‘It seems she didn’t realize. She actually greeted a cat—she’s so gentle!’
Only someone who truly viewed Hwanling as Yuriko’s friend and respected Yuriko’s feelings would treat a cat like a human.
‘Are you falling for her?’
‘Of course not. My goal is to conquer all of Pilgrimage City. But if I could have a gentle girl like her as a girlfriend, I’d even be willing to go beat up some thugs.’
‘Why are you being so greedy?’
‘Just kidding. A girl this good probably already has a boyfriend.’
Even as a person who had lived two lives and was currently a girl herself, Yuriko couldn’t help but feel a protective urge toward Kalmira.
Young boys in their prime would be even worse; Kalmira surely had a mountain of pursuers.
After their brief talk, Kalmira remembered her purpose.
“It’s getting late. Let me take you to Ms. Avier’s office first. She wants to see you.”
Yuriko didn’t know this Ms. Avier, but from Kalmira’s words, she was going to be her homeroom teacher.
It was normal to want to meet.
Kalmira led Yuriko into the Academy, introducing various locations as they passed.
“This is the Swordsmanship Training Hall. It’s a dedicated space for students to practice their sword skills,” Kalmira explained.
To Yuriko, who had spent her life in gangs and had only attended a normal public school in her previous life, she had never seen a place dedicated to training a specific skill.
“Swordsmanship training? Are there sword classes in our curriculum?” Yuriko asked.
“Yes. But those are mostly lower-grade courses. This year, the curriculum focuses on higher-tier martial arts techniques, though swordsmanship is included in that.”
Hearing this, Yuriko suddenly grew worried.
Shengxiu Academy had 6 grades.
The first 5 years were for specialized training, and the sixth year gave students freedom to study.
In other words, Yuriko had missed the first 4 years of knowledge and hadn’t learned any proper martial techniques.
‘Not good. I’ve missed so many years of classes. I’m going to make a fool of myself, aren’t I?’
‘Don’t worry, meow. I am here.’
Hwanling patted Yuriko’s cheek with a paw, reminding her of her presence.
‘Is it really okay? You know a lot, but this is Shengxiu Academy.’
‘My database contains all the knowledge from the Shengxiu Academy archives from 500 years ago. Even if there are differences from current content, it won’t have a major impact.’
‘Then I’m relieved.’
With Hwanling backing her up, her faint worry vanished.
Yuriko even started walking with more confidence.
“I haven’t learned swordsmanship yet. I guess I’ll have to come here and work hard later.”
Kalmira stopped suddenly. Her sudden halt confused Yuriko.
“Wait, you haven’t studied swordsmanship before, Yuriko?”
Kalmira seemed surprised.
Yuriko didn’t know why she had assumed she had.
Perhaps she took her for a noble?
“Is that strange?”
“No,” Kalmira shook her head, awkwardly scratching her cheek.
“It’s just that when we shook hands earlier, I felt a thin layer of calluses on your palm. I thought they were marks from sword training. I was just being over-analytical. Please don’t laugh at me.”
“!”
Yuriko raised her palm, looking at the calluses formed from using her spiked bat to beat enemies every day.
She realized she had been careless.
She couldn’t exactly say they were from crushing people’s bones with a heavy club.
“Th-that… It’s actually because I worked part-time! Since I was an orphan, I had to work 10 hours a day to support myself!”
As soon as Yuriko finished speaking, Hwanling said in her mind: ‘Idiot. Calluses from sword training are different from those from labor. If she’s good at observing, she’ll easily see through your lie.’
‘Ugh, how was I supposed to know? Why didn’t you warn me?’
‘You didn’t ask me.’
Realizing there was a hole in her story, Yuriko grew tense.
A girl as observant as Kalmira would surely catch the lie.
Fortunately, Kalmira didn’t notice the discrepancy.
After hearing Yuriko was an orphan, her heart was filled with nothing but sympathy.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you had it so hard. Working 10 hours a day must have been exhausting.”
Kalmira stepped forward and took Yuriko’s hand, holding her palm gently.
Her beautiful face was full of heartache.
This sudden gesture made Yuriko—internally a perennial bachelor—blush.
