After wandering around Commercial Street for a little while, the group ran into Ichinose Honami, who was shopping with Shironami Chihiro. Seeing Ayanokoji Kiyoha surrounded by a group of girls, Ichinose Honami's eyes lit up. She stepped forward and greeted her. "Hi, Kiyoha! What are you up to today?"
Ayanokoji Kiyoha nodded obediently and answered honestly in a calm voice. "Hi, Honami. Wu-kun asked me to follow them around and broaden my horizons."
Hearing that, Ichinose Honami couldn't help chuckling to herself. After spending the past week with Ayanokoji Kiyoha, she had gained a very clear understanding of just how little the girl knew about everyday life.
It wasn't that she would mistake salt for sugar, but she couldn't identify the type of cola from a single sip. Likewise, when faced with mandarins and oranges, she needed a moment to tell them apart.
This only strengthened Ichinose Honami's belief in what Wu Qiao had said earlier: Ayanokoji Kiyoha was definitely the sort of girl who had never lifted a finger around the house, a wealthy young lady whose servants took care of every aspect of her daily life. That was why she was so unfamiliar with the little details of ordinary people's lives.
Ichinose Honami had friends in every first-year class, and everyone knew one another to some extent. After chatting briefly with Karuizawa Kei and the others, she suddenly remembered something and turned to Ayanokoji Kiyoha. "Oh, right. Where's Wu-kun now?"
Ayanokoji Kiyoha nodded and answered without hesitation. "He should be at the library."
After getting her answer, Ichinose Honami took Shironami Chihiro, who was beside her, and cheerfully said goodbye to everyone before leaving.
Before Ayanokoji Kiyoha could even react, Karuizawa Kei and the others eagerly pulled her along and headed straight for a nail salon on the corner.
"Kiyoha, since we're already on Commercial Street, how can we not get our nails done?" Sato Maya pushed open the door excitedly. "Look at how pretty your fingers are! It'd be such a waste not to paint them!"
Ayanokoji Kiyoha looked at the colorful bottles of nail polish before her, a trace of bewilderment in her eyes. As far as she knew, it was enough to keep one's nails clean and tidy. Painting and decorating them was simply beyond her comprehension.
"Um... do I really have to?" She tried one last time to resist.
"Of course! It's a rite of passage for girls!" Karuizawa Kei insisted, pressing her into a salon chair. "Don't worry, leave it to us. We'll make you look like a whole new person!"
Ayanokoji Kiyoha sighed helplessly and let the enthusiastic girls do as they pleased. As she watched the manicurist pick up her tools and start shaping her nails, she suddenly found herself missing the quiet atmosphere of the library and Wu Qiao's thick math books. At least calculus never left her feeling so utterly at a loss.
The library at Advanced Nurturing High School was silent, save for the rustle of turning pages and the hurried scratch of pens across paper.
Wu Qiao was sprawled across a library table without a shred of dignity. The textbooks in front of him had piled up into a small mountain, and he clutched his pen tightly as he frantically worked through several sheets of densely covered scratch paper.
Thank goodness the library at Advanced Nurturing High School had an astonishing collection, stocked with all kinds of advanced math books and academic journals. At an ordinary high school, he probably wouldn't even know where to start looking for problems of this level.
As he worked, Wu Qiao grumbled inwardly. Honestly, the Path of Erudition was by far the stingiest of all the Paths!
It wasn't just that its upgrades were incredibly one-dimensional, offering almost nothing besides improved computational ability. The most absurd part was that it didn't unlock its first active ability until level fifty!
Other Paths should have given him a decent little skill by around level ten. The Path of Erudition made him wait until level fifty for its first skill. Who could he even complain to about that?
Ironically, though, the Path of Erudition was also the easiest Path to level up. As long as he kept reading, doing problems, and thinking, experience would keep rolling in. He had been grinding like mad all week, and was already level eight, nearly level nine.
But with experience requirements increasing at higher levels, who knew how long it would take him to reach level fifty and unlock that mysterious beginner's gift?
Two tables away, a silver-haired girl with an airy, gentle presence sat quietly by the window. Shiina Hiyori's amethyst eyes occasionally drifted toward the boy in the corner, struggling through a sea of problems.
As someone who loved books, she didn't mind offering a hand to someone drowning in a sea of knowledge, but...
Shiina Hiyori sighed softly and quietly looked away. After she had kindly tried to help him three days earlier, she had worn an expression that practically said, "Sorry to bother you. I'll be going now," and hadn't dared approach him again.
What could she do? The problem she'd glimpsed was definitely high-school senior or even university-level math! It had to be! It was way beyond the syllabus!
She had assumed he was the sort of struggling student who needed help, only to discover, when she went closer, that he was a super scholar challenging his limits.
Just as Wu Qiao's scalp began to tingle from all the calculations and he felt his brain was about to overheat and burn out, faint footsteps came from the library entrance.
Not long afterward, Ichinose Honami and Shironami Chihiro appeared between the bookshelves.
Shironami Chihiro looked at Wu Qiao, slumped over his desk as though he were about to burn out, and tugged at Ichinose Honami's sleeve. Lowering her voice, she asked in confusion, "What... is he doing? He looks like he's in so much pain."
Ichinose Honami glanced at Wu Qiao, so absorbed that he seemed to have forgotten everything around him, nodded slightly, and smiled. "He's a friend, I guess. He's probably studying."
Looking at Wu Qiao's utterly defeated expression, Shironami Chihiro couldn't help teasing, "Ichinose, why don't you go help him? I remember you're at the top of the whole year. This kind of little thing should be no problem for you."
At that, Ichinose Honami couldn't help feeling deeply skeptical that there was any problem capable of stumping Wu Qiao.
After all, in the Simulator, he had even solved the Millennium Prize Problems. How could a mere high school problem push him to this point?
Curious and hoping to help, Ichinose Honami tiptoed over and picked up a sheet of scratch paper beside Wu Qiao.
But when her eyes fell on the complicated symbols and formulas, Ichinose Honami froze. Her mind went completely blank for a long while. The confident smile on her face stiffened, and she finally opened her mouth to ask uncertainly, "Is this... English?"
Without even looking up, Wu Qiao kept his pen moving rapidly. His voice carried a hint of weariness and resignation. "Math. Don't bother looking. I doubt anyone but Ayanokoji can understand this stuff. You won't be able to make sense of it either."
Ichinose Honami awkwardly put down the scratch paper, her cheeks faintly flushed. She stole a glance at Shiina Hiyori in the distance and saw the silver-haired girl watching her.
Looking at Ichinose Honami's expression, Shiina Hiyori thought it was exactly like her own had been at the time—a mixture of shock, confusion, and the dazed feeling of wondering who she was and where she was.
Seeing Shiina Hiyori's expression, Ichinose Honami suddenly felt a strange sense of kinship. So she wasn't the only one who could be scared half to death by Wu Qiao's "study materials."
"Um... would you like me to buy you a coffee to help you stay awake?" Ichinose Honami thought it over, then decided to try helping another way.
Wu Qiao finally stopped writing and raised his head, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes. He waved a hand weakly. "No need. The Path of Erudition—no, I mean, studying is all about stubbornly sticking with it. Don't you have something to do?"
Ichinose Honami nodded. Looking at Wu Qiao, exhausted but still stubbornly pressing on, she thought to herself: This boy really is a mystery from head to toe.