“And that’s why, Miss Mary. Please teach me more in detail about the etiquette and knowledge on how to be a king’s brother.”
After lunch, I came to visit the governess Mary in the study room (usually Marcel would always take a nap after lunch and skip his lessons) and told her I wanted to learn, shocking her to the core.
Miss Mary is the second daughter of a fallen baron’s family, so she is working for our family currently and she’s recognized for her excellence. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been able to showcase her talents due to Marcel being the one under her care.
“I see, you’ve greatly changed for the better.”
She should be happy that I’m so motivated now, but her eyes aren’t showing it. She’s probably thinking that I’ll go right back to slacking off again after three days or so.
“Ahh, let’s begin immediately, please. First, teach me arithmetic. When Raiheart-dono was helping as a merchant’s apprentice right after being passed over for the succession, he was able to accurately calculate ten people’s orders at a time without making any mistakes. I’ll have to be good to that extent as well.”
Even though I just told this story, I was actually using the story of Prince Shotoku Taishi.
“I understand. Then, will problems about how merchants shop suffice?”
“Ahh, that’s perfect. Let me do them.”
“Then — how about this?”
Miss Mary began writing a problem in her notebook.
“If you have one ajji (currency) of bread already, and buy another three ajji of sausages, when combining the cost, how much ajji will it be in total?”
This is 1 + 3.
However, I’m going to answer like Marcel would.
“I don’t buy such cheap things as that.”
As the eldest son of a Duke’s family, Marcel doesn’t have to do his own shopping in the first place, but he has been taught plenty about money’s value. He’s a total snob.
“……Then, if you’re buying one galt (currency) of rubies, and three galts of jasper, when combining the cost, how many galts will it be in total?”
“Ahh, that’s much more like what I would want. The answer is four galts.”
I replied while showing off my self-confidence. Marcel should at least get something of this extent correct. Even Marcel has reviewed and learned this much before.
“That’s correct. You must have applied yourself to studying recently. Then, next problem.”
She’s trying to confirm how much I know, she’s a good teacher.
“If you’re buying six galts of sapphires and nine galts of diamonds, how many galts would it cost? If you need to, feel free to use your hands to count.”
I counted up to six on my fingers, bent one to signify it and then counted another nine fingers.
“It’s five galts.”
Once again, I showed off how self-confident I was on purpose.
“Hmm~, unfortunately, that’s wrong.”
“What!! But I have five fingers that are still straight now!”
I convincingly pretended to not understand and held my hands out, and Miss Mary gently took my hands.
“Marcel-sama, it’s great that you’re trying to learn how to count larger numbers on your fingers now. Let’s just fix your counting method a little.”
“……Just a little, very well then.”
“Then, let’s begin. Let’s start with six fingers, like this. From there, let’s add one, two, three, four fingers, and now how many will there be?”
“Isn’t it obviously ten — ahh.”
“Hehe, so you’ve noticed then. Then you add the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth fingers, five more, then you have -”
“15!”
“Wonderful. That’s correct.”
Miss Mary clapped her hands for me.
Rather than her disinterested eyes from earlier, now she has happy, clear eyes from helping the student learn.
“And so, Marcel-sama, I’ll teach you how to count larger numbers now. Marcel-sama answered five incorrectly earlier, but there’s an easy way to spot mistakes like that.”
“What! Teach me!”
“Hehehe, first let’s start with six galts of sapphires. So what happens if we buy one more galt?”
“Of course, there will be more. Yep, that’s definitely it!”
“That’s right. Before you start counting, you should already know that the answer has to be larger than six. Therefore, you should know now that the previous answer of five was wrong.”
Miss Mary was smiling at me.
She’s really courteous while teaching me. She’s not just telling me the correct answers, but also trying to make sure I understand the process, and on top of that is even teaching me little tricks and shortcuts.
Even though it’s such a simple subject, teaching it can be hard.
I was testing out how good Miss Mary was, and I believe now that she’s pretty skilled.
If it’s this person, I can probably trust her to become Michelle’s governess.
“Oh, this is good! Please teach me more.”
“Since Marcel-sama is so motivated, I think that’s really a wonderful thing. Then, let’s start practicing with the number ten. What happens when you subtract nine from ten?”
“It’s one.”
“What about subtracting six, then?”
“Let’s see, seven, six, five, four…… It’s four!”
“Wonderful! Then -”
And as such, time passed quickly while I was studying with Miss Mary.