The Unyielding Tutor
“Shall we talk for a bit? Tarle, aren’t you tired?”
“I…… I can still do more….”
“Hmm. I only asked because you look exhausted.”
Eres regarded her already spent friend with curious eyes. Though she herself never seemed to tire, it was surprising that a sturdy young man could collapse after so little.
“Anyone watching would think you’d been at it for five hours.”
“You’ve only solved five problems and you’re already whining. Aren’t you ashamed as the scion of a noble house?”
“Shut up! You two are just terrible at teaching!”
How could someone grow exhausted just from sitting and solving problems? She had prepared the questions specifically to spare Tarle from remedial lessons, yet at this pace they wouldn’t finish even a quarter by dawn.
“The incompetent always have the loudest voices. You should be grateful we’re teaching you directly.”
“I don’t understand. How can you still not solve it after hearing this explanation?”
“Damn it, this is why smart people are impossible to deal with!”
Tarle had asked Eres to tutor him. He wasn’t afraid of remedial classes, but they were a nuisance. If he had to study anyway, learning from Eres seemed preferable.
“Sorry, Tarle. It’s because I’m bad at teaching.”
“No, that’s not what I—”
“Even we have trouble following Eres’s teaching style….”
“It’s not that the explanation is unclear, it’s just inefficient. Why does she have to go around in circles like that?”
“Well…… If I don’t organize every question that arises while solving……”
“You really don’t have to go that far, you know?”
When geniuses explained solutions, they omitted what seemed obvious to them. Eres, by contrast, added every little detail according to her own standards. If something truly couldn’t be explained, she would give up—but that was where Eres had misjudged. She had dismissed Tarle’s minor thoughts as simply “he wants good grades” and sought help from other clever friends, resulting in the current situation.
“Shouldn’t you be sitting with us too, sis?”
“I am sitting.”
“Not on the sofa—sit at the desk. You need to study too.”
“Hmm…… Have an apple.”
“Sis, stop changing the subject—”
“Eat.”
“This is my third one today….”
“Eat.”
“……Just give it here.”
In front of her, friends were studying. Beside her, the younger brother she had raised without even feeding him proper fruit as a child was now eating fresh apples until he was sick of them. This was happiness.
‘……Gulp.’
‘Eres peels apples so neatly. I’m jealous of Pih.’
‘But she’s our guest—shouldn’t we offer her something too? Why are they the only ones eating?’
‘Our sister…… Maybe she took “until you’re sick of it” literally……’
If only their younger sister Melina were here as well, it would be perfect.
“Um……”
“You……! Whew…… Sorry, I thought it was that bastard Luke.”
“Ah, aren’t you Foelta’s fiancée? It’s been a while. But why do you look like that?”
“It’s Foelta. Can’t you even remember your friend’s name?”
She wasn’t their sister, but another guest she had sent had arrived.
**
“So that’s what happened…….”
“……Hey, Tarle.”
“He did complain that his fiancée wouldn’t even talk to him.”
Under normal circumstances, Tarle would have retorted, but because it was Eres and because Arte’s condition was clearly abnormal, he held his tongue. Her eyes were swollen, her skirt and sleeves caked with dirt. Her voice was slightly hoarse, her clothes disheveled, yet she hadn’t bothered to fix any of it. Even Tarle could tell at a glance that Foelta had done something.
That was why she was confiding in Tarle, Foelta’s friend.
“I had no idea. I never thought the Alais family would stoop so low……”
“They must have silenced everyone around them. Still……”
“It’s just vulgar. Honestly, is there any way to help?”
Regardless of the process, the two were engaged. Moreover, Foelta held the upper hand. Any objection would be easily crushed, and the objector would earn the enmity of the powerful Alais family. The Ripelreus siblings could protect her while she was at the academy, but that protection would end upon graduation. There was no solution. In the original timeline, this problem had only ended when Eres, wielding the magic sword, killed Foelta.
“Unless there’s someone who can completely crush Alais, it’s impossible.”
“Colwen could do it. Though in this case, he’s the bigger problem……”
“Why does he keep making things worse when he has nothing to gain? Is he sane?”
“There’s no way he’s sane. He’s the one who picked a fight with us too.”
Luke Colwen. Once again, he was the biggest problem.
“That person…… knew everything…… My worries…… The reason…… Even what I wanted……”
“He said he’d make enemies of everyone who spoke with you? What an absurd man.”
“Damn it, why doesn’t the academy expel someone like that? He’s gone too far!”
“And who was it that went to that same man asking to be taken as a subordinate?”
“I—I didn’t know it would be like this!”
“Of course he looked impressive before you got hurt. Anyway, you came to the right place. We’re already hostile to Count Luke.”
“Yes……”
At first she had worried about being thrown out, but the dormitory residents accepted Arte without complaint. She wondered why even Tarle was here, but it was probably because of their shared enemy, Count Luke.
“Anyway! Is it really impossible to get him expelled?”
“It’s not impossible. There’s just no reason to.”
“No reason? Are you joking? Alto, you were even attacked!”
“That’s exactly why. At least while he’s inside the academy, we can keep him contained.”
“But you’re not containing him at all!”
“It’s still better than having him outside.”
He had already begun causing trouble within the academy, yet Alto genuinely believed it was better for him to spend even a little more time inside.
