My Stepmom is Too Pretty, and It’s Troubling Me – Chapter 127

I was having a fun class with the club members… well, sort of.

We basically focused on the material for the first-year midterms, and everyone seemed to be following along smoothly.

Ivana Nordal suggested we do some practical exercises, but given the importance of the written portion and the volume of the content, we stuck to lecture-style teaching.

“What’s this about…?”

“…….”

Except for one person.

Karen was in her third year, and Rize was just there to help me, so aside from Grace, everything was going pretty smoothly.

I wasn’t sure about the top and second-top grades, but I was confident we’d all do well.

Except for Grace.

Ella and Nordal were understanding things quite well and solving the problems I’d prepared and those from the textbook more easily than before.

But Grace was still struggling a lot.

“…Hey, what’s the answer to this question?”

“Number three. It’s the part I mentioned yesterday, but is it still hard for you?”

“……..”

Grace fell silent at my words.

It seemed that the literature problem she was working on was turning out to be quite a challenge for her.

She’d made some progress in mana studies and history, but she kept having a tough time with Imperial literature.

Honestly, she wasn’t exactly acing the other subjects either…

“Uh, let me explain again. The current question is about knightly literature.”

I decided to focus on Grace, leaving Nordal and Ella to continue working on their own.

They seemed capable enough to handle things without my further input, but Grace was particularly concerning me.

Even without my help, she’d probably get decent grades, but it seemed like she wasn’t satisfied with just that.

“The essence of knightly literature is all about the protagonist’s actions and the love, encounters, and separations that arise from those actions… It’s roughly that kind of content. Most of them are stories like that.”

It was a topic I had already explained once yesterday, but I kept going.

Honestly, I thought the knightly literature section was on the easier side, so I didn’t quite understand why she was struggling with it.

Isn’t it just a story about a dashing knight catching dragons, fighting monsters, and ultimately winning a duel to end up with a beautiful lady?

Well, not all the problems were like that.

There were a lot of historical contexts and reasons why the authors wrote these stories that came up alongside the narratives.

“And the time the respective work was published had a lot of raiders stationed up north, so… now that’s the northern part, right? They were plentiful, and as a result, the author…”

I continued explaining as much as I could about the work and its concepts in front of Grace.

I figured knowing these foundational concepts would help her tackle the problems better, especially since she looked kind of lost.

“Among the choices, the dog is far off from the concept of knightly literature, and number two…”

I spent about ten minutes elaborating on the questions Grace asked.

I just wanted to make it a bit easier for her to tackle literature problems with these themes.

Given that it was essentially a one-on-one session, I hoped it would genuinely help Grace out, especially since she had come to me for assistance in the first place.

Sure, the other friends would help as well, but?

*

“Phew…”

“You’re working harder than I expected.”

“Is that so?”

“You, who usually sleeps all the time and does nothing, are really putting in effort this time.”

“Ah.”

I definitely understood Ella’s point.

It’s true that I hadn’t shown this level of diligence very often.

“It’s not like I just sleep all the time and lounge around.”

“Well… that might be true, but seeing this side of you at the Academy is quite surprising.”

After Nordal and the Roseaki Sisters had left school, I was lounging on the bed talking with Ella.

Ella was slightly tired from studying, and I was worn out from giving Grace my all for the class.

In that moment, Rize was diligently tidying up behind us… what a scene?

“…But doesn’t Lady Nordal seem to be paying more attention in class than expected?”

“You think so too, right, Ella?”

“Yeah. Honestly, I was surprised that she just suddenly joined this club. I mean, she’s the Lady Nordal, after all.”

“That’s true.”

Honestly, I was curious too.

What could have possibly motivated her?

Nordal didn’t come here pushed by Grace as if she were being pressured; she simply came because I mentioned something, so I really had no clue.

“Were you threatening her or something?”

“Uh… I don’t think so…? I mean, she looks way stronger than me anyway.”

“That’s a valid point. Camelia is really tiny.”

“…I’ve grown, you know?”

“Yeah, you have.”

“……..”

I found it hard to refute Ella’s sudden comment.

But since the last time I checked, I had indeed grown 5 cm, so being teased about it felt like a bit much considering I had genuinely grown.

Sure, I was still just a tiny bit shorter than Ella, but still?

