His voice sounded extremely nervous, which made Rieta swallow her saliva unconsciously.

「The scored test paper… He asks to get it signed by a ‘guardian’.」

「…….!」

「Think about it. It’s a test you take suddenly, so how bad would you have done? Isn’t that right?!」

Rieta nodded enthusiastically.

「Can you imagine standing in front of my father, in his office, with a paper that has all the wrong answers?」

「That- that teacher is a devil!!」

Rieta shouted without realising.

If she had to go to the Duke with such a test paper, she would be so ashamed, she’d rather hide in the squirrel house.

“Then, I’ll prepare the test for next time. It’ll include everything from the beginning until where we left off today.”

Finally, Rieta had witnessed the devilish side of the teacher with her own eyes.

“So you mean from the beginning of this book to where you learned today?”

“Yes, of course, even if it’s not in the textbook, I have spoken of it in class.”

“…..!”

“Then next time…. Okay, it’s going to be next week since I have a word for the week. If you know what you’ve learned so far, it won’t be difficult.”

….Rieta looked at him with an expression that suggested her soul had escaped her corporal body. However, the teacher neither canceled the exam nor extended the deadline.

What Noel said was right.

Rieta’s Imperial language teacher truly was a devil.

******

After the Imperial language teacher left, Noel came to Rieta’s room, keeping his promise to speak in Imperial for an hour every day.

“….Princess?”

He looked down at Rieta on her desk and called her name worriedly.

“Are you sick?”

As Noel was so close, Rieta lifted her head to look at him, her expression frustrated.

“What’s wrong? You look like you’re about to take a test next week.”

The world must have ended for Noel to be so perceptive! Rieta nodded quietly.

“Huh really?”

“…What if the Duke thinks I’m stupid?”

“It’s okay, we already know.”

“Noel!”

When Rieta jumped up from his seat and screamed, Noel flinched unconsciously, stepping back.

She was one frightening princess…

“Just kidding. But what’s the test on?”

Rieta had only just started the class. Besides, the teacher wasn’t one who tested ahead of the taught curriculum.

“Yeah, this much.”

Rieta grabbed some pages of the textbook and showed them.

“What, it’s only that much.”

Noel crossed arms and laughed as though Rieta’s worries were unfounded.

“But Noel…”

Rieta was still in tears.

“Actually I, on the first day of class, I mean….”

Rieta thought it would be nice if she could turn back time. She had reincarnated into the novel, so she thought she might have the ability to time travel.

Unluckily, she didn’t.

The first day she met the teacher, Rieta didn’t even know how evil he was, asking for a lesson that would ultimately lead her to doom.

“The teacher and the Duke went around the mansion and so I asked to speak in Imperial of everything I could see.”

“……You, are you crazy?!”

“It wasn’t intentional.”

Since this is the place where she lives, she wanted to know the names of the things and places around her first.

The teacher gave the name of everything Rieta pointed to.

Rieta didn’t know how tired he was and asked about everything inside and out of the mansion because she liked the friendly pronunciation and funny examples of the native speaker.

What was that? How about that? And what about that?

If she had known that everything she pointed to would be test material, she would have asked with discretion.

No, at least she wouldn’t have asked for words she wouldn’t need currently, like chicken beak, marble, or slaughterhouse.

“This whole mansion has become your test zone! You fool!” Noel held his head in his hands.

“You’re done! You’re in for it!

*******

Noel was having a rather unpleasant weekend.

The count’s son whom Noel met recently invited Noel again, requesting a sparring match. Of course, swordsmanship was basic knowledge for sons of nobility, so Noel willingly accepted.

The boys faced each other with wooden swords.

At first, they just clashed silently. However, as time passed, the boys began conversing a bit on swordplay-related topics.