Holy Institution Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Teaching methods (3)

With an official room, the items hidden in their space bags could be taken out for decoration.

Rui Meng and Di Lin were both born into nobility and thus maintained a certain standard of living. One moment, both people were handling vases and the next, they were handling paintings. Only after tinkering with it for half the day did they decorate the vacant room till it was presentable.

Di Lin tidied up the bed and walked out.

Rui Meng asked, "Going to find Suo Suo?"

Di Lin nodded. "I'm going to visit him."

Rui Meng hesitated for a moment and spoke before he opened the door. "Ning Ya, he…"

The hand that Di Lin had placed on the door handle tightened slightly. He turned around without any change in his expression.

Rui Meng inquired, "Don't you think he's a little odd today?"

Feeling guilty, Di Lin feigned confusion. "How was he odd?"

"I think that he intentionally chose Chai Fuang because he's Xi Luo's tutor. Moreover, Aridi has always leaned towards Xi Luo - out of all people, he chose no one else but Aridi. Don't you find it odd?" Rui Meng was still thinking about how Ning Ya would rather share a room with Aridi than stay with him.

A hazy thought flashed across Di Lin's mind, but he didn't have much desire to unveil it. So what if he did unveil it? At the end of the day, it was somebody else's matter. Since he couldn't lend a helping hand, then it was even more important that he not hinder him.

"Tutor Chai Fuang's fame is widespread, perhaps Ning Ya worships him. So wanting to foster good relations with Aridi and Xi Luo is also very normal," In one statement, Di Lin reversed the cause and effect.

Hearing him put things this way, Rui Meng didn't persist any longer. He shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps."

"Do you want to go over with me?" Di Lin sensed his dissatisfaction with Ning Ya and wanted to help them ease their relationship.

Rui Meng took out a large number of graphic novels from his space bag and threw them onto the floor. "I'll pass, who knows what we'll encounter after classes start? I want to use my limited time to the fullest."

Di Lin smiled helplessly and stepped out the door.

Kevin was coincidentally also exiting his room. Actually, it wasn't that he had never thought of switching rooms. But after thinking it through, he felt that doing such a thing was too obvious and on the contrary, would offend others. Hence, he restrained himself. Anyway, he was under a different teacher[1] from those nobility and the number of times he would encounter them on a normal basis was few - he had evidently wrongly estimated this point.

"Hello, Kevin. Are you going out?" Di Lin took the initiative to greet him.

Under this sort of circumstances, Kevin naturally couldn't keep a stiff face like before. He responded, "En, I'm going to the dining hall."

"Let me call Suo Suo and we can go together?" Di Lin gave him no chances to reject him and directly knocked on the door to Suo Suo's room.

Kevin stood behind him, feeling immensely gloomy.

As a commoner, standing too close to them would cause him to easily be viewed as someone fawning over the nobility. But if he was too cold, he would appear rather unreasonable. After all, Di Lin had been extremely friendly so far.

He was struggling over this when the door opened.

Ning Ya stared at Di Lin.

The image of his naked body simultaneously surfaced in Di Lin's mind. He couldn't help being somewhat awkward. "Have you tidied everything up?"

Ning Ya watched him fixedly. A shallow wisp of a smile appeared on his face in the next moment. He pulled the door open, opening a path in for him. "All done."

This smile appeared to be declaring that he had written off that matter.

Di Lin relaxed. He went in and spoke to Suo Suo, who was currently waging a war with the bedsheets, "You can tidy up after we come back. Let's eat first."

Suo Suo promptly jumped down upon hearing his words. "I was just getting hungry."

Di Lin looked towards Ning Ya. "Go together?"

Ning Ya contemplated it for a while and then shook his head. "No, I still want to continue tidying things up."

Although they couldn't go back to their previous state, Di Lin was satisfied with maintaining this sort of relationship with Ning Ya.

"All right. Then we'll go ahead," Di Lin pulled Suo Suo and headed downstairs to the dining hall with Kevin, who had been waiting outside the door with complex emotions.

After switching dormitories, the distance to the dining hall had been shortened significantly.

When they arrived, the dining hall was nearly packed to the brim.

It was another scene of food flying all over, though Di Lin's group had already seen it so often that they no longer found it strange.

Suo Suo suddenly pointed a hand towards another side of the dining hall. "Ah, Xi Luo!"

Di Lin raised his head and looked over. Sure enough, he saw Xi Luo seated right at the front of a long table. There was no one seated opposite him, while the person beside him seemed to possess considerable reverence towards him, maintaining a subtle distance from him.

Suo Suo asked, "Why is he eating here?"

Although Xi Luo was a member of the junior class in name, anyone could tell that he enjoyed the treatment of the secondary school's students. At least, his room was not together with Di Lin's group. This was presumably the advantage of being Chai Fuang's favorite pupil.

"Because many students here come from Kanding Empire," Kevin said suddenly.

Di Lin's brows wrinkled absent-mindedly.

He hadn't forgotten the disputes created previously by Xi Luo and Princess Qiaoni. Could it be that Xi Luo hadn't given up and was still preparing to continue these disputes? He felt a slight headache. Qiaoni wasn't around, so he became the person best able to represent Shamanril.