“So really, how did you get her aboard? I’d have expected Lady Nordal to join the Academy’s swordsmanship club instead.”

“Hmm… All I can say is that I offered to grant a wish, and that was about it…”

“A wish?”

“Yeah, a wish. I said I’d fulfill any request, and that’s all there is to it. It wouldn’t be appropriate to offer her a huge sum of money or anything, would it?”

While I did have quite a bit of money… asking Nordal for money while I was at it felt a bit off.

After all, she was from a duke family, right?

Moreover, in recent terms, there weren’t many families as well-off and stable as the Nordal family.

Plus, the thought of randomly stirring up trouble with Nordal and suddenly having fearsome assassins from the north coming after me with axes was a bit scary…

“Well, that’s what happened, and somehow she accepted it.”

“Hmm… That sounds a bit suspicious.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, it’s a bit odd, right? A lady famous enough to be called the flower of the north accepted your proposal… hmm… Does she have some ulterior motive?”

“Could be?”

She may have had something in mind when she accepted my proposal.

If that wasn’t the case, there was no real reason for her to accept such an offer of mine.

It wasn’t a grand proposition or anything, just a simple suggestion to join the club.

“Hmm… like a scheme…Kidnapping me and selling me as a slave?”

“…Have you lost your mind from the literature class?”

“I’m just messing around. Worst case, it’d probably end with me just getting swindled a bit.”

I still didn’t quite know how Nordal thought, but I truly couldn’t picture her with any bad intentions towards me.

After all, she was attending class just fine and solving the problems I’d created, right?

If she had bad intentions, she would have done something to me by now.

“…Experiencing something like that at the Academy seems a bit off, right?”

“True.”

“……..”

Well, anyway, the bottom line was that Nordal probably didn’t have any bad thoughts about me.

It was just speculation, of course.

“Ugh… Rize, are you done cleaning up?”

“Yes, Young Lady. I’ve finished organizing the notes and pens you ladies used, and the blackboard is all cleaned as well. Is there anything else that needs tidying?”

“No, just take a break too. Do you want to lie down with us?”

“It’s alright.”

She rejected me with the decisiveness of a sword.

Well, considering Ella was resting beside me, it was indeed odd for maid Rize to just lie down like usual.

Rize had just calmly laid back when she was in a room with me, so I totally understood.

“By the way, Ella, are you doing well with studying?”

“Hmm… I think so. I’ve completed the material, so now it’s just about memorizing and understanding a bit more diligently.”

“Then that’s a relief. I’ve mostly felt worried that I’ve only been helping out Lady Grace lately, but it looks like that’s not the case for you.”

“Hehe, what do you think I am?”

“I see you as Ella. What else would I see you as?”

“…Here, you ought to give a few more compliments.”

Ella pouted at me, sounding a bit upset, but honestly, she seemed just like her usual self.

Ella was quite diligent most of the time anyway.

In the first place, there was no real need to worry about Ella.

“Hah… I think we’ve rested enough. Ella, shall we go have dinner together?”

I suddenly turned towards Ella as I got out of bed and brought it up.

I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch!

Sure, I had some tea Rize made in the club room, but obviously, a drink wouldn’t fill me up properly.

Plus, after all that explaining and teaching Grace, it was high time I filled my stomach!

“Get up already!”

“…You told me to lie down and rest first!”

“I don’t care, let’s go for dinner quickly. We have to go to the Academy again tomorrow!”

As I pulled Ella’s arm a bit, we ended up heading home to have dinner.

Despite the midterms still swirling in my mind a couple of weeks away, I decided to fill my stomach first and think about it once we returned to the dormitory.

“Oh.”

…Speaking of which, if I do well on the exams, wasn’t there a dormitory upgrade waiting for me?

“…….”

“Camelia? Why are you just standing there? Aren’t you coming for dinner?”

“Ah, no, I’m coming.”

…I had almost forgotten about the reason I needed to perform well on the midterms, which I’d been mulling over since the very first day I arrived at the Academy. Had I been enjoying my Academy life more than I thought?

It seemed like it had definitely gotten more fun since I started the club.

Would it become even more enjoyable as I got to know the club members better?

I had a feeling that might be the case, but I couldn’t easily think of ways to get closer to them.