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Let’s see. After I finished the preparations and chatted with the girls for a while, it looked like the idiots had arrived. They were walking towards us while talking about various things.

“Hey, Cain. Should we really do this?”
“It’s better if you can read and write, right? You can’t even read the request form.”

“Ehh? But Triela can read, right? So it’s fine, isn’t it?”
“Of course it’s not. This is an extreme example, but what if all of us die and only you survive?”

“There’s no way it will happen! Hey, Boman. You also agree with me, right?”
“I don’t really care.”
“…Can you say that the possibility is definitely zero? Not to mention, it’s not like we’re always going to be in the same party, okay? We had to punish you because you were tricked and received the wrong change when you went to buy supplies alone. If you study properly, something like that won’t happen again.”

“That’s… if Triela and that shrimp came with me, there wouldn’t be any problem!”
“You’re going to make them follow you everywhere just because you don’t want to learn? Do you know that even Lycoris can do more than you now?”

“What!? How can I be more useless than that shrimp!”
“Lycoris can read, write, calculate, and even use magic now. As far as what Triela heard from Ren, Lycoris has a talent in magic. You can neither read, write, nor use magic. You’re even the weakest among us physically, right? And it’s not like you’ll lose anything if you learn how to read and write.”

“Tsk… Got it, I just have to do it, right? So troublesome.”

…Hey, I kinda lost my motivation already. Can I go home now? No?

Ryuu, the king of idiots, hadn’t changed at all. How baffling… Boman also still had that lazy face. Be more motivated.

“Cain, you’re slow!”
“Sorry. But we’re not late, right?”
“It’s polite to come earlier than the person who we’re indebted to! Ren came with us, you know?”
“Eh, really?”

Ahh. Well, but Cain and the other boys came earlier than the expected time, so it’s fine.

“Sorry, Ren. Have we kept you waiting?”
“Good morning, Maricle. I didn’t wait that long, don’t worry.”
“Ah, good morning. But you came before us, right? Sorry.”
“I heard that you went to buy bread for everyone. You have a proper reason, so there’s no problem.”
“Hey, dwarf. Can you really teach us? You seriously can read and write now?”

Ryuu interrupted when Maricle talked to me. …Just who was he calling a dwarf, this idiot. He’s even shorter than me, how annoying! Norn, can you bite him a little?

“You fool!”

Whack!

“Ugh!”

Ohh, the burst of Maricle’s iron first!

“Do you understand your position!? Stop it already!”
“Oww… I got it! Sorry, dwarf!”

…Can I just go home? For real?

“Don’t open your mouth anymore!”

Bang!

“Ugg!?”

Surprisingly, Cain smacked him as well.

As I got a little surprised at the unexpected development, Maricle and Cain started to beat Ryuu up. I didn’t really have any reason to stop them, so let them hit him until they were satisfied. It’s about time, so let’s start the lesson.

“Triela, we’re starting soon…”
“Ah, wait, Ren! Umm…”

Ah, Cain… What? To be honest, I didn’t want to talk to him more than I should. Rather than making a sound to reply to him, I turned back and stared at him with scornful eyes.

“……”
“Umm, when we were in the orphanage, I…”
“……”
“Ah… Err…”

Why was he stuttering so much? Okay, this was a waste of time. Let’s start the class immediately.

“Triela, I’m starting the class now, so please sit down.”
“Okay! Hey, you all have to sit down too! Cain, quick! You idiots, just sit down already!”

Since they already got to their seats, I started the class. By the way, I was wearing my hood during the class. There were quite a few adventurers looking at us from a distance.

Well, Arle, Kuro, and Maricle had the motivation to learn, so their progress was quick. I didn’t want to say this, but Cain was also quick to learn. Boman was… normal? No, it’s hard to say what is normal. He was neither overly good nor bad?

What was unexpected was Ryuu. He was surprisingly serious while studying, even if he was groaning the entire time. Occasionally, he would scratch his head and throw a tantrum, but after that, he would take a deep breath and go back to his study. Somehow, even if he was complaining, he was more motivated than I expected. If he could stop freaking out and making noise, it would be a lot better.

After I taught the basics of reading and writing for around an hour, Ryuu and Boman had reached their limits, so I decided to take a short break. Arle and Kuro also started to lose their concentration.

“Let’s take a break for around fifteen minutes.”

“““Fwahh…”””

Hmm, seems like everyone was pretty exhausted? It can’t be helped, I’ll give them some juice. I took out some cups, poured orange juice, and gave it to everyone.

“Drink this and take a break. Give me back your cup when you’re done drinking.”
“Yay!”
“Delicious!”
“What is this? It’s so delicious, isn’t it!?”

Hmm, they looked like they liked it a lot? But I wouldn’t do this service every time, okay. It’s just a first bonus gift.

…Cain looked like he wanted to speak to me, but I ignored him.

By the way, while I was teaching the kids, Norn and Bell were moving around to guard us. Thanks to them, no one came to bother us unnecessarily. Some people were looking at us from a distance, but they were a bit too far to snoop at the blackboard and listen to the lesson. They also won’t come to approach us. As expected from Norn, she’s the best.