But he very much did not want to be drawn in.

"Where do you come from?" Suo Suo suddenly asked Kevin.

Kevin lowered his head silently.

Di Lin collected his thoughts and asked casually, "You're from Julan?"

Startled, Kevin blurted out, "How did you know?"

It was Di Lin's turn to be startled. "I made a random guess."

Suo Suo said excitedly, "Are you really from Julan? Ah, then you're a citizen of my country."

Kevin's face stiffened slightly. Every word emerged abruptly from his mouth. "I moved."

"Ah?" Suo Suo looked at him blankly.

"I moved house. I'm living in Tangilly now," Kevin stated dully.

Suo Suo pinched his spoon, saying in a small voice, "Actually, Julan's rent and tax aren't very high."

Clang.

Kevin's spoon struck his plate. He glared at Suo Suo ferociously.

Di Lin raised his head and stroked Suo Suo's forehead, conveniently cutting off Kevin's gaze. "Finish your chicken."

Suo Suo's mouth flattened. "I hate chicken breast."

Di Lin replied, "You can pretend that it's the thigh."

Suo Suo used a fork to deliver a piece into his mouth. After chewing on it for half a day, he said gloomily, "It's too far from the real thing."

After returning from the dining hall, Di Lin gave his specially saved corn soup to Ning Ya. Seeing him smile and accept the bowl of soup, Di Lin officially confirmed that the awkward matter had become a thing of the past.

Since classes would officially start tomorrow, they parted ways and went to sleep very early on.

Halfway through his sleep, Di Lin heard a light knock on his door.

Seeing that Rui Meng was still immersed in dreamland, he could only get up and open the door.

Suo Suo was outside the door. He cradled his pillow and looked at Di Lin, aggrieved. "I can't sleep."

Di Lin was very surprised. The Suo Suo who could even sleep like a little pig in the tent was actually unable to fall asleep? "Is the bed not comfortable?" He recalled feeling the bed when he was laying the bedding. Although it couldn't compare in softness and comfort to the beds in the Julan imperial palace, it was definitely much better than the tent.

Suo Suo wrinkled his face. "I'm very worried."

Di Lin saw his pitiful look and his heart instantly melted. He closed the door and pulled Suo Suo up the bed. He positioned himself to sleep on the outer side and lightly patted his back, saying consolingly, "Don't worry, Chai Fuang is a great tutor. He will definitely let you appreciate the mysteries of magic."

Suo Suo stated, "I'm scared of Xi Luo."

Di Lin's hand paused.

"He's from Kanding Empire," Suo Suo bit on his lower lip.

Setting aside Suo Suo, Di Lin was actually also very apprehensive about Xi Luo. But he could never say such words to Suo Suo. If not, it was very likely that he would be scared into hiding in the dormitory the entire day and skip class. This sort of incident had happened before.

Di Lin said in contemplation, "You must try your best to be with Ning Ya when attending classes."

Suo Suo made an extremely soft sound of agreement.

"Keep your distance from Xi Luo," He could only instruct Suo Suo in this way.

Suo Suo once again made a sound of agreement.

"Don't refute Tutor Chai Fuang's words. Try your best to fulfill every single one of his instructions," Di Lin softly chattered repeatedly into Suo Suo's ears, till his breathing became even.

Di Lin turned over and gazed at the moonlight outside the window. He realized that the one with insomnia had become himself.

"Tomorrow…"

Rui Meng expressed a certain degree of shock upon waking up in the morning and finding an extra roommate. He was even more surprised that he hadn't reacted at all when someone knocked on the door during the night. Ever since Ning Ya rejected staying with him, he possessed a certain measure of doubt about his sleeping habits.

Towards this, Di Lin used many reasons to comfort him. For instance, saying that the sound of knocking was very light, the duration was very short, and that Rui Meng's head happened to be buried under the blankets.

In the end, Rui Meng repeatedly invited Suo Suo to knock on the door at night again, in order to show that he was definitely not someone who was greedy about sleep and had poor sleeping posture. As for this, Suo Suo failed to understand for a very long time, how there was any link between coveting sleep and having bad sleeping posture.

Every tutor had their own teaching classroom. Apart from lessons outside of class, they would attend classes every day in that classroom.

As Di Lin, Suo Suo, and the rest exited the dining hall and prepared to walk towards the classrooms, Di Lin noticed Hydin leisurely standing underneath the tree at the entrance to the dining hall, waiting for him.

The pure gold locks of hair, azure blue eyes, and the lush green tree behind him made for a picture so beautiful that it made one unable to bear shifting away their line of sight.

— That is, if Hydin continued to stand without speaking.

Of course, that was impossible.

"A disaster is about to occur," He said with a smile.

[1] In one of the previous chapters, it was mentioned that Melina was Kevin's tutor, which doesn't add up to what is stated here. It's probably a mistake on the author's part because this same error is made in a future chapter. It doesn't really have much of an effect on the plot, just an inconsistency in the details.

Chapter end