She instinctively wanted to pull her hand back but worried it would seem strange.
“You don’t need to apologize, Kalmira. It was hard, but I’ve recently found my family, so I don’t have to work as hard (cracking people’s legs with a club) anymore.”
“That’s wonderful! But suddenly coming to study at the Academy must be quite a shock. If you have any trouble, feel free to come to me. I’ll help with anything I can.”
Yuriko felt Kalmira’s tone grow even softer.
Had her orphan status really invoked that much sympathy?
“You’re such a good person. If I had a gentle girl like you comforting me, I feel like I could work 20 hours a day!”
“Oh! You must rest! 20 hours of work would ruin your body!”
“I was just kidding, haha~”
Kalmira patted her chest, having taken the joke seriously.
“Phew~ Just a joke. But you still have to look after yourself, Yuriko. Now that you’ve found your family, don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Yes, I will.”
After about 10 minutes, Yuriko finally arrived at Ms. Avier’s office.
Kalmira knocked on the door and called out a bit louder: “Ms. Avier, I’ve brought Ruri!”
Even so, her voice was still quite quiet—soft and gentle in Yuriko’s ears.
“Come in.”
A response came from inside.
Kalmira pushed the door open and led Yuriko in.
The office wasn’t large. Aside from a desk, there was a wooden cabinet for files.
Avier sat across from them, her gaze landing on Yuriko.
Avier appeared to be a young woman, only in her 20s.
She was about half a head shorter than Yuriko, probably only around 1.5 meters tall.
“Kalmira, you go to the classroom first. I’ll have a private chat with the new student and bring her over afterward.”
“Alright. I’ll take my leave then. Goodbye, Yuriko. Goodbye, Ms. Avier.”
Kalmira bid them farewell and left, closing the door behind her.
This left Yuriko and Avier staring at each other.
Logically, meeting a homeroom teacher should have made Yuriko nervous, but Ms. Avier didn’t seem strict at all. It was hard to feel intimidated.
Finally, Avier spoke first.
“You must be Ruri Yuriko. Please, take a seat.”
Yuriko looked down, searching for something to sit on.
However, she found no chair or stool.
“Excuse me, do you want me to sit on the floor?”
Yuriko wondered if this was Avier’s way of asserting dominance over a “backdoor” student.
Making her sit without providing a chair seemed like a clear attempt to humiliate her.
When faced with such a provocation, Yuriko’s usual move was to respond with her fists.
Her hands instinctively clenched, her body wanting to solve the problem the rough way.
But thinking of her purpose here, Yuriko relaxed her grip.
Punching a teacher on her first day as a special admission would ruin her reputation even if she weren’t expelled.
‘Am I really going to endure humiliation here? How should I counter this…’
“Eh? Why would you sit on the floor?”
“Hmm?”
Avier blinked, confused by Yuriko’s words.
Then, her gaze drifted to the side.
She saw the stool sitting under the windowsill and her eyes widened.
“Waah! Sorry! I forgot to move the stool back!”
Avier hopped off her chair and hurriedly moved the stool to the desk for Yuriko.
Then she remembered she had been standing on it just a while ago to water the flowers.
Seeing her footprint on it, she told Yuriko to wait.
“Wait a moment, Yuriko… Eh? Where’s my cloth? Ah, I used it to wipe the windowsill. I’ll go wash it…”
Looking at the flustered Avier, Yuriko suddenly felt she wasn’t very reliable.
She took a handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to Avier.
“Ms. Avier, use mine.”
“Oh, thank you!”
Avier instinctively took the handkerchief and wiped away the footprint.
After she finished, she realized what she had done.
“Waah! This is your handkerchief, Yuriko! I actually used it to wipe a stool! I’m so sorry, I’ll wash it and return it to you!”
“Hahaha… Please don’t worry about it, Teacher.”
Yuriko felt this teacher was a bit of a ditz.
Was she really her homeroom teacher?
At least there was a place to sit.
Yuriko smoothed her skirt and sat down, making sure it wouldn’t wrinkle.
‘Sigh, why are the school uniforms skirts? Every time I sit down, I feel so girly.’
‘Is there something wrong with a girl being girly?’
