Teaching & Learning Methods [BL]

Untitled Part 21

As expected, the sun rose. I caught a carriage and headed to the Royal Academy. I was determined to visit regularly until I got some information.

As I got off at the gate, the guard greeted me. It was the first time that had happened.

As I entered the integrated faculty room, there was a moment of silence. All eyes turned to me and then scattered. Then the room was filled with chatter again. Professor Oster smirked when he saw me but pretended not to know me.

I picked up a book and sat down on the sofa. The professors' eyes kept piercing me. I finally felt like I was out of the airlock.

I tried to remember if I had done anything that would be the talk of the town, but I couldn't find anything. I wondered if something had happened at the Royal Academy on the one day I hadn't been there because I was cleaning the house.

I decided to ignore the stares and opened the book. If there was something I needed to know, I would find out eventually. There was no need to get worked up about it in advance.

In conclusion, there was nothing new.

The professors kept glancing at me and whispering, but nothing more. There were still no professors assigned to teach me classes. No professors came up to me for a private conversation.

In the afternoon, I took a carriage home and Tan greeted me.

"Are you back?"

I laughed when I saw Tan poking his head out over the railing. His face and hair were covered in dust.

"You look like a dust fairy."

"I'm not a dust fairy, but I do seem to live somewhere in this house. Every time I go, I'm covered in dust. Thanks to you, I have a lot of laundry to do."

"Right. How long will it take you to wash and come out?"

"Are we going out to eat?"

Tan asked nervously. I smiled and shook my head.

"Today is payday. Do you want to eat out?"

"I'll pass."

As always, Tan came out of the bathroom surprisingly quickly. However, today his hair was half wet, as if he had hurried a little more. I told him he didn't have to rush, and he nodded.

"To eat at home, you have to rush, because the house elves won't have the food ready for you."

"We can just go to a restaurant."

"What's that? Is that like saying 'eat cakes if there's no bread'? Professor, you need to develop a sense of money."

I didn't pay attention to him because I heard this all the time. Tan frowned slightly but didn't complain any further.

We caught a carriage and headed to the workshop district.

The carriage we took this time must not have been serviced in a long time, as it was particularly bumpy. It was so bad that my tailbone was aching. My stomach was churning and I wanted to get off as soon as possible. Tan's expression wasn't so good either.

I don't know how far we had gone. Suddenly, the carriage lurched violently and tilted to the side.

Thanks to Tan quickly reaching out and wrapping his arms around me, I avoided hitting my head on the door. My heart was pounding. The carriage came to a stop.

"Just a moment."

Tan opened the carriage door and jumped out. Then he extended his hand. I took his hand and was barely able to get out of the carriage.