***
“What are you looking at, you fool?”
Those were the first words Rayton spat out.
“Oh, I’m…
I’m just glad to see you.” Sez smiled awkwardly.
She wasn’t lying, technically.
“You saw me yesterday.
Guess you don’t have much else to be happy about.”
“Well, that was yesterday, and today’s a new day!”
“…”
“And tomorrow is…
well, tomorrow…”
Sez glanced at Rayton, but he didn’t say a word.
He simply stared at her for a while before sitting by the window.
The book in his hand seemed familiar.
Sez read the title <Introduction to Kazarkish> and smiled innocently.
“What are you grinning at?”
“I don’t know…
it just slipped out, I guess.
Aren’t we studying at the desk today?”
“Let’s just do it here.” Rayton waved his hand.
“Or bring that over here, whatever.”
Sez followed Rayton’s eyes to see a small desk in the corner.
Sez nodded and started lugging the desk over.
One must climb the tree to get fruit, after all.
Sez dragged the desk and chair to the window and looked up at Rayton with big, expectant eyes.
Rayton tossed a book on the desk.
“We’ll study composing today.”
Sez remembered what he said yesterday.
‘He told me to write down…
what was it?
‘I’m a stupid princess?”
She remembered how she dealt with that nonsense.
She told him that she wasn’t good at writing.
“Did you memorize all vowels and constants?”
“Yes!”
“Then solve the problems.
I’ll grade it later.”
“Okay.”
Sez opened the book and held her quill tightly.
The problems weren’t that hard.
It was only entry-level stuff, just as the title said.
She felt that even she could handle such easy stuff alone.
“Start already.”
Sez began to solve the problems at once upon Rayton’s hassling.
She felt good.
He seemed different from yesterday when he left her with a book and didn’t care to explain a thing.
Maybe others would let out a snort at her getting ahead of herself, but it seemed like a big step forward to Sez.
Rayton stared down at Sez the entire time.
She felt a little uncomfortable as he didn’t even try to hide it, but it wasn’t unbearable.
Sez sat quietly and solved the problems.
Once she finished, she immediately passed her work to Rayton, asking him to grade it.
“…”
Rayton squinted as he graded her work, and Sez beamed from ear to ear.
She thought that learning Kazarkish in her past life finally paid off.
She got a perfect score.
“I’m good, right?”
Happy little Sez babbled and bragged, something she would never normally do.
“I did it all by myself… myself!”
Rayton didn’t even answer, he just scanned the books with a blank face.
However, his indifference couldn’t bring Sez down.
“Runa once told me that I’m actually quite smart.”
“……”
“I’m good at other subjects, too….
like math and science!
My tutor once said that I exceeded his expectations!”
She couldn’t stop once she got started.
“So, I studied hard.
I liked being praised, it reminded me that I’m not utterly useless…”
“……”
“I thought my mother would praise me if I was finally good at something.”
A shadow crossed Sez’s face.
That was the main reason she had studied so hard.
She was naive enough to think her mother might still give her some attention back when she was a child.
“I was like that until when I was…
I don’t know, fifteen years old?
I completely dropped it after that, but I still remember everything.”
“…Fifteen years old?”
“Yes?”
“You’re twelve.”
‘Ugh, damn me and my big mouth!’
Sez shut her mouth.
“Oh, did…
did I say fifteen?
I think I’m having a brain fart, I hit my head badly yesterday…”
She knew she was spewing nonsense.
“I heard this happens sometimes.
Sometimes you don’t make sense if you hurt your head badly…
Achoo!”
Sez froze as the sneeze popped out the cotton ball plugging her nose like it was a ballista.
A trail of blood followed behind it, making Sez look like a fire-breathing dragon.
The problem was, she had sprayed blood all over Rayton.
First, it was vomit, now it was blood.
“I’m sorry…”
When Sez tried to wipe his clothes with the sleeve of her dress, Rayton flinched.
“…Rayton?”
Sez looked up at him, puzzled.
Rayton’s face was twisted, he looked as if he was hurt, in pain.
His chest and stomach, in particular.
Sez remembered how Bern had kicked and stomped on Rayton’s chest.
“Are you hurt?
Yesterday?”
“Don’t touch me….”
“You should have called a physician.
Your wounds could get infected!”
“I said don’t touch me!”
Rayton slapped Sez’s hand away and let out a weak moan.
‘I thought he didn’t get hurt at all…’ Sez felt a strange sense of guilt in the face of this unexpected situation.
‘If I just behaved and didn’t step in, the fight wouldn’t have gotten so bad.
Yeah, he’d have got bashed a couple of times, but that would’ve been it…’
For some reason, Sez felt responsible for his wounds.
“Let me see your wound, brother.
Just once.” Sez made the most pitiful expression she could muster.
“I’m just worried…”
“Deal with your nose first.”
‘Oh, I forgot about that… thank heavens that Runa gave me a few spare cotton balls.’ Sez took some cotton out and blocked her nose again, still looking at Rayton.
“Or should I call the physician?”
“No need.”
“But…” Sez reached out worriedly.
“I said don’t touch me!”
Suddenly, there was a random tearing sound.
It was the sound of Rayton’s shirt ripping apart.
Sez didn’t mean to do it, she merely pinched the side of his shirt and Rayton had overreacted.
Rayton was lost for words, looking down at his torn shirt.
“…I didn’t mean to do that.”
“……”
“I mean it, really.”
Rayton sighed, speechless.
Suddenly, Sez’s eyes locked on Rayton’s chest.
