Abnormal Standards (2)

I slightly smiled when Joanna's impression of me crumbled further into the underground well. I evilly laughed until my eyepatch dropped into one of my plates from moving my head too much. I Immediately covered my eye, explaining, "if you stare into my evil eye, you will die. You should thank me for sparing you lowly creatures."

"Rika, start eating or else your pet will be given away," Joanna threatened me.

"If Sparky senses a potential change in ownership after forming a bond, I'll die. The same reason I'm staying inside this mansion. I can't be more than a certain distance away," I happily refuted.

I intentionally chose to hide these facts. If Sparky was taken away before the week ended, there would have been no consequences. It took time for the bond to snap in, and thankfully, Ethan had sent me many tips and warnings, saving me time from reading the thick book. In exchange, I scanned several pages from the book from the dimensional library to send to him. Surprisingly, contained with knowledge his family wasn't aware of.

"Call the Enchantres family, and they can give you the details," I added.

"I will contact them after breakfast," William didn't have a choice.

"And you can join me in my office until you finish your meal. I don't have the time to wait for you," he checked his watch.

After William finished his plates, he carried me to his office, letting me watch him contact Ethan's father. Unexpectedly, Ethan's father nervously faced William, his posture a little stiff. His hands were itching to fidget, his voice slightly trembling as he asked, "is this about one of our business deals?"

"I want to know whether these facts are true," William began to repeat the facts I exposed.

"This is common knowledge in our family. Your daughter has been assisting us in understanding these creatures better with the information she provides to us in return," Ethan's father hesitantly replied.

After a short conversation, William ended the call, disappointed that Ethan's father was directly exchanging information with me rather than him. He tried to scarily turn to me, "you're not leaving this room until you finish your allocated plates."

However, William didn't know how happy I was to hear those words. I planned to continue this successful act until I returned to school. This meant I wouldn't get sent to those awful tutors anymore! I knew William didn't have the time to personally tutor me, noticing his office was loaded with more work than Joanna's. A smile popped out of me as I flopped onto his couch, deciding to catch up on my precious sleep.

Soon stretching my arms when waking from a long nap, checking the time on my marble, I was stunned when barely a minute passed outside, displaying the time-space feature was used to its maximum. It was no wonder William dismissed the possibility of me not able to fulfill my daily schedule. Since I wasn't sleepy anymore, I took a peek at his documents placed on the ground. Before I could touch a page, William warned me, "misplace a page and I'm doubling your daily schedule. In addition to banning desserts inside this house."

"There's an option of throwing me out of this house," I reminded him.

"That will never happen," he shattered my hopes.

As I slowly became bored, I used this time to improve my drawing skills, pulling out guidebooks from my dimensional library. Surprisingly a fun and good way to pass time, feeling rewarded when the results came out the way I wanted. A bright idea crashed into my head, discovering I could create my own manga at this rate. I could finish the drafts and rough outlines during summer vacation and produce a finalized version inside the clubroom.

"Is it difficult for you to touch a single plate?" William was greatly disappointed.

Inside his office, more than a year passed, nearly lunchtime outside. I ignored him, putting his documents down to pay attention to me. He couldn't do much anyways. Before he could take a break, Logan had already sent him more files. Meanwhile, I was fully immersed in starting the thirteenth volume, admitting it was hard to stop once endless ideas came pouring into your head. It was the duty of the mangaka to share these wonderful artworks and stories to others. I was sure it would become a success like the novels I penned the previous year.

However, William couldn't pretend I didn't exist when time quickly passed to arrive at lunchtime. He rose from his seat for the first time, staring at none of the plates touched. Thankfully, his strong concentration in handling the files made him miss out on me sneaking some snacks and herbs out of my inventory. I made sure no crumbs or other remains would fall out, eating carefully and silently. Otherwise, I would have fainted ages ago.

"If you don't eat during lunch, I'm sending you to your mother," William decided.

I stiffened as Joanna was much stricter than William. But I couldn't lose here, knowing a single bite could lead me to the tutors. Stubbornly turning my head away every time he held a spoon, eventually making him give up on me. Instead, he pushed me towards Joanna when I didn't eat anything for lunch. As Joanna dragged me to her office, it was clear she was extremely annoyed. I cautiously sat on her sofa, deciding sleep was the best option.

There was a possibility Joanna would shred my notebooks like she did to my report. Unexpectedly, she threatened me before I could lay down, "one class added for each plate left unfinished after an hour. I suggest you try to leave this room as soon as possible."

I had to prevent myself from appearing overjoyed. This meant as long as I didn't touch anything, she wouldn't send me to the tutors. Starving was nothing compared to horribly studying with no end seeming to appear. I didn't mind if I got a stomach ache as a result. There was no way they could force a sick person to study, and would put me inside the infirmary instead. Normally, I despised the infirmary, however, suffering under Joanna's schedule instantly changed my mind.

Choosing to relax on her couch, I made my book go into invisible mode when I used my dimensional library. Resembling William, Joanna had no time to pay attention to me. I took this chance to learn how to become more like a cheat character. Unexpectedly, there were many interesting folktales about this district. But I had to admit I only read them since there was nothing else to do.

I made my book vanish when close to an hour passed. Like Joanna had stated, she timely counted the number of plates remaining. Eventually discovering none of them were touched, quickly grasping my plan. She tried to calmly face me, "you can't continue not to eat forever. I'm going to send you to the tutors either way. Your plan will not work."

Thankfully, both of them didn't seem to know I have done this before. Usually, Luke gave into me, offering me cake in exchange. And I was more experienced now, knowing which herbs to take to curb hunger and fill my stomach for a longer period of time. While I helped Micah with his event, he taught me these tiny things. Although his intent was to increase my survival skills when facing dangerous situations, who said it couldn't be used for another purpose?