Walking My Second Path in Life, Volume 2, page 20
“Hahaha.... How can that be...?”
“Yes... to think that we would need remedial lessons? Us...?”
As the two stood with pale faces and shivering voices, a familiar silhouette passed behind them, joining in on the conversation.
“It is as they say. Have you not been aware of the notice pasted on the dormitory’s boards?”
Persil, having overheard the conversation, offered his succinct observations on the matter.
It would seem that Rigel and Luka, having been too absorbed in their recreational activities, did not see the test notice at all. After all, this was all they knew ever since joining the eastern dormitory. They too were victims to a certain extent.
“Eh...?”
The light in their eyes, which had been so bright mere moments ago, was now fully faded, their features overcome by apprehension and fear. Upon seeing this, Persil could only apologize with an equally apologetic expression on his face.
“I see... You have not read the notice. Perhaps I should have informed you two of it as well... I apologize. Even if you only start now, I pray that you work hard.”
With a pat to both their backs, Persil left with a few books he had borrowed under his arm.
Luka and Rigel, however, continued standing where they were, their pale faces staring into thin air.
If Fie had to make an educated guess, those two were beyond saving. After all, only three days remained until the start of the test.
Perhaps it was a day where Fie and her friends were fated to meet squires of the eastern dormitory — the coincidences continued, with Kerio being the next squire to appear, his familiar form walking through the library entrance.
“Remie. You were studying here?”
Upon seeing Remie, Kerio approached the group, addressing the other squire warmly. It would seem like the two had become friends after their match.
“Yes. Are you studying too, Kerio?”
“Yeah. Although it’s not because I’ve been slacking off. Lack of academic focus is a problem in our dormitory as well, and so I thought I’d actually put some effort in and work hard for this test.” As he spoke, Kerio snuck a peek at Remie’s neatly-written equations and mathematics notes.
“You’re smart, Remie. There are some things about this math question here I don’t get... If it’s all right, could you teach me how to solve it?”
“Yes, of course!” Remie said, his usual happy smile on his face.
As a result, Kerio, who had originally been a passerby, ended up joining their study group. After all, he was now a friend of Remie’s, and the group accepted him readily.
Fie pointed at Rigel and Luka, still frozen as they witnessed the exchange between Kerio and Remie.
“Don’t end up like them, Queen. You hear?”
Nodding with a somewhat mysterious expression, Queen promptly agreed.
The very next moment, however...
“Please teach us as well!”
“Please!”
Rigel and Luka both begged, suddenly on their knees, their previous attitudes and boasts of being supposedly strong geniuses now evaporating into thin air.
The day of the test finally came.
Fie and her friends were seated in a classroom of the northern dormitory, each one writing their answers down on the test sheet before them.
On this day, the squire’s usual training was suspended, allowing them to sit for the test in relative peace.
Fie was doing well. The time she had spent teaching Queen ended up being a good review for her, and ultimately benefited them both. Fie had no issues answering most of the test’s questions.
Meanwhile, Queen wasn’t doing too badly either. Although he had a previous history of terrible grades and didn’t listen during lectures, him being of noble birth, and his habit of reading ended up working out in his favor. All he had to do was to memorize the relevant facts.
As Fie had spent time teaching Queen mathematics, he was now somewhat proficient. While Queen did not have any trouble understanding the concepts at first, his lack of long-term study meant that he had been unable to solve basic equations. However, with some practice, that problem had been solved.
As for the natural sciences, Fie had done what she could to teach Queen the more easily-memorized parts, under the assumption that Queen would score enough points in those sections to avoid failing at the very least.
As for Gormus, who had started his studies much earlier than he usually did, the test did not prove to be much of a challenge. Most of Gormus’ problems with academics would have been solved if he had approached it in this manner to begin with — the reason for him not doing so thus far could perhaps be attributed to his personality.
Remie, who had a habit of daily revision, did not have any issues with the test at all. However, he did have an enjoyable time studying with his fellow squires.
Gees in particular benefited from the sessions, and now found it easier to answer questions on the test. Perhaps all those study sessions were worth something after all.
Slad, however, had launched an all-nighter before the test — with a number of bags under his eyes to attest to that fact. While his friends had worried about him as he entered the classroom with a pronounced sway in his walk, they all hoped that it would work out one way or another.
The test results were handed out a few days later.
Heslow, standing at the front of the class, called up each squire individually and handed them their test results.
The squires, in turn, walked to the front of the class when called.
“Heath.”
Fie walked up to the front of the class without any hesitation.
Heslow, however, looked at Fie, and then back at her results, before sighing in resignation.
“I wish you were this serious in your actual combat training, Heath...”
Fie had apparently moved up a rank and was now 4th from the top, scoring 86 in language, 87 in mathematics, 92 in history, and 85 in the natural sciences.
“Eh heh heh.” Laughing with some degree of satisfaction, Fie returned to her seat.
