“Winnie, it's time to get up.”
“ZZZ….. Huh, huh? Get up, get up for what? It's still early today, only eight o'clock. Isn't getting up a waste of time?” Winnie squinted, rolled over, and ignored the knocking on the door from Shikondell.
“But, Winnie, you're going to be late for class.” Shikondell's knocking became anxious.
“Late?” Winnie tilted his head, feeling his brain wasn't reacting for a moment. He hadn't had to think about that word for a while, so it was a little foreign to him. He didn't react to it right away.
“Why would I be late? Class hasn't even started yet.” With that, Winnie burrowed his head back under the covers.
“But, Winnie, you've already left the medical room! Your injuries have healed. Today is a class day, remember??” Shikondell knocked again.
“I—ah!” The dazed Winnie instantly sobered up. He slapped his forehead, realizing.
Oh no, he had gotten used to the excellent days of hospitalization and recuperation. He almost forgot that he had been discharged yesterday and had to go to class normally today!
Ah, ah, in the morning, the most desperate thing wasn't hearing that it was Monday, but hearing that his treatment period was over and he had to go back to class.
It's over, how tragic!
Winnie, whose mind had returned from its chaos, quickly scrambled out of bed on all fours to find his clothes.
Ah, ah, he had been too casual when he went to sleep yesterday. His clothes and pants were thrown everywhere, and finding them this morning was like assembling a Transformer.
“My jacket, where's my jacket? Why is it hanging there? Ouch!” Since Winnie's brain wasn't fully active, he fell off the bed while searching, stars swirling before his eyes.
“Huh? Winnie, what's wrong? Are you okay??” Shikondell, outside the room, heard the commotion and couldn't help but ask worriedly.
“Ah, this young master is in so much pain! Tsk, I remember throwing this jacket on the floor last night. How did it end up hanging on the chair today? Can jackets grow legs or something??” Winnie rubbed his backside, complaining.
Could he have remembered something wrong??
Winnie thought as he endured the pain and put on his clothes.
After walking to the dressing table and tidying his hair slightly, Winnie pushed open the door and left his room.
“Winnie, breakfast is ready. Eat quickly, or you'll be late.”
“Mm, Dell, you go ahead. Otherwise, you'll be late for class.” Winnie looked at the clock hanging on the wall.
“No need, I'll wait for you to go together.” Shikondell, however, refused.
“Wait? Wait to be late with me?” Winnie joked. “You can go ahead if you can. No need to wait for me. I'll be right there after I finish eating.”
“Hmm, but I still want to wait for Winnie to go together,” Shikondell said softly, standing beside him.
This had always been her habit. After all, when she first entered the Carillian Academy, she was unfamiliar with the place and held a fear of humans. It was Winnie who took her, going to class with her every day, that she slowly overcame her fear.
Now, she had long since formed the habit.
“Alright, alright, suit yourself.” Seeing that he couldn't persuade Shikondell, Winnie stopped trying. He just sped up, quickly finished breakfast.
After filling their stomachs, the two rushed to the teaching hall. Luckily, they made it; the teacher hadn't arrived yet when they got to the classroom.
Hmm, even though class had been in session for over two weeks, Winnie felt like today was his first day.
It has also been a long time since he had seen his classmates.
Winnie really wanted to say that because they had small classes, not many people in one class, and everyone knew each other by name and was relatively familiar.
However, familiarization didn't mean they all had excellent relationships.
Winnie was facing such a problem now. He really wanted to say to his dear classmates, 'Long time no see, have you all missed me?' But this sentence obviously couldn't come out of his mouth. His dear classmates' eyes already explained everything.
Winnie felt that if he asked that question, most of his classmates would probably unanimously reply, 'We wish you'd never come back,' especially those male students.
How could students of this age know how to hide their thoughts? They weren't like Aesphyra, a cheat-level player who had lived two lives. Therefore, the meaning their eyes wanted to express was obvious.
