Chapter 9 The Difference Between A Daughter And A Son
The maid, who had been waiting nearby, started brewing a new pot of tea. Rebecca, seeing this, turned to face the direction of the mansion. It seemed that Robert, who had finished his late breakfast, had come to where Sara and Rebecca were.
"Hey, Revi, long time no see. You're looking energetic as usual."
"And you, Rob, are looking lively too."
"No, I've been feeling my age lately. You're still as young as ever, Revi. I wish a fairy would come to my place too."
"Probably not gonna happen. If they made a contract with you, they'd have to do all the paperwork too. No way a fairy would come near that."
"That's true, isn't it?"
As childhood friends, they exchanged light, playful banter. However, upon closer inspection, dark circles had formed under Robert's eyes. He didn't seem to have gotten much sleep.
"Uncle, aren't you getting enough rest?"
"Hmm, there's been a lot going on."
"Is work keeping you busy?"
"To be honest, I've always been bad at keeping accounts."
"What, you're the one keeping the accounts, Uncle? Don't you have an accountant or something?"
"We did have one a few years ago, but it turned out they were embezzling funds. Since then, Father has been saying, 'We can't trust anyone outside of Grandchester with our accounts!' So, I ended up having to do it myself."
"Well, that's so extreme. Money management is hard even for experts!"
Rebecca looked slightly troubled and whispered to Sara.
"Ms. Sara, I understand how you feel, but a lady shouldn't talk about money."
"What, really?"
"Talking about money is considered impolite."
"But isn't it an important thing?"
"Of course, it's important. But, as a lady, it's correct to leave money matters to the gentlemen."
"So, ladies are supposed to live without knowing their financial situation?"
"Some ladies might have a general idea, but only a few would know the details."
"That's ridiculous!"
"Yeah, I think so too. But, if a lady gets involved in financial matters, it means her father or husband isn't capable enough, doesn't it? If it's Ms. Sara, that would mean her grandfather..."
"Th, that's..."
Robert looked at Sara with a puzzled expression.
"Maybe commoners are different or something?"
"When the husband doesn't work or just drinks all day, the wife gets angry and says 'We don't have money! Work!' That's normal, right? In the house I grew up in, the person in charge of recording sales at the store was the one who dealt with customers directly. So, my mom and I would sometimes write it down too. Of course, my dad would do the final accounting, and he was in charge of monthly and yearly settlements, but my mom and I would help out too."
"Wait, can Sara do accounting?"
"Of course I've been helping out at the store since I was 5, so I had to keep track of what we sold, how many, and for how much. If I didn't, we couldn't keep our accounts straight. After closing, we'd tally up the day's sales and match it with the actual cash to keep our accounts in order. We'd all double-check the numbers together as a family to make sure they added up. If there was even a 1-dal discrepancy, we'd start over from the beginning. I never thought there was a difference between men and women when it came to that."
In reality, a 5-year-old who can read, write, and do math like that is almost unheard of, whether they're noble or commoner. Especially among commoners, literacy rates are low, and there are many people who can't read or write their whole lives. As for math, being able to do accurate 4-digit calculations is a level of skill that can get you hired as an apprentice at a big merchant's shop.
But Sara learned to read at 3 years old and could do math with ease. She probably inherited her abilities from her past life without even realizing it. Although, if this world didn't use decimal systems, it's questionable whether she would've picked it up so quickly.
The truth is, Sara's parents thought she was a "child prodigy!" without her even knowing it. Moreover, the people in the neighborhood had noticed that Arthur came from a noble family, so they thought, "She must have inherited noble blood or something."
"So, in other words, Sara can do accounting, right?"
"It might be difficult if it's too complicated. After all, it's just a store's level."
"But can you calculate it?"
"Well, if it's a simple calculation..."
'Ah, this is bad. If I don't understand the math level of this world, I might say something stupid.'
Sara had graduated from a humanities university in her past life, but she was also quite good at math. Rather, she was a diligent student.
"As expected of Arthur's daughter. He was good at math, wasn't he?"
"Yes, Father was quick with calculations."
"Wait a minute, Rob. Ms. Sara, can you really do calculations?"
"Simple ones like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division."
Rebecca looked like she couldn't hide her surprise. She slowly took out a slate and a writing stick, and started writing numbers.
"Then, what's the result of adding 126 and 87?"
"It's 213."
"What if we subtract instead?"
"It's 39."
"What's 8 times 9?"
"It's 72."
"What's 86 divided by 5?"
"It's 17 with a remainder of 1. Should I answer with decimals?"
"No, that's fine. You know decimals too. That's something you learn in Academy, isn't it..."
Robert and Rebecca were both staring at Sara with their eyes wide open.
"Sara, you're..."
"A genius, aren't you?"
'Huh? Am I being called a genius just because of simple arithmetic? In my past life, I was only memorizing the multiplication table at that age. Division and decimals might come a bit later, but it's not like I'm a genius or anything!'
For a moment, Sara felt uneasy about the math level of this world. However, she remembered that at her family's store, ordinary customers would calculate the prices of the goods they bought, multiplying the unit price by the quantity, and even did subtraction to calculate the change.
It was probably because she was exceptional compared to her age.
"If Sara were a boy, I'd want to send her to Academy early."
Sara felt a pang at Robert's words.
"Uncle, don't girls get to enter Academy?"
"No. Academy only accepts male students."
"What do girls do if they want to study?"
"They hire a governess like Revi."
"That's basic education, right? If I want to learn more specialized knowledge?"
"Basically, noblewomen don't acquire that level of specialized knowledge."
"Does that mean girls don't get the same learning opportunities as boys?"
"Yeah, that's how it is."
"Th-then..."
Rebecca smiled sadly and began to talk, stroking Sara's head.
"I used to think the same thing when I was younger."
"Even you, Miss Rebecca?"
"Yes, I loved learning. I loved math, history, reading, and even alchemy. So, I begged my father to let me attend the Academy. But he locked me up in a tower for 2 days without food."
"That's terrible!"
It was shocking. Just because we were a woman, we didn't have the opportunity to learn. It was so unfair.
"The ones who helped me were Rob and Arthur."
"Uncle and Father?"
"Yes, they showed me the Academy's textbooks and notes, and taught me what I had learned."
"It was mostly Arthur who taught her, though. I was studying alongside, and we reviewed together. Thanks to that, I didn't fail the Academy."
"To be exact, Arthur was desperate to help Rob with his studies."
"Hmm, but isn't Father younger than Uncle?"
"Arthur entered the Academy early, so even though we're siblings, we're in the same grade. And to top it off, my younger brother is at the top of the class, while I'm always on the verge of failing."
"I think it's because Rob only cares about swordsmanship and doesn't study."
"That's true."
Robert and Rebecca looked at each other, reminiscing about the past, and laughed.
'Hey, these 2 are really close, aren't they?'
Since she'll be working as a live-in tutor, being a governess is a job for unmarried women. There are also women who work after becoming widows, but in any case, they're unmarried.
Still, it would be rude to ask if the 2 are dating, so Sara just smiled to herself and kept quiet.
"Then, Miss Rebecca will also teach me the Academy's curriculum, right?"
"Well, Ms. Sara is quite the go-getter, isn't she? While you might not have any problems with math, even with the Academy's curriculum, let's create a study plan based on your level for other subjects too."
"Yes, please take care of me!"
"We still have the textbooks that I and Arthur used, but if needed, we can order more."
"Thank you, Uncle!"
It seems that even without attending the Academy, it's possible to receive equivalent education. Apparently, she's also gotten a pretty good 'draw' for the governess.
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