Volume 1 Chapter 29 Let's Try Making an Abacus
While Cain was busy with [magic] training and tending to the Satsuma fields, Alice, 3 years his senior, spent her days studying with a tutor.
Every morning, Alice would see Cain happily training in the yard or nurturing the Satsuma, and she couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy.
One evening at dinner, Alice abruptly aired her grievances to Luke.
"Father, every single day, Cain just plays around. It's not fair. When I was 5, I was already learning letters from Miss Sophia. Cain should start too."
"Umm, but..."
Luke, the father, shifted his gaze away from Alice, looking a bit troubled.
Then he muttered "Umm, umm" to himself for a while.
"Why don't you ask Miss Sophia if she wouldn't mind teaching him, just enough not to burden her?"
Lydia offered a helpful suggestion.
"Alright, Lydia. I'll ask the teacher if she can accommodate that."
That evening's meal ended with an odd atmosphere hanging in the air.
The next day, Mother Lydia seemed to have confirmed things with Miss Sophia, and it was decided that Cain would join the study sessions at the next evening meal.
However, it ended up being only 2 days a week, and only in the morning.
* * *
"Well then, Sir Cain will be joining us for writing lessons starting today. Please treat him well."
Sophia, a 23-year-old unmarried woman who had graduated from Magic Academy and joined the knight order only to leave after a year, had been teaching at the Sanroze household since then, instructing Benjamin, Chris, and Alice.
"Please treat me well."
Cain replied with enthusiasm.
"Cain, if you have any questions, just ask me, okay?"
Alice chimed in proudly.
"──Very well, Lady Alice will continue with yesterday's arithmetic, and Sir Cain, let's start with writing the letters."
Alice opened a piece of parchment with numbers written on it and began her calculations, muttering to herself.
Sophia handed over a piece of parchment and a small slate.
In the kingdom, paper was quite expensive, so people usually wrote on parchment.
However, since parchment was also pricey, the children's studies often involved writing on slates with limestone.
"Alright, let's start by memorizing these letters one by one."
With that, she began explaining with a parchment that looked like an alphabet chart.
'Wait, what? I can read all of this, and I understand it! How's that possible? It's not even Japanese... Oh! Right, Lady Gardea did say something about giving me a skill like [Otherworld Language Understanding].'
'What should I do? It's easy to say I can read it, but to maintain Sister Alice's dignity, should I pretend to study?'
Cain made a difficult decision.
Imagine this.
A person who can read and write Japanese suddenly has to pretend to be a first-grader in a language class, acting like they don't understand a thing.
Fighting off sleepiness, Cain was copying the letters and pronunciations that Sophia was teaching onto a stone tablet.
"Sir Cain, please copy down the words for flower, tree, person, earth, and wind. Lady Alice, have you finished?"
Sophia instructed Cain on the copying while beginning to check Alice's arithmetic answers.
"Lady Alice has no trouble with single-digit addition and subtraction, but she tends to make mistakes with 2-digit problems that are a bit tricky. Today, let's try breaking it down and calculating step by step."
Alice was trying her best, despite her clumsiness.
'Sister Alice is struggling with 2-digit calculations. She can handle single digits, so I think she can get it soon if she tries. Speaking of which, do they have an abacus in this world? I was good at math because I learned how to use an abacus when I was with Michio.'
That day, he kept writing and erasing until it was over.
'I can't keep going like this; it's driving me crazy.'
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