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After lunch, Olivia says she wants to prepare for her next class, so we part ways and I head to the staff room.

“So, what did you need from me?”

I’m meeting Damuel, the homeroom teacher of classroom A. He’s a man with dark orange hair and slit eyes, giving him a warm appearance with a hint of severity. He’s sitting on a chair as I speak to him.

“Hello, I have a favor to ask from you.”

He frowns the moment he hears that.

“I wish to use the training grounds of your earlier test myself.”
“Oh, that’s what you wanted?”
“What do you mean?”
“Sorry, it’s nothing.”

I ask him, and he scratches his head awkwardly.

“Olivia’s mother graduated from this academy, and the principal was her teacher, so I thought you might try taking advantage of that.”

Ah, Olivia’s performance earlier was horrendous, so he probably thought I was going to use our connections with the principal to essentially bribe him.

“I’m sorry.”
“Me too, I could’ve been more considerate.”

I can’t blame him for thinking that, considering the test happened just a bit ago. We end up bowing to each other in apology.

“You were asking about the training grounds, right? Sadly I can’t give you permission as you’re not a student.”

Yeah, he has a point. Though I kinda expected as much already.

“I see. I can’t really argue with that, so I’ll have to give up the idea.”

That’s a more than valid reason, so there’s no point to insist. Now that I think about it, asking for permission to use the school’s facilities out of the blue is a bit weird too.

“I really didn’t expect that though. This is the first time a maid has come asking for permission to use the training grounds.”
“I just want to be capable of protecting her.”

Maids don’t usually need to learn fighting skills, but Ophelia had taught me to fight and use magic, so they were precious skills to me. I didn’t want them to get rusty with time.

Not to mention that Olivia wants to become a high level adventurer, so I have to be strong enough to protect her along the way.

“Why don’t you try using the Adventurer’s Guild’s training grounds? The guild in this city has a pretty big training area, and they have dummies just like here.”
“Thank you for the suggestion.”

I bow deeply to Damuel and leave the staff room. The Adventurer’s Guild, huh. I’ll need to check where it’s located. I’d prefer being able to train nearby, but no way around it I guess.

As I go back to the dorm I pass by the training grounds again. It’s still the first day of school, so the area looks empty. But it seems someone was using it not too long ago, there’s still one target dummy raised.

“Hey, who was it? These children need to learn to leave things the way they found them.”

I’m not a student so I can’t really step in and clean up, can I? But I also can’t just ignore a mess if I see one. I take out Black Hawk from my magic storage.

It’s been a week since we left Bamel, and during our trip here we always stayed safe away from the forests, so I haven’t used Black Hawk in a while. This is my first time spending so long without shooting since I woke up in this world. I missed the weight of Black Hawk in my hand.

“Hey buddy, I bet you were bored too.”

This is basically the same as picking up a piece of trash littered on the streets. I’ll be cleaning up the mess someone else left, I get to train, and my good friend Black Hawk gets to see some action too.

It’s literally a win-win scenario.

I aim at the dirt mound and pull the trigger, a magic bullet piercing through the target with a satisfying sound. I repeat that a few more times. Hahahah, shooting guns is so funnn!

“…”
“?”

I feel a gaze on me, but I don’t see anyone when I turn around.

“I must’ve imagined it.”

I continued shooting until the target was destroyed, but I didn’t feel that gaze again.

The next morning I wake up early and prepare a boxed lunch for Olivia before the dorm’s cafeteria opens. When she takes it, she tells me, “You should come to the school’s cafeteria for lunch too, we can eat together.”

I don’t really have any issues doing that.

Once I’m done cleaning and organizing our room, all I can do in the dorm is to study the magic devices and papers I brought from home, or practicing some magic and alchemy.

…Somehow that’s more than I realized.

But regardless of that, I still have no issues having lunch together with Olivia. I go to the cafeteria at the arranged time. Amy is also here, and Olivia looks the same as yesterday.

“She’s such a mess again.”
“I know.”

Their classes started earnestly today, and since it’s the first day of lessons, they started with the fundamentals of magic. I ask what topics they covered, and it really was the very basics, things Ophelia said even children could understand. Anyone who can use a bit of magic understands all of it.

During the lesson the teacher had asked questions to the students, and since it was classroom A, everyone gave the correct answers. Or well, almost everyone.

“Please Young Lady, raise your head.”
“Natliaaa, I’m sorryyyy…”

Seeing her face with tears streaming down her cheeks startles me a little, but I still continue cutting up her food with silverware.

“Cheer up, Young Lady. I’ll feed you again if you want.”
“Yes, I’m cheerful again! Natalia I love youuu!”

Olivia’s body instantly snaps up and she smiles. She really is easy to manipulate.

“You really spoil Olivia a lot, huh.”

Well, her mother passed away not too long ago, and we were apart for quite some time too, so I kinda want to spoil her a little now.

“Ahh…if you feed me like this everyday I maybe it won’t matter after all.”
“What are you saying? It’ll only bring shame to your mother and my Mistress if you do that.”
“Now that you mention that…”