Oh, come on, these people, they don't know anything about the inside story and they're just glaring. What are they glaring at??
Winnie could only cancel the gesture of raising his hand, put it down, cleared his throat twice, and walked into the classroom.
The world is a cold, harsh place.
Winnie scanned the classroom. When he stepped in, only Aesphyra smiled at him, but that girl usually had that smiling expression anyway, so it was normal.
Besides that, there was also Isatia.
When he entered the classroom, Isatia looked straight at him.
Winnie wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he always felt that Isatia, whose gaze was usually filled with an unyielding frost, seemed to have her ice melt the moment she looked at him.
It was a completely different feeling since he had interacted with her before.
Ew!
Winnie wondered what was wrong with him lately. Thinking like this was really cheesy.
It must have been his imagination, and he had helped Isatia so much. Wasn't it normal for her to be grateful to him??
Winnie and Shikondell sat in the third row.
Soon, the teacher entered the classroom.
“Isatia, and Winnie, how are your bodies?” The teacher pushed up his glasses, asking with concern.
“Much better, Teacher.”
“Mm, fully recovered.”
After both answered, the teacher nodded, simply welcomed them, and then began class.
However, once class started, Winnie discovered his second difficulty upon returning to the classroom.
That was, he had fallen too far behind in his studies!
As the teacher lectured, Winnie felt like he was on a plane the whole time, like he was listening to gibberish. Although he understood the individual words, when put together, he couldn't understand a single thing.
What were these technical terms? He didn't know any of them!
Winnie was bewildered.
It would be fine if he didn't understand one technical term. He could look it up in a book afterward and combine it with concepts learned last semester, and he would more or less understand. But not understanding a whole bunch of technical terms, accumulating them, quantity led to qualitative change.
The result was that he couldn't understand a single word.
No, and the teacher was lecturing so fast? Couldn't he consider the students who had just returned to class due to injury??
Ah, well.
There were only two students who had been staying in the medical room due to injury and had just returned to class: him and Isatia.
She was the destined heroine, a cheat-level player, who had long since read all the Carillian Academy textbooks for several years with her extraordinary memory.
They had both taken several days of sick leave, but would she feel pressured in class??
A max-level expert wouldn't regress after not logging in for a few days. Clearing a novice village was still a wave of her hand.
Alright, Winnie felt the malice of the world towards him at this moment.
Fortunately, Shikondell also noticed Winnie's predicament and very thoughtfully offered to help him.
“Winnie, you've missed too many classes and can't keep up, can you? Tell me what you don't understand, and I'll teach you,” Shikondell whispered.
“No need, you should worry about yourself,” Winnie shook his head. “Don't end up not teaching me and not paying attention in class yourself, falling behind.”
“It's okay, I've already learned what the teacher said. Shall I teach Winnie?” Shikondell suggested.
“Let's talk after class. Pay attention now,” Winnie turned at Shikondell, then turned his gaze back to the blackboard.
“Hmm, alright.” Seeing Winnie's insistence, Shikondell had no choice but to obey. She always listens to Winnie.
However, she felt that Winnie seemed to have changed a little since returning from the Mars Dungeon.
It felt like, in some aspects, his temper seemed a bit more composed than before??
Soon, the dismissal bell rang.
Winnie had endured the entire class fighting off sleep. There was nothing he could do; it wasn't that he wasn't ambitious, it was because he truly couldn't understand a single word??
He always wanted to try and understand, but with not an ounce of knowledge, listening on and on, it was easy to doze off.
At times like these, the disadvantages of a single-core processor became apparent.
In the past, the teacher's magic chalk might have flown over from the podium. After all, this teacher was known for his observation and insight and couldn't possibly not notice a student spacing out.
But he also knew Winnie's situation. He certainly couldn't expect every student to be on par with Isatia, so he just turned a blind eye.
After class, the teacher, clutching his textbook, specifically reminded, “Due to the accident in the dungeon, some students can't keep up with our progress. If other students have time, please try to help these students.”
