Chapter 165 Give Thanks to the Great Ancestors!
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Lord! As a special favor, the super cute Sasami is willing to let you help with her homework today!”
”It’s true no desu!”
Ayumu nearly fell backward out of his chair with a sharp “whoa?!” when—while he was peacefully enjoying his evening drink, a glass of vodka cut with water and a plate of dried surume squid lightly roasted over an alcohol lamp—Sasami and Cocoa suddenly popped up from under his desk like two mischievous mushrooms sprouting out of the floor.
Honestly, he figured working from a young age could be a valuable experience too, but what mattered more right now was them spending time with friends their own age. That was why he’d told them to focus on school for now instead of their chores as housemaids. So apparently this whole thing was about him helping with their homework.
Fair enough. Still, even if he wanted to help, he couldn’t unless he knew *what* they didn’t get. So he asked, “All right… which part don’t you understand?”
”Uuuhm… all of it no desu!!”
”All of it no resu!!”
…You’ve got to be kidding me. These two… what even. When they said that, all he could manage was a weak, “r-right… I see…” because seriously, what else was he supposed to say? These girls were hopeless.
They had both language and math homework, so he decided to knock out language first. A few spelling mistakes and missing characters here and there, but they breezed through that. Math, though… was a whole other story.
They seemed fine with addition, but multiplication and division? Suspicious. Very suspicious.
”Mm—nnnn…”
Okay, this was bad. Maybe… maybe it wasn’t just them. So he asked if the other kids could do it, and apparently a lot of them couldn’t either.
Weirdly enough, Sasami and Cocoa begging him for homework help had actually helped him stumble onto a bigger issue with their education system. Which, sure, silver lining.
After thinking about it for a while, he decided to add a few new techniques to the math lessons: the old French method of finger-math where, as long as they memorized 1×1 through 5×5, they could use their ten fingers to calculate up to the tens place; the ancient Indian method of division that used repeated addition to break problems down; and the ancient Indian stick-math where they drew lines on paper in three directions and counted the intersection points as sums to get the answer.
Strangely enough, it ended up spreading faster among adults than the kids. Adults seemed to like it more, actually. And once more adults could do math, they got way better at things like measuring land or farmland, and doing tax filings based on income—so the civil officials’ jobs got easier. Maybe that was why…?
Because for the first time, Cartier—the ever-prickly Cartier, who had always been sharp and cold to him—had started acting just a *little* bit softer toward Ayumu. And yeah, that honestly made him really happy in this tiny quiet way.
Naturally, Ayumu was also silently sending huge waves of gratitude to the brilliant ancestors of India and France who had come up with these math methods in the first place. He owed them big time… To be continued.
Notes:
• Sasami – Birene girl, small and sharp-eyed with messy brown hair | First in Ch.126 | Servant maid from the slums, does chores with chaotic energy | Has many starving siblings she secretly sends wages to | Bonds with Cocoa as her junior but constantly drags her into trouble | Meets Ayumu as part of the first servant group, wakes him with flying tackles and endless pranks | Unique note: loudmouthed gremlin who hides deep loyalty and homesickness behind mischief
• Cocoa – Birene girl, tiny and round-cheeked with soft blonde hair | First in Ch.127 | Junior servant maid, clumsy but earnest | Orphan with no known family | Shadows Sasami everywhere and copies her antics | Met Ayumu as part of the first servant group, now joins Sasami’s wild wake-up attacks | Unique note: innocent copycat who causes chaos without ever realizing it
• Cartier – Nelrearian merchant prodigy, striking with soft pink hair and sharp sapphire eyes | First in Ch.144 | Genius at bookkeeping and logistics, granddaughter of a major merchant guild founder | Powerful family ties grant her vast influence | Initially scornful of Ayumu and treats him with cold disdain | Oversees arms and supply distribution while mocking his manners | Unique note: brilliant yet venom-tongued, she insults him as vulgar while quietly accelerating Keldan’s military growth
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply