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Time with Anne

“Ell! Over here, here!”

The small girl who was standing in front of the café, waving her hand while looking this way, was Anne. Upon spotting her, I quickened my pace to reach her.

“Have you been waiting long?”

“Nope. I just finished work and got here too. Come on! Let’s get inside!”

As soon as I arrived, Anne took my hand and pulled me into the shop.

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

“Shall we order something to drink first? What do you want, Anne?”

“Hmmm… I want a strawberry smoothie!”

While Yuli and Selian usually order long and weirdly named drinks at cafés, Anne tends to stick to relatively simple beverages like now. In this aspect, Anne and I often share similar tastes.

“One strawberry smoothie and one blueberry smoothie, please.”

Hearing Anne’s choice, I took out my wallet and paid for my drink right away.

“Are you treating me?”

“Today, I’m the one learning, so think of it as tuition.”

“Hehe.”

Anne giggled openly, whether out of happiness for getting a drink from me or just finding it funny that she was teaching me. Considering she was a noble, it was quite an unrefined laugh, but it was very much her style.

“Your drinks are ready.”

After a short wait while chatting, the two smoothies were quickly prepared. We both grabbed our cups and started looking around the café.

It didn’t take long to find an empty nook. The café we visited today had separate partitioned areas, allowing for a degree of privacy from others.

Of course, I didn’t really need to choose a café outside the Academy as a study spot. However, for me, it was an unavoidable choice. After all, on the past two days, I couldn’t help but fall asleep in my dorm room after studying too long, so coming outside the Academy was a way to prevent that entirely.

Once we stepped inside the room, the thin walls and curtains dulled the noise quite a bit. While it wasn’t completely silent, it was still nice not having to worry about disturbing others since we’d be chatting while studying.

“Okay, shall we get started?”

“Yep! Leave it to me! I’ve reviewed everything thoroughly!”

Anne and I sat facing each other across the table.

I pulled out the textbooks and notebooks I had brought with me. Anne also opened her textbooks and notebooks, and seeing decent notes written in her handwriting, it seemed she had indeed reviewed.

“Starting from page 154, right?”

“Yep!”

As I opened that page, Anne’s confident demeanor signaled the start of today’s tutoring session.

*

“Okay, look here. It talks about the reasons for the collapse of the Delis Kingdom, doesn’t it?”

I pointed to a part of the textbook as I explained.

“Oh, right! I totally forgot.”

Anne replied while looking at the textbook I pointed to.

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

Anne opened her notebook to find the notes she had taken, then placed her hands on her head in regret.

“Still, since I’ve been corrected by Ell, I won’t forget it next time!”

Anne said confidently, then added in a tiny voice.

“Maybe…?”

I expected some retention considering the subject was about memorization, but true to form, Anne was still Anne. She started off well, mentioning various things, but soon started to trip over her explanations, leading to me stepping in.

Truth be told, I’d anticipated this situation since the moment Anne offered to tutor me. Despite the fact that I had missed classes for a week, considering Anne’s notes, she wasn’t exactly qualified to teach someone. It wasn’t that she had a poor head for it; she just lacked interest and study skills, hence she often ended up at the bottom of the class.

“So, where was it that swallowed the Delis Kingdom and expanded its power?”

Trying to quiz Anne again, only a groan emerged instead of an answer.

“Uuuhhh…”

She hung her head and clutched her head with both hands, pondering for a while before peeking up at me to gauge my reaction. Upon making eye contact, she spoke in a little voice.

“Hint?”

I had already asked her about ten times, and she had received clues more than that. If I gave her another hint now, it would probably be around the sixteenth.

Still, it was commendable that she wasn’t demanding the answer outright and was trying to recall it from hints.

“It’s one of the kingdoms still present on the continent.”

With that hint, Anne began to list the names of existing kingdoms one by one, pondering.

Is she truly thinking? She’s not just pulling something out randomly, is she?

“The Silan Kingdom…?”

After contemplating for a while, a kingdom’s name slipped out of Anne’s mouth in a small voice. She looked at me, waiting for confirmation about whether what she said was correct.

“…Correct.”

“Yay!”

With her hand that was previously clutching her head, she made a fist in excitement. It wasn’t a very noble way to celebrate, but it was still quintessentially Anne.

She grabbed her cup, attempting to sip through the straw, but nothing came up. Looking down, I saw her cup was already empty. Meanwhile, half of Anne’s drink was still left.

After taking on the role of the teacher, it seemed I had ended up talking more, leading to me finishing my drink first.

“Wait a second. I’m going to get something to drink. Is there anything you want?”

With tuition and dorm fees and the Academy meal costs being an issue, I still had enough leeway to indulge a little with such occasional spending.

“Huh? No, I’m good with this.”

Turning down my offer, Anne sipped the remaining strawberry smoothie and I returned to the café’s counter once more. While pondering what to drink, a voice called out to me.

“Elysia?”

Turning to see who was calling my name, I recognized a familiar pair of glasses.

“Lena?”

Though her name was Lena, I was so used to calling her the class representative by now. I definitely was supposed to study with her tomorrow, yet here we were bumping into each other.

“I thought I heard Elysia and Anne’s voices, and here you really are.”

“Yep. We decided to study together here…”

“How’s it going? Is it working out?”

“Ahahaha…”

I couldn’t bring myself to lie and just awkwardly laughed it off.

“Well, I think I understand the situation well enough. Okay, our original plan was tomorrow, but as class representative, I can’t just ignore this.”

In the end, I returned to the study room with the class representative, holding my newly ordered drink.

“DelisSilanDelisSilanDelisSilan… Huh?”

To my delight, it seemed Anne had been memorizing everything we covered while I was gone. She was mumbling the material when her attention turned to the sound of the curtain opening, catching sight of both me and the class representative entering.

Anne’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she hadn’t expected to see the class representative here either.

“Class representative!”

“Hi there!”

Waving, the class representative picked up an empty chair and sat down next to the table, where she could see both me and Anne.

“I ran into you up front. So, Elysia was actually the one teaching you?”

“Ell, how could you be so loose-lipped!”

In truth, I had done nothing aside from awkwardly grin, enabling plenty of room for speculation. But then again, the fault lay in Anne’s history that made such speculation possible. So I didn’t feel at fault.

“Alright, enough chit-chat for now. Let’s see where you’ve gotten to.”

With that, the class representative picked up the textbook we had open and began to peruse it.

“You haven’t gotten very far at all.”

Since I wasn’t covering the material myself, I had to study at the same pace as Anne to explain things to her, resulting in slower progress than if I were studying alone.

Of course, I wasn’t blaming Anne for that. Teaching her like this actually helped solidify my own understanding as well.

“Okay then, shall we get started right away?”

The class representative rolled up her sleeves, full of enthusiasm, while Anne seemed to look a bit shaken. That was quite an unusual sight given her usual demeanor.

Thinking about it, since Anne’s notes weren’t great, there were times she had to stay behind after school for extra studying. The class representative often stayed behind to help the remaining students study during those times.

…What on earth happened that was making the brave Anne tremble?