"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Looking at the adorable sight of the twin-tailed Emilia tilting her head in confusion, the poor heroine could only gulp and shake her head.
"N-Nothing, let's go upstairs, now that you're done!"
After all, she couldn't just ask, 'How in the world did you eat fifteen shortcakes like it was natural?'. And to make matters worse, this careless girl was going to visit her for tutoring twice a week.
'Fifteen shortcakes, twice a week. Every week.'
Indeed, Emilia was probably going to be a very 'healthy' girl by the time this semester came to an end.
As they walked past the first floor and towards the second, Crystal reluctantly ended up giving them a 'short tour' of the house. Anyway, they were going to be here often now, no need to be total strangers.
"So as you saw, the ground floor is the restaurant. The first floor has some private seating arrangements for those who want better experience, although it's not been in use for years. And the second floor is where we live."
Emilia smiled. "Your house is very nice, Crystal. And your mom's cooking is delicious."
If it had been before she got to know Emilia a little better, the heroine would have assumed her words to be empty or even hypocritical. But now that she had seen how brash and open Emilia was, there was little doubt that each word of hers came right from the girl's heart.
Besides, if she didn't think they were delicious, would she have eaten so much?
As they arrived at the second floor and Dixie slammed down the heavy bag containing both their notebooks on the study table, Emilia took the time to look around while the heroine was picking out the books and stationery for their session.
The living space on the second floor was mostly open, with a kitchen counter in the corner, a dining table, a study table, and a sofa set facing a TV and gaming system. Past the open space was a thin corridor with two closed doors, presumably the bedrooms.
It was a fun, cozy looking place. Aside from her own room, she felt more comfortable here than Dixie's and even her own mansion. Perhaps it was because of her first life as a guard, but she just felt safer in smaller rooms.
Noticing that Dixie was lazily leaning back in her chair while the heroine was still busy sorting out their study materials, Emilia gently nudged her friend in her swollen belly.
"Ow! Geez, Emily, watch out, it's stuffed full!"
"Fufu… don't overeat so much next time, perhaps?"
Dixie rolled her eyes. "And whose fault is that?"
Emilia smirked. "Hm? I just told you to pay attention to her cooking, not gorge yourself to death, right?"
"Uuuh… but, it was good."
Emilia nodded, looking a little relieved. After all, if Dixie thought the heroine's mother and her restaurant had potential, it would make some of her plans go much smoother.
"Great, do you think it will work?"
The black haired girl patted her chest with pride.
"Hehe… since that's what you want, how can it not? Trust me, I'll make it work!"
Emilia smiled brightly, leaning in close to peck her cheek.
"That's my knight, so reliable!"
Dixie's face bloomed red almost instantly as she touched her cheek.
'It's not wet, but her lips definitely touched, right? It's too light! Princess is too stingy! Even that monkey brain got a better kiss, for less! Not that I'm unhappy. I didn't have to ask or beg! I'm clearly the closer friend!'
Crystal finally finished arranging all the books and notebooks for their session, and looked up to notice the black haired girl's face blooming red.
"What's wrong, are you sick?"
"N-No…"
"If you ate too much and don't feel well, I do have some med—"
"It's alright, I'm fine! We can continue."
Crystal looked at her suspiciously for a while before nodding. Although she knew something wasn't right in her heart, she didn't want to think about the other possibilities of her face going red all of a sudden.
"Anyway, for today, we'll go through basic maths first, then advanced, after which we can move on to science, and then finally history. And tomorrow we'll go over language and culture, followed by social science. Since they don't require too much discussion, we'll follow that up with some revision of what we learned the previous day, and then I'll give you two homework for the weekdays!"
Dixie's blush faded slowly as her face went pale.
'What is this vicious cycle of torment? Study at school during weekdays, and get homework to finish during weekends. Study here during weekends, and get homework to finish during weekdays?!'
"Is there a problem?"
"N-No."
Crystal nodded, although internally even she didn't know whether she was happy or disappointed with their acceptance of her 'conditions'.
She slid out the maths book from the stack on the table to the center, but instead of opening it up, she motioned for them to open their notebooks.
"Before we start, let's do a simple problem first so I have an idea of your level, alright? It will help me set the pace according to what you need."
Emilia nodded with a smile as she opened her notebook, while Dixie did the same without a word.
The heroine had imagined many horror scenarios before the two of them came over. The rich girls throwing tantrums at the 'insufficient' accommodations, chewing her out for being too harsh, and then chewing her out for not teaching them enough, etc.
But as she watched them listen to her so obediently, Crystal felt all her anxiety and worry from earlier slowly disappear.
'They're… unexpectedly cute. Like little children. But, uh, I'm worried now, for different reasons. Especially about Emilia!'
So the heroine rotated her 'genius' brain at record speeds, and came up with a way to shoot two birds with one stone.
"Let's do an example problem. Let's say there's a young girl eating fifteen shortcakes a day, and each shortcake contains around 150 calories."
Looking at the two rich girls diligently noting down the question, Crystal barely managed to suppress her giggles.
"I-If it takes around seven thousand and seven hundred calories to gain one kilo of weight, how long will it take for her to double in weight?"
Emilia raised her hand, causing Crystal to stare blankly before she nodded.
"How much is her original weight?"
The heroine scrutinized the girl before her.
'How much is Emilia? Uh, thirty? No, that's too little. Thirty five? Oh well, whatever!'
"Let's say it's around thirty five to forty kilos?"
Emilia noted it down before furrowing her brows.
"Do I calculate it for thirty five, or forty? Or should I take average? Thirty seven and a half?"
Crystal sighed as she held her face in her palms. Her students were very obedient, but… Oh well, might as well let them solve it first.
"That's not the point, but, let's assume it's forty."
Emilia nodded. "Okay. So… to double that, she will need to gain forty kilos, and that will take, um, 7,700 into 40…"
While Emilia was calculating, Crystal took a look at Dixie's notebook, noticing how the girl had scratched out every word she had originally spoken after Emilia asked her doubts.
'Hm… so Emilia is the type to clear things up as she goes, but Dixie just blindly does as she's told, and keeps her doubts to herself. This might be more challenging than I thought.'
Emilia had already finished her calculations by now.
"I got it! So, it will take 308 thousand calories to double her weight. Dividing that by 150, we get 2053 and a third. And since she eats 15 each day, we divide that by fifteen again, and get 136!"
Crystal nodded. "So, what's the answer?"
Emilia tapped her pencil on the notebook where she had circled '136', feeling a little confused.
'Did I get something wrong? Is it not finished?'
"Well, given that she does that every day, it will take 136 days, obviously?"
The heroine smiled. How can someone be so smart and so dumb at the same time?
'Well, let's give her some more hints.'
"So that's four and half months, huh… and what if she does that only twice a week?"
"Um, uh…"
Emilia started calculating again.
"Twice a week… so um, dividing it by two will give me the number of weeks, which is over 68. Rounding that up, we'll get 69?"
The heroine tucked her short blonde hair behind her ear, feeling more amused than anything else.
"You got it?"
Emilia showed flipped her notebook around to show the heroine, as if to prove she did it all correctly.
"69 weeks!"