When I reached back home, Kaichen was outside. “Teacher! Have you been waiting for me?” I asked brightly, partly teasing and partly wishing he had. I waved at him and jumped past the yellow rose bush.


    “Aren’t you out too often these days?” he asked, displeased.


    I thought I heard it wrong. I stopped waving at him. His voice was serious and dangerous. But I was confused. “What?”


    “Are you studying at all?” he asked, “I am pretty sure I told you that there will be an exam tomorrow.”


    “Oh… that. Of course!” I said, “I finished reading them.”


    “Reading alone isn’t enough,” he said, “I told you to memorize everything.”


    “Of course! Don’t people memorize everything when they read it once?” I asked, now confused more than ever.


    Kaichen looked shocked and amazed. He was definitely thinking, you have that kind of ability? I realized most people didn’t really memorize everything they read just once.


    “I told you,” I said, “most teachers would have gotten jealous except you.” I winked at Kaichen. He scowled. I didn’t think he liked the way I hadplimented him. “Are you worried that I keep going out?” I asked.


    “It’s nothing like that.”


    “Then why are you hanging out here?”


    Kaichen seemed embarrassed. Perhaps he had no exnation, or he didn’t want to voice it out loud. I guessed he hadn’t expected me to ask so bluntly.


    I held myughter and patted my bag. “I have made something really nice,” I said, “I was going to show you when I was done setting it up but it’s still good that you are here.” I decided not to push him further for an exnation on why he was out in the yard. I doubted he would obligingly answer anyway. He might just get irritated.


    “Please give me a moment,” I said, and ran into the house to fetch a knife and a te. Kaichen’s gaze followed me. I ignored it and approached the willow tree near the pond. A stray yellow willow leaf swayed in the wind. The view was so beautiful. The yellow color of the leaves painted everything gold. Kaichen’s house as a whole and the area around it was very dazzling. Yellow trees, yellow rose bushes…


    There was also a red wizard’s cape that had beautiful gold embroidery on the hood. I have never seen Kaichen wear it. He seems to like golden colored things… a lot. Kaichen’s mana was golden, too. His golden hair and golden eyes distinguished him. Everything about him was as precious as gold.


    I took the bench out of my magic bag. I didn’t forget to cast ‘lightweight’ magic on the bench otherwise it would be too heavy to lift. In woodworking, Hanmer had helped me, and I avoided telling him that I could do it myself because I didn’t want to reveal myself as Kaichen’s student. It would have caused too much ruckus. But right now, right here, I had no such qualms.


    I lifted the bench and put it down by the willow tree. I had trimmed the space under the willow-tree to get rid of the wild bushes and to make the ground even.


    “What’s this?” asked Kaichen.


    I had already measured the ce right next to the pond. The bench fit there perfectly. “It’s a bench.” I said. “You can sit here, eat delicious food, take a nap, or just rest…”


    Kaichen looked disapprovingly at me as if I had disobeyed his orders. I dusted the bench and sat there. “It’s a beautiful ce,” I said, “Besides, if you sit here, you can even feed your ducks while you rx.”


    Kaichen raised his eyebrows. I knew very well how much he cared about those ducks.


    “I read in the book that if you be one with nature, you can gather more magic,” I said.


    “It definitely is easier to use magic that way,” he said.


    “Same thing…”


    “Not at all.”


    He looked interested in exining more but wanted to uphold his aloof demeanor. I could see he was having trouble doing that.


    “Oh, juste on. Sit here,” I said and pulled at the hem of his robe. “Sometimes, it’s okay to rx and rest.”


    If he wanted to, he could have resisted but he sat beside me. He wanted to sit here. He wanted to act all cold and distant from the outside, but internally, he wanted something else. I couldn’t help but smile a little.


    I took the te I had brought from inside the house and ced it beside me on the bench. I took out a siron out of my bag. It was heavy but I had again used the lightweight magic on it.


    “Did you use lightweight magic for that too?” asked Kaichen.


    “What do you mean?”


    “Well… lightweight magic is usually used for construction purposes. You know… to moverge rocks and things.”


    “I know,” I said, “But if I am not wrong, it is also the basic magic that one learns after learning to gather mana.”