“Oh, dear…”
Sez turned pale.
Over half of Rayton’s stomach was covered in purple bruises…
no, purple was an understatement.
They were almost black.
Sez had never seen a bruise of that color in her entire life.
Bern must have kicked to kill.
“Why didn’t you call a physician when your wounds are this bad?”
“I didn’t need to.”
“Didn’t the maids and servants say anything?
They should have at least done first-aid if they couldn’t call the…”
“I don’t have one…”
“What?”
“I don’t anyone to do first aid, or whatever.”
Sez bit her lip, realizing she had said something stupid.
She could tell just from looking at Runa.
If her kind and loving maid was so blatantly avoiding Rayton, there was no question about the others.
Sez had Runa at least, but Rayton had no one.
No one in the palace would have cared for him.
The same went for his wound.
And he had come to the library for her, to teach her…
Her guilt soon turned to gratitude and then turned back to pity.
Sez jumped up from her seat and knocked the bag that Runa gave her upside down, its contents poured out all over the floor.
Rayton looked at her in confusion, but Sez was busy checking the supplies.
The ever-meticulous Runa had packed Sez more than a couple of cotton balls.
Sez wasn’t hurt as badly as Rayton, but she too had a few bruises here and there.
She found salve, bandages, and a few more cotton balls too.
Sez picked up the salve and bandages, then stood before Rayton.
“Here, Rayton.
Please sit at the desk, not the window.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I’m going to apply the salve.”
“I told you I don’t need it.”
“It is because I want to.”
Rayton was silent for a moment.
He stared at Sez with an unreadable expression, then gave up and sat down at the desk.
It was rather unexpected.
“I will apply salve first.”
Sez scooped up the white salve and rubbed it on his bruises.
To her surprise, Rayton didn’t move an inch as she literally caked his stomach with salve.
“…….”
Sez frowned while treating his wounds.
Rayton’s body was covered in injuries, let alone the newer ones.
Unknown marks decorated his belly and there was a long scar near his ribs.
She remembered a rumor that she had heard, that Bern once practiced his archery on Rayton.
Sez thought maybe this was the wound from that day.
‘Those assholes just can’t be helped…’
Sez swallowed the curse words and began to bandage Rayton’s stomach up.
‘…Is it normal to bandage a bruise, though?
Should I?’
Sez hesitated before deciding to go through with it anyway.
‘At least it covers the sticky salve….’
“I’m done.
Is it uncomfortable?”
Sez looked at Rayton, but he didn’t answer.
He looked down at his tightly wrapped belly and let out a snort.
“You’re damn confident for someone who’s all thumbs.”
In all fairness, his observation was correct, all she did was turn Rayton into a half-naked mummy, just like how she bandaged his hand yesterday.
‘You could’ve just said it was too much.
Why did you only tell me after I finished?’ Sez pouted.
“Are there any others?
Did you get hurt anywhere else?”
She decided to ignore his attitude and try to treat his other wounds too.
It wasn’t like he had anyone else to do it anyway.
She checked that his stomach is now okayand quickly glanced around Rayton’s upper body.
Something between the ends of his collar caught her eye.
It was a bandage.
“…Huh?”
The bandage was wrapped around his left shoulder.
Something didn’t add up.
Did Rayton hurt his shoulder too?
“Let me take a look at your shoulder for a second, while I’m at…”
Sez couldn’t continue as Rayton quickly slapped her hand away.
“That’s enough.”
“But…”
“Mind your own business.”
‘Well, you said the same thing before, and look at your belly…’ Sez couldn’t figure out why he was acting like this all of a sudden.
‘Plus, you said you didn’t have anyone to treat you?’
‘Who wrapped that bandage?
Did he bandage it by himself?
If that’s the case, then he should’ve taken care of his stomach first…’
“What are you looking at?”
“I’m just worried…”
“Well, I don’t need your worry so just sit down.”
“O-okay…”
Sez quickly sat back down in her chair.
She glanced at Rayton’s shoulder a couple more times until he hid it under his shirt.
They resumed their tutoring session shortly after.
Sez solved a few more questions but got two or three things wrong this time around.
Rayton explained each of her grammar errors clearly and concisely, to Sez’s surprise.
She suddenly thought that Rayton might actually be quite smart.
It was around the end of the session when Rayton spoke to her again.
“Come to my mother’s quarters from tomorrow.”
“What?” Sez raised her head at the unexpected words.
“We’ll do it in there.”
“……”
“Quit if you don’t like it.”
“No!
It’s fine!”
Sez shouted hurriedly.
She was actually about to suggest the same thing, about moving their tutoring to a different place.
Even Runa had said that the royal siblings might come back.
Sez was happy for another reason too.
Rayton’s words meant that this tutoring had finally become a regular routine for them.
“What are you grinning about?” Rayton frowned.
“It’s just…
I’m just glad that you’re going to tutor me tomorrow.”
“……”
“Then, I’ll take care of your wounds tomorrow as well.
I’ll learn how to bandage from Runa!”
“I told you I don’t need it, you idiot.”
“Oh, right.
I’ll get some medicine for your bruises, too!
There was one that Runa applied on me when I tripped.
It worked really well; the bruise was gone in two days!
I’m sure yours will be too!”
Sez kept babbling on needlessly.
Rayton didn’t even bother to answer.
He looked a little annoyed, but he didn’t tell her to ‘piss off’ or ‘shut up’ like last time.
That alone made Sez even more excited, she thought they were pretty close now.
One might even dare to say that Sez was making progress.