Chapter 1342 This Is This, And That Actually Is…… Part 1

For the time being I am going to have a co-op study session together with Rei-san.

No matter how much I can be proud of the achievement that is getting to the level one hundred fifty inside of ShangriLa Frontier, in reality I am nothing more but a humble high school student. And when it comes to the life of a high school student, we also have events that are quite challenging to overcome. Like the final exams, for that matter. And taking on final exams is like trying to defeat a level one hundred fifty boss while you yourself are only on level one. So a good support is a must in this situation.

When it comes to my studies and academic advancements, I am doing everything according to the pointers I have received from my mentor Takeda-san, as well as due to the flowchart that I have created long ago inside of my head. However, the process of actually obtaining the knowledge necessary for making my future a bright one does not change the fact that it is extremely annoying and cumbersome process right from the very beginning. So I can assume that I am not the only student out there in the world who thinks that studying is actually very similar to taking the Demon Lord head on. But in reality studying is just like leveling system in video games, but it’s a way slower of a process and you can’t always see the results of your leveling right away. Not to mention that you have to level up and obtain more knowledge constantly and methodically, because if you fail to obtain one piece of information, it will only start snowballing and you won’t be able to understand more complicated stuff down the road. And that would seriously put a wrench in my plans for sure.

And just like that, when I happened to share some of my worries about studying with Rei-san, it was actually her who came up with the idea of holding a study session together. Needless to say, I accepted the idea without any objections and almost right away.

But thinking about it now, maybe that was not all that great of an idea for me to jump on Rei-san’s proposition right away. I mean, no matter how you look at it, Rei-san is a smart person. Like, really smart. Definitely smarter than I am. So maybe we are not all that great of a match for a study session. But at the very least I don’t think that she will jump on top of the table all of a sudden and start humming some weird poems in English like that one guy…… But even if that was to happen for reasons whatever, I still have a trump card on me: a series of short poems that I happened to memorize and could use at a moment’s notice if need be!

* * *

Because of various reason it was decided that Rei would hold a joined study session together with Rakuro.

At this point, Rei’s consciousness had already started to freak out so much that she felt as though she was mere two steps away from fainting on the spot. However, she needed to stop panicking and pull herself together. After all, this was a rare opportunity. An opportunity that she simply could not allow herself to go to waste. So, it took a whole lot of mental effort, as well as a generous helping of the chain created from the word “Love” on every single link of it to hold Rei’s mental integrity together, but so far she was doing a pretty good job at playing it cool. She was only hoping that this could last without any problem.

(Haah…… Haah…… I feel like I’m about to throw up from all the stress and anxiety……)

A study session. But in other words, what is hidden behind this wonderful term is that just the two of them are going to be spending time together in the same room. So it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to call study session a synonym of a date, at least in a really roundabout and convoluted kind of a way. When Iwamaki-san heard about this, he visibly was unable to contain the sigh and making a face that seemed to have said that he can already guess where this is going, but for a High School student such as Rei, a study session still held a pretty much romantic vision and she could not stop herself from daydreaming about the event that was to come soon. Her only fear was that she would actually be unable to get any studying done from all the excitement that she was feeling. But it was only to be expected, especially since for Rei it was a few years of bottled up and suppressed emotions that were currently squirming inside of her, about ready to burst out and overflow in an uncontrollable way.

(Bah, think about everything…… Yes, I need to think! I must prepare according to be ready for every eventuality……!!)

She needed to be able to answer any kind of question that Rakuro might have for her, and most importantly, she needed to answer them with utmost confidence and without any trace of awkwardness to her! It was her chance to shine, her chance to appeal to him in the best way possible!

In order to prepare herself for this great event, Rei even went as far as buying an electronic reference book specifically tailored at High School students aiming for a top score on their exams that would let them go to a prestigious University. This also offered her a nice opportunity for gaining even more appeal points; if the questions in the reference book turn out to be too difficult, then Rakuro is bound to ask her for help and explain some of the harder problems to him patiently and in great detail. So when it comes to that side of preparations, she had everything covered down to every smallest detail. Now she just had to live up to her reputation of an “Honor Student who is bound to ace all of her University Entrance Exams without even actually trying”. It was a whole lot of expectations sitting on her shoulders, but it was not something that was inside of the realm of impossibility for her.

And as a result of that, this brings us to the current situation..

「……………」

「……………」

What actually happened was as follows: their study session turned out to be completely silent thus far. And the main reason for that is because surprisingly enough Rakuro was not struggling with the questions all that much, and even if he did he was giving it his best to solve them out on his own. It’s not like his grades were at the top of the rankings each semester, but they were not bad, either. So all this time Rei could only sit and watch him going through the problems in complete silence, waiting for him to actually have any sort of question that she would be able to answer.