Routine. [II]

"How long did you plan on gawking at us? If you were here you might as well have helped us out." The old man said grumpily after coming off the field. They seemed to have finished this morning's workload.

Well, all he did was walk around with that stick of his while spraying some stuff on his tomatoes.

"Dear! Don't say that... You know you can't use them. Not until their year starts!" The old woman grabbed his shoulder and head inside. Didn't she just say something significant right now? Oh well.

"You kids can do whatever you want until lunch! It's at noon!" As the woman left the heat around us went away.

We were reminded of winter again.

The third kid from our group also finally decided to stop hoeing (the agricultural implement) away on the field and decided to join us.

"Wow, the two of you are up so early. Please do continue to sit around, I'll head upstairs and get my stuff for fighting training. Should I cast a heating spell now?" She muttered quickly before attempting to head inside.

"Where do you think you're going?" I grabbed her shoulder.

"I-inside to get the stuff for fighting trai-"

The balls on this woman!

"Have you no shame? Do you know how little sleep I got because of you?"

"I have shame. I am modest too! It's not lik-"

"Shh…" I shushed Yuuno. "Luha can you head inside for a bit? I'll be in soon too. After I deal with this critter."

"Yep." Luha looked suspiciously. "Follow me Clintarou."

I turned my gaze towards the muscle head again. She, yet again, was drenched in sweat.

"Now, listen here woman." I spoke.

"That's sorta misog-"

"Female vampire, listen. You are going inside and getting your textbooks. You will take them to the warm table thingy and start solving the arithmetic operations examples. Do you understand that? Female vampire." I patted her shoulders. She remained silent but her pout became larger and larger.

I could put a pin on her cheek and it would blow up. But she blew up on her own.

"Noooo! That can still wait! I have a whole wee-"

"One more word and I'll tell Luha about how much of an idiot you are. I have the recording too. After she knows that you're dumb I will also confiscate your weapons and ground you until you pass."

"No, you won't." She shrugged.

"You are right about that. But from what I can tell if I snitch on you to Obaa-chan…"

"UUUU!" She was so exasperated. "I'll get to studying right away!" She ran off inside.

Apparently, she was scared of Obaa-chan-san too. Apparently, everyone was scared of Obaa-chan.

'That worked out for the better.' I sighed.

Why did I have to babysit someone older than me?

'As long as I get something out of this. As long as that happens.'

###

A kotatsu shows its worth when the cold convects through the air. There was no cold wind inside the living room, nor was there an open window that cooled the air. It was just the perception of coolness from what we felt outside.

After my request, Luha went to her room to watch shows. We couldn't have her here witnessing the ineptitude of this blood-sucking ape.

Yuuno was in front of my solving stuff.

One thing I realised was that she was a quick learner. It wasn't like she was bad in the first place… just that she would rather do pushups with her tongue than pick up a textbook. She was almost allergic to education.

Every couple of minutes she would start rubbing her temple with the back of the pencil and I would pick up the fact that she was lost. Then I would teach her and she wouldn't make the mistake again.

One week was definitely doable.

By the time she finished arithmetic operations, it was time for lunch.

By the time she finished lunch, it was time to pick up linguistics.

Then geography, history, and politics.

She breezed through a lot of this. Instead of rote memorisation, her approach was to study everything with the goal of understanding.

But by the speed with which she did that, time flew by as if it was uninvolved.

That became evident as night set and the day ended.

Then another day began.

Another day that started with the same routine and ended with an extremely tired boy.

And another day that started with the same routine and ended with an extremely tired boy.

And another day that started with the same routine and ended with a tired boy.

And another day that started with the same routine and ended with a somewhat tired boy.

And another day that started with the same routine and ended with a kinda tired boy.

And another day that started with the same routine and ended with a soundly sleeping boy.

My pineal gland now registered 4 a.m. to be the time to wake up. And my lungs could now keep up with Clintarou's long morning escapade. I had gotten used to the routine.

Time really did pass by quickly when we were in a crunch... it was finally time for Yuuno's tests.

