Bovina leafed through the sheets slowly, the bells at her breasts chiming softly with every movement. When she reached the math page, her gaze lingered a moment longer before she looked at Neko with clear admiration.
"All the math problems completed... and flawlessly," she praised him, her voice filled with genuine appreciation. "Good work, sweetie."
Neko frowned, adjusting the cuff of his misty white shirt, which was straining precariously against his breasts. He looked at her skeptically, the bell on his tail giving a quiet jingle.
"It was just basic addition and subtraction," he muttered, his cat ears twitching. "What's so hard about that?"
Bovina shook her head, smiling warmly. She stepped closer and began to gently stroke his head, ruffling his pink hair.
"For people like you, who have never encountered scholarship or numbers before, basic mathematics is like conquering an unreachable peak," she explained calmly. "Even when a teacher tries to explain it individually, many have a gargantuan problem with it. But you, sweetie, did it all by yourself in one evening. I think I might be dealing with a little genius here."
Despite still feeling awkward in his skimpy schoolgirl outfit, Neko couldn't suppress a quiet purr under her soothing touch. He looked at Bovina and felt his heart soften.
She really is kind, he thought, a pleasant shiver running down his back that wasn't caused by desire this time. I thought every woman here was a sadistic lunatic, like Elene or Lilith, who only wants to humiliate me. But Bovina... she actually wants to teach me. She even seems happy for me when I succeed.
"Bovina... you're a truly kind person," he said softly, looking her straight in the eye.
The Great Matron smiled slightly but wagged a finger at him with mock sternness. "Don't go thinking those sweet words will distract you from your studies, you little rascal."
She pulled out the second sheet, which displayed the complex demon alphabet. "Did you look at this page?" she asked, her bell chiming clearly.
Neko nodded. "Yes, the alphabet. It was much harder than the numbers."
"That's because there are four main languages in this world, and each has its own unique structure," Bovina explained.
With a sudden, decisive motion, she pressed her hands together, and a gargantuan, flawlessly white aura began to emanate from her body. The light was so intense that Neko had to squint for a moment. The aura flooded the entire classroom, covering the walls and magical instruments in a soothing, milky glow.
At that same moment, a golden system notification appeared before Neko's eyes:
[NOTIFICATION!]
[High-level effect applied: Sanctuary of the Ancient Scholar]
[Type: Aura of Enlightenment]
[Effect: Within this domain, the subject's comprehension speed is increased by 300%. All mental fatigue is nullified, and the ability to perceive complex patterns is significantly enhanced.]
[Duration: Until cancelled by the caster.]
Neko looked around the room in absolute shock. He felt his mind become unnaturally sharp, and the characters on the page - which only moments ago seemed like a mess of lines - suddenly began to arrange themselves into logical sequences.
"What is this feeling?" he whispered, feeling as though the barriers in his head had simply evaporated. "Everything seems so... simple now."
Bovina smiled with satisfaction, seeing her student immediately react to the power of her domain. She straightened up, her face taking on an expression of deep focus. Within the shimmering white aura of the Sanctuary of the Ancient Scholar, luminous inscriptions began to materialize.
"This is the Demonic language," she said gravely, pointing to the first string of sharp, twisted characters that pulsed with purple light. "This is what your name looks like in the tongue of our lands."
Neko watched with fascination, his brain - thanks to the knowledge domain - instantly cataloging the shapes and their meanings. Suddenly, another inscription appeared beside it, this time composed of simple, familiar letters. Neko nearly stopped breathing in surprise.
It's... it's English! he thought, shocked, his heart racing beneath the thin white shirt. I can read it without any effort!
"And this is your name in the Human tongue," Bovina continued, unaware of Neko's internal upheaval.
Before he could say anything, golden letters flared before his eyes, seeming to flow through the air like strands of light.
"This, in turn, is your name in the Beastkin language," the Matron explained. "And this, my dear..."
She pointed to the fourth, most complex inscription, composed of elegant, almost divine symbols, "...is your name in the Aetheris language."
