"Do you still want to say something ,Miss Collete" Kyle said with a smile.
"Hmm pph" Collete said nothing and returned to her seat with an embarrassed face.
After his first day of class was over, Kyle made his way to the library tower
where the instructor research labs were located. The library took up three
floors of the tower, with the remaining floors allocated to the instructors that
taught at the Academy. William's laboratory was in one such space underneath
the tower.
The ground floor entrance of the library opened to an exorbitant number of
books, crammed snuggly into shelves sorted by subject. Although Kyle was
curious about what kinds of books were available, he had other matters to deal
with today, and headed straight for the underground research labs once he'd
completed the necessary forms at the reception desk. Once downstairs, the
basement was comprised of a long passage illuminated by magic lamps.
"Must be here."
Kyle had arrived at William's lab safely, having asked for directions at the
reception. He couldn't read the letters on the nameplate attached to the door,
but figured that this should be the right place.
Knock, knock. Kyle tapped slowly on the door.
..." No response came from the other side of the door.
"Is he not here?"
Kyle tilted his head in confusion and knocked again, this time with more force.
Knock, knock. Still no response.
"Professor William, are you there?" Knock, knock.
He continued to knock as he called. If he wasn't here, he should just give up
and come back tomorrow— Just as Kyle thought that, the door flew open, making him jump in surprise.
Luckily, the door had opened inwards — if it were an outward-facing door, it
might have smacked him in the face.
"Oh my god, shut up already! Can't you read the sign? I'm in the middle of
something right now, go awa..." William protested loudly as he burst out of the
room, but trailed off at the sight of Kyles face. Kyle stared back at him
dumbfoundedly; his impression of him as a sheltered and proper noble son with a prince like attitude and equitte had flown out the window.
"Erm... I'm here for the individual lessons you mentioned..." Kyle stated his
business hesitantly with a stiff smile.
Huh? Ah, yes... R-Right... Welcome! Yes, I've been expecting you." With a
pondering pause and gasp later, Willian recovered himself smoothly with a sweet
smile.
he definitely forgot, Kyle thought with a strained expression,he wanted to say that but decided to
play along anyway.
"My apologies for the inconvenience."
"It's fine!" William said, smiling a bit abashedly. "As your instructor, I can't just
leave you behind."
Thank you very much."
"Yes, well. There's no point in standing around, so come on in — ah." William turned around to invite Kyle inside and immediately stiffened.
Oh no. I forgot he was coming so I didn't clean the room!
What's wrong?" Kyle asked from behind a silently panicking William.
"Eh? Ah... no, nothing. Yes. Um. My room's a little bit messy right now, but
pay it no mind." William gave him his biggest and brightest forced smile to try and
cover up his oversight.
"Sure, that's fine." Kyle nodded, then stepped into the room.
...This is a little bit messy...
Kyle recoiled at the chaos laid out before him. It was much worse than he
imagined.
The room was an impressive size of over 400 square feet, but the floor was
scattered with documents, books, and other miscellaneous items of unknown
purpose to Kyle. There was a desk that was also covered in books and papers,
with the leftovers of a light meal — a plate and teacup — stacked at the end. If earlier William's prince like image had just been slightly damaged in Kyle's heads now it is completely obliterated.
"I-It's normally cleaner than this! I was just a bit busy and my research was at
a good stride so I put it off for later..."
William must have noticed the change in Kyle's expression, because he blushed
while explaining himself. Unable to come up with a good response, Kyle pointed
to the books that caught his eye and complimented William to switch to a different topic.
T-Those are a lot of difficult-looking books, Professor. You're really amazing
for such a young age!"
It was a very low-effort response, but William latched onto it afterall he was still just a 12 year old kid.
"Eh? Ah... aah, yes. I'm only twelve years old, you know? I should still be in
the primary division at this age, yet I've already graduated from the secondary
school!" William said proudly. Her cheeks were still a little
red, but he seemed grateful for the change of topic.
"That really is amazing."
R-Right! I actually wanted to dedicate myself to my magic research more, but
the researchers here all have to take a part in instructing," William babbled. The
way he was trying to act mature was strangely cute, making Kyle smile faintly.
"Umm... I'll clear a space, so just wait there."
He began cleaning up the items left on the desk and chairs in the middle of
the room. There seemed to be a certain methodology to how the items were
haphazardly scattered, which allowed Celia to briskly organize them. Figuring he
shouldn't move any of the books and documents himself, Kyle decided to stand
back and watch.
Several minutes later, Kyle and William sat opposite each other at her desk, with
several writing tools placed before them.
"Okay, let's start."
"All right."
"So where shall we begin... Okay, how about this — do you know what numbers are and what they mean?"
"I do," Kyle answered immediately.
"Hmm... okay. Take these five books, then. Let's say you finished reading
three of them. How many more books do you still have to read?" William gave Kyle
a simple question to check if he really understood.
"Two books." Once again, Kyle answered immediately.
William'ss eyes widened in surprise. "My, so you really do understand. If you can
do subtraction, that means you must be able to do addition, too. Okay, how
about this?"
William picked up a quill pen from the table and wrote down a simple addition
question on some paper.