[V2C12] The Numbers Evaporated
Translated by Jodas 2: Daily Lives of a New Teacher and the Apprentice MagesTen days had passed since the third-rate con man Smoke Fox had started teaching classes as Caspar Hütter.
He, who was responsible for teaching individual lessons even though he couldn’t use magic at all, had first thought ‘this is the worst, I’ll have to make them run or lift weights every day to get through this……,’ but he was lucky.
“Pyoeehhh…… Pyoeehhh……..fifteen, plus, eighteen is……..a lot……… a whole lot……”
“I’ve got some pretty boy advice for you. Tia, use your fingers. Your fingers.”
“I don’t have enough……. Wren, Sevil, let me borrow your fingers……”
“Most certainly. Here, feel free to use my fingers as you please!”
Sevil threw away her feather pen and stuck out both hands. Wren gave a biting retort.
“You just want to stop doing your own work, don’t you!?”
“Was it that easy to tell?”
Shameless, Sevil stuck out her tongue.
The scene in the individual lesson room before him looked more like an exchange that would occur at a commoners’ primary school.
Even though the apprentices of the Wedge Tower took group lessons in the morning and divided into individual lessons in the afternoon, the three students in Hütter’s class were still stuck on the material from the group lessons.
The group lessons each morning focused on the basic fields of magic, both magical and Imperial history, and the traits of magical beings. The content was different from what one would learn at an ordinary school.
However, people came to the Wedge Tower with all sorts of extenuating circumstances. Considering that, it was clear that there would be a disparity in academic ability when students enroll. At the very least, academic performance varied wildly between different regions of the Empire.
For that reason, those who lacked basic academic abilities would receive a separate assignment from the group lessons. The problem set Tia was crying over was one such assignment.
Thus, the afternoon individual lessons in Hütter’s class became a time to finish the assignments the students could not complete in the morning.
Gazing at the problem Tia was trying to solve, Hütter secretly thought.
(I wonder what kind of face Director Hegelich made while putting these problems together…….)
This set of elementary arithmetic problems was hand-made by Director Hegelich himself.
As Director, he should be a reasonably talented mage. Considering that, this must have been painful.
(Tia didn’t even go to primary school……..She must have grown up out in the sticks somewhere. Wren is clever, but he’s all self taught so his knowledge base is unbalanced. Sevil’s naturally good at history and language, but she has some serious difficulties with math…….)
In short, none of these three were ready to start learning magic.
Tia was in an especially bad state. She could read and write, albeit with great difficulty, but she had trouble understanding complex grammar and was abysmally bad at mathematics.
Seeing her, Hütter leaned over and called out to Tia as she counted on her fingers.
“Look. First, just set aside the tens for now. Can you try adding five and eight? You should have enough fingers to do that.”
“Pirorororo……. ten……. twelve?”
“Thirteen. Then, add the tens you just set aside.”
“Where did I leave those numbers, again……?”
“Somewhere in your memory.”
While there were many traditions of magecraft, they fundamentally involved creating a magical formula, then weaving it together with mana.
Those magical formulas closely resembled mathematical formulas.
Magical formulas required calculations for their power, range, and duration. To do so, arithmetic was obviously crucial.
While it would be preferable to have advanced mathematical knowledge, it would be cruel to demand that of Tia. They first had to lay the groundwork by getting her to add two-digit numbers.
(Ah~~~~Thank goodness……..Even I can teach them this………)
“Pyororororo……..Mr. Hütter, those numbers I set aside have disappeared from my head…….Where did they go……?”
“I see…..The numbers have evaporated……”
“Pyoeh…….Eva-por-ated? What’s that?”
“Alright, let’s take a break from math for a bit, and I’ll teach you about evaporation.”
“Breaks are fun! I’ll listen! I’ll listen real good!”
If the real Caspar Hütter were here at the Wedge Tower, where any and all forms of magic were gathered, teaching basic addition and the concept of evaporation, he would probably be pissed. So the imposter secretly thought.
(All three of them lack common sense in completely different ways…….)
First, there was Sevil. She wasn’t an ignorant princess by any means, but her idea of common knowledge was twisted. She had a wealth of experience riding around on the battlefield, but she likely was ill-suited for social maneuvering.
She was a quick thinker, but she had troubles thinking about things in the long run. In short, she was impulsive.
Also, and this was disastrous for her as a member of the Imperial Family, she was not good at gathering or manipulating information.
Next, there was Wren. According to Guidance Office Director Hegelich, he was likely the son of a prominent merchant’s mistress. Left to die in a gilded cage, Hütter assumed he had rebelled and ran away from home.
Wren was smart, but he hadn’t interacted with many people before—He knew almost nothing about people.
That was why he’d set his sights on such a vapid dream.
It was most likely simply something he had thought he could be proud of achieving. Because he didn’t know any other options.
Finally, Tia. She really had absolutely no book smarts nor street smarts.
She had intellectual curiosity, and she learned quickly. However, it felt like she wasn’t used to having to think.
Hütter believed that thinking was, to an extent, a learned behavior.
