Chapter 33: Study Sessions and Surprises

“Are you done?”

As soon as I heard Lena’s voice directed at me, I finished writing the notes I had been taking.

“Yeah. I thought Anne’s notebook was surprisingly well-organized, but it turns out she copied from the class rep’s.”

“Ah! What do you mean by that!”

Anne responded to my words as though I were dismissing her, but I wasn’t mocking her; I was just stating the facts.

If you compared Anne’s textbook with her notebook, you’d see that the textbook was filled with messy notes and scribbles.

On the other hand, her notebook was neatly organized, with only the core points written down and emphasized in different colors of ink, to the point that it didn’t look like it belonged to the same person who wrote in the textbook.

In the end, just as I suspected, Anne’s notebook was a direct copy of Lena’s notes. Surely, during the week I had been absent, Anne must have studied and copied from Lena’s notes.

“Anne, before you worry about Elysia, have you memorized everything I told you?”

Before I could answer, Lena cut Anne off. With a single sentence, she silenced Anne, then handed us a test paper she had prepared on the spot.

“If you can finish this, we’ll wrap up today’s lesson.”

Upon hearing that the lesson was over, Anne’s previously worried expression instantly brightened. Of course, I wasn’t sure if Anne could finish all the problems, but I didn’t say anything.

The test paper Lena handed over had exactly 10 questions on it.

After a quick glance, I noticed the questions weren’t tricky; they were simple enough that, if you had memorized the material, you could solve them without too much trouble.

“Alright, I’ll give you 10 minutes. Start!”

At the signal, I started filling in the answers without hesitation. Meanwhile, there was no sound of Anne writing; instead, a different sound started to emerge.

It wasn’t a real sound, of course, but rather the metaphorical sound of Anne’s eyes rolling as she subtly tried to copy my answers by glancing over.

Should I pretend I didn’t notice, or should I do something about it? While I was debating, Lena’s voice cut through.

“Just so you know, we’ve written different questions, so it’s better not to waste time.”

Lena must have noticed that Anne was trying to cheat by looking at my test paper. As soon as she said that, Anne started erasing the answers she had copied from me.

Anne was being pretty blatant with her cheating.

“Here. I’m done.”

Since the questions weren’t difficult, I handed over my test paper to Lena. She took it without marking anything and just checked my answers with her eyes.

“Yep. All correct. As expected from Elysia. Maybe I should’ve made it a bit harder?”

Meanwhile, Anne was still struggling with the test.

“…Wrong! Time’s up. Give it here.”

When time was up, Lena reached out her hand toward Anne, who was hastily filling in the remaining blanks.

Fortunately for Anne, Lena didn’t stop her from filling in the answers at the last minute.

After taking the paper from Anne, Lena carefully started checking it. Unlike with me, she used a pen to mark each answer with a line, rather than a circle.

Lena finally stopped marking, handed the test paper back to Anne, and spoke.

“Out of 10, 6 are correct. Normally, I’d say more, but… I’ll let it slide today.”

The moment Anne was being scolded by Lena, her face had looked defeated, but now it lit up again. She then downed the remaining strawberry smoothie in one go.

“Well, that’s it for the studying! Done! Close the books! Put them away!”

Afraid that more words might come from Lena, Anne hurriedly organized her own books and notebooks, then even took care of mine. It was clear that Lena’s scolding had left its mark.

“It’s already getting late for dinner, let’s go eat something. I’m hungry.”

At Anne’s words, I looked outside and noticed it was already getting dark. I had been so focused on studying that I hadn’t realized the time.

“Where do you want to go? The student cafeteria is probably closed by now, so let’s eat outside.”

“Meat! Let’s eat meat!”

Anne, who had finished packing her bag, raised her hand and shouted. Neither Lena nor I particularly disliked meat, so the dinner choice was naturally settled on meat.

“So, what about tomorrow? Do you want to come study with me, Anne?”

I asked Anne while we were eating. Today, I had ended up getting tutoring from Lena, but normally it would have been Anne’s turn. Lena’s turn would be tomorrow.

Since things had turned out this way, I thought it might be a good idea for Anne to join us for tutoring tomorrow while Lena teaches me, just like today. I made the suggestion.

Shake shake.

However, while chewing on a piece of meat, Anne shook her head vigorously, rejecting my suggestion. I didn’t feel the need to force her, so I was about to let it go when Lena looked at Anne and spoke.

“Anne? What’s with the violent head shaking? Do you dislike me teaching you that much?”

Lena’s tone was calm, but for some reason, Anne started to break into a cold sweat, and she stopped shaking her head slowly, almost mechanically.

Then, she awkwardly shook her head again, this time with a panicked expression.

“Ugh! No, no! I like how Lena teaches. It’s easy to understand!”

Whether she meant it or not, I could feel the desperation in her voice. After hearing Anne’s response, Lena stared at her for a moment, then snorted and spoke.

“Hmm. If Anne says so, I’ll have to help more with your studying next time. You can look forward to it.”

Upon hearing Lena’s words, Anne’s face fell, as though she had lost everything.

It was so amusing that I grabbed a piece of meat and put it in my mouth, and Anne, still looking stunned, closed her mouth and started chewing slowly.

Anne was clearly out of it. Even while chewing, she kept accepting the meat I handed her, happily eating it.

I wonder what kind of tutoring Lena gives to make Anne react so dramatically. At least while I was getting lessons from Lena today, there wasn’t any reason for such a response.

