[You acquired the new skill "Lion of the Rolled Cigarette C"]
"Hmm, an unexpected gain?"
His mood instantly brightened.
Indeed, the cost of those two packs of cigarettes and the risk of being chased by Mordred this afternoon were well worth gaining a Heroic Spirit skill.
Mordred suddenly clapped him hard on the back.
"Why are you grinning like an idiot? Did I say something weird? If I did, forget it!"
She said this somewhat bashfully, misinterpreting his smile of skill acquisition as him mocking her.
"You're being self-conscious. I was just thinking about something else."
"Hey, are you telling me you weren't listening to me just now?"
"It's not okay if I don't listen, and it's not okay if I do. How am I supposed to answer you...?"
The life simulation time moved forward once again.
[8:50 PM. You barely made it back to Chaldea Academy before curfew.]
[You and Mordred exchanged contact information.]
[You have obtained Mordred's contact details and can now contact her anytime. Given the current favorability, you might be able to ask her out.]
"I finally remembered this is a dating sim... With muscular Round Table brothers around, or working for robots and old men, I almost forgot my original intention."
"I even almost forgot that, setting aside her personality, Mordred is a beautiful girl."
Ei sighed as he walked down the dorm hallway, looking at the contact list on his phone.
The corridor was noisy just before curfew. Everyone was heading to the communal bathroom with basins and toothbrushes, or rushing back from the evening study hall with homework collections. He walked past the other Heroic Spirits and headed straight to his room.
He opened the door and saw Gawain bent over his desk on the bottom bunk, working on an assignment.
Tristan's bed was still empty.
"Poor Old Tris. Is he going to spend the whole semester in the detention center...?"
Ei felt a sense of pity and wondered when he could visit him.
"Sir Ei, you're finally back," Gawain looked up at him. "How was work today? Mordred didn't give you any trouble, did she?"
"It was alright,"
Ei thought for a moment.
"Though there were a few bumps, it wasn't as thrilling as yesterday when Tristan almost ran over Babbage."
"Haha, then it sounds like you two got along quite well. That's good. I was worried she might cause problems for you."
"No matter. My heart is as vast as the cosmos."
Ei happily walked into the room, his eyes quickly drawn to the exercise book on Gawain's desk. He was stunned. "What is this?"
"Homework."
Gawain calmly answered the obvious question.
Ei was immediately shocked.
"What is homework?!"
"Sir Ei, you shouldn't need me to answer such a basic question. Instead, I have a question for you: since you started school..." Gawain's gaze suddenly sharpened. "...Have you done any homework?"
"..."
This question truly stumped Ei.
A quick recollection told him: in the past few days, he was either getting familiar with the campus, working right after school, or dealing with ghosts and Morgan's phone harassment late at night. Where was the time for homework?
Not just him, but even the diligent Gawain had to catch up on assignments right before curfew, which showed that the students' time was probably genuinely limited.
He really needed to find time to complete his assignments, or he'd lose all his academic credits and face an early Game Over.
"Damn it! They call this a campus dating sim, but why is the gameplay only realistic when it comes to this part? Am I playing Persona 5 here?" Ei couldn't help but complain.
"The assignments are due for inspection tomorrow. We should hurry and finish all the accumulated work tonight. We should be able to finish before midnight."
"No need for that long! We can just write separately and then copy each other's work!"
"Sir Ei,"
Gawain spoke in the lecturing tone of a responsible older brother. "You can fool the teacher by cheating on your homework, but you cannot truly improve yourself."
"That's fine! I don't care about self-improvement; I only live in the present!!"
"What a righteous and honest answer,"
But Gawain still shook his head.
"However, I believe cheating and plagiarism violate the code of chivalry. How about this: I can teach you how to solve the problems. We'll try hard to finish the homework tonight."
"Sigh..."
If he pleaded more, Gawain might actually let him copy the work.
But the Sun Knight was so earnest that Ei felt too embarrassed to actually copy his assignments.
"Furthermore, I advise you to start writing now, or you will have to stay up late tonight."
Gawain said gravely.
The air suddenly grew heavy.
"Because you mentioned last night that a female ghost is wandering in our dorm building... Are you sure you want to do homework alone in the dead of night?"
Recalling the woman's voice last night, the faint footsteps in the hallway, and the fear of the dark when he pulled the covers over his head...
Ei immediately shivered.
"You have a point. I'll start right now!"
Fortunately, he had anticipated this and unlocked the "High-Speed Incantation" skill. Completing the assignments should be quick.
"Battle!"
[You activate the skill "High-Speed Incantation A"]
[Skill successfully activated. You successfully finished your Chinese language arts homework.]
[You activate the skill "High-Speed Incantation A" again.]
[Skill successfully activated. You successfully finished your History homework.]
[Your pen flew across the paper, ideas poured out constantly, and you finished the questions at an astonishing speed. The assignment that should have taken an hour was completed in less than a minute. One could say your writing was divinely inspired!]
Ei filled the answer blanks almost instantaneously.
Truly, divine speed!!
Looking at the dense row of answers,
Not only was he impressed, but Gawain next to him was also shocked by the effect of High-Speed Incantation.
"That fast? Let me take a look..."
He checked Ei's Chinese assignment and frowned immediately upon reaching the ancient poetry section.
It read:
[Anchored at Qinhuai River]
[Cleopatra VII of Egypt]
[Fifty years of life, like a dream and an illusion; if the body doesn't move, can the darkness fade? Flowers and water.]
"Sir Ei, did you mix up the content of your History assignment? When the Egyptian Queen wrote this poem, not only was the Tang Dynasty about to fall, but was her dynasty also near its end? Did it also include the fall of the Oda family and Okita Souji's tuberculosis? 'The merchant girl knows not the sorrow of a conquered nation'—is that what it means? None of your answers are correct."
"Don't worry about the accuracy! Just tell me: was my answering speed fast?"
"You had better rewrite it properly..." Gawain sighed.
"While your High-Speed Incantation can give you speed, the quality of your answers won't be good until you have a certain level of academic ability."
[Later, by 11:00 PM, you and Gawain finally finished the accumulated homework.]
[Nothing unexpected happened that night. You quickly fell asleep, and the night passed without incident.]