A day went by in a flash, and it was already after school. I parted ways with Ehr, and just as I was peeling Gem away from the walls, someone called out from behind me.
“Misha, can we go home together?” Prince Rena asked.
She smiled at me; meanwhile, I noticed her entourage behind her, shooting daggers at me. It seemed I had become their primary eyesore even though the school year had just started. Still, I stuck out like a sore thumb this morning, and I knew I could neither run nor hide from my fate.
“I’d love to!” I gushed enthusiastically as I stared into the distance.
The sunset loomed behind us as I walked alongside Prince Rena—she told her entourage that she wished to walk back with me and wanted some privacy. I was shocked by how straightforward and firm she was as her followers were forced to leave us be.
“I suppose you spent your whole day with that boy behind you—Ehr, was it?” Prince Rena asked.
“That’s his name,” I replied.
It seemed Prince Rena wanted to invite me out for lunch, but because Ehr and I made a mad dash for the store the moment the bell rang, she didn’t even have the opportunity to call out to me. She sulked a little.
“Are you two…in a special relationship?” she asked.
“You can say that,” I replied. “I met him during the entrance exams, and we became close.”
She must’ve wanted to know if we were dating. Ehr was special to me because he was my first friend; I didn’t want to make him out as just a simple buddy.
“He sort of feels like family to me,” I clarified.
“Ah, so you aren’t dating him,” Prince Rena confirmed.
“I’m not.”
Vizer was a place for witches and wizards to meet each other and form romantic relationships; I couldn’t blame others for jumping to conclusions when a boy and a girl stuck together.
“Friendships between the opposite gender are rare, so it seems many have misconstrued your relationship,” she said.
I didn’t have many friends of the opposite gender who hung out together during my school days back in Japan either. Curiously enough, I could hang out with Ehr without worrying about that kind of thing.
“I see us as equals,” I said. “Gender doesn’t really matter. I’d like to think that our relationship goes beyond that.”
I kept walking until I noticed that Prince Rena wasn’t next to me anymore. When I turned around, she stood there with tears dripping from her eyes.
“Wh-What’s wrong?!” I rushed to her side and took out a handkerchief to wipe the tears from her face.
“It’s nothing. I’m sorry,” Prince Rena sniffled. “It’s just that… I’m very envious of you and Ehr. It seems gender doesn’t stop you from forming friendships. My circumstances prevent me from doing stuff like that…”
I didn’t know how to make her tears stop, so I pulled her into a tight embrace.
“No matter who you are, I promise to always be your friend,” I said.
It was all I could say. Prince Rena squeezed me back through her tears.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
The glares from the other students stung, so I told the prince we should hurry back home. In a flash, she used teleporting magic to bring me to the Garden Plant.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
She turned to leave, but I called out to stop her. “Um, would you like to join me for breakfast tomorrow?”
“But I have nothing to give in return aside from gold coins.”
“Hm, okay. Then will you bring me some ingredients to cook with? That’d be a huge help.”
“Like what?”
“Potatoes, carrots, and rashers of meat would be great.”
I didn’t want her to bring a ton and made sure to tell her that I only needed one or two of each ingredient, at most.
“Okay,” Prince Rena said. “I’ll bring them tomorrow.”
“I’m counting on you,” I replied.
And so, I promised to have breakfast with the prince tomorrow.
✦ ✦ ✦
NATURALLY, I had work every day. I changed into my work clothes and headed to the greenhouse to take care of the plants. Luckily for me, Gem was kind enough to help out today as well, and I finished my work in about half an hour before I reported back to the professor. I used that opportunity to ask for a private instructor as well.
“Hm, I suppose you’d need someone to teach you…” Professor Whipp said. “But I don’t know if the person I hire will stay around for long…”
Professors had to personally scout a private instructor, negotiate with the school, and enroll them into the system.
“I would love to teach you myself, but as you can see, I’m swamped,” she said in her breathy voice. She gestured toward a stack of ungraded test papers that was piled high on her desk. “But if I hire someone new, I’d be able to take care of more students,” she pondered. “It’s a good idea.”
Professor Whipp’s classes were immensely popular, and from second-years onward, her elective classes were constantly full to the point where there was a lottery system to claim seats in her lessons. If she had an assistant instructor to help her, she could give more lessons to students.
“But will you be all right, um, budgetarily?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s fine,” she replied. “The school’s been asking me to take on a private instructor and even claimed that they’d give me financial aid for that.”
Professor Whipp said that she’d teach me when she had the time until an instructor came in, but since I had more free time thanks to Gem’s help, I decided to study hard on my own and do what I could.
“Will you be okay?” she asked.
“I think so. I’ll do my best.”
I bowed my head and said I’d ask for help if I needed it. Then I took my leave. From there, I got ready to head into the city to shop for some necessities.
“Gem, I’m going shopping,” I said. “Would you like to tag along?”
My familiar flashed brightly in lieu of an eager nod.
“All right, let’s go.”
I worried that Gem might not fit in the carriage, but it changed shape to be narrower as it expertly got in. First, I needed to buy some bedding. Sleep was important, and I knew it was one point that I couldn’t skimp on. I headed to the nobles’ district and bought some quality bedding. The delivery was scheduled for tomorrow, so I needed Gem to be a bed for me for one more night.
After that was done, I decided to buy some ingredients for dinner. Many markets were about to close, meaning they were ready to offer discounts on ingredients that had to be sold by the end of the day. I took advantage of these steals and returned home with a smile.
When I got back, I readied dinner. I got some small trout that were on sale and fried them up in butter, seasoning them with dried parsley, salt, and pepper. I placed the trout meunière onto a bed of mashed potatoes and added some rosemary as garnish. I also scored some baguettes that a bakery sold before closing—the bread had become rock-hard. I wanted to protect my teeth, so I cut off the outside bits and baked the insides. I was delighted to learn that the bread turned crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, exactly like freshly baked bread. The outside bits that I cut off could be used as breadcrumbs, and I decided to grind those up later.
Gem wiggled about as it watched me eat dinner. I first dug into the trout. The skin was crispy, the meat was fluffy and soft, and the herbs provided a lovely aroma. I usually never garnished dishes I made since there really was no need for that kind of luxury, but plenty of rosemary was growing in the garden, so I decided to take advantage of that.
Lawlife saw a ton of snow from autumn through the start of spring, and herbs were thus incredibly rare and difficult to come by. Using them as a garnish seemed a waste of these scarce herbs, but the restaurant meal I enjoyed with Prince Rena generously used herbs as a garnish, and I wanted to copy that a little. I haven’t been in the royal capital for long, but it seems like I’m acting like a city girl by the day.
After dinner, I had to prepare breakfast and a bento. Since Prince Rena would come over, I knew I needed to whip up some soup. I bought a chicken carcass at the market and washed it with water, removing any remaining meat. I then tossed it into a pot of water, removed the scum, and added celery, carrots, onions, and herbs. I let the chicken stew for a while to get my broth. Once I finished some prep for the bento, I reviewed my homework and notes while I kept a watchful eye on the fire.
I opened the textbook and started reading, but everything felt like gibberish. I could hardly believe just how little I knew—I didn’t even know what I didn’t know. I can’t do this by myself. I gave up halfway through and decided to spend the rest of my time praying that Professor Whipp would find a private instructor soon.