Shall I Teach You?
“Will you stand with me?”
“.....I understand what you're trying to say. I get it, too. Honestly, even I think that man is going to cause some spectacular disaster someday. But..... I don't know if anyone else in the family will even listen to your argument.”
Chloe still wore a dark, uneasy expression.
“Ahaha, of course. They probably won't even give my words the time of day. So I'll just make something up and come back. Toss out a few lines the elders would like to hear and return. Everyone will thank me later, you'll see.”
When I grinned slyly, Chloe fell silent for a moment, then hardened her face and spoke.
“But Shion. The family might stop at just scolding you, but Pascal won't. Because of this, Pascal might actually try to kill you. You know what he's like.”
“I never expected Lady Chloe to worry about me this much. I'm quite flattered.”
“Is this really the time for jokes?!”
“Haha, you seemed so tense I thought I'd lighten the mood with a little joke. Well, knowing Sir Pascal, he might already be plotting to erase me without leaving a trace. But Lady Chloe, rest assured.”
I continued with my usual sly smile.
“I'm not as weak as you think, Lady Chloe. You experienced it yourself during the Mock Occupation Battle.”
“.......”
“I took down thirty people all by myself, after all. Including you, Lady Chloe.”
When I grinned provocatively, Chloe's face flushed red and purple.
“Ha! Unbelievable. You, come to the training grounds this afternoon! I'll smash you to pieces!”
“Ugh, a faint pain in my pinky toe....! Unfortunately, I must decline that offer.”
“Oh, is that so? Come here. I'll fix it for you. With a hammer.”
“Eek! As I've said before, I oppose violence...!”
And so, the matter of the Mock Occupation Battle was settled for the time being.
Once the Mock Occupation Battle ended, the students immediately sat for the written exams.
At Luin Academy, practical and written exams carried nearly equal weight. No matter how gifted you were in combat, you would never earn good grades without studying.
Some might ask: Luin Academy exists to train warriors, so why cut into training time just to force students to study?
To that question, Luin Academy answered thus:
“Luin Academy is not a place that forges sharp swords, but a place that trains people who wield sharp swords.”
A fair point, certainly. Even with identical power, analyzing an opponent and fighting with strategy produced far better results. That was why Luin Academy valued the written exams so highly.
The written exams had a cutoff. If a student could not solve even 20% of the questions, the academy judged that they had not properly attended lectures and forced them to take a makeup exam. If they also performed poorly on the makeup, they had to retake the course.
Of course, Luin Academy gathered the finest talents of the Praon Kingdom. Almost no one ever sat for a makeup exam, and no one in history had ever been forced to retake a course. In short, unless you were an absolute blockhead who barely showed up to class, you never saw a makeup exam.
So why was I suddenly talking about all this?
“......Haah. Good grief. All I can do is sigh.”
Because I was that absolute blockhead.
No—I could claim it was unfair. Until about a month and a half ago I had been a modern man with zero knowledge of this world. At best I possessed a handful of miscellaneous facts picked up while clearing quests. Those would never appear on an exam, and even if they did, they would make up only a tiny fraction of the questions.
Hadn't I passed the exams just fine when I played the game?
It's the character who studies, not me.
All I had done was click to enroll in the class. I had no idea why Emperor Luipos enacted the demon exclusion policy during the Fourth Chaos Era.
Of course, I had not completely failed to foresee this problem. So I had diligently attended every lecture and never dozed off once.... yet with no background knowledge, I could not understand a single word the professors were saying.
Don't ask why Charlotte scored well. She and I were different species entirely.
“It's hopeless. And spending points on this feels wrong, too.”
Items from the Achievement Shop would let me breeze through the makeup exam, but Achievement Points were my only real means of handling unexpected crises. I could not spend them carelessly. That left me no choice but to sink my own time into the problem.... and the situation was utterly bleak.
—You've tried so hard until now and still made no real progress. Is there even a point in continuing?
Quiet down, you bastard. I deliberately ignored the voice ringing through my skull and muttered to myself.
“Haah..... Still, I should try as far as I can.”
Letting out a deep sigh, I walked out of the library. Outside, the night was pitch black. Today was a happy Friday, yet I would have to stamp my attendance at the library again tomorrow—truly miserable.
Studying...! Studying on a Saturday...! And studying again at this age....!
Enveloped in despair and sighing heavily, I was heading back to the dormitory when—
“.....Shion?”
A voice completely mismatched with my current mood, clear and pure, reached me.
“Ah, if it isn't Lady Elise. What a coincidence on a night like this.”
Elise nodded.
“Yeah, long time no see.”
Then she scanned me from head to toe, tilted her head slightly, and asked,
“....But what's going on? Wandering around with books this late. Cosplaying as a model student?”
“Hmm, is it that strange for me to be carrying books? I'm a little hurt.”
“I just stated the facts.”
I gave her a bitter smile.
“Haha, the truth is I completely bombed the written exam and have to take the makeup. So I had no choice but to study at the library.”
“Makeup exam.... you mean the one you take when you get less than a fifth of the questions right?”
Thanks for the kind explanation, Lady Elise. Damn it, I feel even more miserable.
“Ahem, you didn't have to explain it quite so thoroughly.”
“It's my first time seeing anyone take a makeup. Everyone usually gets at least half right.”
Elise's innocent jabs steadily carved away at my mental strength. Forcing another bitter smile, I shrugged and changed the subject.
“Anyway, that's how it is. Lady Elise, where are you coming from....”
I looked her up and down as I asked. But that thing she was holding.... it looked familiar. A faintly sweet smell drifted over. Could it be the tteokbokki we had eaten together last time?
“Were you snacking?”
“I got a little hungry. Packed it from a shop. The one I ate with you back then.”
Elise opened the bag in her hand and casually showed it to me. Steaming tteokbokki and sundae. Aww, this made me feel oddly proud for no good reason.
“Haha, it seems you liked it quite a bit. I'm proud.”
“It's not that. How should I put it—the taste just kept coming back to me. Want to eat together?”
Elise's offer sounded truly tempting, but sadly I still had work to do.
“I'd love to accept a hundred times over.... but ha, I still have to study even after I get back to the dorm. It might be a bit difficult.”
“.....Were you originally that dumb. Ah.”
Elise, about to casually drive a dagger into my heart, stopped mid-sentence as if something had just occurred to her.
“You lost your memories.”
I answered with a weak, empty laugh.
“Haha. It feels like I've been clutching books for about five hours, but with zero background knowledge I just can't understand a thing. Even when I try hard to listen in class, the terms and analogies the teachers use mid-lecture don't make any sense, so it's quite troublesome.”
A person's knowledge grew by adding flesh to existing pillars of knowledge. But for me those pillars barely existed, so even if I wanted to add flesh, nothing would stick.
“At this rate, retaking the course seems unavoidable.... and if luck is bad, failing a year isn't that far-fetched either.”
Retaking would mean more classes and less personal time. In short, I would have to spend the hours I should devote to training myself on retaking courses instead. I wanted to avoid that if at all possible.
“Hmm......”
Elise hummed, twirling a strand of her black hair around her finger.
“Then.”
She opened her mouth again and said,
“Shall I teach you?”