"I still don't understand why we have to come to the botanical garden, Kingscholar." You shook your head as you put down the heavy files on a mat place on the grass.
Leona sat on the mat without any haste before he laid down and rested his cheek on his palm. "Well, it's simply because you need my help, and I need the botanical garden." For sleeping. You could tell even if he didn't say it.
You couldn't but roll your eyes helplessly for the fact that you needed the help of the lion to finish your work. Well, not totally "your" work, but actually "his" work, to be precise.
You followed the lion and sat down on the yellow mat. You could tell the mat was an luxurious one. The fabric felt soft and comfortable, probably expensive silk cloth.
"You like the mat, huh?" The upperclassman asked. He probably saw your fingers unaware stroking the mat.
You lifted up your head as you heard the question and slightly nodded. "It feels comfortable." It's probably from the Scalding Sand, according to what you had read from the books.
"Nice guess, herbivore. It is from the Scalding Sand." He nodded. It was a silk mat given by his family, Leona told. "They originally told me to tailor make a robe with it. Who would wear a freaking gold robe made with such an expensive silk in a freaking high school? Think before he gives a present, would him?" Leona showed an annoyed face when he complained.
"So I thought of using it to make a mat and put it in the botanical garden." So he could sleep on it instead of the hard floor or the grass which would make him feel itchy.
"Are you at least a little bit shameful for having been procrastinating the works that you should have finished long time ago, Captain?" You came back from the discussion on the mat and asked, emphasising the lazy beastman's title.
Leona kept his eyes closed and laid the back of his head on his palms. "It wasn't my fault that the previous managers were too frightened to ask me to finish the documents." He replied, as if he didn't own any responsibility. "Congratulations herbivore. You are the first one who is courageous enough to come to me." He winked with a playful smile.
You ignored the "compliment". To be honest you didn't even consider it as one. "Why do I always end up like this?" You could only asked yourself helplessly.
Of all the works that Crowley had thrown to you, being the manager of the Spelldrive Team was the most troublesome. Just a few days ago, you were asked to complete and tidy all the documents of the team in the pass three years. It was because of nothing of the lazy lion having been being the captain of the team since his second year, but had never even touched those accumulated documents. Therefore, they're on you, aka Crowley's free labour.
Being the prefect of Ramshackle Dorm, being responsible for the behaviour or Grim, cleaning up various mess assigned by the headmage, not mentioning you were trying to keep up your grades. Your school life was already busy enough even without this extra job.
"You won't let the kindest principal who offers you a place to live in down, right?" You could still recall that smile on the headmage's face.
Having no chance to refuse, you could only accept the job, but of course, you wouldn't let yourself suffer alone. That's why you decided to go to the 3A classroom, and dragged the lion out to help you. How would you let the captain slip away from the works that were supposed to be his? Besides, he's the best person to ask if you had any problems. He's the captain, after all. What you didn't expect was him insisting to do the work in the botanical garden.
"Let's get started." You tightened the ponytail lying on the back of your neck and rubbed your eyes. To be honest, you were not on your best state today. Your eye lids had been heavy since the morning and your body had been signalling you to sleep. However, with the deadline given by Crowley, you had no choice but try your best to focus. You opened a thick grey file and also the computer borrowed from the headmage. "First, the financial report of the team two years ago. I have a question here. I can't find the expense on the broomsticks, do you know——"
"Zzz..."
You couldn't believe your eyes that this man to whom you were still talking seconds ago had fallen asleep. His eyes were shutting, while his head resting on his hands, legs crossing with each other. You could he the chest slightly moving up and down as he ventilated along with the slight snoring.
"What did I expect?" You shook you head. you should have expected this lion sleeping instead of assisting you to do his works. You deciding to search for the receipt or anything else that were related to the brooms in that bunch of files. Why would you even think the lion would help?
"Team jackets... 2000 thaumarks... Discs... 4000 thaumarks... Haaaaa..." You mumbled as you typed, but it was cut off by your own yawning. You already couldn't count how many time you had yawned today. Must had been sleeping too late. Plus, the small words on the computer screen really made you feel sleepier than ever.
You again rubbed your eyes as you typed the last full stop of the financial report. Your view was totally blurred with the tears formed by your continuous yawning. Your head became increasingly heavy as you got more and more sleepy. Wanting to finish the works as soon as possible, you shook your head and pat your cheeks so as to wake yourself. There's no time for you to sleep when there're a mountain of works waiting for you to complete. Having this thought, you forced yourself to open another grey file and a new document in the computer.
