Abnormal Standards (5)

"That's the same time I'm taking mine," William was surprised.

I couldn't close my mouth, knowing this meant their workload would get pushed to us. My determination in escaping from the Roselia family increased by tenfold. The way both Joanna and William lived their lives was more pitiful than Luke's current schedule. Thinking along the same lines as me, Luke stopped eating. Instead he asked, "will I be receiving the work in your place in addition to taking care of Rika alone in the future?"

"You could have Rika help you. You can help me create her schedule in preparation," Joanna suggested.

"Rika can't help me with anything. I always did the fraction work alone," Luke didn't trust me.

"Rika currently can't help you with anything," she corrected him.

"I'm giving you the opportunity to change the circumstances in the future. The same offer I extended to Rika. More than half of your newly added classes came from her suggestions in a report she submitted to me," she revealed.

Luke went speechless, unable to respond as his entire body froze. Alongside his father and cousin who stopped eating, equally stunned from the news. I stiffened as I noticed Luke's eyes, fiercely burning with revenge when he brought himself back to reality. He took her offer, "when can we set up a meeting?"

"We can do it here after we finish our meal. Everyone who needs to be present is already here," Joanna decided.

I was thankful Joanna didn't reveal my report also applying to Alex. I knew Alex would chase me down to get his revenge if she did, much more unforgiving than Luke. But maybe Luke was extremely angry with me, he waited for Joanna to finish her dessert. Immediately sending her a rough draft when the table was empty. I shuddered as he proposed a more intense schedule than what Joanna had ever made me suffer through before.

"Shrink the schedule by three quarters and decrease the difficulty level by thirty times. Rika can't handle this," Joanna quickly skimmed.

"But Rika will never be able to help me otherwise," Luke was determined.

"You should know her health won't be able to handle it. The same reason I canceled all her lessons for this week," she sighed.

This was exactly why I purposely lowered their expectations. No one would find me reliable enough to hand over their work to me. In addition to being more lenient when creating my miserable schedules. I brightly smiled when William denied Luke's new proposal after he made the changes. My plan was unexpectedly a success.

"Shrink the schedule by half again and decrease the difficulty level by tenfold. After personally tutoring Rika, I discovered her mentality isn't strong enough to handle it," William noticed.

"This is more generous than school," Luke was shocked.

"Have you ever seen her pay attention during class?" William pointed out.

Luke couldn't disagree, making the changes again. I could tell he was upset, his revenge unfilled as Joanna interfered again, "take more classes out. The jump between this one and her current schedule is too large. You should know what level Rika is currently at."

"Around the first year of elementary school?" Luke guessed.

"Before you entered kindergarten, age level two and a half," Joanna corrected him.

"You lowered the level this much?" Luke hung his head down.

"Actually, your grandfather ordered the level to be decreased again. Age level one and a half after we submitted our reports on her recent behavior and performance," William guiltily added.

"Is this possible?" Alex was in disbelief.

"It will never go below age level one. Rika can speak," William tried to console Luke.

"Why one and a half? Rika can handle kindergarten level difficulty," Luke argued.

"Her poor health can't handle the intensity. We can only start increasing it when her health recovers to slightly below an average sick child," he explained.

"I'll remove more classes and decrease the difficulty level again," Luke helplessly adjusted.

I had to admit the Roselia family greatly lowered their expectations for me. Luke was close to crying when staring at the final result. Since his parents pitied him, they gave him an hour break. I was finally seeing my efforts pay off. Since I didn't need to see anymore, I swam towards my body and reached out my hand to go inside my chest.

I gasped as my translucent figure abruptly got sucked inside, my head throbbing as my eyes fluttered open. My hand grabbed onto my head as I slowly rose from my bed. My blurry vision blinked in and out to eventually ripple into clarity.

There was no one inside the infirmary other than me. It was empty and lifeless, the usual cold machines beeping. No wrinkles on my bed sheets, no traces of footsteps seen. I wrapped my arms around my legs, slowly witnessing the tall walls closing into me. It was time to leave this room, sick of seeing the same scenery for weeks.

I pulled out the needles and turned off the medical equipment. I wanted to do some exploring for a change in pace, a little excited when I discovered the door was unlocked. The doorknob easily turned, opening to display the grand halls on the other side of the door. This mansion was one of the larger ones, used as the main residence by Luke's parents. Sneaking a peek from a wall, there were no signs of people.

It was likely everyone was busily working in their office or studying with the tutors. Advantageous on my end, my shoulders relaxing and deciding to end this whole spy act. Instead, I luxuriously took the time to look around, getting disappointed when most of the rooms were nearly identical to each other. The typical plush sofas or couches, sewn together by gold threats. Small round tables mostly used to eat snacks or enjoy tea with guests. Modern white walls, sometimes having streaks of neutral colors in between. Large glass windows showing the garden underneath. Endless paintings and fancy ornaments, bragging about their wealth as usual.

There was really nothing exciting about these many useless rooms. In fact, it was strange how the mansion appeared much bigger than its actual interior. Ten rooms couldn't take up that much space per floor even when accounting for the large library. Until I found an oddly unlit room in the middle of the mansion. My eyes began adjusting to the darkness, stepping backwards when discovering I was inside a storage room.

My jaw nearly dropped, being surrounded by pictures of Luke in the early years of his life. I didn't think Joanna was the type to take records of this. It must have been William or his grandparents who took them. It was unexpected to see Luke as vulnerable, innocently sleeping or staring into the camera. There was a time where he brightly smiled without any motives and played with toys. Many things he used in the photos were stored in this room.

A box full of rattles and pacifiers, others mostly toys, teaching the alphabet and basic math. I wasn't surprised that the toys focused more on development rather than fun. Joanna saw Luke as an opportunity to escape from her work from the start. Otherwise, the room was filled with cradles and strollers. Studying them, I realized why Luke and Alex were sensitive when out of their comfort zones. These babies lived in luxury.

I wondered if these tiny beings needed such a large space, recalling I could fit inside the cradle. Meanwhile, the stroller was basically a portable bed. I was jealous of people who could sleep whenever and wherever they wanted. It would be nice if there was an adult version of this. Most times, staying in one place felt stuffy. Maybe I could make adjustments to the stroller to reuse it for myself. If I changed its appearance and size, I could sleep anywhere I wanted from now on.

I summoned Micah, about to purchase some things from him. Unexpectedly, Micah knew my intentions without me telling him, "you want a way to be lazier than you currently are. You know you'll start lacking sleep when you enter school. You plan to use this in your classroom since you rarely pay attention anyways."

"Is there a way to increase the space? I also want to add a noise reduction feature," I wondered.

"Do you not want to customize your bed first?" Micah studied the object.

"I was thinking of taking the things from my bedroom," I planned.

Wait. This was the perfect timing to discover if the fairy world had better things to offer. Everything I purchased so far was superior to my current possessions. I quickly requested various pillows, blankets and cuddleable objects. Testing out the samples, going through a variety of fabrics and feathers making up the filling.

I was satisfied when staring at the final result, Micah gone after delivering the customized objects I purchased. It was time to go inside this thing for the final test. As soon as my body touched the mattress, I melted under the softness. My head perfectly sunk inside my pillow, and the large teddy bears were extremely huggable. Could I ever sleep in my original bed again?

I rolled around this wide space until someone turned the doorknob to this room. Immediately covering myself by closing the roof. Another useful feature was blocking the terrible sunlight. I froze in my spot as I soon discovered the people walking inside this room.