Chapter 32: A Lesson in Time with Anne

Time with Anne

“El! Over here, over here!”

The small girl waving her hand in front of the café was Anne. When I spotted her, I quickly walked toward her.

“Did you wait long?”

“No, I just finished work and got here. Come on! Let’s go inside!”

As soon as I arrived, Anne grabbed my hand and pulled me into the café.

The café we entered was one we had been to together several times before.

“Shall we order drinks first? What would you like to drink, Anne?”

“Hmm… I’ll have a strawberry smoothie!”

While Yuri and Celian tend to order long and unusual drinks when they come to cafés, Anne, like me, prefers simpler options. In this regard, our tastes often overlapped.

“I’ll have one strawberry smoothie and one blueberry smoothie, please.”

After hearing Anne’s order, I quickly took out my wallet and paid for both drinks.

“Are you buying this for me?”

“Today, I’m the one learning, so consider it tuition.”

“Hehe.”

Anne smiled widely, either because she was happy to be treated or because she found it amusing that I was the one being taught.

Considering she was from an aristocratic family, it was a rather undignified laugh, but it was very much like her.

“Your drinks are ready.”

After a brief chat while waiting, the two smoothies were quickly made. We each picked up our drinks and started looking around the café.

Soon, we found an empty space. The café had separate rooms, so there was a section where we could study without worrying too much about other people’s eyes.

Of course, I didn’t necessarily need to choose a café outside the academy as a study spot. But for me, it was an unavoidable choice.

After all, I had ended up studying in the same room at the dorm yesterday and the day before, which led to sleeping in the same room by accident.

To prevent that from happening again, I decided to leave the academy and study somewhere else.

Once inside the room, the noise was significantly reduced thanks to the thin walls and curtains. Although it wasn’t completely silent, we didn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone since we would inevitably talk while studying.

“Okay, shall we start right away?”

“Yeah! Leave it to me! I’ve definitely reviewed everything!”

Anne and I sat down across from each other at the table.

I took out the textbooks and notebooks for today’s lesson from my bag. Anne also took out her textbooks and notebooks, and seeing how much she had written in them, it seemed like she had indeed reviewed everything as she said.

“Starting from page 154, right?”

“Yep!”

As I opened the page, Anne’s confident attitude marked the start of today’s tutoring session.

“Look here. It talks about the reasons behind the fall of the Delis Kingdom.”

Anne pointed to a section of the textbook with her finger and explained.

“Oh, right! I completely forgot about that!”

I responded as I looked at the section Anne pointed to in the textbook.

“Ugh, I definitely memorized it… I even wrote it down in my notebook, but I just forgot…”

Anne opened her notebook to find the section she had written down, then put both hands on her head and blamed herself.

“Well, now that El pointed it out, I’ll definitely remember it next time!”

Anne said confidently, then added in a small voice, almost inaudible.

“Probably…?”

Still, as it was a memorization subject, I had some expectations, but as expected, Anne was Anne.

At first, I thought she might do a good job explaining things, mentioning various points, but soon, the information started to get tangled, and the situation became one I couldn’t just watch anymore, so I ended up stepping in.

In fact, I had anticipated this situation from the moment Anne offered to teach me.

No matter how much I had missed classes for a week, if I considered Anne’s note-taking grades, it seemed she wasn’t quite qualified to teach anyone.

It’s not that Anne wasn’t smart, but she lacked interest and strategies for studying, so her grades were often among the lowest.

“Okay, then, can you tell me who expanded their power by defeating the Delis Kingdom?”

I threw the question at Anne again, but as expected, instead of an answer, all I got was a groan.

Anne, with her head down, held her head with both hands, groaning for a while, then glanced up at me, trying to gauge my reaction.

When our eyes met, Anne spoke in a small voice.

“A hint?”

I had asked the question 10 times already, and she had gotten hints more than 10 times. If I gave a hint now, it would be the 16th.

Still, it was admirable that she wasn’t asking for the answer directly but trying to recall the information with the hints.

“One of the kingdoms still remaining on the continent.”

With that hint, Anne began to list the names of the existing kingdoms, contemplating each one.

Is she really thinking this through? I hope she’s not just guessing randomly from that list.

“Silaan Kingdom…?”

After much deliberation, Anne quietly muttered the name of the kingdom. She wasn’t sure if what she said was the right answer, so she looked at me, waiting for my response.

“…Correct.”

“Yes!”

Anne, who had been holding her head with her hands, clenched her fist and cheered. Although it wasn’t the most dignified noble, it was definitely typical of Anne.

I glanced down at my cup beside me and tried to sip through the straw, but there was nothing left. Looking closer, I realized I had finished it all. In contrast, Anne’s drink was still half full.

It seemed that after I started teaching, I ended up talking more, which led to my drink being finished first.

“Wait a moment. I’ll go get some more drinks. Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

Between the tuition fees, dorm fees, and academy meal costs, it was a bit of a stretch, but I had enough of a budget to indulge in this occasional luxury.

“Huh? No, I’m fine. This is enough.”

Anne refused while drinking the remaining strawberry smoothie. Leaving her behind, I headed toward the café counter again. As I stood there thinking about what to drink, a voice called out to me.

“Elysia?”

When I turned around, I saw a familiar pair of glasses.

“Class rep?”

Although her real name was Lena, I had grown so used to calling her class rep that I didn’t even think about it anymore. We had planned to study together tomorrow, but I didn’t expect to run into her here.

“I thought I heard your voice, Elysia, and Anne’s too. So you were really here.”

“Yeah. We decided to study together here…”

“How’s it going? Is it going well?”

“Ahaha…”

I couldn’t lie, so I just awkwardly smiled to avoid answering.

“Well, I think I get the gist of the situation. Alright, the original plan was for tomorrow, but as class rep, I can’t just let it slide.”

In the end, I returned to the room where I was studying with the class rep, holding the newly ordered drinks.

“Delis, Silaan, Delis, Silaan, Delis, Silaan… Huh?”

Admirably, Anne seemed to be memorizing the material she had learned from me while I was out. Her head turned at the sound of the curtain opening, and she spotted the class rep and me walking in.

Anne, too, seemed surprised to see the class rep here and her eyes widened for a moment.

“Class rep!”

“Hello.”

Waving her palm, the class rep grabbed a vacant chair and placed it on the side of the table where she could see both Anne and me, then sat down.

“I ran into her in front. Elysia was actually the one teaching you, huh?”

“I can’t believe El is so talkative!”

To be honest, all I did was awkwardly smile at the class rep. While that alone gave enough room for her to make assumptions, the real problem was Anne’s past actions that made such assumptions possible in the first place. So, I don’t think it was my fault.

“Alright, enough small talk, let’s see where we left off.”

Saying that, the class rep started flipping through the textbook we had opened.

“You haven’t gone too far yet.”

Since I hadn’t even studied those parts yet, I had no choice but to go over the material with Anne as she had forgotten everything.

This meant that, instead of just receiving the lessons, I had to go through it slowly with her, explaining as I went. It couldn’t be helped that it took longer than if I were studying alone.

Of course, I wasn’t blaming Anne for it. Teaching her actually helped me absorb the material better, so it was beneficial for both of us.

“Alright, let’s get started right away.”

The class rep rolled up her sleeves, burning with enthusiasm, and Anne, for some reason, seemed to be shaking a little.

It was a sight that felt quite unfamiliar when thinking about Anne’s usual demeanor.

Come to think of it, since Anne’s note-taking grades weren’t great, she sometimes had to stay behind after class for extra study.

At those times, the class rep would stay to help the remaining students with their work.

…What could have happened for the fearless Anne to be trembling now?