Perhaps you were too focus on the screen, or it's just you being extremely tired, you didn't aware that your upperclassman had woken up from his nap, didn't know when. He kept his former posture, with one eye slightly opened.
20 yawns, exactly 20 damn yawns. Oh, 21 now. Even the lion himself couldn't tell why he's counting your yawns instead of continuing his dearest nap. He couldn't stop thinking what had you been doing that made you so exhausted. Yet, you hands never stopped typing on the keyboard.
Back to you, it's the venue borrowing records which you were tidying. Checking records from years ago were more difficult than you had expected. You had to re-type the handwritten version into digital documents, not mentioning you were in such a bad state today.
"How many hours?"
You all of a sudden heard someone asked. You looked up from the computer screen, and saw it was Leona sitting right in front of you, asking. When did he wake up? You asked yourself.
"Pardon?" You muttered.
"How many hours did you sleep last night?" He reformed his question, while pointing at the eye bags under your eyes.
You moved his finger asides. He should be assisting you if he's awake, instead of asking you irrelevant questions. "That's not important. Now would you-"
"You love avoiding my question, huh, herbivore?" He cut of your words and slightly grabbed your hand which was pushing his away. "You have been sleeping late, aren't you?" He asked again. Based on the number of your yawns, three nights at least. Why would he know? He's quite an expert in sleeping, after all.
"..." You sighed. You had no chance to escape from his question. "Three nights...? Maybe four... I guess?" You replied while recalling.
"And why would you?" He continued to question.
"It's Crewel's Alchemy project." You told.
Alchemy had been one of the subjects that you found it the most difficult to catch up with. Back in your world, alchemy only appeared in story's and myth. You had never explored nor thought to explore any knowledge of it. However, when you're in the NRC, Alchemy all of a sudden became an important subject which weighed a lot in your total score. Therefore, you had no choice but to catch up with the others who had already learnt some basic knowledge of Alchemy in their middle school. Through you had already had significant improvement, you still thought that there remained lots of rooms to improve.
That's not the worst. What's the most unfortunate was that an important project was introduced to the class by Crowley days ago. You were told compare the ancient and modern Alchemy, from views like the method and tools used, and the metals to be chosen. The project was separated into two parts, an essay and an experiment. It's an individual project, which meant you could neither get some help from the Heartslabyul nor separate the works with your teammates. It's all on yourself.
"Because of that, I have been doing research for information of ancient alchemy and preparing for the experiment. At the same time, trying to finish as much documents of the Spelldrive Team as I can." You told. It turned out you couldn't handle all of them, that's why you finally seek help from Leona.
"So I might had been sleeping a little bit late this week." You finished explaining, with your fingers doing a gesture trying to show how "a little bit late" it was, although in fact you hadn't been sleeping before 3am for 4 days.
After hearing your words, Leona kept silent for a while. It's difficult for you to guess what the lion was thinking. Just then, your eyes located at your hand on the mat which was still grabbed by Leona's gloved one.
"Now I have answered your question. Will you just let go of my wrist and let me get back to the documents? I don't ask for you to help just-"
"Go to sleep under the tree over there." Was all you heard he uttered before he closed the files and computer placed in front of you.
You shook your head to make sure what's going on and let out a "huh?". Leona Kingscholar's is telling you to sleep. What a hilarious scene it was.
"Stop joking around, Kingscholar. I don't need to sleep. Leave the documents alone and let me finish them as soon as possible. So I can go back to the project-"
"You either go to sleep now or I will throw all these files and the computer into the pool." He again cut off your sentence. It's the third time today.
You looked at him with confusion written all over your face, but the next second, your hand was pulled up. "What- hey!" you didn't even have the option "no" as the upperclassman was already pulling you up and pulled you to the shade of a huge tree.
"Sleep here." He voiced.
You tried to object, "No, I said-"
"No object. Order from the captain."
"But-"
"Take a rest, would ya?" Leona asked, half bending down with his arms crossed against his chest. "Even a car cannot move forward continuously without stopping by for refuelling. Just like you cannot keep working without stopping to take a rest and regain energy."
You didn't say anything to refute, as you knew he was right, even you didn't want to admit. You body's not capable for working nonstop for days and nights.
