Chapter : 18
“By the way, why did you take me yesterday without saying anything? If I’d known you were going to study with me, I would’ve followed you without a word.”
Anyway, the fact that I was getting a private tutor because of this was incredibly fortunate.
After falling out of favor with Duke Rode, all of my education had been cut off.
If I ever ended up living on my own someday, it was obvious that a sharp mind would be a hundred times more useful than an ignorant one.
“Most people hate studying, so I thought you wouldn’t come with me if I told you. I wanted to keep studying, though….”
“Actually, I felt the same way.”
I had to—if I wanted to survive.
For Elena, studying wasn’t a matter of liking or disliking it.
She’d been born with a frail body, so if she wanted to survive in this harsh world, she at least needed to be smart.
“Really? You’re just like me!”
Sirius openly beamed, as if he’d found a point of common ground.
Deep dimples formed in his pale cheeks, and his eyes curved beautifully as he smiled.
For a moment, it almost looked like he had a halo behind him.
The smile hit her head like a traffic accident, and as a side effect, unwanted fangirling started flooding her mind.
Sirius, are you sure you’re not an angel instead of a prince? You’re way too pretty to be anything else—no, wait, th-this is dangerous!
Startled by the lethal attack on her heart, Elena quickly slapped her own cheek with her palm.
Seeing her strange behavior, Sirius’s smile faded into a puzzled expression.
“Why’d you do that all of a sudden?”
“…From now on, no chatting!”
“Huh?”
“No chatting during study time. We don’t have much time, do we?”
Considering that she’d been the one who started the chatter, it was a shameless thing to say.
But it was true that they didn’t have much time.
Duke Rode had excused Sirius from training for three days because of his injury. One day had already passed, so only two remained.
After that, he’d have sword training until late afternoon, which meant this was their only chance to spend the whole day learning letters.
“Shall we—”
But Sirius had already latched onto another word and was grinning to himself.
Seeing his flower-like smile bloom again, Elena found herself smiling back without realizing it.
In the end, she’d lost to the looks attack.
She should’ve felt bitter about the defeat, but the fact that her opponent was so exceptional was oddly comforting.
No way… this adorable pretty boy grows up to be a rugged, handsome young man? Nearly 190 cm tall, broad shoulders and all?
…That’s actually great.
Elena unconsciously thought that, then jumped when she heard her name.
“Elena, teacher.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you so surprised? You’re teaching me letters now, so of course you’re my teacher.”
Sirius spoke with excessive familiarity.
“So please, talk comfortably with me, Teacher Elena.”
…So he was saying he’d keep speaking politely, and she should drop honorifics?
She understood it logically, but emotionally, she just couldn’t accept it. Elena stammered for a while.
He was asking her to do something that outrageous?
“Shall we start studying now?”
“W-wait!”
Elena raised her hand to stop Sirius.
No matter how she thought about it, teaching someone letters didn’t require switching to casual speech.
If she wanted to get closer, this would’ve been the perfect chance—but Elena actually wanted to keep some distance.
Not too far, of course. Just… somewhere between being there and not being there—though she’d already come farther than planned.
Still, she didn’t give up hope.
“Do we really have to do that?”
“I’d like it if you spoke casually while you’re teaching me.”
“That’s… a bit… uncomfortable… for me.”
Sirius’s face immediately fell.
But the sensation radiating from him was closer to bright light than gloom.
Internally, he was enjoying himself.
It seemed that bickering itself was fun for him.
“Then how about we both speak casually? Wouldn’t that be more comfortable?”
No. Absolutely not.
Elena strongly denied it in her heart.
She shook her head vigorously—this should’ve been clear enough.
But Sirius pretended not to see it and kept forcing her to choose.
“You have to pick one. Either I speak politely alone, or we both speak casually.”
“Do I really have to choose one of the two? Isn’t there another option?”
“Nope.”
Elena sighed. Class hadn’t even started yet, and she already had a disobedient student.
Sirius looked delighted, as if he’d been born to tease teachers.
“…What if I don’t choose anything?”
“Well… I guess I’ll have to think about that.”
Sirius answered ambiguously. His expression said he wouldn’t force her if she hated it that much.
But the cheerful glow had vanished, replaced by a gloomy mist around him. Elena fidgeted under the desk.
Is it really the right choice to keep stubbornly holding out?
What if Sirius held a grudge over this?
She still didn’t even know why he was being so nice to her.
She’d resolved just yesterday not to fall out of his favor—and yet here she was. Left with no choice, Elena squeezed her eyes shut and shouted.
“Then we’ll both speak casually!”
“Good. I like that choice.”
The gloomy mist vanished instantly, replaced with radiant joy.
Sirius looked genuinely happy.
