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I raise my head noticing light coming through the window. The sun is actually rising.

Looking to the side, there’s a pile of things, basically my work of the night.

I didn’t feel comfortable returning to the room all night, so instead I just took a random seat in the dining hall and spent the night practicing alchemy to distract myself.

I started by making healing potions, then when I ran out of ingredients I made antidotes, paralysis remedies, various other types of medicine, and even pain salves.

When I ran out of medicinal herbs I made spare magazines for my magic guns. And when I ran through my materials I just purified random metals.

Even I felt like I had gone insane. But still, I never got to understand just what I had done wrong.

Still, enough time has passed. I should return to the room soon and wake Olivia up.

Using that as an excuse to push myself there, I throw everything I made into my magic storage and stand up.

I enter the room and check the side opposite to mine first.

The basket with bread is gone from the desk, I guess Olivia did eat after all. Her bed is empty too, even though she always sleeps until I wake her up.

Well, I guess today isn’t exactly a normal day. I hurt her badly last night. I’m not sure exactly what part of what I said did it, but the fact remained that I had hurt her.

She probably didn’t want to see my face, so it makes sense that she woke up on her own and left.

I start making her bed. When I touch her blankets, they’re cold. Quite some time must’ve passed since she got up. Maybe she actually hates me now.

I’m such an idiot. To hell with being a man in my past life, to hell with being a reincarnated soul.

All of that experience means nothing if all I do is upset Olivia and I can’t even figure out what caused that.

Incompetent. Useless. Trash.

All those words fit me perfectly.

Clack!

I turn around hearing the door open. Olivia is standing there, she’s not wearing her sleeping clothes, but a sporty outfit.

Ah, I’m glad. She came back.

Not even ten minutes passed since I found her bed empty.

Somehow that was enough to make me feel like I’d never see her again. That was obviously just me overthinking though.

I knew I was overthinking, but seeing her come back still made me feel immense relief and joy.

“Umm…morning.”
“Mm… Good morning.”

She enters the room, very faint wisps of steam coming off her body, and approaches me.

For some reason I get really nervous and can’t make eye contact.

“So…I’m sorry, about last night and stuff. Somehow I just started feeling really depressed. But going for a run really helped me clear my mind.”

Olivia says that and smiles a bit, but still awkwardly.

While I was fidgeting around all night, Olivia had taken care of her emotions on her own.

Ahhh…I really am the worst.

“Ah…right, I should change.”
“Umm…Young Lady…”

Olivia turns around and heads to her dresser, but I call her and she stops.

“Yeah?”

She turns around and looks at me. Should I apologize now? Actually, no. I didn’t say anything wrong, I knew that for a fact. I shouldn’t apologize for something that wasn’t bad.

“Would you like to go to the forest with me next time you’re free?”

Instead, I should try to return some of the enjoyment I otherwise took away from her.

“Huh? But I’m still-”
“I’m running low on the herbs I use for alchemy, so I’d like to pick up more from the forest. I won’t take you somewhere dangerous, so just think about it as a short picnic. As long as your schedule permits it, I mean.”
“I’ll go! I’ll definitely go! I’ll be looking forward to it!”

Her mood seemed to go from one opposite end to another, smiling happily. I’m glad to see her feeling better.

Also…she just came from running, so she’s wearing a tanktop and shorts, which are quite revealing. She’s been growing a lot lately, especially her chest which seems emphasized by her outfit, so I’m really not sure where to look when she’s facing me like that.

Her skin also has a pink tone to it, probably because she took a shower recently, and I can smell soap as well. If I had to sum it up, she looks sexy.

“What’s wrong, Natalia? You’re so quiet all of a sudden.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Umm…look forward to today’s lunch.”
“Okay!”

I owe her mother Ophelia a lot, so I always help her change or wash her underwear, and didn’t have any issues until recently…

I’ll have to get used to this soon or it’ll affect my work performance. Pull yourself together, me!

She’s still a child. Olivia is a child.

Repeating that like a mantra, I manage to calm myself down.

After lunch, Natalia and Olivia went their separate ways. Olivia was still in a very good mood, almost skipping as she walked to her classroom and opened the door vigorously.

“Good morning everyone!”

She greeted the other students with a far louder voice than usual, which startled them a little before they nervously greeted her back.

Once she reached her seat and put down her bag, Olivia looked around the classroom, feeling something amiss.

Classroom A was mainly composed of noble daughters, who acted quite reservedly for their age, valuing proper manners above all else. They would rarely raise their voice for no reason, and kept quiet even when chatting with friends.

So usually the classroom was a quiet place as well. Today that did not seem to be the case. Everyone seemed to be on edge, almost like they were waiting for someone to finish chanting a spell.

“Good morning, Olivia. You seem to be in a good mood today.”
“Oh, good morning Mathias.”

As Olivia tried to figure out what was going on, Mathias greeted her from the seat to her side.

After their duel at the start of the school year, Mathias had accepted Olivia was strong, and Olivia also respected his power. There were no romantic feelings between the two though, merely having a friendship where they saw each other as worthy training opponents.

“Natalia just invited me to go on a picnic next time I’m free. I’m already looking forward to it.”

Olivia squirmed while pressing her hands to her cheeks, to which Mathias could only shrug and shake his head.

“You two always seem to act more like sisters than master and servant. And Nat… Miss Natalia is also quite well made, sometimes I forget she’s an automaton.”

Mathias almost called her simply by her name, but he quickly remembered they were in the classroom, so he had to refer to Natalia appropriately.

“I also had my reservations hearing she was a maid automaton, but she seemed quite human-like during the lesson the other day.”
“I know, right? Mother also called Natalia her lifelong masterpiece!”

Olivia felt proud hearing all the praise Natalia was getting.

Meanwhile Mathias was about to say ‘Then how come your grades are so bad?’ but he bit his tongue and swallowed the words, keeping them all to himself. That was his way of showing kindness.

“Enough about me though, why’s everyone like that?”
“…Hmm, I guess it’s safe to tell you.”

Mathias looked around the classroom, then lowered his voice to whisper.

“We don’t really know all the details yet, but apparently there was an armed uprising by the citizens of the Berlomot Kingdom to the west.”
“Huh…isn’t that like, really dangerous?”

Olivia also lowered her voice to ask that.

“Berlomot is one of the many small countries allied with Seperion, but they’re also like a buffer zone between the Sacred Land Alliance, so they aren’t the most stable of places. Everyone you see here looking worried has family near Berlomot, or has some sort of ties with the country.”
“I see.”

Olivia nodded sagely, but in truth she had barely understood half of all that.

Mathias was aware of that, but chose not to point it out. Spending half a year with her had taught him that expecting her to think more critically about such topics was a waste of effort.

“You don’t seem too worried though.”
“My family is from the east, so they’re a safe distance away even if anything serious happens. Though my father is an important member of the National Magician Association, and he has a duty to fulfill if they shed noble blood.”
“Being a noble sounds like a lot of work.”
“You don’t… Nevermind, we chose to carry this burden and responsibility. Don’t worry about it.”

As a noble, Mathias’ pride could not allow a commoner to worry about him, and he also wanted to act more like a grown man, so he just smiled and told Olivia not to worry.

They changed topics after that, talking about random things until Damuel arrived at the classroom.

That day Amy was only present in body but not in spirit though, as her family’s main trading route had been caught up in the armed uprising.