"Fine." You finally agreed. "But wake me up after half an hour."
"One hour."
"What? No! Half hour is the maximum!"
"One and a half hour." He crossed his arms, ignoring your objections.
"Fine, 45 minutes." You further gave in.
"One hour." He insisted.
"...Deal." You rolled your eyes, unwillingly agreed with the upperclassman. Perhaps it's not only because you didn't want to argue with him anymore, but also you knew you need and you actually wanted some rest. You didn't know why he's so insistent to do so, but still, you decided to give in at last.
"Remember to wake up me up on time." You didn't forget to remind Leona for the one last time after closing your eyes and leaned your the back of your head on the tree stem. "Fine." Was all you heard from him.
The shade had blocked the sunlight, and there's soft wind blowing towards you. It's really a good spot to take a rest. No wonder why Leona loved coming to the garden for sleep.
"Finally, a good sleep." You thought to yourself. "Just leave them to aside first and finish them after a na..." Was all you tried to tell yourself before you had already fallen asleep more quickly than you had expected.
Hearing the soft snoring of yours, the boy's thin lips curved into a tiny smile. "Yet, you said you don't need a sleep. Stupid herbivore."
The junior then sat down on the silk mat not far away from you and opened the files. "Now let's see what shitty stuffs we've got here."
——
You slowly opened your eyes. Your view was blurred by your own tears, but still you could see the garden was dyed into golden yellow by the sunset.
Wait... sunset? Before you closed your eyes, the sky was still blue. It was around half past three o'clock, according to your memory. But when you woke up, it was already sunset! How long had you been sleeping?
"Kingscholar, I told you to- Eh...?" Just when you were about to raised your voice and blaming the lion for not waking you up on time, you all of a sudden realised that something's leaning against your head. You slightly turned your head to the right. You could feel your cheeks heating up immediately when you realised what's happening.
It was Leona Kingscholar who's sitting next to you. You were leaning your head on his shoulder, while his was leaning against yours. You two were literally clinging to each other, head to head, shoulder to shoulder. He's sitting on the right, blocking the harsh sun from you, so you wouldn't be wake up by that.
"Wha- Kings- I-" you suddenly couldn't form a proper sentence and didn't know how to react. What on earth's happening? Why were you two sitting and sleeping next to each other this close? The only thing you knew was that your face was burning and as red as a tomato. You could literally hear your own fast and messy heartbeat.
You kept silent and sat still, so as to calm yourself down. A while later, when you felt your heartbeat slowly slowed down. You slightly turned your head to look at the upperclassman who was still sleeping next to you.
His green eyes were closed, and you could see his long eyelashes. His fringes were covering part of his eyes, and the soft wind gently ruffled through them. His ears unconsciously moved when a butterfly was flying around them, and his arms were crossing against his chest as always.
You would never say it loud, but you couldn't deny that this lion boy looked kinda cute when he's sleeping peacefully along with the soft snoring. You didn't know why, but you just didn't standing up and walked away like what you had thought you would do. You just sat there, quietly, looking at him.
Suddenly, one of those closed eyes opened, along with that signature smirk on his face. You could see that green iris of his, and that's when you realised that you had been looking at him for such a long time and the fact that your face was so close to his, that you could even feel his warm breath.
"Caught a stalker here." He teased with that slightly raspy voice he had after waking up from his sleep, and of course, while widening his smirk a bit.
You felt your heart skipping a beat, while your cheeks blushing once again. You immediately stood up from the floor, so as not to further embarrass yourself.
"Y- you said you would wake me up after an hour, Kingscholar. What time is it now?" You crossed your arms and tried to put up an angry face, so as to hide the flushes.
Leona took up his phone from the pocket without any haste and replied, "Half past 6 it is."
"It has been more than two hours! Why didn't you wake me up?" You asked. You still had works to do.
The Leona shrugged with a light smile, "Well I did thought of waking you up. But seeing you sleeping that peacefully, I dumped that idea." You literally fell asleep within three seconds, he added.
You could only sigh after hearing to his words. Nothing could change the fact that you had spent hours on sleeping, and your schedule of finishing your works had been disrupted. You walked towards the silk mat, where the files and your computer were. "Great Kingscholar, because now I have to rearrange my schedule on tidying the documents and finishing the Alchemy-" you were complaining, but you stopped when you opened the grey files and printed version of the documents in them.
