In a waiting room two doors down, Camilla flipped through a newspaper, bored out of her mind.
She'd signed up for the tutoring position the moment the Duke's estate posted the notice, back before things had started to snowball. Her reasoning back then had been simple, just as Dark had guessed—she wanted a legitimate excuse to come and go from the Duke's estate as she pleased.
But as matters gradually escalated, that excuse had stopped holding water.
Tutor or not, people would talk regardless.
So she figured she might as well stop caring and just do as she liked.
The "Silver Wolf Knight" Camilla had never been one for playing by the rules anyway.
Now that she'd made it to the interview stage, she'd resolved to give it everything she had—yes, that had been her plan, at least when she first arrived!
But being the last applicant to show up, the moment she stepped into the waiting room and spotted the other four candidates already seated, her whole mood soured.
The "Silent Sage" Buckner Sellers?
The former director of the Royal Botanical Garden, Bardi Plant?
The former tutor to the two little princesses, Monica Cook?
Aside from the one who still looked a bit green, fresh out of St. Marian's Academy, she couldn't spot a single advantage she held over the rest.
With three such shining examples ahead of her, how was she supposed to pass this interview?
Forget it. She'd just go through the motions.
Camilla yawned, set down her newspaper, and narrowed her eyes.
Unlike the others, she'd known from the very start that the tutoring position was meant for Dark's Magic Guide Spirits.
She'd learned plenty about Dark from her late-night mother-daughter chats with Diana.
Whenever Diana brought up Dark, she'd get so worked up she'd launch into an endless stream of stories about him—sometimes repeating the same ones over and over.
Camilla genuinely felt like her ears had gone numb from hearing them.
She knew Dark's Magic Guide Spirits were remarkably clever, that they had habits like eating and sleeping, and could even learn on their own—practically life forms with near-human intelligence.
And because of that, her opinion of Dark as a person kept climbing.
Diana had been so obvious about her feelings that as her mother, Camilla naturally had to stand behind her daughter.
Which was why House Greatbear was, in fact, seriously considering the matter of a "marriage alliance"!
Of course, it was still just at the consideration stage.
After all, both Diana and Dark were still fairly young.
The legal marriage age had been raised to sixteen for both men and women, and in a couple of years it might well be raised again to eighteen for men. As nobles who helped draft such laws, they naturally had to set an example and not violate the marriage code themselves.
But not being able to marry didn't mean they couldn't get engaged beforehand.
Camilla had already quietly decided that if, two years from now, Diana at fourteen still felt the same way about Dark, she would go knock on his door and propose the match herself!
...
"Viscountess Greatbear, it's your turn."
The voice of Jasmine, the Chief Maid, pulled Camilla out of her memories.
She straightened her collar and followed Jasmine into the reception room.
The three applicants already seated in the reception room clearly looked as though they'd passed—which meant she was the only one left.
Camilla took her seat in the middle chair and waited quietly for the interview to begin.
Once Dark saw she was settled, he got straight to it. "Aunt Camilla, let's skip the pleasantries. I have a few questions—please answer them."
Camilla gave a gentle, graceful smile and nodded. "Ask away."
Dark began, "First, the standard question: why did you apply for the tutoring position here?"
Camilla thought it over, then answered plainly, "I heard Aurora will be staying at the Duke's estate until school starts."
Dark gave a small nod. That was the answer he'd been hoping for.
"On to the second question, then," Dark said. "How can you guarantee you won't slack off while working here just because you want to spend time with Aurora?"
Camilla's lips curved upward as she tapped a finger to her own heart. "On my character."
The character of the "Silver Wolf Knight" was proof enough on its own.
Dark blinked, then let out a sigh.
He certainly couldn't openly question Diana's mother's character right here, so there was nothing for it but to move on to the third question.
In truth, this was the question that mattered most.
Whether Camilla passed the interview hinged entirely on this one.
He asked, "Third question: what advantage do you feel you bring to teaching, compared to the three tutors who've already passed?"
Camilla's expression froze for a moment as she glanced at the other three tutors.
The three of them nodded politely back at her, offering friendly smiles.
