NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23: Homeschool
Yesterday, Papa brought home 2 strangers that happened to be my uncle and his lab assistant. My uncle's name was Lime Stein and his assistant's name was Melanie Byron. I came to the conclusion that neither of them plays an important part in the main story as neither of their names sounds familiar to me. When I asked Papa about why our family name wasn't Stein, he said that Lostbelt was Mom's family name and Papa insisted that we use it because it sounded cooler. As absurd as it was, I quickly accepted it since it did sound like something Papa would do.
Both of them seem to have interesting personalities seeing as Mel-nee ran around the village until she started feeling hungry and Oji-san always had a heavy atmosphere around him the entire time. Since there were guests, our dinner table was more lively than usual. Well, it was mostly Mel-nee that added to our already lively table since Oji-san was being silent the entire time. From what I gathered from their conversations, Oji-san is the most popular alchemist as of late, and Mel-nee was also an outstanding talent. Aside from that, it seems that both Mom and Papa were busy boasting about me and Nee-chan. In hindsight, it was more of a conversation between parents bragging about their own children to the other.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that Mel-nee has a crush on Oji-san. I can tell since I was one hell of a matchmaker back in my past life, that and the fact that she was basically showering Oji-san with praise. I was basically used to seeing indecisive people fussing about their crushes. Whenever I found out, I would always help my friends whenever they needed it. As for my track record, I had an 80% success rate. As for the remaining 20%, it was because my friend fell in love at first sight with this "girl" from another school. When I started investigating, I soon found out that the so-called "girl" was actually an overwhelmingly effeminate-looking guy that was crossdressing. In the end, he gave up and wore one of the most depressed-looking faces I've ever seen for an entire week.
I decided that I wouldn't interfere for now since I still don't know much about them, that and the fact that I might just be sorely mistaken about the entire thing. I also thought that there would still be a slight possibility that they could solve that problem by themselves without any outside help, though I really doubt so.
The day after that came my first day of homeschool. Lime-sensei(Mel-nee told me to call him that and when I did, the atmosphere around him became a bit lighter) said that the first week would purely be academics since he didn't bring any of his tools that would help in magic training. When I asked him if he could use magic, he said that neither he nor Mel-nee could use magic. He then explained that both of them only know the theory behind magic but are quite well versed in it since his past research was about storing magic spells in potions. Mel-nee then added that Lime-sensei did this by himself just one year after he graduated. She kept going on and on about how amazing it was until Lime-sensei was forced to make her stop.
However, what I was astounded by wasn't about how influential of a person Lime-sensei is, but about how shitty the rom-com that I'm watching is. Like, how is it possible to not even notice just how much Mel-nee is in love with you? Don't tell me this is some "I've always been alone so I don't understand anything about love" or in short, the "dense loner mc" trope. Like seriously, are you some light novel protagonist? Sigh, I can't really say anything since Lime-sensei is such an amazing person that he kinda deserves it, But I'm still a bit salty about how this dude is being liked by a girl while I have only gotten giri chocolate in my entire life.
Wait a minute, aren't Vier and Onee-chan going out? How the hell did I get beaten by a fucking 7-year-old? You're telling me that a 7-year-old and a 12-year-old beat me in both my lives? Are you kidding me? I can't even try since I'm basically stuck in this village! The village girls? They're all at least 10 years older than me and probably have boyfriends/husbands! Goddamnit! Was I cursed to be single? Did that curse follow me to my next life? Why am I doomed! Wait, I still have a long time. As long as I don't get involved with the main cast, I can live a peaceful high school life! But doesn't Riel get ostracized because he's a commoner? Fuck, I am doomed! Sigh, I'll just forget it. At least I still have magic to look forward to.
I can't wait to be able to use magic. Aside from having a girlfriend, being able to cast spells or do K*m*h*m*h*s and R*s*ng*ns is any male teenager's fantasy. What about swinging a sword? Nah, it was fun until the "Hell training" happened. All I think of when I swing the sword is all the suffering I had to endure for 2 years. Never again. Anyways, I am currently being taught math. I was able to think about useless things since I already knew everything that Lime-sensei was talking about, I was a high schooler in the first place. Because of this. I effortlessly answered correctly every time he would ask me a question or give me something to solve. This continued on for about an hour until he told me to take a break.
An hour later, history class started. This time, I paid full attention since history has always been my favorite subject. I've always thought of history as stories that were written. This also applies in this world's history especially because there are swords, magic, demons, heroes, and such. Because of all the fantasy elements that were added, it just became more like an actual story. I've always liked light novels so this subject had easily become my favorite. I then asked if there were any history-related books that Lime-sensei has. He then gave me all the books he had on him.
That night, I slept about 2 hours later than usual since I was reading the books till I fell asleep.