Soon after, Gormus, Gees, Queen, and Remie were called.
Judging by Heslow’s facial expressions, it would seem that they had all passed the test.
Slad, however, was called after the main group.
The five squires who had been studying with Slad all this time collectively swallowed in anticipation.
Heslow looked at Slad’s results, then turned to face the squire, handing him his test results as he did so.
“Slad... you barely passed. Make sure you review on a regular basis from here on out.”
“Yes...”
Slad, returning to his seat, slumped down like a puppet with its strings cut. It would seem like a great burden had left him. Fie, for her part, was relieved as well.
All the squires received their results, and with that, lessons for that day were over.
Queen immediately approached Fie, a happy expression on his face.
“I somehow managed to pass all my subjects!”
“Yeah. That’s great!” Fie could not help but feel a sense of fulfillment upon seeing Queen’s satisfied smile.
“What were your scores?” inquired Fie, and she went through Queen’s test papers out of curiosity.
Queen had scored 48 points in the natural sciences. Perhaps that much was to be expected — Fie could only teach him the main points of the subject due to time constraints.
Language, at 75 points, was not too bad of a showing at all, thanks to Queen’s reading habit. However, Queen could do with some work on the trivia sections of the paper.
As for history, Queen scored 50 points — although he had been taught the relevant material, he had made a number of careless mistakes. Fie made a mental note to correct this in future study sessions — after all, he could have scored much better.
Lastly, Queen had apparently scored 88 points in mathematics.
“Hmm...?”
Upon seeing this, Fie turned to look at her own paper, comparing their grades.
She had scored 87 — Queen, at 88, was one mark higher. She had somehow ended up losing to Queen in mathematics.
Queen, however, continued to smile and was now positively beaming.
“I worked hard! It’s because of you that I got such grades. Thank you very much!”
Queen almost seemed like a happy dog, wagging its tail and asking for praise — at least, that was Fie’s current impression of him.
However, Fie’s response was swift — her hand was heading towards Queen’s head the very next moment, swung in a familiar chopping fashion.
“Ouch?!”
Not expecting the unprecedented attack, Queen did not move to dodge, and Fie’s hand landed squarely on his head.
“Wh-Why?!” said Queen, unable to comprehend this development.
“You don’t have to score THAT well! Hmph!”
Although Queen had only scored higher than Fie in one subject by exactly one mark, Fie suddenly did not feel like teaching her fellow squire any more. Perhaps because she had lived in the shadow of Fielle all her life, Fie was oddly competitive in certain aspects of her life as a result.
“What? Why? I... I worked hard! I did!” Queen, now teary-eyed, could only watch on as Fie continued rampaging for a while, lost in the negative side of her nature.
After a while, however, Fie did calm down and apologize to Queen for her behavior.
It was also perhaps worth noting that Persil ranked first in the eastern dormitory, and Kerio had received reasonably good grades as well.
Rigel and Luka, on the other hand, barely passed their tests.
With all of them having worked hard in some way or another, the squires all passed. The test, having come and gone, soon passed into their collective memories.
Chapter 23 — Thinking About the Future
With the east-north inter-dormitory duel over, and the recent test results released, Fie found herself rolling around on the floor of Queen’s room one evening.
The tournament, being a large event, and the test, being an important part of their squire education, had taken their toll on the squires of the northern dormitory. Although the above-mentioned events had them all on edge, some squires found themselves more energized than ever, running around the dormitory with seemingly limitless energy. Another group of squires, however, found themselves worn out and lethargic instead.
Fie belonged to the former group. As such, she found herself invading Queen’s room and reading all his books on knightly fiction. Fie had decided that between that and chatting with Queen, this was how she would pass the time.
The book Fie found herself reading today was “The King of Knights, Kaiser.” It was apparently a story about how a king, who was at the same time a knight, showed up at various battlefields and scenes of conflict to save the day.
Fie, however, had her doubts about how someone could be a king and a knight at the same time.
Despite that, it would appear that this particular book was one of Queen’s favorites. In its defense, the book was reasonably interesting, and Fie had found herself halfway through the book before long.
Next to Fie was a piece of paper detailing the latest manliness rankings of the northern dormitory — it would seem that she was currently ranked third. Although she had scored a large amount of points during the sauna incident, she had not been awarded any points since. Although Fie had wanted to catch up with Zerius, who was still in the top position, she could not think of any ideas. She tossed the paper away as an afterthought and began reading through the book once more.
“Um. I’m going to make some tea.”
Although Fie had suddenly invaded Queen’s room and personal space (in addition to rolling on the ground as she continued to read), Queen treated his unannounced guest with exceptional hospitality.
“Thanks!” Fie accepted Queen’s hospitality without much thought.
As Queen left the room, Fie, having decided that she was now bored of the book in her hands, decided to inspect the interior of Queen’s room instead.