Bovina began to pace the room, the bells at her ample bust chiming quietly.
"The Human tongue is used daily on the Human continent. The Beastkin tongue dominates their own territory, though due to political history, many of them are proficient in Human speech," she explained calmly. "On our continent, as you've already noticed, we primarily use Demonic."
She stopped at the final, shimmering inscription.
"Aetheris is the universal language. It is used by all three continents for diplomatic and commercial communication. More importantly, most skill books and magical scrolls are written in this language. Without knowing it, you will never independently understand new skills."
With a fluid wave of her hand, she made the Human and Beastkin inscriptions vanish into the white mist of the aura. Only the Demonic characters and the golden Aetheris symbols remained.
"These two are what we will learn," she announced firmly. "They are the absolute foundation you must master if you want to survive and grow in this world. We can handle the others in the future if you wish, but for now, we focus on what matters most."
Neko nodded, feeling an extraordinary clarity of mind. Sitting in his scandalously short skirt, he felt for the first time that he had a real goal - one that didn't just involve being a "toy."
The golden symbols of the universal Aetheris language slowly dissolved into the white aura, leaving only the sharp, purple characters of the Demonic alphabet. Bovina, adjusting her tight corset from which her gargantuan breasts nearly spilled, began to pace in front of the desk again.
"We'll handle constructing full sentences later, sweetie. For now, you must master the foundations," she announced, her bust-bells chiming clearly.
She began to explain the phonetics, showing how the guttural sounds of demons vibrate. She explained the differences between nouns - which in their language always carry a charge of power - and adjectives or verbs, which describe the flow of energy. Neko listened intently, even as his scandalously short skirt hiked up with his every move on the chair.
Suddenly, Bovina made a gesture, and a sizeable stack of blank sheets materialized before Neko. Beside each sheet was one enlarged Demonic character.
"Your homework will be to transcribe each of these characters," she said, pointing to the mountain of paper. "You must fill every sheet with one letter, repeating it all the way to the bottom. Training the hand is the only way your brain will begin to flow according to the shape of the letters."
Neko looked at the stack - one entire page for every single letter. His cheeks flushed slightly, and the bell on his tail gave a piteous jingle. He made a slightly sour face, realizing how many hours he would spend at the desk, but under Bovina's authority and his own [Submissive] talent, he didn't dare object.
Suddenly, Neko froze, his cat ears shooting vertically upward, piercing through the dense white aura of the knowledge domain. He raised a trembling hand, the bell on his tail giving a short, sharp jingle. Bovina stopped mid-stride, her gargantuan breasts rippling slightly as she turned toward him.
"Do you have a question, sweetie?" she asked with a gentle smile, adjusting the bell on her collar.
"Bovina... I just realized something," Neko began, his voice betraying deep confusion. "I've never learned the Demonic language in my life... so how is it possible that I can talk to you all so freely and understand everything?"
Bovina didn't seem surprised by the question. Frowning slightly, she leaned against the edge of the desk, causing her corset to strain dangerously over her curves.
"Your case is unique, considering what Lady Lilith did to your body," she explained calmly. "I don't fully understand it myself, but it seems you are able to naturally comprehend and use our speech in its oral form. It was 'imprinted' into you along with your new identity. If you want the details of that mechanism, you'll have to ask Lady Lilith herself."
Neko tried to search his system in his mind for a moment, but he found nothing in the skills section that explained this linguistic anomaly.
It's not the system's doing... I don't have any passive translation skills, he thought, looking at his feet beneath the scandalously short skirt.
Bovina clapped her hands, breaking his train of thought.
"Alright, let's set that thought aside for later. Since we know you can speak, let's focus on ensuring you can read as well," she announced, returning to the lecture.
Neko took a deep breath, trying to ignore the fact that his transparent white shirt revealed his midriff, which was trembling from stress, and focused entirely on Bovina's voice as she began to trace more phonetic sigils in the air.