She rubbed her forehead and said, "Do your Magic Guide Spirits need physical training? Well, that's probably a stretch. What about interest in martial arts, then?"
"Martial arts?" Something clicked in Dark's mind, and his interest sharpened.
Camilla nodded. "With the Valkyrie around, my swordsmanship isn't worth showing off. But when it comes to hand-to-hand skills, I might not be any worse than her."
Alvit merely smiled slightly at Camilla's confidence.
Dark's eyes brightened. "Come to think of it, I really did overlook physical education. Moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and practical development—of course it all has to be well-rounded!"
Possessing intelligence was his Magic Guide Spirits' greatest advantage, but at times it could turn into a weakness.
It all came down to the spirits' willpower and reflexes.
And training in martial arts really could sharpen willpower.
It could also maximize the spirits' natural advantages—after all, who could stand against a Magic Guide Spirit skilled in hand-to-hand combat?
Battles between Magic Guide Spirits had traditionally come down to sheer collisions of raw power.
But once one mastered techniques capable of turning the tide, even the weak could overcome the strong.
The remaining issue was that plenty of people at the Duke's estate already had this kind of skill.
Which meant there wasn't really any need for Camilla to teach it.
Dark turned to Alvit, seeking her opinion.
Once he saw her nod slightly, he continued, "Actually, we don't need to limit this to martial arts alone. Three months is plenty of time to teach a lot of things. If you're willing, Aunt Camilla, I'd like to tailor a set of combat techniques to each spirit's individual strengths."
"Of course that's how it should be done."
A smile spread across Camilla's face.
She knew she'd passed.
From now on, not only could she visit her precious niece every day, she'd have a perfectly natural excuse to bring Diana along too—two birds with one stone!
...
Once all the details had been settled and all four tutors had left their contact information and addresses,
Dark extended an invitation. "Now that all four of you have passed the interview, why not join us for lunch here at the estate?"
Before they could decline, Dark added, "After lunch, I'd like to get a preliminary sense of each of your teaching styles—perhaps a trial lesson from each of you this afternoon."
With things already settled that far, none of the four tutors were inclined to refuse.
So the whole group had lunch together at the Duke's estate.
Fortunately, Suna, City Lord Montielfali, was out on business that day and didn't disrupt the mood.
Aurora's presence delighted Camilla to no end.
The other three tutors, meanwhile, watched the Magic Guide Spirits gathered around the table with varying expressions.
The "Silent Sage" Buckner Sellers stared with shining eyes, looking like he was barely restraining himself from lunging over.
The former director of the Royal Botanical Garden, Bardi Plant, watched with obvious interest as the Trash Slime slurped soup at the table.
Among all of Dark's Magic Guide Spirits, only this Trash Slime was plant-type, and it had her full attention locked on.
Meanwhile, Monica Cook was left utterly stunned by the sight of the Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon.
She wanted very badly to ask Dark—weren't these all supposed to be adorable little creatures? Since when was there a dragon among them?
Of course, if she'd actually asked, Dark would have had the Blue-Eyes Baby Dragon perform its "Belly Up" trick.
After that, Miss Cook probably wouldn't have found it so frightening anymore.
The lunch was a success, with everyone thoroughly enjoying themselves.
After lunch and a brief rest, the group moved straight on to the teaching demonstrations.
Alvit and Claire took their leave after that, still buried in official duties.
...
The classroom for the Magic Guide Spirits had been set up in an empty room on the estate's ground floor.
Dark had already laid down [[Paradise]] there.
Aside from Miss Cook, the other tutors could sense the magic fluctuations of the Field Card, though none of them asked about it.
"Let's start with Lord Sellers."
Dark picked the "Silent Sage" to go first.
He and the others sat at the back of the classroom to observe.
All eighteen Magic Guide Spirits sat obediently in their custom-made chairs, listening attentively to Sellers' lesson.
Sitting behind the podium, Sellers summoned a humanoid Magic Guide Spirit as soon as class began, assigning it to assist with teaching.
This clever move neatly solved the problem of his own mobility issues.
Since he hadn't brought any textbooks, Sellers kept things as simple and accessible as possible, never showing off his vast knowledge, and delivered a perfectly ordinary fifteen-minute lesson.
