Anything But Study - Chapter 29

Of course, it would be a lie to say that Melia’s feelings about Hailon’s grades were filled with nothing but pure support.

Even though her uncle hadn’t been pressing her for money lately, the anxiety that he might show up again at any time still lingered in a corner of her mind.

Hailon’s rank in the last exam had been 150th.

That meant that if he placed even 120th this time, she would receive one million erins.

‘It seems possible.’

Melia felt optimistic.

Of course, there had been days when they barely did any proper tutoring and spent all day and night mixing bodies instead….

Even so, he was following along quite well.

If that was the case, couldn’t she hope for good results this time too?

After all, they’d been diligently studying every day, carving out time after classes.

Especially during lessons, Hailon’s focus was incredible.

The way he stared at her as if he didn’t want to miss a single word she said left a strong impression.

‘This exam, the results might actually be pretty good.’

***

A short while later, as usual, Hailon arrived at the library.

But today, there was something that needed to be done before starting the lesson.

Melia forced open her mouth, which refused to move easily, and broached the subject.

“…About the book you gave me last time.”

“Ah, right. Did you look into it?”

A relaxed smile hung on his lips. It even seemed tinged with anticipation.

That smile was probably born of expectation.

That Melia might have found something.

‘What should I do? I can’t give him the answer he wants.’

But Melia couldn’t meet his hopes. Her chest felt heavy, like something was lodged in her throat.

“Well, about that….”

Trailing off, Melia opened the book to the page she’d seen earlier that day.

‘Huh.’

By coincidence, the page she was looking for appeared right away. Normally, pages that were opened often would fall open first.

Was it because Melia had examined this page so intently earlier today?

The section she wanted revealed itself immediately. Even rereading it to make sure she hadn’t missed anything, it still only said that neither the relic’s activation conditions nor its duration could be specified.

“Nothing seems to be known yet….”

Melia’s voice trailed off.

She felt nothing but sorry that she couldn’t bring him the news he wanted.

That was why Melia didn’t notice.

That this page bore especially heavy signs of having been opened before.

“Really? Then I guess there’s no choice but to keep things as they are for now.”

“…Mm.”

As she agreed, Melia felt strangely like a sinner. Because of that, she couldn’t bring herself to look at his face.

“It can’t be helped. Since it’s come to this.”

There was no way for her to know that a smile had formed on his lips.

‘It’s because of me, so I need to work even harder.’

Knowing nothing, Melia simply resolved to try harder to repay this sense of debt she felt.

“Hailon, since the exam is tomorrow, I prepared some practice questions today. Want to try solving them?”

They were questions Melia had put together without properly resting even during lunch.

Hailon looked at the problems laid out in front of him and asked, “You made all of these?”

“Yeah!”

Melia nodded, a proud smile on her face.

“I thought they might help. Imperial history is mostly memorization, so I prepared them lightly using last year’s questions.”

The quality of the practice questions was quite high. They were good enough that if the professors in charge saw them, they might want to use them as-is for an exam.

“When you prepare this seriously, I don’t really have a choice.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“…Nothing. Let me try solving them.”

Hailon began working through the problems Melia had prepared.

Scratch scratch-

For a while, the only sound echoing quietly through the silent library was the sound of him writing down his answers.

At first, Melia’s gaze, which had been watching the answer sheet, naturally drifted to the large, thick hand gripping the pen.

The moment that hand entered her field of vision, a subtle stir rippled through her heart. Dizzy afterimages surfaced on their own.

That moment when those hands, which looked almost twice as large as hers, had firmly grabbed her breasts.

The time when those thick-knuckled fingers had rummaged inside her and tormented her to their heart’s content.

‘S-stop. What am I thinking!’

Melia’s face grew hot.

Thankfully, Hailon remained focused on the problems. She felt relieved that he hadn’t noticed these thoughts.

Melia hurriedly tried to shift her gaze, lifting her head slightly.

And then.

‘Ah.’

Her eyes were stuck, as if nailed in place, unable to pull away from his profile.

Hailon’s concentrated expression.

Even though his eyes weren’t directed at Melia, just watching him from the side felt enough to bewitch someone.

Naturally, the moment those eyes had turned toward her came to mind.

That gaze that could shake a person just by meeting it.

Thump, thump.

The faint pounding gradually grew louder, until it felt like it was echoing right by her ears.

Melia stared at him, completely absorbed.

She liked it. This moment.

This peaceful moment where she could look at him without any big worries, her heart racing.

Through this brief moment, Melia realized it instinctively.

That she wouldn’t be able to suppress her feelings for Hailon.

How could she not like a man who made her feel this way?

Of course, she couldn’t let him notice, but still, just a little bit….

Gasp.

Melia sucked in a breath.

Because those black eyes were looking straight at her.

Hailon turned his head. Toward Melia.

“What is it, you’ve been staring this whole time?”

The playful tone, asking if she’d been curious how well he was doing, snapped Melia out of her thoughts.

“Here. I’m done.”

“Huh? I, I’ll check right away.”

Flustered by the fact that she’d been caught staring, Melia hurriedly took the answer sheet.

She’d been staring the whole time. That was embarrassing. What if he thought it was strange?

Forcing herself to ignore the lingering unease, Melia checked the answer sheet he handed over.

And her eyes widened.

‘…Almost all of these are correct.’

The results were better than she’d expected.

The answers were excellent.

If he could do this well, why had he been maintaining such a low rank of 150th until now?

At this level, it seemed entirely possible for him to place within the top 30.

All except for one subject.

“Why did you miss so many on imperial history…?”

After finishing grading the last subject, imperial history, Melia looked troubled.

Compared to the other subjects, the correct answer rate was less than half.

With the exam being tomorrow, this was naturally worrying.

Imperial history was essentially pure memorization. As a result, it was the subject with the highest average scores among students.

And yet this many wrong answers.

Hailon shrugged briefly and replied, “It’s complicated, so it doesn’t stick. I guess I don’t really have a talent for memorization.”

Is that so?

Melia tilted her head slightly.

From tutoring him, she felt that Hailon’s memory wasn’t bad at all. If anything, it seemed quite good.

Especially since he remembered even the things Melia mentioned in passing.

Wouldn’t that mean he had a good memory?

“Mm… really?”

She didn’t quite agree, but if he found it difficult, there wasn’t much she could do.

“Then let’s take imperial history slowly for now, and focus on the other subjects today. If memorization is hard for you, it’ll be difficult to raise that score much right away.”

“Other subjects….”

Hailon looked as if he were thinking it over.

Melia found herself curious about which subject he would mention.

“Yeah. Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

With the exam being tomorrow, she thought it would be better for Hailon to point out the subjects he personally felt lacking in.

That way, he could raise his score even by just a single point.

“There is. Something I’m curious about. Something I want to know.”

“What is it?”

Hailon’s lips slowly parted.

Natural sciences? Art studies? Or maybe a foreign language like the Kingdom of Turdan’s language? Melia guessed silently, focusing on the answer that would come from his lips.

But none of her guesses were correct.

“You.”

“Huh?”

“I’m curious about Melia Anderson.”

Hailon’s gaze settled on Melia.

“W-what did you say?”

A deeper blush spread across Melia’s cheeks than before.

At the same time, the clouds outside parted, and the sunset-colored light streamed in through the window.

It was fortunate.

The red glow of the dusk was able to hide Melia’s cheeks, flushed bright red.