It’s been a week but I still wonder why she could read those symbols? Does that mean she knows what they mean..? Ah well. It’s fine. We can think about that later. For now I want to see what factors I can influence in a spell. Well, I already know that, I just want to try influencing them I guess. But right now, I had to go back to dad’s office since I was called by Dad and Hak today. As soon as I got up and was ready to walk to dad’s office. Stella came running and asked me “Can I come too..?” This was the first time that she herself had asked me, I didn’t think she’d do this. But I was happy.

“Mm, sure.”

Once she was ready, the both of us then walked together to dad’s office.

I noticed how much happier she had gotten, it was a far cry from how she first came here. She was, by her own will, open to coming outside. She also smiled more and talked with us. I held her hand and we continued walking.

However what was more surprising than this was...

“Vira, you’re gonna have to study your job as a noble. I know it sounds intimidating, but I know you can do it.”

I knew it was coming, but not this soon.

“Okay dad.”

First dad got a black board out, and he wrote a few one-digit numbers.

“Okay Vira, can you read out these numbers? Oh you can also read Stella.”

Yep, she was also with me in learning math.

「Also, Vira. I’m not gonna do these classes, since I already know them.」

「Aww~ No fair!」

I was basically sitting in the background. Anyway, he wrote 1 through 10. Vira does know the basic numbers and letters because I was always learning them with him and occasionally taught him. But I don’t think I taught him math, this is gonna be fun to see. I’ve never personally seen anyone do math on paper yet.

“Can either of you read it out?”

Both of them nodded their heads and then said the numbers together in chorus.

“Okay good. Now, let me ask you a simple question.”

Dad then picked up three apples and said, “I have 2 apples on one hand, and one apple on the other hand.”

“In total, how many apples do I have?”

Vira shouted his answer “You’d have three apples!” While Stella just showed three fingers.

“Right. Now let’s say I have 5 apples on each hand. How many apples would I have?” This time he didn’t hold any apples.

“10,” said Stella.

“You’d have uhm... 1... 6.. 10 apples!”

Stella said the answer quicker though, she was better than Vira in this aspect.

“Correct, then now that I see you have a basic idea of addition works. Do you guys wanna try answering a few questions?”

“Mhm!”

He then took out two sheets of papers with different questions written on them. Usually kids learn to read while they learn this, but since both of them know how to read and know the basic concepts of addition, he seems to be okay with giving them questions.

The questions mainly contained sums that’d result in 10, no more than that. The main point of this is to get them familiar with the concept of addition.

Soon the two of them finished their tests and Dad checked them.

“Okay Vira made a mistake here, 4 + 6 isn’t equal to 8, it’s equal to ten. If I had four apples in one hand and six in the other, how much would it be?”

“Oh! It’s 10!”

“Exactly.”

“Then Stella, when there are three numbers given to you, and you feel overwhelmed doing all of them in the head, you can break the problems up so that it becomes easier. For instance, when you add 3 + 3 + 3, we can do it this way,” he then wrote on the board.

> 3 + 3 = 6

> 6 + 3 = 9

“Mhm!” she nodded her head.

“We still have the same result, but we’ve just broken the problem into smaller bits so that it’s easy to do.”

The way he teaches is pretty good. He has a clear understanding of both Vira and Stella’s skills and gives questions that are a bit above their caliber to make them understand what they’re doing wrong. But even from what I’ve seen, I don’t think traditional multiplication, like on earth, exists here. They’ve only been doing repeated addition, well that is what multiplication is, but having the rules and tables help out a lot more.

Although I want to show dad the multiplication method, I can’t do that. Especially not when Vira is still learning. I can’t even say I saw it in a book, because he knows every book that I read, including the magic ones.

If I raise everyone’s expectations too much, it’s bound that someone will get disappointed, and that’d most likely be Vira himself. It’s because of this that I can’t show them this method. Not unless... I teach Vira.

If I just teach Vira what I want to tell dad, then Vira would’ve gained an understanding and we’d have expressed a better idea of multiplication to Dad.

「Vira, is it okay if I teach you more math after dad’s classes as well?」

「Mhm! I like math!」

Alright, I’m happy that he likes math too. Reminds me of my time in university with uh... who was it again? I just get so nostalgic when thinking about math and engineering. Magic is the only thing that has ever intrigued me as much as the sciences, but it is pretty sad that I can’t do it myself.

I never thought I’d be so happy in this world.

Anyway dad stopped teaching math. And then he asked a question, “What are the duties of a noble?”

Vira then answered, “To take care of the people!”

“That’s right. Stella, what about you?”

“I think it’s important.. That a noble should respect their people.”

“That’s right. The truth is, both of these are the core rules you must follow as a noble. Well, that’s what our family follows, there are other families that follow other rules too.”

“Dad, so what is our family called?”

“Our family, it’s called [Tanykorvus].”

“So my name is Vira Tanykorvus?”

“Yep. And mine would be Mavirar Euyin Tanykorvus.”

“Dad, why do you have Euyin in your name?”

“Well, when dad was younger, he fought against a lot of people, and they gave me this name.”

“So they were friends?”

“Well, not quite. Anyway, those are the two duties that you must always follow Vira. Don’t ever forget it. Okay?”

Usually he’d be joking around, but this time I could tell that he wasn’t his usual self.

“Okay dad.”

I wonder what happened to him...