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"W-Wait!"
Amid Komoe-sensei's mournful cries, Fang Li, Sylvia, and Index collectively ignored the homeowner's objections and barged inside the room.
However, the scene that appeared before them instantly left all three speechless.
The room before them was a standard Japanese-style room.
The kind with tatami flooring.
But the tatami mats were somewhat worn and tattered, giving the room an aged feeling.
That alone would not have mattered much.
What truly rendered the trio speechless was the state of the room itself.
Scattered all over the floor were empty beer cans, along with ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts and ashes.
"Uuu…"
Komoe-sensei sniffled as she walked in behind them, voicing her protest.
"I already said you couldn't come in… At least let Teacher clean up first. Letting students see my room this messy and dirty is way too embarrassing…"
No, no, no, this was no longer merely a matter of embarrassment.
Those empty beer cans all over the floor and ashtrays stuffed with ashes and cigarette butts, if they all belonged to Komoe-sensei, then didn't that mean this teacher, who looked even more like an elementary school student than an actual elementary school student, both smoked and drank alcohol?
Realizing this, Sylvia was the first to speak.
"That won't do, Teacher," Sylvia said in the tone of someone educating a naughty child. "Minors aren't allowed to smoke or drink."
"T-Teacher is already an adult! I'm old enough to smoke and drink!" Komoe-sensei protested somewhat angrily. "Don't underestimate Teacher!"
However, not only did Sylvia ignore Komoe-sensei's protest, even Index did as well. Tugging at Fang Li's sleeve, she made him lower his head.
"Don't tell me I'll have to live in a place this dirty from now on?" Index's little face was filled with resistance as she asked, "Can I refuse?"
"Unfortunately," Fang Li replied with a bitter smile, "that's not possible."
Though, to be fair, Fang Li could understand exactly how Index felt.
…
"I see now."
Inside the room, which had already been cleaned up, Komoe-sensei sat directly on the tatami mats, facing Fang Li and Sylvia, who were seated opposite her. After hearing the full explanation, she glanced once more at Index, who sat nearby gloomily teasing the cat in her arms, before folding her arms and nodding slowly.
"Teacher understands the situation now. In other words, Fang Li-san and Sylvia-san want this nun here to stay temporarily at Teacher's place, right?"
Komoe-sensei's words caused Fang Li and Sylvia to nod simultaneously.
"Recently, because of the folk dance at the Daihasei Festival's after-party, Academy City has become rather noisy," Sylvia said to Komoe-sensei with a smile. "So we're planning to leave Academy City for a while and avoid the spotlight."
"And this nun has currently been staying with me," Fang Li added while making his request to Komoe-sensei. "Since bringing her along with us would be somewhat inconvenient, we'd like to ask Teacher to take care of her for a while."
Despite how Komoe-sensei looked, it had been mentioned before that this teacher was actually knowledgeable in many academic fields and was an expert in areas such as social psychology, environmental psychology, behavioral psychology, traffic psychology, and various other branches of psychology.
And the thing this expert loved most was teaching students. Whenever she lost the opportunity to guide others, she would become extremely depressed. Her hobby was even helping runaway girls who had gone astray, frequently bringing them back to her room and providing them with temporary shelter until they found direction in life again.
In other words, this tiny teacher was surprisingly very good at taking care of people.
Precisely because of that, Fang Li had thought of Komoe-sensei and planned to let Index temporarily live together with her.
And Fang Li also believed that if it were Komoe-sensei, she would definitely not refuse his request.
Just as expected,
"If that's the case, then Teacher has no objections at all."
Not only did Komoe-sensei agree immediately, she even looked somewhat happy about it.
"Teacher is best at handling this sort of thing. So please leave the nun girl to me without worry."
As she said that, Komoe-sensei even confidently patted her rather flat chest.
Although she did not look reliable in the slightest, Fang Li and Sylvia still could not help but breathe sighs of relief.
"As for living expenses, we'll cover everything completely and transfer the money into Teacher's account," Sylvia said very politely. "So we'll be troubling you."
"Teacher actually thinks living expenses aren't necessary. I often bring troublesome children home to stay anyway, so Teacher's already used to it," Komoe-sensei said somewhat worriedly. "More importantly, are you two really okay after causing such a huge commotion?"
After the Daihasei Festival, all sorts of chaos had truly erupted throughout Academy City, with disturbances happening nonstop.
Even Komoe-sensei knew some things that ordinary people did not.
"I heard that some of Sylvia-san's fanatical fans even organized protest marches, saying they wanted to persuade Sylvia-san to give up on retiring and even stay away from Fang Li-san. The commotion became so huge that even Anti-Skill was mobilized, causing trouble for lots of people," Komoe-sensei asked Fang Li and Sylvia with genuine concern. "Have you two encountered any problems? If you have, you should tell Teacher, okay?"
Although Komoe-sensei herself might not be able to solve such excessively troublesome matters, within Academy City, Anti-Skill was originally composed of teachers volunteering for duty. Some of Komoe-sensei's colleagues also worked as Anti-Skill officers, so if she asked them for help, they could probably resolve certain difficulties.
Thinking about it that way, Komoe-sensei was actually rather dependable.
However, Fang Li had come prepared.
"Actually, we just need to go away and avoid the spotlight for a while. Once some time passes and we come back, things should calm down considerably, right?" Fang Li said. "We've already submitted leave requests to the school, and they've been approved."
"Is that so?" Komoe-sensei sighed in relief before saying somewhat regretfully, "Then Teacher will wait for you two to come back, okay?"
"Right." Fang Li smiled faintly, then handed two cards over to Komoe-sensei while saying, "One of these is a bank card with more than enough money for living expenses. Teacher can use it freely as well. The other is a business card. If Teacher runs into any problems you can't solve, call the number on it. The person on the other end will do everything in their power to resolve Teacher's issues."
That number was naturally the contact method for reaching Scorpius.
Fang Li had already informed Scorpius that as long as it was a request from Komoe-sensei, they were to satisfy it using every means possible.
Only then did Index finally turn around. After hesitating for a moment, she spoke softly:
"You two need to come back quickly…"
Her voice was filled with loneliness.
Fang Li and Sylvia merely responded with smiles before simultaneously reaching out and patting Index on the head.
Only then did Index seem to receive the answer she wanted, finally calming down in relief.
(End Of This Chapter)