Something was bothering her. She only had this feeling because of the information retrieval techniques taught to her by Conrad. To begin with, Fie did possess some degree of ability to read people, although it could simply be said that she was a little more situationally aware than the average person.
This trait of hers, however, enabled Fie to notice a particularly strange reaction in Queen.
It had to do with minor changes in Queen’s expression as she rolled around the floor of Queen’s room.
Upon rolling over a specific spot, Queen would become strangely nervous. Although he had consciously tried to hide it, Queen’s reaction was readily apparent to Fie. This was what had piqued Fie’s interest.
To be precise, Queen always seemed nervous when Fie rolled close to his bed.
(I wonder what’s near his bed...?)
Seizing the opportunity to investigate, Fie moved near the bed, peeking under it for good measure.
Fie soon discovered three books, neatly stacked atop each other. According to their covers, they were nothing more than the knightly fiction books that Queen was so fond of.
However, something was off.
Fie did not understand why there would be books under the bed.
In addition, they had not simply fallen beneath the bed, but had clearly been stacked. Queen was tidy by nature — the relative tidiness of his room was enough proof of that.
There wasn’t a single speck of dust under his bed. Fie’s confusion regarding the placement of the books only rose upon noticing this fact, and she eventually came to the conclusion that they had been purposely placed there.
This was strange. After all, there were shelves in the room.
Without hesitating, Fie promptly crawled under the bed to retrieve the three books.
It did not take her long to notice a few pieces of paper under them.
(And these are...?)
Fie concluded that these papers were the reason for Queen’s nervousness.
“Let’s see here...”
Stretching out her body, Fie reached for the papers and retrieved them without much difficulty.
Upon inspecting them under the room’s lamp, Fie saw that the papers were illustrations of a blonde girl who was wearing relatively skimpy clothing. There appeared to be five papers in all.
Fie looked through them.
“Hmm. I guess Queen does look at these.”
Although the papers were not what Fie was expecting, she wasn’t exactly surprised.
After all, she knew that such illustrations were common amongst youth her age. In fact, she had even been to such a store before, accompanying her fellow squires — although she did not buy a single illustration.
“Hmm. I guess these are the ones he likes...”
Fie had witnessed youths from the downtown and slum districts passionately discussing these illustrations on one of her outings. It would seem like hair color and body curvature was a selling point to these youths.
Upon further inspecting the papers, Fie inevitably found points of similarity amongst them. She reasoned that these were the traits that appealed to Queen.
Fie had no ill intent — she was simply trying to better understand the hobbies of her friend. She continued inspecting the pictures, adopting an almost scientific approach.
“Hmm. They’re all blonde.” Fie stared some more. “They all have blue eyes.”
True enough, the illustrations that Queen had purchased all featured blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls. Fie’s thoughts on the matter were relatively straightforward.
“I guess this is the most popular trend, huh...”
Apparently blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls were extremely popular amongst contemporary youth. It was worth noting that Fie’s sister, Fielle, had a fair share of admirers simply because of these traits. The color of Fielle’s hair and eyes were considered treasures, even amongst other women of similar appearance.
However, to Fie, pursuing popular trends was not exactly the most interesting thing to do. It occurred to Fie that there were perhaps more interesting factors at play. She continued scrutinizing the illustrations intently.
“Hmm. They all have short hair. Does he like that? That’s strange...”
It was more common in both men and women to prefer long hair — at least, as far as Orstoll’s fashion scene went. Noble women, specifically, often grew out their hair. Fielle did the same, and even Fie herself had a similar hairstyle in the past. Conversely, maids like Arsha were only allowed to keep a certain length of hair — primarily due to concerns that it could interfere with their work.
With those thoughts in mind, Fie concluded that these five pictures perfectly represented the sort of woman that Queen liked.
“...Does he like younger women, too?”
If the word on the street was to be believed, most youths preferred adequately curvaceous, older women. However, although Queen was the same age as Fie, it would appear that he preferred younger girls, if the illustrations’ lack of curves was anything to go by.
“And the fashion he likes...”
Deciding to identify Queen’s fashion sense, Fie continued staring, but soon stopped. The illustrations all featured girls dressed in only their underwear, in the process of removing their underwear, and in some cases they wore nothing at all. As such, it was impossible for Fie to discern Queen’s fashion sense.
“Hmm...”
After staring at the illustrations for a while longer, Fie returned them to their original position and placed the books over them.
Although Fie was worried that Queen, who had grown up in a rural location, would be left out of hobby circles, she was somewhat reassured by the discovery of his picture-collecting hobby.
Fie had even made a mental note to introduce such a girl to Queen should she ever have the chance. Unfortunately, Fie could not think of any girl who matched Queen’s preferences at this point in time.
Rolling around on the ground once more, Fie began reading her previously abandoned book, only to find that Queen had returned from his tea expedition.