“Probably no one in this academy can beat him. From what I know, even the seniors and professors would struggle against him one-on-one.”
“You mean it’s hard for him to grow?”
“Yes.”
Having no worthy opponents was the same as having no place to stand. Growing without a clear goal, without an opponent to push against, without meaningful experience—it was extremely difficult. On the other hand, what about those beneath him?
“We can see it as the best opportunity for us to rise while he remains stagnant.”
“So kicking him out is more dangerous……? What kind of guy is he……?”
“That’s Count Colwen for you. You all know that.”
“……I’m sorry. Even knowing what kind of person he is, I still came to ask for help……”
Arte’s single sentence brought the dormitory atmosphere down. The thought of asking such a scoundrel for help was unpleasant, but without someone that extreme, the problem couldn’t be solved. It had simply been worse than expected.
“Sis.”
“What, Pih?”
And then—
“Is a count higher than a marquis?”
“Hmm. To explain that, first—”
“Keep it short.”
“Hmm. A marquis is me, and a count is you.”
“I’m sorry, sis.”
Two people couldn’t follow the conversation! Unlike the others, who were at least members of the rotting nobility, Pih was a complete commoner. No matter what he heard, he didn’t understand. And Eres—
‘Hmm…… I was thinking and missed the middle part. ……Why did Pih ask that question?’
She had smoothly veered off onto a completely different path.
“Um…… How exactly can that Luke person stop the Alais family?”
“Hm? Ah, you wouldn’t know, Pih. Colwen’s martial prowess is famous, but the acting count behind him is no ordinary person either.”
“Layla Colwen. I’ve heard of her. Young as she is, her skills are extraordinary—she turned a territory that was nearly ruined into something strong. Even the cunning old foxes don’t take her lightly.”
“The Ripelreus family got hit too.”
“What?!”
“After the last practical evaluation, our family sent a warning, but it was overturned by a single letter from that woman. I don’t know what she wrote, but the main house has been in an uproar ever since.”
“They must have been hiding something that made them nervous. Whatever it was, they’ve been treating us well ever since.”
Layla Colwen. Luke caused trouble and threw it to her not to torment her, but because he trusted that she would handle it somehow. In return, Luke supplied the information and personnel needed for territory management and slander. He currently understood their relationship as sibling cooperation. But sibling harmony was never an easy thing.
‘Her explanation is much easier to understand than sis’s!’
‘Hmm. Why didn’t Pih ask me?’
Even this harmonious pair of siblings had moments when they weren’t on the same page. Why hadn’t her precious younger brother asked her the question? She decided to ask Pih about it later.
“Arte. What is it that you want?”
Eres, who had been sitting on the sofa without joining the conversation, finally spoke up.
“I……”
“Do you want to break up with Foelta? Or do you want to be respected?”
“Respected……?”
“Hmm. If the meaning gets across, you can think of it as something else.”
“Sis, I don’t understand what you’re saying right now—mmph!”
“Pih, eat your apple.”
Honestly, she had been lost from the very beginning. That was why she was asking again. However, it didn’t sound that way to the others.
“Foelta…… won’t respect me.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I know from watching him all this time. That person…… has no intention of seeing me as an equal.”
Foelta was a noble in the worst sense—arrogant, overbearing, and exclusionary toward anyone outside his own circle. He was the type who never easily changed the hierarchy once it was fixed in his mind. Anyone he placed beneath him remained beneath him, no matter how excellent they became. Even if someone surpassed him, he would deny it and drag them down.
Eres herself probably hadn’t thought about it, but she was very different from Tarle, who had met her on the first day with his self-esteem already shattered.
“Have you tried to become equals?”
“……Yes.”
So words like that were no help at all.
“I tried. I begged him to listen to me again and again! But it was useless. No matter what I said, he never had any intention of listening!”
She was already sick of empty words like “just try harder.” She had done everything she could, and still nothing had changed—that was why she was now clinging to someone else’s ankle.
“With someone like me…… no matter what I say, he won’t listen!”
“How far did you go?”
“That’s—”
She hadn’t come here to talk about this. Regret and betrayal rising, Arte lifted her head and froze at the sight before her. She had wondered why no one was speaking. On the sofa, Eres was expressionlessly sharpening her sword. Beside her, Pih was sighing as if he were sick of it all.
“This is about me…… I’ve never gone through a rebellious phase.”
“You did. For about two weeks.”
“Whenever you wouldn’t listen, sis would put you in a chokehold and keep persuading you……”
To Eres, persuasion wasn’t a basic method—it was the final resort. Whether good or evil, every being had meaning and was no different from any other. If one intended to change another by force, it required an equal amount of resolve. And once that resolve was made, one had to see it through to the end. That was only natural.
“Tarle, where can I find that Foelta person?”
“Huh? Ah, we have the same class tomorrow……”
“Okay. Tell me. I’ll go meet him.”
“……What?”
“Sis?”
“No, what is she saying right now?! Why is she going to meet him!”
The next day. Family, property, connections, ointments, and everything else—nothing left to lose, not even if stabbed (including with a sword). Thus began Foelta’s personal hell, brought about by a woman who had nothing left to lose.
“Pih, hurry up and stop your sister!”
“Haha. Once our sister gets like this, no one can stop her.”
And roughly thirty minutes later, Pih’s hell—punishment for not asking his sister—began a day early.
“……Why do I suddenly feel a chill……?”