Teaching & Learning Methods [BL]

Untitled Part 26

The sunlight stung my eyes. I tossed and turned a few times before sitting up. My left arm was sore, perhaps because of the way I slept.

Rubbing my arm, I looked around. I was in my bedroom. I remembered finishing reading <Knight Galahad>, hearing a faint noise in the early morning, and collapsing on the bed.

Maybe it was because I had napped, but I still felt half-asleep, like I was still in a dream.

In my dream, Philip appeared. There were also Louisiana and Bianca. My mother was there, and my father appeared, chasing after her. He was a skeleton, and he repeated the same confession he had once made to me.

I always got sick on the days I dreamed about my father.

It was the same today. I didn't have a fever, but my body felt heavy and my head wasn't working properly. It felt like a thick fog filled my head. I shook my head once to shake off the thoughts.

I washed up in the bathroom and went to the kitchen to prepare a meal. Even while having breakfast, my head was foggy.

"Professor?"

Tan tapped the table with his fist. I suddenly came to my senses.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why?"

"Then eat your breakfast properly."

He pointed to my plate.

The proof that I'd been distracted was there.

The bread was cut in half, then in half again, and then in half again, lying side by side on the plate. I felt embarrassed when I realized that I had been mindlessly cutting the bread. I coughed awkwardly and shoved the piece of bread I was holding into my mouth.

Breakfast was simple. Just bread, jam, butter, and water. I had used up all the remaining ingredients to make dinner last night, so it was natural that breakfast was meager. It was a good thing I had a contract to have bread delivered once every two days, or else I would have no choice but to go hungry.

"Are you going grocery shopping today?"

"Huh?"

"Do you plan to go to the market for groceries? We need to buy necessities like soap that are almost out, and it's going to be quite heavy once we buy everything. It would be hard for you to carry it all by yourself, so I'll help."

Tan said, tearing off a large piece of bread and stuffing it into his mouth.

"You seem out of it today. Did something happen?"

"I fell asleep at dawn, so my dreams were a mess."

"Do you have a lot to do?"

"I found an interesting book in the study. I couldn't stop until I finish reading it."

My eyes were so heavy that I rubbed them with the back of my hand.

Tan asked back,

"An interesting book? A book full of strange words and names of people you don't know, about literature and symbolism?"

"Have you been to the study?"

Tan answered a beat late.

"Did you forget? You're looking for the money the Professor hid in the study."

Only then did I remember hearing that he was searching the first study on the second floor, after going through the third-floor storage room and my bedroom.

I rubbed my eyes again with my hands. My head was still foggy.

It seemed like the aftereffects of the dream were wearing off, but the way I felt, it seemed like I really didn't get enough sleep. When I was Joshua Vasatia Vinscaya, I could stay clear-headed even after sleeping for only two or three hours, but Albert Letier's constitution seemed to be different.

Tan asked with concern,

"Wouldn't it be better to sleep a little more?"

It was a tempting offer. But I shook my head.

"I have work to do."

My appetite had disappeared, so I put down the bread and took a sip of water.

I could find out about the power structure of the Royal Academy in a day or two. The problem was that I had accepted Professor Coleman and Professor Grissom's request to teach yesterday. I couldn't just leave the Royal Academy without a word.

I wished I had known my body would be like this, then I would have declined. I sighed and got up from my seat.