What to think about—math, language, business, relationships, or fraud—differed from person to person, but the more you became accustomed to it, the better you would get at thinking.
That was something that Tia desperately lacked.
It would be best for Sevil to learn how to view things in the long run and see the big picture. Perhaps he should make her play chess or some kind of board game.
He needed to give Wren the chance to interact with various kinds of people. He has ambition, so as long as he gets to know someone, he would learn without any further intervention.
For Tia, she first needed to get used to thinking. It didn’t matter what about. She was curious, so he wanted to encourage her to think deeply about subjects that interested her so she could get used to that kind of thinking.
(But personality-wise, I think these kids are a good match.)
Sevil had the force and momentum to push things forward.
Wren was clever, cautious, and could put a stop to things before they got out of hand.
Tia was fearless, friendly, and could maintain a warm atmosphere.
If I recruited them as fraudsters, they would make a fun group……..Such thoughts were best kept secret.
The bell rang, signaling the end of afternoon lessons.
Ding-dong, ding-dong Tia liked the sound of the bell. It was a sound that a Harpy’s throat couldn’t make.
“Pyoeffuu……”
Tia tossed away her feather pen and collapsed on the desk.
As a Harpy, any number bigger than ten was basically ‘a lot’ to Tia. Tia had thought she was doing well just to count to ten.
“My head huuurrrrts……”
At this rate, maybe her head would reach its boiling point and evaporate until there was nothing left.
(Even if it evaporates, the water doesn’t disappear…….It just becomes foggy air and sticks around somewhere…….)
Recalling what she had just learned, Tia gathered the air around her and tried to push it into her head. She was trying to return the evaporated knowledge back to her head.
(Mr. Hütter’s story was a lot of fun, though……)
Tia was bad at arithmetic, but she wasn’t bad at memorizing other kinds of things.
Hütter also must have been an excellent teacher, he was great at keeping her engaged.
Like when he helped her remember the magical elements by putting them to song, or when he mixed in examples to explain how evaporation worked.
No matter what the subject, he would break it down and explain it so that Tia could understand.
(All that’s left is math…….)
“Pefuu, pefuu” Tia glared at the wrinkled and torn problem sheet and coughed. Looking at it, Wren frowned.
“Your handwriting sucks, huh…..”
“Pirorororo……..”
Tia was bad at using her fingers. Even though Harpies had parts that looked like human hands on the ends of their wings, they didn’t use them very often. They were much better at using their feet or mouth.
Tia truly believed that her handwriting would look better if she held the feather pen in her mouth or between her toes.
“Your handwriting is very pretty, Wren. You’re really good at that.”
“I also believe so. I would almost consider appointing you as my scribe.”
“I’m a pretty boy, after all.”
Wren winked at Tia and Sevil’s praise, then looked to be thinking about something. He spoke quietly, with a hint of embarrassment.
“When I was at home, I couldn’t really do proper studying…..So I would find all the old books in the mansion and practice replicating the words. I thought if I could become a scribe, I might be able to make a little bit of money.”
“Hoh?”
Sevil made an interested voice, and lifted her own problem sheet for Wren to see.
“I’m intrigued. Try copying this.”
“You just want me to do the signature? It would be something like this.”
Wren picked up a feather pen and copied Sevil’s signature in a blank spot on the page.
Sevil’s handwriting was strong and forceful, reflecting her personality. Wren replicated that perfectly.
“Oh?” Hütter, who watched the three’s conversation, watched with interest.
“It’s quite impressive to manage this to such a degree. However, it’s quite hard to find work as a scribe. You need to have connections with a reasonably good family to start with, remember that.”
“It’s a rough world, huh……”
Wren’s shoulders dropped at Hütter’s words.
Sevil gave those shoulders a pat.
“There is a high-status noble right here, is there not? Very well. If you ever find yourself out of work, I shall hire you.”
“I definitely don’t want to work for you, Sevil. I don’t want a boss who casually launches coups d’état.”
For some reason, Hütter quickly covered his ears in response to Wren’s comment.
“Your teacher heard nothing, okay? Got it, you guys? Your teacher heard nothing about a coup d’état. Don’t get me involved.”
Hütter then moved to slip out of the room, before remembering something and stopping.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Hey, you guys! Tomorrow morning you’ll be going on an extracurricular lesson!”
Extracurricular lesson. So they were doing something different than usual.
She had no clue what that would entail, but it sounded a lot more fun than sitting around and doing math all day.
Tia wasn’t alone, both Wren and Sevil’s eyes lit up. They were also happy to do extracurricular lessons.
Sevil spoke for the three of them.
“What will we be doing, Mr. Hütter?”
“The Investigation Office will be conducting a mana density survey of the Eastern Forest. I want you guys to tag along with them tomorrow.”
Basically, work shadowing.
The Investigation Office belonged to the Second Spire: Golden Needle, and worked to investigate traces of a Monster’s presence and determine their areas of activity.
“The Investigation Office are pros at finding evidence of Monsters. Well, I’m sure you’ll have a lot to learn.”
“Piyo……”
Pros at finding evidence of Monsters. Those words gave Tia goosebumps.