Within the cafeteria, her eyes were only for him, but no one had noticed her just yet.
There was a question mark above her head. This should be the same person, but nothing was making sense.
He was a transfer student, so the behavior of the students from the same class were a problem, but the person himself didn’t seem to have noticed them, so she didn’t know what to do.
“Fu~, That was a great meal… Thank you for the food!”
“Kyu.”
While at a loss on what to do, Shinichi finished eating.
On his way to the counter to return the tray, he walked as if he truly hadn’t noticed the state of mind of the people around him.
“Obachan, it was delicious!”
“Kyukyu!”
“T-Thanks.”
After giving his thanks, Shinichi walked away happily. He was so happy he looked like he could start skipping.
Dumbfounded, she forgot to call out to him when he passed her by.
“…Ah, please wait a moment!”
She quickly tried to call out to him, but he was already too far to hear her.
Or maybe he just couldn’t hear her, but either way he didn’t turn around.
Shinichi walked away with that beast on his shoulder as usual.
“Just what in the world is going on!?”
The girl didn’t know that her message hadn’t been passed on to the boy, and was full of confusion.
Lunch ended and Shinichi triumphantly headed for the afternoon classes, but..
When the classes ended, he ended up in the same pose as he’d assumed in the morning.
“Sigh, I’m done… I’m so done. It’s all white now. Do you know? What’s a quadratic function? What’s Hyugens’ principle?”
“Kyu, kyuu…”
Shinichi asked, and in response ‘she’ could only cry out in a troubled tone as if to say, ‘Even if you ask me that…’
To Shinichi, who didn’t have the foundations of middle school, even the five basic subjects felt like mysterious chants.
Before he knew it he’d become a stereotypical student who complained about not being able to study.
“What’s the point of learning all these anyway?”
The beast on the table only responded to that with a vague-sounding voice.
Shinichi read the notes he had taken down in between his sighs during class.
The foster also had a note-taking feature, but he had to use it ‘properly’ when in front of others.
He found that to be a pain, and he was also looking forward to taking down notes manually anyway, so he went with that approach instead.
“Let’s ask about this part today. Alright, come on! It’s time to attack the faculty!”
“Kyui!”
He ruminated on the things he couldn’t understand and then stood up.
The parts he couldn’t understand in class, he would be asking the teachers. This might come as no surprise, but his visits to the faculty were so frequent, that his presence there has already become an everyday thing.
“Sensei! I didn’t understand a thing either today!”
“…Nakamura, can’t you at least find a better way to say that?”
His visits were so frequent that it only took a few days for the teachers to know him by face.
But that was also a given considering he used both his breaks and his time after school to visit it.
&Nbsp;
And then after the day’s classes ended and his QA session at the faculty also came to an end, he left the campus and walked back to the male dormitory.
Occasionally, he would happen into the girl working here as the caretaker, but he didn’t meet her today.
Their class and years were different, and he also ‘wasn’t in any trouble’, so there was no reason she would find him.
But of course, Shinichi alone was able to feel her presence.
“Hmm?”
Shinichi happened to see a group of students running under the lead of the ringlet curls girl and smiled.
This was one of their self-training routines that he saw previously.
How many laps did they have to run?
Considering the size of the school grounds, they must be running a considerable distance. Shinichi was impressed.
“Students working hard do draw a lovely picture.”
That kind of simple effort was necessary to develop and maintain Status.
There’s a limit to how much one can grow, but without any effort, even that limit can’t be reached.
To him the sight of someone diligently training was a pleasant sight.
There’s a lot of value in working hard everyday to meet a goal.
At the very least, to Shinichi it was a dazzling sight.
Because it was something that he could never experience.
“What an enviable thing…”
While at school, he might be thought of as someone who ignores the voices of the people around him, but the truth is that he was simply focused on something else, and ‘she’ got rid of everyone before they could get in his way and notice them.
But now that Shinichi only had to go back to his room, he could clearly see his surroundings.
All the more so when it was a dazzling scenery hard to come by.
“…I think you’re working plenty hard too, though, Master.”
“That’s true. But in a sense, it’s no different from a hobby. My motivation is weak. After all, all I really want is to be able to study as a high school student even if it’s only for appearance’s sake.”
That’s why he could stop at anytime if there’s a reason to.
He could easily abandon it just like he did for the Garesto related subjects.
Just like a housewife with too much time on her hands, Shinichi laughed sarcastically.
“Master…”
“Don’t mind. It’s not all that bad. Me being free, that is.”
It’s proof that it’s peaceful, he laughed.
But he also said that there was no telling how long that would continue.
She couldn’t say anything to those words.
Shinichi passed through the gates of the male dormitory and walked back to his room. He’d already familiarized himself with the route.
He passed by several male students along the way, but they didn’t even greet each other.
He was already standing out in a bad way, and there weren’t any fearless people who wanted to be related with him.
But Shinichi himself also didn’t want to get along with them, so he didn’t mind.
The only thing he was regretful of was that he didn’t know how the students his age thought or what their common sense was.
At first, Shinichi thought he would have a roommate to monitor him.
It would have been troublesome, but he at least intended on having the minimum levels of interaction with said roommate, but the people observing him instead prepared a single room and allowed him to do as he pleased in hopes that he would show his faults. And then Shinichi tampered with the cameras to show them a fake image, allowing him to really do whatever he wanted.
Considering he was getting all of their information one-sidedly, one could say that their plan was spectacularly failure.
Unfortunately, a consequence of that is that it’s become difficult for him to understand the ‘obvious things’ of this age.
“Hmm, ah?”
A rhythmical electric sound suddenly rang from Shinichi’s foster, and he tilted his head.