“How’s the princess doing?

Dak! Their swords screeched in protest at their slightly weakened swings. Noel frowned, roughly parrying the boy’s strike.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“What? Of course I’m curious. She’s an Imperial guest.”

Imperial guest?

Noel somehow didn’t like the words.

A guest? Would she have to leave someday?

“The princess is not a guest.”

“Pardon? What is she, if not a guest?”

“……I think I said before that we should focus on practice, not that useless thing.”

Noel fixed his posture and struck the boy on the shoulder.

Perhaps due to Noel’s fluctuating emotions, the Count’s boy fell to the ground, possibly injured.

“….Ah.”

The sword that flew out of his grasp bounced, landing in front of Noel.

Noel generously picked up the sword, a true gentleman in all aspects.

“Thank you, Sir Noel.”

“You’re welcome. On a side note…”

Noel frowned slightly, inspecting the poor characters scrawled on the child’s sword.

“What is this?”

“Ah, that’s..”

The count’s boy looked to his younger brother, who was a short distance away.

“My cute little brother recently started to learn how to write.”

“…..!”

“Young master?”

“Oh lord, I’m a genius!”

Noel hastened back to the mansion, hurriedly bidding his partner farewell.

He shouted to the butler.

“Princess?!”

“She’s in her room….Young Master?”

Even before the butler finished answering, Noel charged towards Rieta’s room.

He knocked, and Rieta opened the door. Noel was a little pleased to see her quaint eyes. It wasn’t that he was happy that Rieta was asking for help, but that it was nice that his genius brain could assist with his clever plans.

“It’s stupid to just sit and cram!”

Nagging, he took one of her notepads.

“Noel?”

“Trust me, you can’t properly memorize straight from the dictionary.”

He wrote “desk” on the note, gluing it on her desk with his own superglue. Not even a strong wind could blow it off.

“What do you think?”

Noel asked bossily.

“….What do you mean?”

“Isn’t this just genius?”

He just put a note that said “desk” on a desk, what was the big deal?

When Rieta didn’t respond, he was a little frustrated, but this time he wrote “sofa” and glued it to her sofa.

“You may call me a genius.”

“In the kingdom, the term genius is used as a compliment….”

“That’s still a compliment in the Empire!”

He wrote ‘Great Gentleman and Genius’ on a note and pasted it on his chest.

“Don’t forget to memorize the words on me as well.”

After looking up the word “gentleman” in the dictionary, Rieta gently shook her head.

Anyway, his proposition was rather amusing, so Rieta wrote “vase” on the note, as it was the word she was memorizing a moment ago.

The two people went out to the hallway on the second floor with the note saying “vase,” attaching it to the decorative vase placed under a portrait.

“Vase.”

Rieta had studied the words “pretty” and “vase” many times throughout her stay.

“This is a pretty vase.”

Noel gave her a thumbs-up at her accurate sentence.

“Exactly, it’s ‘a precious vase below a portrait of a royal.’ Alright, next!”

Glancing at the painting above the vase, Rieta scribbled ‘portrait’.

Noel placed a note saying ‘portrait’ on the nose of his revered grandfather, the late emperor. Perhaps the note stuck on well because Noel’s glue was of good quality.

Of course, another “portrait” notecard was pasted onto the forehead of the emperor.

“It’s called a portrait. Okay?”

Sticking out his chest, Noel named more objects, from handrails to stairs to walls to handles to doors and decor.

He didn’t know if this studying method was effective, but boy, was it fun!

After attaching notes to everything in the second floor’s corridor, they advanced to the first floor, where there were even more delights.

Especially in the kitchen.

The two rushed through the dictionary, giggling amongst the servants.

Of course, Rieta remembered “sugar” without looking into the dictionary. When she was caught dipping sugar in the past, she was punished.

The two’s study method was rather intriguing, so the servants also brought out various items from the cupboard.

“Princess, this is ‘basket.’ Ah, you put it as ‘beskit’ here.”

“I also brought some tea. Would you like a cup?”

Precisely in time, a delicious smell wafted out of where Rieta pasted “oven.” Thus, Rieta and Noel took a snack break. Searching the dictionary, they wrote ‘It’s snack time,’ and left together.