“Hey, don’t you have extra? If you do, give me more!”

I don’t have anything to share with you!

“I don’t.”
“You don’t? How stingy.”

Should I kill this little s̲h̲i̲t̲?

“Eh, there’s no more…?”
“I want to drink more…”
“There are extra servings for Lyco and Kuro. Okay, here you go.”
“Really!?”
“Hooray!”

Fufufu, they’re so cute!

“Oi, wait! You just said that you don’t have any more left, right!? What’s with that!”
“I don’t have anything for you.”
“Oi, don’t joke with…”

Whack! A deadly blow from Maricle! It was super effective! Ryuu was in agony!

“Shut up.”

Hmm. As expected from Maricle. He’s truly reliable.

Now then, let’s do the second half of the battle since they had regained their motivation. But should I continue teaching them reading and writing or switch to calculation? Hmm…

“Everyone, how do you want to continue the study? Would you like to learn reading and writing? If you’re fed up with that, we can also learn calculation.”

In this kind of case, let’s decide with the majority vote.

“Hmm, I’m okay with reading and writing, I guess?”
“It’s getting a bit boring for me, so I’d like to try the calculation.”
“I’m fine with learning the same thing. I mean, I can switch my focus to another topic pretty easily too.”
“…I’m fine with anything.”

Hmm, Arle, Lyco, Kuro, and Ryuu voted for reading and writing. Maricle and Cain voted for calculation. Triela and Boman were fine with either of them. Therefore, let’s go with the majority vote.

“Then we’ll continue reading and writing.”

There was some booing, but I completely ignored it. Besides, the idiot Ryuu was doing his best. It’s not a bad idea to adjust with the fool here.

The second half of the battle ended without any problems.

…Ryuu was doing his best even if he kept complaining. It’s annoying when he opens his mouth.

When I was cleaning up, two girls approached us. One was big and one was small. Their faces were similar, so they were probably sisters? As I wondered why they would come here, it turned out that they seem to know Triela and started a conversation with her.

“Umm, Triela? What are you doing in this kind of place?”
“Ah, Sheryl and Melty. Well…”

Their names were Sheryl and Melty. Both of them were pink-haired beastfolks with white cat ears and tail. Sheryl had long hair and Melty had a short haircut. As I predicted, they were really sisters.

“So you’re studying reading, writing, and calculation… Triela, is it that girl who taught you? I remember you talking about her before.”
“Yes, she’s my best friend.”
“…Umm, can she also teach us?”
“Eh? That’s, er… Um, Ren?”

…According to Triela’s explanation, Sheryl seemed to be a good person who had been helping Triela since she came to the royal capital. Sheryl was thirteen years old and her sister Melty was ten years old.

Sheryl also came from an orphanage, and she moved to the capital with her sister. Thanks to Sheryl’s attentiveness, Triela could distinguish herbs to some extent. And even if their previous lodging was very cheap and narrow, they could sleep under a roof with her help. You could even say that Sheryl was Triela and her whole party’s benefactor.

After that, they would collect herbs together when they met each other. But recently, Triela and the whole party’s knowledge about herbs had suddenly increased together with their income, and they even changed their inn. Surprised at how Triela team’s had suddenly become richer, Sheryl asked the reason, then she knew about me and the reference room.

But Sheryl, who didn’t know how to read and write even after going to the reference room, seemed to be in trouble. She couldn’t read what was written even though she had the information right in front of her. She had a younger sister, so she was troubled since she wanted to increase her income.

And then, she suddenly had a chance to study in front of her. Hmmm.

“Ren, right…? I beg you, please teach us how to read and write! Just like this!”

She asked while bowing down that low… I didn’t know her, but she also came from an orphanage like us… Hmm.

“Umm, Ren, can I also request this? I know that Ren doesn’t like talking to strangers, and this will be a burden for you, but… Sheryl has really helped us a lot, so I want to help her! Sorry! Please help them!”

Hmm………. Haa. Since she’s Triela’s benefactor, it can’t be helped.

“Haa… I understand. Fine, I will teach you.”
“Really!?”
“Seriously!? Thank you very much!!”
“However, I’m doing this study group just for teaching Triela’s party. Once they have learned to some extent, I’m going to stop teaching them. No matter if you’re still in the middle of learning. If you understand that and still want to join, then sure. Also, the tuition fee is five copper coins per person per lesson.”
“Okay, that’s fine! Thank you very much, I’ll do my best!”

Hmm, I’m getting caught up with their pace again… Am I that easy… This is no good.

“Please ask Triela for the other details.”
“I understand. Triela, please teach me lots!”

Well, something slightly troublesome happened. But after that, we ate our own lunch before breaking up. Lyco and Maricle looked at me wistfully, but I ignored them. Probably feeling guilty for pushing Sheryl and Melty into me, Triela acted awkwardly.

Since I had said that I would do it, she didn’t have to worry about that. I decided this on my own anyway.