‘Of course. Even if the body is a girl’s, I’m still a manly man inside. If anyone calls me girly, I’m going to have words with them!’
‘You are just lying to yourself. From the outside, you are a girl among girls.’
‘You brat!’
Yuriko pulled Hwanling into her lap and gave her head a vigorous rub.
‘Stop it! My fur is going to get messed up!’
Just before Hwanling could hiss, Yuriko timed it perfectly and stopped, avoiding being bitten.
Avier folded the handkerchief and placed it on her desk before taking her own seat.
After the embarrassing blunder, Avier had lost all her authority as a teacher. She looked quite dejected.
“Failed again. I wanted to appear more dignified in front of the new student.”
‘Your dignity went out the window the moment you said that, Ms. Avier!’
Still, Avier quickly regained her confidence. She patted her face and said to Yuriko, “Ahem. Yuriko, I am Simon Avier. I will be your homeroom teacher for the next year, responsible for managing your affairs at the Academy.”
‘You really are my homeroom teacher!’
Despite finding her unreliable, Yuriko kept her thoughts hidden.
She put on her best “good student” face and said: “Then I’ll be in your care, Ms. Simon.”
As Yuriko spoke, Avier froze.
She seemed to not realize Yuriko was talking to her.
“Were you just talking to me?”
“Is there anyone else in this room?”
Confirming that Yuriko was indeed addressing her, Avier suddenly grew excited, even leaning across the desk.
“Finally! Finally, someone is willing to use a proper title for me! Sob!”
“Um, isn’t that just basic etiquette?”
Yuriko was a bit sweat-dropped.
Why did she react so strongly to being called “Teacher”?
“You don’t know! Because I started as a teaching assistant and I’m not very firm, people started calling me ‘Little Avier.’ I’m not that small! Then the name spread, and now everyone calls me that. They still haven’t changed! Sob, the students are so mean!”
“…”
‘In that case, Kalmira was being quite respectful by calling you Ms. Avier.’
“Sigh, never mind. You’re a good kid, Yuriko. When Yun Jianlan said she found you in the underworld, I thought you’d be some difficult delinquent girl. I was so worried about how to talk to you.”
Yun Jianlan. That was her sister’s name. She seemed to know this Ms. Avier?
‘Wait, Sister! Why did you tell her I was in a gang!’
“Um, Ms. Simon, are you close with my sister?”
“Yes, of course! We graduated in the same year. Relationship-wise, I guess we’re friends?”
‘Why was that a question? Even you aren’t sure?!’
“Does anyone else know about the gang thing?”
“Probably not? Yun Jianlan told me to look after you, which is why she told me. She doesn’t usually talk to people, so she probably hasn’t told anyone else.”
‘Damn that sister of mine, telling such an unreliable teacher my secrets!’
Yuriko felt her future was looking murky.
This teacher was so ditzy, would she accidentally let the news slip tomorrow?
No, she had to do something!
“Ms. Simon, since my sister was willing to tell you, it means she sees you as one of her own. She must think of you as a very important friend.”
“Eh! Really!”
Avier’s face turned red. Like a girl in love, she looked a bit bashful.
Anyone with eyes could see Avier was thrilled that her relationship with Yun Jianlan was being acknowledged.
‘Hwanling, I think this teacher has a crush on my sister.’
‘Based on my years of observing humans, your theory is correct.’
Since she was sure Avier had feelings for her sister, Yuriko could use that to make her keep the secret.
“Yes, yes. If you weren’t close, why would my sister tell you about me?”
“A close relationship… Ehehe~~”
Seeing Avier start to daydream, Yuriko struck while the iron was hot:
“So, this matter is a little secret between you two. It’s a secret shared only by close friends. You can’t tell anyone else, Teacher~”
“I understand! I won’t tell a soul! I’ll keep this secret for the rest of my life!”
“Mm-hmm! That’s the spirit!”
With just a few words, she had Avier completely under her thumb.
Only then did Yuriko feel her future was a bit brighter.
It took a while for Avier to snap out of her daydream and remember her purpose.
“Ah, almost forgot the main point.”
Avier took a student ID card from her desk and handed it to Yuriko.
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