The water from Lake Reim really was just ordinary lake water.

But...

Well, the whole thing is an unexplainable mystical phenomenon anyway, so it wouldn’t be strange if it had a mystical solution too.

On top of that, a little carefully applied fear was enough to keep Yuliope’s mouth shut.

“M-M-Miss Rubian! You, you didn’t hear what I just read, did you?”

“What was that?”

“If you didn’t hear it, then good! I-I-I have something I need to do for a moment!”

“Yes! Have a nice trip!”

Yuliope immediately went and drew up a full load of water from Lake Reim, then poured it over the sealing tree in the Rare Books Archive.

The tree had probably become even fresher and livelier...

And while Yuliope wasn’t looking, I erased the contents of < How to Draw a Squirrel >.

When Yuliope discovered that, she seemed to decide all over again that this must have been some mysterious divine revelation and that she absolutely had to keep the matter secret forever.

At the moment, it looked like she was still checking whether the blanking phenomenon in the Rare Books Archive had truly stopped.

For now, I just had to wait and see!

Even though the answer was already obvious.

That takes care of the immediate problem, at least!

I pulled myself out of my thoughts and stretched long.

“Fuaaah.”

As I walked across the field in the sunlight, a yawn slipped out all on its own.

“Rubian, were you reading ancient-language books with Professor Yuliope again this morning? You’re seriously diligent...”

Sortie crept closer and whispered.

“Hehe. Well, kind of.”

Because of my accidental miracle-morning routine, I hadn’t been able to eat breakfast with Sortie lately. I lightly tugged at Titi’s sleeve.

“Sorry I couldn’t eat with you this morning.”

“It’s okay! I signed up for a lunch basket too and ate with Jerdin in the garden!”

“Oh. I see. There he is now.”

Jerdin was running toward us from far off.

Somehow, the three of us had ended up becoming friends.

His fluffy hair still covered his eyes, but his expression was definitely better than it had been on the first day.

Looks like Haben’s calmed down a little.

Maybe penalty points really were that scary, because Haben wasn’t bullying Jerdin like he used to.

Instead, he kept picking petty fights with me.

Still, it was only annoying on the level of a bratty little tantrum, so it didn’t really do much damage.

Though yes, sometimes it did get on my nerves.

Like during craft class.

“What is this? Some kind of mud monster?”

For instance, he would say things like that when looking at my masterpiece made of carefully shaped clay.

“...It’s my dad.”

“Pffft! How is this a person? Its eyes are on its feet.”

“...He’s lying down.”

“...?”

“Sideways.”

He really had absolutely no artistic sense at all!

And then during the herb greenhouse tour...

“Wow, somebody lined up all these smelly medicinal herbs so nicely? Let’s see... why, thank you?”

He went and snatched away a stem from the herbs I had carefully trimmed, right under the professor’s nose.

...That was the toxic part I’d separated out.

Hm? Did I only think that just now?

No, I definitely said it out loud, right?

“Huh? Why do my fingertips feel... prickly? What is this? Pro-professooor! Something’s wrong with this!”

“No, Mr. Haben. Who told you to so expertly strip apart the stem? I said to pluck only the flowers!”

“Aaagh!”

Well, little incidents like that just kept happening.

Though the time Haben stuck his foot out and tripped me a few days ago was seriously irritating.

The knee I’d scraped because of Haben healed quickly, probably thanks to the ointment Khalid had put on it.

To be honest, my head had been so full of the library problem back then that I hadn’t had the spare attention to worry about Haben too.

Anyway.

“All right, is everyone here?”

A broad, heavily built professor greeted us where we were gathered on the field.

This morning was a simple martial arts class.

“My name is Jex, and I teach martial arts!”

“Hello!”

“You’re all adorable!”

Professor Jex laughed heartily with an open, booming grin.

I drew in a deep breath of crisp air.

Whew, I’ve been so short on sleep in the mornings lately that if I’d been sitting still, I probably would’ve fallen asleep. I love gym class!

“Since there seem to be quite a lot of younger students here... rather than horseback riding or swordsmanship, shall we try this?”

He set down a box on the ground with a tap.

Gasp, it’s jump rope.

A martial arts professor, really?

More importantly...

I can’t do that!

“Wow, that’s my specialty.”

Just then, a loose, swaggering voice rang out. I turned a little and saw Haben grinning.

“What are you looking at? Can’t do it?”

Haben looked ready to start in on me again, so I muttered, “I can too,” and scurried away.

