World Teacher

Chapter 2-2

The lecture continued until Erina got it all out of her system.

“Thank you all for telling me about Mom. It means a lot to me.”

“You don’t need to thank us. We’re your servants, so we’ll do anything you need from us.”

After Erina had finished venting, I decided that was enough about Mom for the day. Talking about her too much might bring up a lot of memories for the servants, and I didn’t want to make them feel too upset by telling me everything in one sitting.

Hearing how they all met was plenty for now.

“Sob. I’ll go clean now...”

Noel dragged herself out of the room to clean, clearly still recovering from the harsh lecture she"d just received. Dii looked at her as she walked away, then turned to us.

“Erina. I’ll go help her clean.”

With that, he followed after Noel.

“Is he going to comfort her?”

“Yes. Whenever I scold her, he goes to console her. They have been like that ever since Noel finally opened up to Dii for the first time.”

“I see. That makes sense. He’d never get mad at her, so I can see why she took a liking to him.”

“Indeed. And he just couldn’t bear to see her sad, so he’d always try to make things better. Honestly, I’ve never seen Dii get angry at anyone. He’s quite a patient man.”

Especially so when it came to Noel. If she said she was hungry, he’d always go and make a light snack for her. After he learned that she loved the pudding I made, he started to work hard to memorize the recipe, just so he could make it for her.

“They’re both in love with each other, don’t you think?”

“You’ve noticed it too?”

“I think not noticing it would be impossible. I guess neither of them have confessed yet, though.”

Erina shook her head with a wry smile.

“I love both of them like family, so I’d love to see them together. I’ve given them plenty of jobs together where they’d be all alone, but...”

Noel still had some trauma from her days in s*****y. Apparently, she felt like she would just hold her lover back, so she didn’t want to confess to anyone. Trauma like that didn’t go away so easily.

And Dii told himself that he had to focus on being there for his master, and that he didn’t have time to worry about love. It was clearly an excuse to cover up for his anxiety. Unless they had kids of their own right away, a girlfriend wouldn’t be much of a hindrance to his work.

“They do seem happy with how things are now, though. Just make sure you don’t push them too hard.”

She had been trying to find ways to bring the two of them together for a while, but nothing had worked so far. She’d opted to watch over them with a smile instead.

“I see. So, how did the two get so close? You said Noel was terrified of everyone at the start, right?”

“To sum it up in one word: food.”

“This is Noel we’re talking about, so it seems plausible that it really was that simple.”

She explained a little further—after six months, Noel had started to smile again, though she still ran away from Dii. She didn’t scream anymore, but she was still frightened.

One day, he tried to get closer to her by giving her some bread that he’d baked. Mom had been the one who gave him the idea.

“Of course, that didn’t work at first. She just became more suspicious of him, which really hit him hard.”

It made sense. She was still really scared at that time, so anything might have seemed suspicious to her. Just like a scared animal who needed to warm up to humans again, it would simply take time. Dii tried changing his strategy.

“Next, he left some food with a note on Noel’s bed. He hoped to hear her opinion on it.”

Of course, Erina or Mom were the ones who actually left it there, in order to make sure they didn’t spook her. At first, she’d ignored it completely. He kept at it, though, so she eventually ate some and started to write replies.

“At first, she simply just wrote things like ‘it’s good.’ That alone made Dii happy. After they’d continued for a while, they finally got to a point where they could talk together. And, before long, they ended up like this.”

While he left the notes, he’d start asking what she wanted to eat next. Then, he’d prepare the dishes she’d asked for. I wanted to ask a bit more about them, but Erina had to get back to work. I left it there.

It made me wonder what they specifically felt for each other.

I wanted to try doing what I could to bring them together. At the same time, though, I wanted to make sure I didn’t meddle too much. That’s why I went to ask them how they felt.

I found Noel humming happily whilst dusting. She was clearly in a good mood, thanks to Dii’s help.

“Huh?! H-How I feel about Dii?! I-I don’t... hate him, I guess...”

“I know that much. You’re attracted to him, right? I’m asking when it started.”

I just said it outright, which made her blush. Hopefully her reason wasn’t as simple as, “he gave me food, so I fell in love.”

“At first, I was really scared of him and I’d run off. But, after a while, I realized he’s just a nice guy who wants to make good food for me. Then, when we started to talk more, it became clear just how nice he really is. He kept helping me when I did stuff wrong. Before I knew it, I... started to fall for him. Eek, I said it!”

The embarrassment was too much to handle, I guess, because Noel darted off like a spooked cat. She wasn’t done cleaning, so Erina would surely give her another lecture after that. At least she admitted that she’s in love with him. That was all I wanted to hear.

Next, I found Dii and asked him the same question.

“Wh-What made me fall in love with Noel?!”

He looked really bewildered. When I explained that Erina had told me about the two of them, he calmed down a bit and answered.

“At first, I just wanted to see her smile.”

He had only ever seen her look scared, and that made him pity her.

Once he’d finally gotten closer to her, and she’d started to smile around him, it was like he’d been struck by lightning.

“When I saw that smile, I never wanted to look at any other woman again.”

Her smile really took his breath away, and he realized shortly after that he was falling for her.

“Aren’t you going to confess to her?”

“Ugh?! I-I can’t put my own needs ahead of yours, Sirius. I have duties to—

“I don’t mind at all. I’d love to see you guys happy together. Make some babies, you know?”