“Of course, you can also ask me.”
He didn't specify who, and after saying that, he left the classroom.
However,
The first half of the sentence was as good as unsaid.
Aesphyra's question wasn't wrong at all. Everyone in this class knew what Winnie's popularity was like. It was already good enough if they didn't kick him while he was down, let alone teach him??
Dream on.
“Winnie, um, I'll teach you!” Shikondell volunteered.
“Alright then, can you explain it to me?” Seeing Shikondell's appearance, Winnie didn't want to dampen her enthusiasm, but he had serious doubts about Shikondell's ability to explain.
“Okay, okay, then we'll start from the first lesson. First, this is that, applying that… formula…”
“Alright, Dell, I understand. Stop talking.” As soon as Shikondell said that, Winnie, with a poker face, told her to stop.
“Eh? Winnie, do you already understand?”
“No, I don't,” Winnie shook his head.
“Then, was my explanation really that bad?” Shikondell lowered her head, looking very dejected.
“No, your explanation was excellent,” Winnie said seriously. “However, I suggest you don't explain next time.”
“Boo hoo!”
For the matter of finding someone to teach him, Winnie already had a candidate in mind.
That, of course, was…
“Winnie~ you look very tired.”
“Tired of what?” Winnie silently turned his gaze to the silver-haired beautiful girl who had appeared beside him at some point, elegantly sitting with her legs crossed.
“Nothing, just looking at Winnie's face, if it could be squeezed for juice, it would definitely all be bitter water,” Aesphyra said with a tinkling laugh.
“Bitter water, what's wrong with bitter water? It's just bitter water, bitter enough to kill you,” Winnie rolled his eyes at Aesphyra.
“Oh? Bitter enough to kill me? Is Winnie sure he wants to kill me with bitterness?” Aesphyra tilted her head, like a playful and cute ragdoll cat.
“Definitely, absolutely, and positively. I said I'm allergic to nuts, so please, some moldy nut ball, stop bothering me, thank you,” Winnie snorted coldly.
“Really? Then I'm really leaving, okay?” Aesphyra playfully glanced at the blank textbook in front of Winnie. “But, is that really alright?”
“What's good or not good about it??” Winnie looked at Aesphyra.
Well, to be precise, he looked in Aesphyra's direction.
“Oh, is that so?~ Well then, since Winnie has nothing to ask of me, I'll be going?” With that, Aesphyra was about to leave her seat.
“Wait.”
But just then, Winnie called out to her again.
“Mmhmm~” Aesphyra hadn't really intended to leave, so she sat back down, looking at Winnie with a charming expression. “Winnie, do you need something from me?”
“Could it be that you have a favor to ask of me~?”
“Then, I ask you.” Winnie nodded solemnly at Aesphyra.
“Pfft, asking me? Is Winnie the kind of person who says such things? Then I'll have to see Winnie's sincerity in asking for a favor first, okay?” Aesphyra propped her chin on her hand, teasing.
“I say, what are you muttering about, you nut ball?” However, to her surprise, Winnie looked at her with a strange expression. “Didn't I say I don't need you here? Hurry up and leave, don't bother me.”
“Oh my? Winnie, that's not the attitude of someone asking for a favor?” Aesphyra narrowed her beautiful eyes.
“Who asked you? You're so full of yourself,” Winnie rolled his eyes at Aesphyra.
“Hmm? Wasn't Winnie asking me just now?”
“Was I asking you?? Please get your facts straight, okay??” Winnie gasped, then turned to the black-haired cold beauty who had appeared behind Aesphyra at some point, and who, like Aesphyra, had a pair of violet eyes.
“Right, Isatia?”
“I was asking Isatia. What are you, this silver-haired short nut, doing here joining the fun??”
“Go somewhere cooler. Who told you to teach me? Hurry up and leave, don't block Isatia. I'm afraid Isatia might misunderstand.”