The Study Session

“Nn? How did it end up like this?”

I woke up in the middle of the night. On both of my arms, Marie-san and Catherine were sleeping soundly, using them as pillows. As a result, I was completely immobilized.

Looking at the two of them sleeping with such peaceful, trusting faces, I felt a strong urge to protect them.

“It’s so cold… It’s so dark…”

“Hm? I thought I heard something.”

From somewhere, a voice so tiny it was barely audible drifted through the air.

After that, the voice stopped, so I decided I must have misheard it and went back to sleep.

From there, our daily routine resumed. With Elnette newly joined, while it wasn’t enough to completely fill the gap left by Caro, the workload decreased. Saturday arrived in the blink of an eye. Elnette announced she was going off to train and headed out early in the morning.

The rest of us borrowed the dining space in the shop and prepared to study.

“Big Brother, look at this!”

It seemed Rachel had made uniforms for the shop. I was impressed that she could make so many in such a short amount of time. In addition to her own, she had prepared outfits for Catherine, Patty, and even Josette. Rachel was already wearing the one she made. The design was based on Emily’s maid outfit, but it looked like she had tweaked the designs slightly, such as the skirt length, to match each person’s physique. She did a little twirl to show off the new uniform to me.

“Is this my uniform?”

Patty accepted the clothes with a look of joy.

“I made them based on the measurements I took, but try them on just in case to check the fit.”

With that, Rachel took Patty, Josette, and Catherine (who wasn’t participating in the study session) upstairs.

“I’m jealous. I wanted to wear a uniform too.”

Caro spoke somewhat sadly, as she was the only one without one.

“Actually, there’s one for you too, Caro-san. Marie-san made it at the same time she made her own shop uniform. But since you ended up going back home, it was put away without ever being used.”

“Is that so? I’ll have to make sure to thank Marie-san.”

“Kent-san, how do I look?”

“Kent-kun, does it suit me?”

“Kent-san, did I get cute?”

Josette, Patty, and Catherine came back down after changing. Seeing the four of them lined up together with Rachel, they had a nice, unified look.

“Everyone looks great in them.”

“Well, obviously. I basically turned Big Brother’s ideal image into physical clothes. I heard about it, you know—how the clothes Emily wears are materialized by reading your personal tastes.”

“Ghah! Why do you know about that?”

“Emily said she was told to answer if anyone asked.”

(Crap. I do remember telling her it was okay to answer if asked, but I didn’t think it included that.)

I realized that the scope of Emily’s “confidentiality” was a bit different from what I had imagined.

“Well, shall we change back and start studying?” I said.

“Indeed. I shall use this the next time I work here.”

Following Josette’s lead, everyone went to change back.

“Kent-san, I wanted to try wearing it too.”

“I’ve left it here so you can wear it whenever you want, so just come by when you have the time,” I told the still-pouty Caro.

“Now then, where should we start? Patty, which subjects are you bad at?”

Once everyone was finished changing and Catherine had returned to my house, I spoke as we all took our seats at the table.

“Umm… all of them?”

Apparently, we had to start from square one.

“Wait, is everyone using the same things as Josette-san?”

Patty looked surprised. In front of Josette were her class notes, a study notebook, and writing utensils like pens. Caro and Rachel had also prepared notebooks and pens. Naturally, I had mine as well. On Patty’s desk, however, sat a stone slate and a slate pencil. There are no strict rules at school, but many commoners use slates. Incidentally, I usually keep nothing on my desk during class.

“Here are some study tools. I’ll give these to you, Patty, so use them for your studies.”

I handed Patty a notebook and writing utensils. Since they were the same ones we used at the shop, there was no need to explain how to use them.

“Eh? You’re giving these to me? Thank you!”

Patty accepted them happily.

“Let’s start with math then… Josette-san, can I see your notebook for a second?”

“Certainly. Here you are.”

I borrowed the notebook. Since I don’t really listen in class, I didn’t actually know the scope of the test. Her notes were written in beautiful handwriting, well-organized and easy to read, reflecting her personality perfectly.

“As expected of Josette-san, these are wonderfully summarized.”

“Complimenting me won’t get you anything, you know.”

When I praised her, Josette turned red and looked down. Having figured out the general range from the notes, I started writing problems on the shop’s whiteboard.

“Okay, suppose five friends go out to eat, and it costs 150G per person. Now, what is the total? Patty-san, try answering.”

“Uh, um… I don’t know.”

Patty couldn’t answer.

“This is a calculation we use a lot at the shop, so it’s better if you learn how to do it. Josette-san, can you answer?”

“Let’s see… 150… 300… 450… 600… it is 750G.”

Josette did the addition and successfully arrived at the correct answer.

“Correct. Now, let’s change the numbers slightly… Six friends go to eat, and it costs 170G per person. What is the total? Rachel, you answer.”

“1,020G.”

“Correct.”

“Yay!”

“ “Eh?” “

Patty and Josette were shocked that Rachel, who was a grade below them, answered instantly.

“Give me one too!”

Caro pleaded with me.

“Alright… changing the numbers… four friends…”

“That would be 480G.”

“Correct, but… I hadn’t even finished the problem yet.”

“ “ “Eh???” “ “

Josette, Patty, and even Rachel were stunned that Caro had answered before I even stated the price per person. I had a feeling that would happen, so I wasn’t as surprised.

“Regarding these problems… if you memorize this, you’ll be able to give answers easily.”

I began writing the multiplication table (kuku) on the whiteboard.

“Wow, the multiplication table! How nostalgic.”

Rachel said, looking at the board with a look of longing.

“For example, with the problem I gave Patty…”

I wrote out the calculation method applying the multiplication table on the board.

“I see… they didn’t teach us this method of calculation at school. This is extremely helpful.”

Josette copied the multiplication table into her notebook and noted down the calculation examples. We continued studying each subject in this manner. Incidentally, we held a similar study session the following day, Sunday.