to teach me, she was calling my attitude insolent and demanding I call her Teacher — it was a little annoying, but I knew exactly how to handle this.
"This humble disciple seeks your instruction, Master. I beg you bestow your wisdom upon me."
"…"
The reaction was immediate. The smug expression she'd worn just moments ago melted into pure embarrassment.
"…No, that was a joke… Why would you actually…"
Since there happened to be no one around, she let her true self show.
"…You don't have to call me Teacher. Come to the library after PE class. I'll teach you what I know."
"Got it."
Once I'd secured the promise with Hoyeon, lunch period was winding down. Judging by her telling me to come to the library after PE, she apparently had no intention of following me today.
I felt a little guilty for taking advantage of her trust, but this time I was determined to buy Exipri whatever she wanted. Last time her anger had foiled me, but this time I was going to work on raising affinity with a heroine who wasn't Hoyeon.
The moment I parted ways with her and headed for the gymnasium, a silver-haired girl brushed past me. She looked like Anastasiya, but I must have been imagining it.
Whatever the case, I had no intention of lingering under the gaze of that twisted Georg, so I hurried to the gymnasium.
Master, huh.
I still don't know why hearing that word made me so embarrassed. I'd known full well that was coming, and yet I'd still fallen for it.
Guess extroverts really are good at comebacks, too.
He seemed worse at studying than me, though. But I'd learned firsthand that social skills matter more than academics when it comes to getting through life, so I envied Dogeon's smooth way of talking.
When my tutoring students used to call me Teacher, I hadn't felt a thing — so why did my heart flutter when Dogeon said it? I'd thought it would feel similar to making game friends call you hyung, but it was completely different.
…By the way, I guess she wasn't even trying to hide anymore. Anastasiya was following me from a distance, and she wasn't being subtle about it. She seemed to think she was being careful — wrapping mana around her feet to muffle her steps, ducking into blind spots as she trailed me — but…
…Hmm. Not sure about that.
I could see all of it, at least. I couldn't be bothered to call her out on it, and I was planning to just read until Dogeon arrived, so I didn't interfere.
Ignoring them, I arrived at the library to find someone I'd never seen before guarding the entrance.
"Welcome, Lady Baek Hoyeon. I am Angelos, head librarian and archivist of this library."
Previously it had been a man who answered mechanically; this time there was a woman who spoke quite fluently.
"Where has the one who was here before gone?"
"Ah, you mean Octavius? His lifespan ran out, so he was disposed of."
…Disposed of? A person?
Even if the way she spoke was a bit odd, that wasn't "fired" — she'd just killed him?
"A person… you say?"
"You were unaware, I see. All the librarians here are homunculi. Myself included."
Ah, a homunculus. She looked so human I hadn't realized.
"A homunculus… an artificial human, you mean?"
"Yes. For simple labor, employing homunculi like us at a low cost is more practical than hiring people at expense."
In the end, it was about money. But that only made it more unsettling. No matter how you looked at it she seemed human, and yet they mass-produced these things and worked them until they died. I couldn't help wondering if this was right.
"If you have nothing further to ask, please feel free to use the library as you wish."
"…Very well. You may go about your duties."
"May you find the book you seek."
The Eastern Continent wasn't without similar concepts… but they didn't replicate humans to this degree. They shaped clay, breathed pure magic into it, and used it as a laborer — they never granted intelligence enough to understand speech like this.
…It was unsettling.
It wasn't the existence of homunculi that bothered me, but the reason they were made. Because of money. Honestly, if it weren't for Dogeon, I never would have come to a place like this.
I steadied my restless, unpleasant thoughts and settled into a corner with some books.
Whatever their concepts and holy power, I couldn't deny that the novels of this continent were entertaining. The novels from my homeland had been rather dull. Half were hymns of praise to the gods, and a quarter were stories about wanting to return to nature. For tastes forged by web novels and movies, they were far too bland.
In the novels of this continent, by contrast, the goddess was sometimes portrayed as a misandrist or a complete bungler — which made them fun to read. Somehow the Church hadn't designated these as forbidden books.
"Uh…"
Oh, this is good. So the priest was the culprit after all. But the way the protagonist denounced the priest in front of the villagers — thanks to the buildup — was so satisfying.
"Um… excuse me…"
Who was this? Interrupting someone reading with no manners.
…It was Anastasiya. So she'd followed me all the way in. I didn't think she'd ever approached this closely before.
"Um… hello, Miss… Hoyeon? Meeting you in a place like this… what a coincidence…!"
It was so awkward that pointing out how awkward it was would have been embarrassing in itself. But I actually felt a kinship with that demeanor. It was exactly like me back in high school, when I'd realized that if I kept living like this I could die alone in my room and no one would even know — and tried to make friends out of sheer crisis.
I couldn't receive her as smoothly as Dogeon would… but fellow social outcasts ought to help each other, right? Knowing full well the misery of having no friends, I decided to play along with her.
"Anastasiya, is it not? What a coincidence indeed. To see you in a place like this. Come, sit."
I even remembered to pull out a chair for her. Something I'd learned while hanging around Dogeon: that guy always prepared my chair before sitting anywhere himself. So I would do the same.
"Uh… is it okay if I sit…?"
"Sit."
As she tentatively took her seat, I smiled at her so she wouldn't feel pressured, and closed the book I'd been reading.
"…"
"…"
…But neither of us could quite bring ourselves to speak first.
"Then…"
"Then…"
Even the words we managed to force out overlapped perfectly in timing, only deepening the awkwardness.
"You first…"
"No… Miss Hoyeon first…"
…At this rate it would never end. I needed to force a break in this vicious cycle somehow.
"…Well then… do you enjoy reading?"
Even I thought it was a terrible question, but I figured it was better than this silence.
"No… I don't really like reading…"
It took less than five seconds for that assumption to prove wrong. Maybe I'd chosen the wrong topic.
Should I have brought up swordsmanship instead…?