Now there are certain other things boyfriends and girlfriends do that are very energy-intensive and that they haven't actually tried because last time they were girlfriend and girlfriend instead.

Well, they can certainly experiment and see if that's sufficiently exhausting, then. For science.

There will be so much science done today.

They should be really thorough. To make sure they test all possibilities.

And there are so many of those. They might not even get to test all of them before they both get exhausted, who knows.

Probably not! They'll just have to experiment more than once, then, won't they.

Probably!

They can spend the next while experimenting, then, if Dayo'd like. 

Only until they have to go sleep; he has to return to the castle the next day.

Works for her.

The next day she prepares breakfast, then wishes Dayo luck at the castle and goes to continue developing her traveling-through-wood jutsu (...which really needs a name). 

The next day... Dayo is a girl.

Which makes becoming Sadde kind of annoying. But she'll deal.

The work's much the same, though a bit harder - pretty much as close to the top of her abilities as work at this level will get.

After the work day's done, one of the other calculators catches her eye and comes over. 

"Hi, there," she greets.

"Hey! I'm Alfradr, one of the apprentices. You must be the new guy?"

"Y-yeah, I'm Sadde. Nice to meet you."

He smiles. "Enjoying the work so far?"

"Mmhm. It's fun."

"That's good! Has anyone had a chance to show you around yet?"

"Not really. I saw the library?"

"The library's rather nice, but that's hardly everything. Well, everything we're allowed to see. C'mon, let me give you the full tour."

"O-okay! Thanks."

The 'full tour' mostly involves the public spaces (they don't go into the central keep, and they stay out of the way of the busier places and the towers, though he does point out the way to the kitchens and such). There's an enormous set of gardens surrounding the keep, with winding paths, benches, a long reflecting pool, and orange trees for shade, that they're allowed to pick from. If Sadde squints, it really shouldn't fit inside the space it's in - the warping effect is somewhat blatant, here.

She does squint.

"So I'm kinda curious—why is there an astronomy department here?"

"The lord has his own theories about the ley, and how to traverse past its bounds. I think it's something to do with his native realm's magic, though he might have recently gotten something - an artifact probably - that he expects to help. At least, that's what I've pieced together - my desk's pretty close to the center, and I overhear conversations sometimes, plus I've seen the boards. Us calculators don't really get much information, though."