Yuuno stood there, bag on her shoulder 7 in the morning. She had a thick jacket over her uniform and trousers under her skirt.

"Hey, you do well out there." The old man said. He was rather nice to Yuuno but that might have to do with how much she helped around the field.

Tilling a field even before the sowing season? Couldn't be me.

"Best of luck Yuuno-chan!" The old woman said. She was nice to everyone. And full of energy.

These two frightened me with their age. They were humans... but also almost 90. And instead of being dependant on anyone else, they lived independently and had more than enough energy to get through the day.

"I know you'll do well so remain calm, okay?" Luha said. She was the top of the year, tied with me. So giving tips was more natural to her than giving encouragement. She did enthusiastically pump her fist though.

"Nnhn." Yuuno nodded and looked at the remaining member-me with glittering eyes. I mean as far as getting the portion completed was concerned, she did a 100% speedrun. So she was at the very least proud of herself.

'Guess I should praise her too.'

I went in and took a hold of her shoulder.

[Listen, girlie. I spent wayyyy too much time shoving a year's worth of material into that tiny head of yours. And I swear to god if you mess it up, your image will be the last thing that'll get ruined. I will get very upset. Do you understand?]

Did that come out as a threat? I totally didn't mean for that to happen~

"Eeek…" She stepped back instinctively. "Yes, sir." Her temporary bout of obedience was nice. I was sure she'd grow out of it though.

I should just enjoy it while it lasts.

She will do well.

"And also… go break a leg! I'm sure you'll do well!" I patted her back and waved her off onto the long path.

###

That was how the unexpected and unwelcomed tutoring arc of my life started and ended.

The results arrived a day after the test.

Needless to say, with my help, Yuuno ended up acing the tests and came out at the top of her year. To celebrate we ate pizza.

Again... it was all thanks to me.

Looking back, her passing the test, wasn't that big of an achievement, granted that it was elementary year one stuff… I would've been more surprised if she came up to me that day and told me that she failed the tests.

I would have been more perplexed than furious.

Luckily she didn't and life moved on.

All thanks to me.

We got a week. A week off to prepare for our school's entrance.

Obaa-chan got our uniforms stitched in that one week. She packed all of our bags, got our books, and had us take some lunch boxes out of the attic. We were prepared for whatever part of our life followed next.

###

It was finally the day. The three of us stood outside the house with the older folk at the door.

"Byeee, you kids!" The old woman waved at us.

The old man 'hmphed' while waving his hands in a small motion.

"Byeee!" Luha replied.

"Have a great day!" The grandma continued shouting even though we were only a metre away.

"We will." Yuuno replied.

Amidst all these farewells, I just stood there confused.

"Hey, why are they saying bye when the bus isn't even here?" I tapped Yuuno's shoulder.

"What bus?"

"You know… the bus that takes us to school."

"There's no bus like that." She shrugged.

Eh? Then do we get personal cars or something? Isn't that overkill, even if the student body is comprised of nobles?

"When do the cars come then?"

"What cars?" Okay... So there were no cars, I assume?

"Then how do we get to school?"

"We walk."

.

.

.

Sincere eyes. She wasn't joking.

Well, it was fine... the school was within walking distance then.

Or so I thought before I stared down the path that extended endlessly to the horizon.

"Where exactly is the school?"

"It's a kilometre away." She said nonchalantly.

"You've got to be-"

"Let's run or we'll be late!" Suddenly Yuuno grabbed our hands and we took off into the sunrise.

The first day of school started with a journey that took the life out of me.

There are many paths life could take. I met a dead-end in my previous life. I gave up when things got too painful. But everything only changed for the better.

In this new life, I got a family of my own. People who would care for me greatly. People I could care for greatly. And people who didn't fall in either category but I was forced to go along with. Ahem, Yuuno.

I barely lived for 7 years but experienced more happiness than I did in the culmination of the 13 years of my previous life.

This was a time I wished would last forever. A time I would protect.

My new life just started 3000 years after it ended.

And it was a great beginning to something that would eventually come piling down into oblivion. But that was a story for another day.

{a/n: And a volume. The first volume.}