Well, since I don’t plan on studying much else unless it’s something like today, I don’t need to know, nor is there any reason to.

Stay strong, Anne.

Time with the class president

“I didn’t really get a chance to help out properly yesterday, since Anne was studying too.”

“No, it wasn’t even your turn to help, so I’m actually grateful.”

If Lena hadn’t shown up, I would’ve kept holding on to Anne and helping her.

“By the way, whenever I see you, it always seems like you’re doing something diligently.”

In fact, Lena was always moving around so actively that it seemed like being a class president was barely enough for her.

She listened attentively during class, studied during breaks, and took care of various class matters through her role as president. She even helped students like Anne, who were trying to catch up with their studies.

“Well, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to keep up.”

Though she was being modest with her words, her grades were undeniably at the top.

Even though she was in the swordsmanship department, she was quite interested in magic and I heard that, in her second year, she plans to take magic courses alongside her regular classes.

“If you said that to the class, they’d probably complain.”

“Hahaha…”

The place where we were studying was a study room in the school.

I had thought about going to the café to study like yesterday, but after running an errand for Professor Parent, I ended up losing track of time, so I couldn’t go outside and had to settle for this empty study room.

“Shall we continue?”

As I felt yesterday, it was clear that Lena, with her experience of frequently helping other students, was explaining things in a way that made it easy for me to understand.

While we were seriously continuing our study session, someone kept walking back and forth outside the study room’s glass door.

At first, I thought it was just someone passing by, but as I saw the familiar blonde hair repeatedly walking back and forth and glancing over toward us, it was impossible not to recognize who it was.

As the blonde hair passed by again, I suddenly opened the study room door wide.

“Ah!”

Clearly, Celian hadn’t expected the door to open from this side, and she let out a small yelp.

“U-what a coincidence, El!”

“Uh… yeah. As you can see, I was studying with the class president. What brings you here, Celian?”

Although I knew she had been paying attention to us, walking back and forth, I decided to play it off as a coincidence since she seemed like she wanted to pretend it was accidental.

“Well… I thought I might study too…”

Celian said, holding up the bag in her hand slightly. It seemed like she had found us while on her way to study. But, since she wasn’t sure if it was really us, she had been walking back and forth in front of the door, checking several times.

“Then, do you want to join us here?”

“Is that okay? Then, I’ll join you.”

When Lena, who was sitting inside, asked Celian, she smiled brightly and accepted without hesitation.

Since the study room was spacious, and Celian didn’t need to study with me and Lena like Anne did yesterday, it wouldn’t be a big inconvenience.

I moved aside slightly and gestured for her to come in, and Celian nodded gently before stepping inside with light footsteps.

Celian set her bag down next to me and pulled out a chair to sit. Seeing her take out her books and notebook, I returned to my lesson with Lena.

“I think this should be enough for now. The rest, study on your own, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask anytime.”

Lena said, closing her book. It was a faster lesson than I expected. As I organized my things, I glanced over at Celian.

As we were about to finish studying, Celian also closed her own books and notebook in front of her.

Before she closed them, I noticed that the pages of her books and notebook looked exactly like the ones she had opened at the beginning… but that must be a mistake. Celian wasn’t someone who would struggle with studying, so there was no reason for her to be stuck on the same section.

“So, what are you two doing this weekend?”

“Hmm? I don’t have anything planned yet…”

“I don’t have anything either.”

Although we didn’t have any plans yet, I figured that Celian, Yuri, Anne, and I would probably go out together, like always.

“Well, that’s perfect! I got some theater tickets as a gift, but I have plans this weekend, so I won’t be able to use them. You two can go instead!”

With that, Lena handed each of us a ticket.

Looking at the ticket, I saw a familiar title.

“Yuri’s Flower Blooming Time”

It was the title of a novel I had read before, recommended by Celian.

“I heard that the original novel was really popular, so they made it into a play. I really wanted to go, but the ticket deadline is this weekend… Oh! If you haven’t read the novel yet, I’d recommend reading it before you go!”

“Ah, Celian recommended it to me, so I’ve already read it. It was fun.”

At my words, Lena glanced at Celian with half-open eyes before speaking again.

“Anyway! I barely got these two tickets, so don’t forget and make sure you two go together, alright? Don’t give them to anyone else.”

Since she was saying it like that, I had no intention of giving the tickets away. I was kind of looking forward to it, especially since I had enjoyed the original novel.

“I’m not heartless enough to give away a gift, don’t worry. But… can I really accept this so easily? Should I buy you a meal later?”

“You don’t have to… Ah! If you want, you and Celian can buy me a meal later.”

I could have gotten separate meals from Celian and Lena, but the class president seemed to want to make a big gesture by accepting it from both of us at once.

“Alright. Think of something you want to eat. I’ll buy you whatever you want.”

“Yes. Celian and I will buy you something delicious.”

Seeming satisfied with our answers, Lena nodded and glanced at her watch before getting up from her seat.

“I’m going to head out first. Since class ended earlier than I expected, I think I should finish up some tasks. You two can go grab dinner together since it’s already dinner time.”

With that, Lena waved and left the room.

Left behind in the study room, Celian and I stayed. I put the tickets in my pocket, looked at Celian, and shrugged my shoulders, saying,

“It’s already dinner time. How about we plan for the weekend while we eat?”

“Yes! Let’s go now.”

Celian responded energetically to my suggestion. She must have been really hungry.