Chapter 86: Making Friends

“Hello, Euchina, I’m Lilica.” 

Lilica waved at Euchina.

Since the new classmate was going to sit next to her, she naturally wanted to greet her kindly and leave a good impression.

“H-Hello…”

Euchina nodded slightly and replied in a soft voice, not daring to even look at Lilica.

She’s so shy, Lilica thought.

Clap! Clap!

The teaching priest clapped twice on the podium, drawing the attention of all the students.

“Alright! Everyone, look up here. Class is starting. What characters did we learn yesterday? Please write them again on your slates.”

And so the lesson began. The teaching priest guided them through a review of the characters they learned yesterday — basically a dictation exercise.

Lilica picked up her stone pen and began writing the characters the teacher recited onto the slate assigned to each student.

Once most students had finished, the teacher wrote the correct character neatly on the blackboard for everyone to check their answers.

Each time they finished, Lilica would sneak a glance at Euchina and noticed she couldn’t even hold the stone pen properly, let alone do dictation — she simply stared blankly at the characters on the blackboard.

Before long, Euchina had started doodling out of boredom. On her slate, she had drawn a big stick figure holding the hand of a smaller stick figure, with a large house behind them.

“Euchina, that’s not going to work.” 

Lilica couldn’t help but remind her. 

“If you don’t understand, just copy the characters from the blackboard a few more times — they might be on the test this afternoon!”

“Ah!”

Euchina was startled that Lilica had spoken to her.

“Oh…”

Reluctantly, she wiped off her drawing and obediently started copying the characters from the board.

After the review, the teacher began teaching the new characters for the day.

Once Lilica copied all the new characters onto her slate, a confident smile appeared on her face. She had already learned more than half of them with Ryan before — today’s dessert reward was in the bag.

As one of the top students in the class, Lilica almost always earned the dessert reward, and all her classmates envied her for it.

She sneaked another glance at Euchina — and her eyes widened in shock.

What is that scribble?! Even the boy with the worst handwriting in the class wrote better than this. How could someone so cute write such horribly messy characters?

During break time, some of the girls in the class curiously gathered around.

Lilica quickly flipped over Euchina’s slate to hide the awful handwriting. She’d definitely get laughed at if anyone saw it.

“Hey! Euchina, where do you live?”

“Why haven’t we seen you before? Did you just move here?”

“Your hair is so long! Can I touch it?”

Faced with all the chatter and questions, Euchina shrank back, too scared to respond.

Unable to bear all the attention, she suddenly bolted from her seat and ran out of the classroom.

“Huh? Why’d she run off?” 

One girl asked, confused.

“Aww, Euchina is just really shy! You guys scared her by crowding around like that!”

With that, Lilica also ran out of the classroom to go after her.

In a quiet corner of the pilot school, Euchina was crouched down alone, hugging her knees.

School is terrifying… She wanted to go back and stay with Owen, away from all these other people.

“So this is where you ran off to.” 

A voice came from nearby.

Startled, she looked up to see it was Lilica. Although she didn’t dislike her, Euchina still instinctively pulled back a little.

Thinking she was just making room for her, Lilica sat down right beside her.

“Are you really that afraid of people?”

Euchina didn’t say anything — she just nodded.

“Then next time, I’ll block them for you, so don’t run away again, okay?”

Secretly glancing over, Euchina saw Lilica smiling at her gently, and it warmed her heart.

“…Okay.”

“Then it’s settled!” 

Lilica gladly accepted the task. 

“By the way, where do you live?”

“The castle.”

This shocked Lilica greatly. There was only one castle in the whole of Bianshu Town — and that was the lord’s residence!

“You live in the castle? Are you related to the lord?”

“The lord? No.” 

Euchina shook her head. 

“I, Grandpa Ryan, granddaughter.”

This identity had been arranged by Owen. She wasn’t actually Ryan’s biological granddaughter but was adopted from outside. That way, it made sense for Euchina to live in the castle, and it helped dispel the maids’ suspicions about her identity.

At this point, Lilica finally noticed something odd.

“You speak kind of funny.”

Lilica spent a long time trying to correct Euchina’s odd speech patterns.

It wasn’t until Ryan and a teaching cleric came looking that they realized the second class had already started. When the two girls hadn’t returned, the adults had rushed out to search for them.

Luckily, nothing bad had happened. Ryan gave them a brief scolding and then sent them back to class.

The next class was arithmetic, a newly added subject.

This was no problem for Lilica. Perhaps due to her merchant parents, she had a strong sense for numbers and excelled at math.

Euchina, on the other hand, stared blankly at the board full of arithmetic problems — it was obvious she didn’t understand a thing.

Kind-hearted Lilica patiently taught her step by step.

At lunch, the hired workers distributed food to the children in the dining hall.

Here, they got to meet students from the two other children’s classes, who were a bit older than Lilica.

As for the adult class, they ate elsewhere, separate from the children. Since most adults had jobs, there was only one adult class with a small number of students.

To take care of Euchina, Lilica stayed by her side the whole time.

Anyone who came over out of curiosity about the new student was quickly shooed away by Lilica — she was very responsible.

Seeing that Euchina had Lilica with her, Ryan, who was secretly watching from behind, finally felt relieved.

In the afternoon, the teaching cleric reviewed the morning lessons, then moved on to testing.

The cleric handed out a stack of test papers. Lilica took one passed from the student in front and gave the last one to Euchina.

The paper came from Bianshu Town’s papermaking workshop. It was a light gray-green color, much thinner than parchment and perfect for writing.

There were also pencils — made with a graphite-clay core, wrapped in paper that had been rejected from the papermaking workshop. They could leave dark marks on the page.

Apparently, the pencil cores were made by lizardmen.

The tests were graded on the spot. Lilica passed both and was rewarded with a dessert from Ryan.

Happily returning to her seat, Lilica saw Euchina frowning, clearly upset.

After the rewards were handed out, the cleric announced the names of those who failed.

Sure enough, Euchina’s name was on the list — and she was the only student in the whole class who failed both subjects. How tragic!

“That’s too bad, Euchina. Try harder next time.” 

Lilica comforted her.

Euchina still looked dejected. After today’s lessons, she realized just how slow she was.

Thinking for a moment, Lilica picked up her dessert and asked.

“Do you want to eat some too?”

Today’s treat from Ryan was a batch of sweet and crunchy cookies.

“Mm.” 

Euchina nodded.

She had eaten Ryan’s desserts at the castle before — they were delicious.

“Then I’ll give you half!”

Without hesitation, Lilica broke the cookie in two and handed one half to Euchina.

Euchina hesitated, but in the end, reached out and accepted the cookie.

“…Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. We’re friends!” 

Lilica said.

“Friends?”

“Yep!”

She wasn’t lying — Euchina could tell through her ability.

At that moment, her heart was overwhelmed with joy. She had made her first human friend!

Something she never thought possible before.

School… didn’t seem so scary anymore.

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