Anyway, the sudden jump-rope lesson began. For the children unfamiliar with it, Professor Jex taught them one by one.

Sortie and I listened very hard to the explanation...

But as always, the real issue was practical application.

“Hyup.”

I jumped—

and then the rope dropped with a pathetic little thud.

Ahem, all right. One more time.

“Hyaaaap!”

But once again, after I hopped—

the rope smacked straight into the ground.

“...You’re really bad at that.”

Unable to keep watching, Sortie muttered. I very clearly saw Jerdin nod slightly in agreement too.

“I’ve never learned how!”

How was anyone supposed to swing the rope and jump at the same time? While jumping over the rope, how were you also supposed to think about swinging the next turn?

“Jump rope is an incredibly profound activity...”

“I don’t think it is.”

Titi bounced right over it with Jerdin, hop hop, without any trouble at all.

“Whyyy!”

Even Sortie, who did not look like she had any stamina whatsoever—sorry, Titi—could do it, so why couldn’t I?

Was it because I hadn’t done enough running at the training grounds? Or had training in the North just been too soft?

“Hyup. Hyup. Hiyup!”

I repeated it over and over, but no matter what, it seemed I was completely talentless at jump rope.

“Bwahahaha! What are you even doing?”

At that moment, ominous laughter rang out.

It was Haben, wildly jumping rope while laughing at me.

“Why did he even come all the way over here just to do this?”

I kicked at the ground in irritation.

“You can’t even do jump rope!”

“Ugh...”

How humiliating.

“Ru, I-I’ll teach you.”

Jerdin finally stepped in. Kindly, he helped swing my rope with me and explained it slowly.

“You swing it like this... and jump over it slowly...! Ah, sorry. My hand...”

Jerdin, who had taken my hand to help turn the handle with me, [N O V E L I G H T] jolted back in alarm.

“Hm? It’s fine. More importantly... like this?”

I didn’t think much of it and tried swinging the rope and jumping by myself.

Hop, thud.

“No, I mean you have to swing the rope and jump over it at the same time...”

“...Like this?”

Hop, thud.

“No, no, no! At the same time!”

“...Jerdin. Did you just raise your voice at me?”

Have you gotten rich in spirit just because you learned jump rope already? Is that why you’re getting all smug now?

“N-no! I would never yell at you!”

Jerdin flailed in horror.

“Pwahahahaha! You people are seriously ridiculous!”

Haben clutched his stomach and cackled. He’d even brought his little group of friends over, and apparently he was having the time of his life turning me into a spectacle.

“Haben, go away!”

Sortie shouted, but Haben only twitched his lips.

Tch, one more time!

My stubbornness flared, and I swung the rope again. Then, the instant I jumped—

“Ah!”

My rope caught on another rope that had suddenly cut in from nowhere, and I crashed to the ground.

“Ruuuu!”

“Gasp, are you okay?!”

Sortie and Jerdin ran over.

“Pwahaha! She fell again! Bwahaha!”

“Haben! How could you hook your rope into hers? That’s dangerous!”

But Haben seemed too busy laughing with the crowd around him to hear Sortie at all.

Jerdin patted the dust from my clothes. I looked down at my knee, lightly scraped yet again, then looked back at Haben once more.

“......”

That little—

I tapped the toe of my shoe against the ground.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. But Jerdin, what you meant was that I should jump while swinging the rope, right?”

“Huh? Uh... yeah.”

“Right. Thanks. I think I finally get it.”

I gathered both jump-rope handles into one hand. Then I spun the rope around like a windmill and bounced toward Haben.

“Waugh! Why are you coming over here?!”

“This is amazing! Jump rope is actually really easy!”

Boing, boing, boing.

“Aaagh! The jump! You left out the jumping part!”

“I’m jumping over you, aren’t I?”

“Aaaagh!”

Terrified of getting smacked by the rope, Haben stumbled backward frantically. Then he tripped over his own feet and fell flat.

He rolled so spectacularly that the children around us burst into laughter.

“You there, no dangerous horseplay.”

“Yes, sir! I was only jumping rope, though!”

I answered at once and turned away.

Once the professor’s gaze landed on him, even Haben—terrified of penalty points—couldn’t keep charging at me.

“You just wait! On the last day, I’m telling my dad everything about you! I’ll make you cry your eyes out!”

Haben shouted at the top of his lungs from behind me. Apparently that was the strongest threat he could come up with.

I have a dad too.