CH 74

Now, how do I escape?

I kept my cool and sorted out the information in order to find a solution. As I sorted through the information, I could see most of what I needed to know.

First of all, Claire has the crazy idea of studying with me all night long. On top of that, she was trying to close the distance between us by trying to get me to call her by her first name. As the daughter of a great aristocrat, she should be able to prepare at least one or two uniforms, and even if it’s a change of clothes, it’s not right for her to wear a dress.

All of this suggests that Claire doesn’t actually dislike me, but has a favorable impression of me. To be honest, the fact that Claire has a good impression of me makes me happy as a viscount, but it doesn’t make me happy personally, because there is a glimpse of insanity in her.

Leaving that aside, if Claire likes me rather than having a good impression of me, I might be able to get into Claire’s good graces and become related to the Alcala family, but there are too many disadvantages.

In the first place, I can’t even determine whether the Alcala family is in the camp that is likely to win the war, and besides, if Claire tries to approach me to get involved, it would be tough to become a target of jealousy for the other nobles.

And most of all, I don’t want to marry Claire because it would be horrible. I’m all about the slow life. I’m going to survive the war, and I’m going to have a peaceful life!

I’m getting off topic, but even if I have a good impression of the Alcala family, it is important to keep a moderate distance and not get too involved in order to gauge their power structure. In that sense, the best way to escape this time would be to gauge whether or not she has a good impression of me, and to what degree.

“Let’s just start studying.”

After a long thought, I called out to Claire and then sat down in my chair.

“Oh!”

Then Claire happily sat down on the chair in front of me, facing the other way, and tried to take her textbook out of her bag but I stopped her.

“Please don’t take out your textbook.”

“Why not?”

Claire nodded her head like an adorable little animal.

“Today is the first day, isn’t it? If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to see what Claire is capable of.”

“Yes, of course! Claire’s! Find out what Claire’s capable of!”

I’m being quite impolite, but she doesn’t seem to notice that. On the contrary, the way he was reciting his own name made me feel like she was proving my hypothesis before I could confirm it.

“……So, I’m going to ask you questions, can you answer them?”

“It’s important to measure a student’s ability when teaching! I’ll give you a serious answer too!”

Claire’s eyes lit up with enthusiasm.

It’s not that she’s confused, because she understands the significance of the questions. I’m sorry to be so enthusiastic, but I’m only going to give you questions that Claire can answer.

“Okay, first question from history, what is the royal treasure of the predecessor of the current Gumodo Kingdom?”

“It’s lost now, but it’s a treasure sword equipped with rejuvenation magic.”

“Full marks.”

“Yeah. It was a piece of cake.”

You’re right and even added a supplementary explanation, but I’m not going to change the difficulty.

“We’ll keep going, then.”

“It’s so nice to be alone with you, asking and answering questions!”

“Okay, here we go.”

Then I kept asking her simple questions, which she answered with great joy, and sure enough, she got all of them right.

“I’m impressed. You answered all the questions correctly.”

“I didn’t think it was that difficult, did you?”

Claire gave me a skeptical look, and I hurried to praise her.

“No, you’re doing great!”

“Oh, really? Well, if Chris, the top student in the grade, says so, then it must be true.”

Claire scratched her cheek in embarrassment at my flattery.

Now, here’s the real deal.

“You’re really amazing! There’s nothing for me to do here.”

“What?”

Claire looks a little taken aback, but she doesn’t care.

“There’s not much I can teach you, is there?”

That’s all I said and waited for Claire’s response.

If it ends here, that’s fine. On the other hand, if she keeps me around, I’ll know she likes me. If she thinks well of me, she will try to continue the study group for a long time even if I’m not of any use to her.

Claire hurriedly shouted as she recovered from her stunned state.

“Wait, wait, wait! Please don’t go!”

Claire said, and grabbed the right sleeve of my uniform. She pulls with such force that my upper body goes into a rigid position. The desk hits the chair Claire is sitting on with great force, and the other side of the desk starts to slowly sink into my stomach.

My posture is tight and it hurts like hell! I sobbed out the words I had been thinking fast enough to manage to get out of it.

“Don’t pull me down! I’m afraid I’m going to teach Claire everything she needs to know today, so let me go study more and we’ll call it a day!”

When I finished, Claire quickly let go of my hem. The sudden release caused my upper body to fall into the desk. As if she couldn’t see me, Claire blushed and began to smile deliriously.

“I see. You’re afraid that you will not be able to teach me enough, huh? I guess today is not enough for you. I can’t help it, Chris. If that’s what you mean, I can’t help it.”

I’m afraid of Claire…….