You couldn't believe your eyes and started checking all of file. The only things you could see were completed reports and other documents lying peacefully in them. As you could remember, you had only finished one-third of them.
"Did you- But how-" You didn't know how to react as you flicked through the documents. Did leona finish all of them when you were sleeping?
"Yes, I finished them, in case you're asking. Easy peasy." The lion voiced. "Well, you can count Ruggie in for helping a bit." He added.
You couldn't help widening your eyes for the fact that the lazy captain actually completed the works. "But I thought you didn't want to handle them..."
"I'm the captain of the Spelldrive Team. Why are you so shocked about me finishing my own works?" Leona uttered. "You're the manager, and your job is to assist the captain on the documents."
"But you're lucky that your captain is a gracious and talented one that he doesn't require his manager's help. So you are assigned with another job, which is sleeping." He continued. Plus, you had already finished one-third yourself, which had already exceeded your responsibilities. He knew it but he didn't say this line out loud.
You stood there, trying to process the lion's words. This was nothing you had expected from him.
Leona stood up from the ground and stretched. He then picked up all the files and walked towards the exit of the garden. "Time to go." He turned back after a few steps and pointed at a few books placed on the mat. They didn't belong to you, and you hadn't seen them before."Remember to take those book." He reminded.
You took up one of those book. "The birth of Alchemy" was its name. You noticed there were some labels on some pages. You turned to those pages, and found some memos with some handwritten notes on them.
"Two of them are mine and the other two're from the library. Should be able to complete your project." He added.
You looked at the books in your hands. You didn't expect any of these from Leona Kingscholar, one of the most laziest person alive.
"Thank you so much," you raised your voice with a smile, "Kingscholar."
Leona didn't turned to you, but kept walking forward. "Do not misunderstand anything, herbivore. It's only for the Spelldrive team and myself. If you're busy with all of annoying stuffs and be absent during the training. I'd be troubling myself by having to monitor the team."
Plus, it should be me thanking you.
You rolled your eyes, that's so Leona Kingscholar. But still, you're grateful for him giving out a helping hand, despite for the reason for him to do so. You picked up the other books, and catches up with the upperclassman's paces to leave the garden before the sky turned dark.
It must be because of harsh sun out there.
——
"Checkmate." Leona uttered as he put his rook chess piece on the D2 square. It was another day spending time in lounge playing chess with Leona. He won another round, and it's the fourth one today.
"It was close! I nearly won that." You propped your chin in your palm and sighed. If you had noticed his trap and had tackled that, you might have been the winner.
"That's the Queen's Gambit, remember this strategy." He told. At first, it seemed beneficial to you, as you easily ate a pawn of your opponent. However, it turned out to be part of the lion's strategy.
Leona moved a few chess piece to their previous position and started to explain the solution of his strategy.
"Look at here, if you see this situation again, you shouldn't move the bishop, instead, you should-"
Leona's explanation was cut off by the ringing of your mobile phone. You took out the vibrating phone from your pocket. It was Vil.
"Hi Vil! How was the exhibition?" You greeted. It was a event held by a luxurious brand of which Vil's the brand ambassador.
"It's great, of course." He replied. You could tell he's in a good mood just by hearing his voice. "Actually, I'm calling to ask if you're free later."
"Yes, sure." You didn't have any appointment today, and your project had already been completed, thanks to the help of Leona.
"Wonderful!" I'll meet you in Pomefiore's lounge half hour later." Vil said.
The upperclassman sitting on the opposite side of the table was toying the chess piece in his hands. He rolled his eyes out of annoyance. His chess games being disrupted by the other was one of the things that he hated the most, especially when it's Vil who's calling you.
The lion boy was secretly with his ears straight up, trying to listen to your conversation, although it seemed like he was looking to the other side daydreaming. You didn't open the speaker, but with his great hearing sense, he could hear Vil's voice clearly.
Since when did you and that Vil become so close? Since that accident? Like you two hadn't known each other for a long period of time, yet you're spending more and more time in Pomefiore with Vil, and this inexplicably annoyed him.
It's why he couldn't help rolling his eyes when he heard Vil's inviting you to his dorm, again, while you were playing chess with him. This's unacceptable.
"I've got some new clothes from the brand today, and they will be delivered later. It'd be great if you can come over and help me choose which-"
You were listening to Vil until all of a sudden, your phone was taken away from your hand. You looked up and saw it was Leona holding your phone.