“B-Babies?! I-I appreciate the sentiment, but wouldn’t that be bad in our current situation?”

We were barely scraping by with the money my “father” was giving us. He really was worried about our quality of life if he were to get together with Noel.

“I’m sorry. You must be exhausted having to work so hard to care for me.”

“Don’t be. I’m happy to serve you, just like I was with your mother. And... I’m more than happy just working together with Noel.”

“You sure? Are you sure you’re not just scared of confessing?”

“I’m sorry. I just remembered I have some urgent work to do with Erina. Excuse me.”

Then he ran off, just like Noel did. They really were perfect for each other.

So the reason Dii wasn’t confessing was a mixture of fear for my future, as well as his own anxiety. Unless we either suddenly came across a fortune, or he managed to get a hold of his anxiety, it was unlikely he would confess any time soon.

Since we already had our hands full trying to save enough money for my school fees, it would be tough to suddenly improve our financial situation.

Sadly, it seemed I had to set it aside for the time being. They both seemed happy with how things were. And, if either one got too impatient, I’m sure they’d end up confessing at some point. So, just like Erina, I decided to just watch them with a smile.

※※※

A few years later, soon after I had saved Emilia and Leus.

The servants had all gathered in the living room to help teach the siblings the basics of what they needed to know in the house.

Suddenly Leus had blurted out, “Big bro Dii, are you and big sis Noel married?”

Silence filled the room, and everyone looked over at Dii and Noel. Not only had it been a bombshell of a question, but he’d skipped dating and gone to marriage.

Noel blushed red, like a tomato. She looked at Dii for help, but he mumbled something about starting dinner and ran away.

Of course, it wasn’t a surprise that he did. If he had been able to confess to her under pressure like that, he would have done it a long time ago.

At that point, things had gotten easier for us—we pretty much had the money we needed for school, but maybe he was worried about the future now that we had two more family members to feed.

Also, it had become clear to me that Dii was actually quite the romantic. I had taught him many different ways of confessing to a girl by using the knowledge from my old world, and he had rigorously written them down. I glanced at his notes after, and saw that he had circled “pick her up on a white steed” and “confess your love for her under the stars and give her a ring.”

So—seeing as he wanted a grand and special setting for his confession—doing it randomly when someone asked would ruin the moment for him.

After that, the tomato-faced Noel had darted off in embarrassment too.I explained Noel and Dii’s relationship to the siblings.

“How wonderful! I’ll cheer for them, as well!”

“I don’t get it. Why don’t they just get married? I saw them just gazing at each other outside in the garden the other day.”

“Romance is complicated stuff.”

“Indeed. Try not to push them about this too much.”

“No way! To me, it just looks like they’re killing themselves by waiting! I’ll go talk to big bro Dii!”

Leus ignored us and ran after Dii. He returned in a bit; though, based on the way he was chewing on something, it seemed like Dii had distracted him with some food. Leus happily chewed on whatever it was, and probably forgot all about why he’d gone after Dii in the first place.

“You’re not done with your studies yet. You shouldn’t just leave whenever you feel like it.”

“And you shouldn’t walk and eat at the same time! I’ve taught you this already!”

“Huh?! I-I was going to talk to big bro Dii about big sis Noel, and...”

Erina scolded Leus, and took his snacking privileges away for the night.

That night, during dinner...

“Um, big bro Dii, I feel like I’ve got a smaller serving of meat than everyone else...”

“You’re imagining things.”

“Look, my bread is much smaller than the others.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“And I clearly have less soup!”

“You’re imagining things.”

“I’m so sorry! I’ll never meddle again, I promise!”

After that, Leus learned about the true wrath of an upset Dii, and never asked about his relationship with Noel again.

Of course, even after that, Dii didn’t confess. I had gotten my hopes up a little bit, since the two of them had been asked so bluntly about it together, but alas.

We had finally gotten to a point where we were saving up a little money for ourselves for once. While it wasn’t much, their relationship wouldn’t have been a problem for us at all.

At that point, I felt like his only excuse was his anxiety holding him back. I decided to talk to him again. Even though I was his master, and getting love advice from a child might have felt strange, I had gained his trust. He also seemed to be more aware of his own confidence issues, and he sat down earnestly to listen to what I had to say.

“Dii, you know what I’m here to talk about, right?”

“Yes...”

“No matter the reason, running off like that was the worst thing you could have done. You clearly hurt her.”

“Th-There’s a good reason, though. I... I’ve ordered a ring for her, and—”

“Wait, really?!”

He explained that he had met an old merchant friend in town and placed an order for a ring with him. He wanted to give Noel the ring when he confessed, so doing it before then would ruin his plan. In this world, it wasn’t really normal to give a ring when confessing, so this was something I had taught him.

“But I didn’t have enough money at the time. It took a while, but I was finally able to convince him to make it. It’s custom made and had to be ordered, so I’m still waiting...”

“I see. That makes sense, then. But even so, simply running away wasn’t very nice. It was clear as day that Noel was hoping you’d confess to her there, and you just fled.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s still not too late. You can still tell her how you feel, and give her the ring later.”

“I... uh...”

He felt so bad for running away that he didn’t have the courage to go confess to her that night, after all. He might have looked cold and scary at first glance, but he was actually a really sensitive guy.

The ring was finished a little while after that, but he still hadn’t managed to confess.

It seemed like it would be a while before the two of them got together.