Chapter 45

After about a week of studying, Angelica reached a point where she could read and write without any issues.

“Hahahaha! Behold my true power! No one can call me an idiot anymore!”

“It’s not exactly a level of skill worth bragging about, but you’ve reached a standard where you can write a letter by yourself.”

“Now I won’t have to endure those ‘this girl is a moron’ looks from everyone in my party!”

She looked like she was about to cry.

So you actually were bothered by that after all…

“Yes, Angelica. You have endured this training well.”

“I knew it, I really am a Hero. I’m a chosen human.”

Her level of competence was still far too low for her to be acting this smug, but there was no doubt she was significantly smarter than the Angelica of last week. Well, I suppose you can’t get any weaker than Level 1.

“Umu. However, the real challenge begins now. Everything up to this point has been a mere prologue.”

“A prologue? Eh…? You’re lying, right…?”

Angelica’s face filled with unease, but I wasn’t lying.

“Starting tomorrow, we will hold lessons in the morning and afternoon as well. You shall do battle with various academic subjects! Steel yourself!”

“Huh? You’re definitely joking. That would overlap perfectly with the hours you’re at work, Demon King. Well, if I feel like it, I might voluntarily study maybe once every ten days.”

There isn’t a chance in the world she intends to study voluntarily.

“In that case, tomorrow you shall see what happens with your own eyes and despair!”

I made a characteristically Demon King-like pronouncement and swept out of Angelica’s room.

“Good work today~♪”

Lateia was waiting for me with tea. Educating our daughter was a collaborative effort between husband and wife.

“Angelica has become much more sensible over this past week. At the very least, she won’t be called a ‘hopeless idiot’ anymore.”

“That’s a relief. I hope she becomes even smarter starting tomorrow.”

“Yes, Lateia. I’m counting on you.”

The next day, when I returned home in the evening, Angelica had tears in her eyes.

She was looking at me with pure resentment.

“Demon King, you tricked me…”

“I never told you a single lie. If anything, you’re the one who chose to deceive yourself.”

“Why are Selene and Naharin here to give lessons!?”

“I called them to serve as tutors, obviously.”

Both Selene and Naharin are in the same adventurer party as Angelica. Since one cannot be a mage or a priestess without a decent amount of intelligence, they both possess considerable knowledge. Handling primary education would be no problem at all for them.

“When I asked them both to cooperate in making Angelica smarter, they said they would be delighted to help. You have good comrades, don’t you?”

“To think my party had fallen into the hands of the Demon King…”

Humans and demons alike tend to get along best with those at a similar intellectual level. If you stay an idiot, you’ll be the only one isolated. If you don’t like that, study harder.

“Hurry up and rise to the same realm as us. I’ll be waiting at the level where one can study abroad at a university. You’d best do your best to catch up bit by bit.”

“Selene is way too strict, and Naharin mumbles so much it’s hard to hear her… it’s a nightmare…”

I have no idea whether Selene and Naharin are actually suited for tutoring, so I can’t speak to the technical side of things. Since they’re your teammates, just find a way to keep up.

“I won’t lose… Because I’m the Hero, I mustn’t give up…”

Oho, that expression is unmistakably that of a warrior.

Please shift that conviction you once held for defeating the Demon King toward your studies.

I even believe there’s a small chance you could become a great scholar. Self-made people can sometimes display incredible tenacity.

“Besides, every time I clear a curriculum, Mama makes me sweets…”

She’s being lured by food…

But Lateia really has our daughter under control. As expected.

With the cooperation of Angelica’s party, the Hero Angelica spent her days immersed in study.

According to her, it was far more painful than the time she fought me at my castle. That has to be an exaggeration…

—And then, a month passed.

It was a day off. Not only was I there, but Selene and Naharin were lined up as well.

Several test papers were laid out in front of Angelica’s seat.

“Now then, we shall begin the academic diagnostic test. Start!”

Angelica wrote her name on the papers and set to work on the answers.

In a low voice, Naharin spoke:

“I feel a fighting spirit unlike anything before. For Angelica, this test is a battlefield.”

With her arms crossed, Selene nodded as well.

“This will be the touchstone for whether the Hero Angelica can move on to the next step.”

“It’s fine if she doesn’t. She can just try again. The gates are wide open for those with the will to learn.”

The moment she possessed the resolve to study, Angelica had as good as won.

Eventually, the time for the test came to an end.

“Now, grade them!”

Angelica thrust the papers toward us.

We immediately went into a separate room to grade the subjects we were responsible for.

Angelica, I will thoroughly judge your efforts with my own eyes.

The grading concluded without incident.

The three of us appeared before Angelica once more and—

Applauded.

The result was magnificent—a pass!

“It’s still a bit of a crash course, so entering university immediately might be difficult, but you’ve grown enough that you can definitely break through that wall if you keep up your studies.”

“Such a sincere attitude is rare even among priests.”

“Angelica, you did it! To think you, who were shaky even with multiplication, now understand advanced arithmetic!”

Angelica puffed out her chest.

“I’m the Hero, so it’s only natural that I overcome any hardship.”

—However, the backlash came afterward.

Selene came to me in tears.

“Angelica is saying that being an adventurer is a high-risk profession, so she wants to find a steady job!”

“That’s right, Selene. Adventurers have no guarantee for the future. Besides, once your physical strength starts to decline, it becomes hard to stay active, so the period you can work in your lifetime isn’t very long. A wise person should seek a stable occupation. We’ve acquired the cultural capital for it now, haven’t we?”

Oops.

She had started rejecting the very concept of being an adventurer.

“Angelica, you are the Hero after all, so isn’t it fine to just keep going as you are…?”

“But ‘Hero’ is more like a title; the state’s guarantees aren’t particularly exceptional. Well, I do intend to enroll in a defined-contribution pension plan, though.”

After that, it took three hours to persuade Angelica alongside Selene. It was a struggle because she was now armed with logic.

It turns out simply becoming smarter isn’t the end of the story…