Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 98 (Part 2):
Around midnight, Asuka stretched his arms and yawned.
“Oh, I’m hungry! Won’t you guys have a late-night snack?”
“I’m hungry too. The study is going well. I might have to run around the field, but I think I’ll have no problem being second in my class. After all, I’m not dead yet.”
Sian looked at Alea and Helmut with a vague smile.
Helmut was working on his second essay exam. Thanks to Alea’s lecture on essay writing techniques, he had improved from before.
Even though he felt quite overwhelmed in the early stages about how to do this, but Helmut’s learning ability was exceptional.
Asuka frowned.
“I’m also studying well strangely. Somehow, being with you guys makes me feel compelled to study hard.”
“You made good friends.”
Alea chuckled.
“I put a concentration-boosting potion under the desk. You guys didn’t know because you’re dull.”
A faint magical effect, not strong but enough to enhance concentration.
Since it was within the academy, where magic was in the air, they hadn’t noticed it.
“As expected of the top student in the magical department, Alea.”
Sian praised. Unlike Asuka, who was sharp, Sian had actively adapted to Alea’s difficult and sensitive personality.
It was a significant challenge for Sian to become friends with Alea. He had given up in the middle but took it up again thanks to Helmut.
However, Asuka didn’t care.
“If you sell that, you’ll become rich.”
“I’m already rich.”
“So what about late-night snacks? Are you guys going to eat?”
“I’ve actually been gaining a bit of weight lately.”
Sian said, sounding concerned. With both studying and exercising neglected, he had low energy expenditure. On holidays, he would either visit Kudrow Mansion or wander around Baden, picking up delicious food wherever he could find it.
He was in a different state than Helmut and Asuka, who trained daily in swordsmanship classes.
Alea took a mocking tone.
“Don’t worry. Just run 100 laps around the field, and you’ll shed it in no time.”
“Is that a late-night snack recommendation? Are you going to buy it?”
“I actually used your names without permission to book the study room, so consider it payback,” Alea replied, calculating that if they were full, they’d get sleepy, and the two of them wouldn’t last long.
‘Why on earth do I hang out with these guys?’
That was the biggest complaint she had with Helmut, but just because Alea rejects people doesn’t mean Helmut has to do the same.
Besides, the other guys weren’t any better than these two.
“How about getting a late-night snack from that store ahead? They have this popular round bread with octopus inside,” Sian suggested.
“You two go and get it. Don’t bring it here; it affects concentration when the stomach is full. Also, don’t bring it because the smell might distract us,” Alea decisively rejected Sian’s proposal.
In other words, it meant that Helmut, along with Alea, should continue studying in the study room while enduring hunger.
Helmut craved a late-night snack. The joy of eating was an emotion he had discovered since coming into the human world. He also knew the fun of snacking with others.
“Is that so? Then there’s nothing we can do.”
Sian and Asuka accepted the money thrown by Alea and disappeared with a giggle.
Helmut glanced at Alea for a moment.
“It won’t kill us to be a bit hungry. Today’s goal is to finish this problem by 3 o’clock and then go to sleep.”
Helmut could fully grasp the feeling that a certain expression conveyed that day. It was the expression of ‘harshness.’
However, it was a choice he made for himself, and he didn’t complain.
Sian and Asuka didn’t return to the study room. They probably ate a lot and went to sleep.
Helmut had to stay in the study room with Alea until 3 a.m.
The strange feeling in the dorm room had long disappeared.
Studying in the study room continued every day. While Helmut was working on his answers, Alea studied for her exams.
Sian and Asuka were excited to leave their seats every midnight. They seemed to have discovered a new joy in late-night study.
For Helmut, it wasn’t a bad time either. It was a refreshing change from the lax lifestyle he had at the academy.
‘The atmosphere at the academy is changing as the exams approach.’
Tense air, stern expressions, less time for small talk, and even the swordsmanship department students were burying themselves in books.
For Helmut, who had been running tirelessly for the four years ahead of the fateful test of escaping the barrier, it was unfamiliar to be like that. But it wasn’t bad.
‘I thought all humans were living leisurely lives.’
They seemed lazy or indolent, but Helmut didn’t find fault in that.
They lived like sloths, sleeping a lot and socializing once everything was done.
Even in the prestigious Grete Academy, it was rare to find someone with a schedule similar to Helmut’s.
There was only Alea, who Helmut would acknowledge as a worthy opponent.
Grete Academy was prestigious, which meant there were plenty of students aiming for good grades. Although most were nobles who could afford to live comfortably even with poor grades, if they were the kind of nobles who would just play and eat, they wouldn’t attend the academy in this far Baden, enduring the uncomfortable dormitory life.
Whether it was ambition, family honor, or simply the desire for success for commoners, an internal drive made them fiercely compete.
‘It has to be at least this level.’
Helmut was satisfied. He didn’t come here to play and eat until he graduated from the academy.
Even if it’s to get used to the human world, Helmut preferred to be in a fierce environment.