Seriously, what was the big deal about casual speech?
Having wasted time for nothing, Elena felt more embarrassed than anything.
“Then call me Sirius from now on.”
“Yes.”
“You’re supposed to say ‘yeah.’”
Elena nodded instead of answering. She needed a moment to prepare herself.
After taking a deep breath, she finally spoke.
“Okay… Sirius.”
“Wow.”
From Prince Sirius straight to Sirius.
Thanks to him, the intermediate step of adding “-nim” was boldly skipped.
Elena felt dizzy for a moment, realizing what she’d just done—but since it had already come to this, there was something she needed to ask.
“We’ll start studying now, but… can I ask you something first?”
“Yeah. Ask me anything.”
“Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?”
She’d been curious since yesterday morning.
Until now, Sirius had felt too intimidating to ask, but now that they’d dropped honorifics, she wasn’t afraid anymore.
Yet, despite how hard it’d been to ask, Sirius’s answer was simple.
“Because you’re nice to me too.”
Elena rolled her eyes to the side.
She barely suppressed a laugh, causing Sirius’s shoulders to shake slightly.
But Elena pretended not to notice, acting as if she knew nothing.
“When have I ever been nice to you?”
“When have I ever been nice to you?”
The words were the same, but the nuance was completely different.
At the accusing tone, Elena drooped her eyebrows.
Eek… what do I do?
It felt like Sirius could read exactly what was written on her face.
But he had no intention of letting her off the hook. It was time to be honest with each other.
“Don’t even think about denying it. I know everything.”
Left speechless, Elena gave up on replying.
Bang. With her opponent surrendering the right to speak, Sirius was declared the winner.
He spoke leisurely.
“And wanting to be close to someone who treats you well isn’t strange at all.”
No, it is. It really is.
Sirius usually suspected anyone who was nice to him.
Yet for her alone, he made an exception.
Elena thought it over carefully.
She’d been born as Duke Rode’s seventh daughter—someone who didn’t even exist in the book.
Maybe she’d been an exception from the start, someone outside the rules of cause and effect.
I don’t know!
Elena gave up on finding the answer.
More important than why this was happening was how she should respond from now on.
“Wouldn’t it be completely natural for us to become close?”
Having decided on the conclusion himself, Sirius smiled brightly, clearly not expecting an answer.
She couldn’t blur her vision every time he smiled.
Instead of closing her eyes, Elena fixed her gaze on the paper laid out in front of him.
“Ugh, let’s just study already.”
“Good idea.”
Elena started by teaching him how to write consonants and vowels.
Though she had an old soul, her memories of the past were vague—and even then, she’d never taught anyone before.
In short, Elena was a totally amateur teacher.
Is this really the right way to teach?
She watched Sirius write the letters she’d shown him, his handwriting crooked and uneven.
With no one to ask, she had no choice but to teach by trial and error.
For now, she just told him to memorize everything.
“You’ve memorized them, right? Then write what I say.”
“Yeah. I’m ready.”
“Write ‘si.’”
Thankfully, Sirius was smart.
He quickly memorized all the letters and even combined them properly.
Wait… this method actually works?
As their progress sped up, Elena found herself growing more motivated without realizing it.
“You can write all the basic combinations now—should we try final consonants?”
They’d only been studying for a few hours, and she was already moving on to batchim.
Sirius, who’d only learned to write for the first time after turning ten, looked even more fired up than Elena.
With incredible focus, he understood her complicated explanation.
“You’re a genius.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
It was a pretty shameless answer.
But considering that this was probably his natural personality, it made sense.
He’d been born an arrogant apex predator—but right now, he was just adorably confident.
Without realizing she was suffering from a serious case of looks-induced illness, Elena gazed at Sirius fondly.
The way he followed along so well made him seem nothing but admirable.
“Still, the parts where pronunciation and spelling differ are kind of hard.”
“That’s just how people agreed to do it. You have to memorize it.”
“There’s a lot to memorize. Let’s stop here for today. Reviewing is important too.”
Before they knew it, the sun was already sinking low.
Except for lunchtime, they’d spent the entire day sitting at the desk in Elena’s room.
But Sirius still seemed unsatisfied and wanted to keep studying.
“You’re going back to your room and reviewing all of this?”
“Of course.”
A student who reviewed on his own—Sirius was incredibly diligent.
He’d lose one point for teasing his teacher earlier, but he scored ten thousand points for motivation and ten thousand more for cuteness.
As Elena gathered the scattered papers together, she spoke.
“Honestly, I think I taught pretty messily, but you kept up well.”
“It was understandable enough. And it also proved that my judgment wasn’t wrong.”
“Proved…?”
At the unexpected word, Elena paused and looked at him.
Sirius’s eyes sparkled.
