In the living room of Yu Xiao’s home, which normally saw little foot traffic, a bright incandescent light now shone.
On the wooden round table, the tea in the cup, already somewhat cooled, sent up wisps of vapor that gradually faded away.
And the two people seated across from each other were now in a state of mutual silence.
This had continued for over ten minutes already.
Yet neither had spoken a word.
Yu Xiao, wearing a somewhat awkward expression, lifted his teacup, and while sipping with his head lowered, his gaze tentatively stole upward.
He saw that, following his movement, Shione also took a sip of tea to steady herself.
Then, as though hesitating over something, her small mouth parted slightly before clamping shut again, tight as a seam.
…What’s going on, Teacher.
Yu Xiao had a bit of a headache.
By the conventions of certain TV dramas, shouldn’t she at least ask something like, “Have you been under a lot of stress lately? Do you need Teacher to help you vent?”…
Though of course that kind of development was impossible.
But for a rare home visit to have this sort of awkward atmosphere, it was just too strange.
It looked like, right now, he’d have to…
“Um… Teacher Shione. This visit of yours, what exactly is it for…?”
It was up to him to break the stalemate now.
Yu Xiao was certain of it.
“Ah… oh! Actually, it’s nothing… particular, really.”
And Shione was startled for a moment.
Then, because of that, she finally managed to speak.
She then turned her head to look around, as if seeking some corroborating evidence to support what she was about to say:
“By the way, Yu Xiao, do you live alone?”
“Yeah. After all, I don’t have any other family.”
Yu Xiao nodded.
“!… Sorry. Was that… a bit of a superfluous question?”
“…Not at all. Rather, I’ve already gotten used to this kind of life.”
Then, in the face of a seemingly somewhat apologetic Shione, Yu Xiao shrugged and answered candidly.
After all, before the transmigration… in his original world, his parents had also unfortunately passed away due to an accident.
So he had adapted quite quickly to the fact that even after transmigrating, he was still all alone.
Only, the speaker may be careless while the listener takes it to heart.
Hearing such a reply, Shione lowered her brows and eyes, as if she had thought of something sad.
But after a moment she still cast that emotion aside, and turned to ask with a serious expression.
“…I see. Then, Yu Xiao, Teacher… would like to ask you some questions, may I?”
“Any question is fine, Teacher. As long as I can answer it.”
Yu Xiao answered.
To be honest, there was a bit of joy in his heart.
After all, this meant the home visit was finally getting to the point.
“…This morning. During class, that ‘Beta’ you mentioned… what exactly is that?”
Although he had long anticipated it, upon hearing the question, a momentary tension made Yu Xiao swallow.
So it really was about this, huh, Teacher.
But no.
At this moment, he absolutely could not tell the truth.
He confirmed this in his heart.
He absolutely could not confess to her that, because he had gotten a bit addicted to a game… he had fallen asleep even during regular class due to drowsiness, and had moreover muttered those dream words quite loudly.
What was most suitable now was undoubtedly to find some excuse to fob her off.
So Yu Xiao merely mused:
“…That, well, that’s a character that appears in algebraic expressions, right?”
“Algebraic expressions?… Yu Xiao, you mean things like mathematical formulas…?”
Hearing such a response, Shione’s expression was a bit surprised.
“Yes yes! Like, say, angle Alpha, angle Beta…”
And Yu Xiao clapped his hands.
“What I’ve been thinking about day and night lately is exactly this stuff… trigonometry and such. These letters get used a lot, right?”
“Is that so. But if that were the case, why did you say ‘damn it’…?”
“Because… uh. Because the problems are hard.”
Yu Xiao propped up his chin.
“…I’m not good at science. Same with math, so lately I’ve often been staying up late doing problems… and such. Then during class, I got a bit sleepy… but what I dreamed about was still reviewing, and in the end, I couldn’t understand it no matter what.”
Saying this, he hung his head and apologized quite earnestly.
“That’s why I said a few angry words like that. Sorry, Teacher Shione. For the inconvenience to your class.”
There wasn’t a trace of falsehood in these words.
After all, he had decided to do this from the daytime onward.
And this earned him a certain degree of understanding.
“I see… ah, as for the matter in class, it’s already fine!…”
Shione said in a soothing manner.
And in her tone there was a somewhat unnecessary anxiousness.
…As if she were the one at fault.
When clearly the one at fault was me.
Yu Xiao grumbled inwardly.
And then, as if thinking about something, Shione asked again with a somewhat cautious air.
“Then, Yu Xiao. Do you have… any special impression of certain terms?”
“Hm? For example?”
…What does that mean?
Yu Xiao couldn’t quite figure it out.
But he couldn’t just ask directly like that, so he had no choice but to answer tentatively, and put on an appearance of quietly waiting.
And Shione took a deep breath.
Then she asked words that startled Yu Xiao somewhat.
“…Like, say. ‘HRL,’ ‘Tieren,’ or ‘Leo’… and such.”
Combined together, these keywords naturally had an obvious pointedness.
What.
Thus, Yu Xiao nearly blurted this out reflexively.
Fortunately it was only “nearly.” He thought about it.
This matter seemed fundamentally unlikely.
What was more likely was that it was some kind of fishing expedition.
For example, he had once shouted such dream words when dozing off after class, and some other teacher had noticed, and so had entrusted her with the investigation, or something like that.
“…No.”
So in the end, he suppressed all superfluous thoughts and merely answered thus.
After all, if he thought he’d found a fellow fan only to find he hadn’t, that scene would become quite awkward too.
“Really none?”
Shione narrowed her eyes and confirmed once more.
“Really none. Teacher. Though it does sound a bit familiar… are these products from some anime? I don’t really watch that stuff usually…”
And having told such a whopping lie without changing expression, Yu Xiao felt he was becoming abnormal himself.
“…I understand.”
Fortunately, this seemed to be the last of the questioning.
“…Actually, I’m not clear on what these are either. But I heard from some people that you, Yu Xiao, are very knowledgeable about these things…”
“There’s no such thing. Teacher. As for these things… I don’t know a thing about them. You must have been deceived.”
“Mm. That’s fine too… Then, Yu Xiao, let’s leave it here for now. …Teacher won’t disturb your evening rest any longer. But, from now on, still remember it’s better to sleep early, alright? More important than grades is your health.”
Saying the customary words of concern, Shione picked up the document in her hand that seemed to have been recording something from the start of the conversation, then stood up and turned toward the door.
“…Mm. Okay. You too, Teacher. Goodbye.”
Making his farewell, Yu Xiao watched her departing figure.
“…Phew.”
It was only once she had left his sight that Yu Xiao let out a long breath.
Although it had been a somewhat forced process.
But he had finally managed to send Teacher on her way.
She really asked some very strange questions… To begin with, why did it veer into those Super Robot Wars anime terms?
Yu Xiao thought, somewhat puzzled.
And besides, having someone barge in like this just when he wanted to play to his heart’s content was really a mood-killer.
But luckily everything was over now, and he could normally return to continuing the game.
“…Alright.”
Yu Xiao murmured, “Let’s go see how the game’s progress has turned out now.”
So, he stretched, and then headed toward his study.
Hopefully the results wouldn’t be too bad.
But then, since it could be regarded as that Red Comet playing on his behalf, the results shouldn’t be too bad either…?
He thought.
Bonus Chapters will be posted after an hour or two.
In the meantime….
GIMME POWER STONESSSS We’re getting closer to 50 bois!!!