But that was exactly what Dark needed to see.
Throughout the lesson, Sellers interacted well with the spirits, calling on several of the humanoid ones to answer questions.
...
Once Sellers' lesson ended, Miss Plant volunteered eagerly and stepped up to the podium.
The old woman snapped her fingers lightly, and a strange trumpet-shaped flower sprouted out of thin air in front of every single spirit.
Miss Plant smiled faintly and explained, "These are Ghost-Cry Flowers. They usually grow in extremely dangerous places. They can sense a traveler's surface thoughts and convert them into sound, luring the traveler closer—so they can eat them!"
The spirits all blinked curiously and reached out to poke at the flowers' stems.
Sitting at the back, Miss Cook shuddered involuntarily, deeply repulsed by the man-eating plant.
But once Miss Plant began her actual lesson, the usefulness of the Ghost-Cry Flowers became clear.
Even Magic Guide Spirits incapable of speech could produce sound through the flower, simply by touching it and thinking!
Dark watched, thoroughly amazed by the demonstration.
He found himself wondering whether he should get a pot of these to keep.
With Ghost-Cry Flowers around, the spirits could express their thoughts far more easily—a huge boon indeed.
But the flowers currently on display were all magical constructs made by Miss Plant, not real specimens.
To actually grow a real Ghost-Cry Flower, he'd have to find the seeds himself.
...
In any case, while Miss Plant's Ghost-Cry Flowers were dazzling, her actual teaching ability was roughly on par with Sellers'.
It wasn't until the third tutor, Miss Cook, took the podium that the gap between them became glaringly obvious.
Miss Cook's teaching skill was simply on another level—she drew out the spirits' enthusiasm almost effortlessly right from the start, and combined with Miss Plant's Ghost-Cry Flowers, delivered a lively, engaging lesson.
...
Finally, it was Camilla's turn, whether she liked it or not.
Since it was an indoor lesson, she stuck to basics—literacy and arithmetic.
As long as she kept her hands to herself, Camilla was, in fact, a gentle-looking, elegant beauty.
Though her teaching couldn't match Miss Cook's, she turned out to be surprisingly good with children.
Probably because she was a mother herself.
...
There were four trial lessons in total, fifteen minutes each.
Once Camilla finished the last of them, Dark set the visibly worn-out spirits free.
Afterward, he spent about half an hour discussing things with the four tutors and arranged for them to return the next day.
Dark planned to stay up that night drafting a class schedule tailored to each tutor's strengths!
Once he'd seen the tutors off, he shut himself in his bedroom and got to work.
He still hadn't finalized it by dinnertime.
It wasn't until eight or nine in the evening that he finally settled on a schedule.
The overall timing bore some resemblance to St. Marian's Academy's own schedule.
Only each class had been shortened from ninety minutes down to sixty.
This was to account for the tutors' commute.
Dark pushed the morning start time from eight o'clock back to eight-thirty.
The first class ran from eight-thirty to nine-thirty in the morning.
The second ran from ten to eleven.
Those two fixed slots each day were dedicated to literacy and arithmetic.
Outside of those two subjects, the tutors were free to arrange the rest of the time as they saw fit.
In the afternoon, one class ran from two to three, and another from three-thirty to four-thirty.
The two afternoon slots could continue with literacy and arithmetic, or shift to music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, or magic and Magic Guide fundamentals.
And, of course, combat techniques too.
In the end, Dark packed the schedule absolutely full.
He didn't even spare the weekends!
...
The next day...
Once all four tutors had arrived, Dark handed each of them the schedule he'd drawn up.
Aside from Miss Cook raising an objection, the other three had no complaints.
Dark couldn't help but ask, "Miss Cook, is there anything you think could be improved about this schedule?"
Miss Cook answered without a moment's hesitation. "The midday gap is too long. I heard these Magic Guide Spirits of yours don't actually need naps, so why not move the first afternoon class up to one o'clock?
One class from one to two, another from two-thirty to three-thirty, and one more from four to five. And you could fit in two more classes in the evening as well. What do you think?"
Dark: "..."
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