I walked out of the classroom feeling a bit lonely. The children around my age were walking around in a group talking about what they were gonna play and where they were gonna go.

“Haa~”

Breathing out a sigh as I went down the stairs, I found Emilia standing in line along with some other students. The moment I was about to call out to her, she bowed very deeply to me.

(Ahh, right, she’s my servant who was assigned to me… yosh, let’s follow it up!)

I then walked towards her in the most dignified and elegant manner I could do. Since she was my servant, I continued walking towards the door without looking towards her. Because I felt sure that she would follow me, I continued to walk until I reached a place where there were no people around.  I looked around for a bit and when I was sure that there was only me and Emilia, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“That was tough…”

“You surprised me, Miss Lumina. You were like royalty back there.”

Emilia had a very big smile as she complimented me.

“Stop it… you’re embarrassing me.”

She made a small laugh when she saw me becoming red.

“So are we gonna go to the library?”

“Yup! We need to be really smart!”

I clenched my fist and raised it high.

“… but is it really necessary? If you wanted some chocolate cake, you could’ve just asked me to buy or make you one.”

“That’s a good idea! Before we head on to the library, let’s have lunch and have that as a dessert.”

“So we’re still going?”

She made a face as if she’s given up and followed me as I headed to the canteen.

***

After our lunch, we went to the giant library. Once we’ve entered, I was awed by the splendor and sheer number of books that were on the shelves. In my eyes, the shelves were at least 4 meters high and 10 meters wide. They formed hundreds of rows and columns and seemed to be endless. My gaze went towards the wall and I discovered that even the walls were made into shelves.

“Wow… Seeing it, this close really makes you… wow.”

If I were seeing myself, I’m pretty sure that the expression I had was one that had both shock and awe.

“That’s true…”

“... then, shall we go?”

“Yes.”

I walked towards the library custodian and asked her if were able to borrow some books about Literature, Mathematics, Science and Magic.

“Literature and Mathematics are on the second floor, it's near the edge of the south wing.”

“What about Magic textbooks?”

The custodian frowned and said, “You’re just a general studies student. What use is there for you to read about magic?”

When I heard her say that, my frustrations swelled up a bit. I then thought that maybe she was only stating the rules, so I controlled my anger and became calm.

“What about Scientific books?”

The custodian knitted her brows and asked me what scientific books were in a confused tone. When I was about to answer her, my petty grudge about being barred from reading magic textbooks stopped me.

“… nevermind, we’ll just go with Literature and Mathematics.”

I walked away from the custodian along with Emilia. We continued walking for about 15 minutes and finally arrived at the south wing.

I, along with Emilia, started searching for books that were related to the things I was gonna thought her. I managed to secure about six books while she only had two books. I then started teaching her where we had left off last night. She had already memorized most of the alphabets we used, all that was left for her was to teach her how to read and write.

***

“I think it’s a good time for some tea.”

While I was holding a book in front of Emilia, I spoke some of my thoughts to her.

“… what would you like, Miss Lumina? Black tea or Darjeeling?”

“Hmmm… I’d like some Darjeeling.”

“Understood.”

Emilia stopped moving her hands and stood up.

“Can we have tea here?”

“I don’t really know. Should we ask for permission from the custodian?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I pondered for a moment and closed my book before I stood up.

“Let’s have some tea elsewhere, we might damage the books here.”

“Ahh, then where’d be good?”

I crossed my arms and closed my eyes as I started thinking of a good place.

“How about the school park?”

“Understood.”

We returned the books back to their shelves and exited the library. We headed towards the dormitory before going to the park.

Once we had arrived, there were a lot of people in the surrounding so it took a while before we could find a spot. When we finally found a place, I used earth magic to make a table and two chairs. Emilia then placed a tablecloth on top of it and started arranging the tea set. She then meekly asked me to fill the teapot with warm water. Once the preparations were done, I sat on one of the chairs and started drinking some Darjeeling.

I noticed Emilia was being a bit restless, so I asked her why.

“Ummm… what’s ‘Science’?”

“Ahh… from earlier? Well…”

I started judging what explanation would be easy to understand.

“Umm… it’s a field that studies on the things that happened around us. (I think)”

“I don’t get it.”

Emilia grimaced as she tried to digest what I had said.

“Well, it’s this…”

I used magic to fill one of the cups with water and added ice cubes to it. I waited for awhile and when droplets started forming on its side, I told her that science studies why those water droplets form.

“Isn’t it just sweating because the outside is hot while its inside is cold?”

“Umm.. not exactly… let me teach you the basics of science then.”

I took out some of the papers I wrote while on class and showed it to her. I told her about the 3 states of matter, what matter was and where it came from. Of course, all of this came from the things I remembered.

“Uhh… solids, liquid, and gasses? These are basics? How come such a branch of knowledge isn’t famous.”

My cheeks cramped a bit when she questioned me.

“Umm… this isn’t famous cause magic exists.”

“Why?”

I took a mont blanc from the basket and ate it.

“Well, it's cause it goes against the teachings of magic.”

“Then it’s blasphemy!?”

Emilia’s face became pale and cold sweat started falling from her forehead.

“No!”

“Then, what do you mean by going against the teachings of magic?”

“Umm… let’s use this then. Try telling me how the world was formed?”

She made a skeptical face before she started.

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s cause god created it.”

“But according to science it isn’t. You see, it’s like this. There are lots of theories that pertains to the creation of the universe and the most famous of them is the big bang.”

“Big Bang?”

“Un… It’s kinda complex and have lots of explanation, don’t worry I’ll teach you why for now, settle for this cup with ice cubes.”

Since those things were advance and skipped a lot of steps, I stopped that topic and directed her focus to the cup.

“In science’s point of view, the reason why the cup forms droplets is because the air contains water.”

“Water?”

“Water vapor to be exact, remember how steam rises up from tea when it’s still hot. That steam is water vapor.”

“Ahh, then if water vapor is cooled down, it turns back into water?”

“Yes.”

I continued explaining to her about the basics of science as we had our tea. When I noticed that the color of the sky was now orange, I stood up from my seat and told Emilia that it was getting late. She quickly cleaned the table and placed all the utensils back into her luggage.

Our days continued to pass like this and before we knew it, 3 years had already passed.

----------------------------------------

You're just too used to tragedies, Mataneloro

----------------------------------------

Previous

Next