"Hey! What are you doing? Give it back!" You tried to take it back, but Leona was too tall. It's even more difficult when he's dodging and lifting the phone in the air.
"Y/n? Hello?? Are you still there?" Hereing some noises, Vil asked.
"No, she is not available now. Please call later." Leona spoke to the phone.
Vil could immediately recognise that voice. "Leona?! Why are you taking Y/n phone. Give it back to her." You heard your friend ordered.
"I will, but I'm afraid we have to hang up the phone. She's having an important meeting with her captain, aka me right now. If you wanna talk, call her later. Bye!" The lion uttered, before he quickly pressed on the red button on the screen and ended the call. He then gave you back the phone.
"What is your problem? We were still talking!" You questioned, while trying to call Vil again, but the next moment, your wrist was held by Leona.
"At least let me finish explaining this." Leona looked at your eyes and asked, "please?"
You blinked twice as you saw the sincerity and seriousness on the boy's face. He really wanted to teach you the strategy.
You put down your phone on the table as Leona let go of your hand. You then sit down on the sofa, "Alright, I am all ears."
Hearing that, a tiny little smile appeared on Leona's face. It's so tiny that you didn't even noticed that.
"You should be grateful that such a talented teacher is willing to teach you patiently, herbivore." He smirked and sat on the sofa on the opposite side.
"Says you." You rolled your eyes, smiled.
"Where were we? Right, so instead of the bishop, you should move your knight to-"
Leona's explanation was again interrupted. This time, it's a student opening the door and walked in. He's probably a first year like you, and he's not from Savannaclaw, but Scarabia. You could tell from his wine red vest.
"Now what is it!?" The lion growled impatiently at the student. You could see the student jumping out of his skin when Leona roared at him.
The student hid behind the half opened door, shivering in fear, "I- I am just here to leave a message... fro- from Crewel-sensei... I'm sorry for interrupting! Please don't kill me, Kingscholar-senpai!" The Scarabia student begged.
Seeing this lowerclassman trembling as if he was facing some kind of monster, Leona shook his head with annoyance written on his face. "Say what you wanna say, and stop hiding back there like some kinda meerkats!"
Hearing the order, the first year quickly came into the room, still trembling a bit though.
"I'm sorry for his rude attitude. Thank you for coming. What did Crewel-sensei say?" You apologised for scaring him and asked with a smile, before giving the beastman a stare.
"Y/n-san..." The student blushed a bit when he heard your words. You were kind of popular among your form. Sometimes, boys from the other classes might come to the 1-A classroom and tried to see you in person.
"ROAR!!" The next thing you could hear was Leona roaring at the boy, making him jumped up from the floor.
"Leave if you're just wasting our time!" He growled.
"I'm sorry!!" The boy immediately apologised again. "Crewel-sensei ask Leona-senpai and Y/n-san to meet him in his office later."
Hah? Crewel? You didn't remember causing any troubles in the past week. Why's he asking to meet the two of you?
"He- he said it was about the coat damage by you two..." The Scarabian added.
"Really, Crewel? I thought I said I would bring him a new one the next time I go back home. Didn't know he's so ungenerous." Leona shook his head.
You almost forgot there was such an incident, if the student hadn't reminded you of that. You should have expected the consequences must be more than just an apology letter. After all, it's Crewel you had offended.
"Thank you for telling us. We'll find him as soon as possible." You thanked with a slight nod.
After the student left, you turned to Leona with furrowed brows. "Look what you have done."
Leona looked at you with an "it wasn't my fault" face, "What, that fanboy of you was just wasting our time. You can't blame me."
"I am not even talking about that. I am talking about Crewel's incident!" You helplessly shook your head. It had been a while, but you wouldn't forget it was Leona Kingscholar who planned the whole thing and dragged you into it.
"Now you're talking about those old history. Blame yourself for being stupid to trust me." He shrugged.
You could only tsked helplessly. No matter who was the culprit, the result's the two of you had to go to find Crewel and accept the consequences. Just could only keep your finger crossed and hope that the punishment wouldn't be harsh.
"So, can we go back to the chess?" Leona voiced.
"Really, now?!"
——
NOTE (more like a what's coming next)
The next chapter will start a new arc
(Ya I want to name it an arc like those manga:D
Ps I've been waiting to write the next arc for so long:D