Arithmetic Class
Ding, dong~
The bell signaling the start of class rang, and just before the sound faded, the clatter of footsteps echoed loudly.
“Phew~! Made it just in time!”
“You’re not on time, you idiot!”
Just like yesterday, Tony showed up at the last possible moment. Incidentally, the sleepy doggy brothers came to school together today. Hachi seemed to be fully awake too.
Right behind Tony came an older rabbit beastkin woman. The way she smacked the back of Tony’s head without hesitation made it clear this kind of last-minute arrival was a regular thing.
“Oh, this must be the new child. I’m Elia, a rabbitkin and the one in charge of arithmetics.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Vio, a human, five years old. Pleased to meet you.”
“My, you really are well-mannered. No wonder everyone keeps saying how smart you are. I’m looking forward to seeing how much you can keep up with the class.”
“Ugh, Vio, you’ve already been marked by Elibaba? Poor thing.”
“Who’re you calling Baba, you moron Tony! I heard you lost control of your mana again yesterday!”
“Geh! How did Granny find out?!”
A game of tag (or something like it) suddenly began. Perhaps because she’s a rabbitkin, Mrs. Elia jumped effortlessly over desks and obstacles as Tony scrambled away, only to be pursued with even higher leaps. The situation made it hard for anyone to move.
So Teacher Elia is Tony’s grandmother, huh?
Just when it seemed like the tag game would go on longer, Tony was caught by Teacher Elia’s magic before he could complete a full lap. He was now twitching like a shrimp… not a shrimp tempura, just a shrimp.
Apparently, the healing potions used at school are billed to the family. Since Grandma had been covering the cost up front, she decided to deduct it from her grandson’s allowance. Quite strict.
I’ll try to be careful so I don’t trouble Dad.
“He never learns, does he.”
“Tony’s tied up again.”
Seeing Tony twitching next to the teacher didn’t faze the others in the slightest. Clearly, this is a routine occurrence. Given that he keeps provoking her knowingly, maybe Tony just wants attention from his grandma? Like a physical way of bonding with a beloved grandchild? Hmm, that might still be a bit too much for me to handle…
“Oh? You three are sitting together? Isn’t it a bit cramped?”
Since we’re all tiny, it’s not too bad, but there are empty seats on both sides, so I think it’d be fine to move.
“Teacher, we wanna sit here ‘cause Vio teaches us stuff!”
“Yeah, Vio is amazing!”
Looks like I totally won them over yesterday during the language class and life magic lesson. I thought they might sit here if they didn’t understand something, but now they just take this seat for granted.
And teacher, maybe stop enjoying the show and help out a bit?
Well, I can’t ignore the happy tail-wagging from both of them either, so I guess I’ll just stay here for now.
And so, class began. The nine-year-old trio got handouts and seemed to be working on their own. Same as the language class. The seven- and six-year-olds also got papers—probably calculation problems? They were staring at the sheets going “Hmm, hmm…” So, what do we five-year-olds get to learn?
“Now then, what should we do with you two? You’ve learned your numbers, right? Let’s start with addition.”
Wait, is this going to be trial and error? Well, I guess she’s adjusting based on our level...
“How many digits do you two know?”
“What’s a digit?”
“Digit? What’s that?”
Hmm? If they don’t know what a “digit” is, maybe they only know up to ten? When I asked them to list the numbers they knew from smallest to biggest, Len said, “3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.” Hachi said, “Umm, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.”
Len probably knows more because of his younger brother’s age. The teacher looked surprised—maybe she hadn’t noticed this before?
Still, they seem to understand that bigger numbers are… bigger. And Hachi knows about half of the numbers from 1 to 10, so they should be fine. If we had a deck of cards, we could study numbers while playing. I’ll ask Dad if there are any toys like that.
“Hachi, Len, there are a lot more numbers out there. Let’s say we have a tomato, okay? How many do we have?”
I draw a single circle on the small blackboard in my hand and showed it to them.
Len, don’t say tomatoes aren’t that perfectly round.
“Umm, one.”
Hachi answered. I wonder if the word “one” is connecting in his mind with the number 1. Len also says, “It’s one.”
“That’s right, one piece. It means ‘one.’ That’s a number smaller than three, right?”
““Ah!””
Isn’t this what they call an “Aha! moment”?
Both their tails shoot straight up, so it’s obvious they’ve just had a realization.
“Let me borrow your board for a second, Hachi. Now, let’s say I have one tomato, and Hachi also has one tomato. When we put them together, how many are there?”
I draw a circle on Hachi’s board as well and line it up next to mine.
“Umm, I have one, and Vio also has one.”
“Since it’s both of us together, that makes two?” Len said.
“Ah, two! Vio, two!” Hachi realized, looking pleased.
They both seem to understand that the word used for people and the word for objects are the same when counting. And they also seem to grasp, just from hearing, that the counting words are different when talking about people.
“Yes, Hachi, Len, good job. That’s two. Now, where does this number fall in the order of numbers?”
“It comes after one, so it’s the second one!”
Yes, they’re just saying something obvious, but that’s good.
The teacher is still sitting in the seat I was in earlier, watching us intently, but can I keep going? Oh, thank you.
“Okay, now let me borrow your board too, Len. You also had one tomato, so if we put ours together, how many do we have now?”
“I know this one!”
“Umm, one from me, one from Vio, and one from Len, right?”
Hachi starts to think hard, so Len gives him a nudge: “It’s Lon’s age, remember? It’s the number for Mare, Mire, and Mure!”
“Lon’s age? Mare, Mire, Mure? Three people… Ah! Three! Three tomatoes!”
Maybe they haven’t heard the number three spoken much around them, so they don’t really recognize it as a word yet.
But with Len’s help, they managed to say “three.”
And just like that, we made it all the way up to nine, and surprisingly, both of them already knew ten, which I thought would be the toughest.
“When you turn ten, you leave the school. That’s called graduating. Adventurers at that age are veteran Copper ranks, so they start taking requests a bit farther away, and they form parties with their classmates to go into dungeons.”
“And from ten, you can also start working at home~”
Ah, so that’s why the number ten is special.
After that, it’s just a matter of adding on to the words and digits, so the two of them didn’t struggle too much.
They probably won’t need triple digits for a while, so just getting them up to the tens place should be enough, right?
“You really did teach them, huh. I’m amazed.
When it comes to teaching kids this young from scratch, I had no idea how or what to explain, and I was totally at a loss.
And look at this—they’ve not only learned numbers, they’ve even started understanding addition.
Vio, are you really five years old? I mean, I’ve heard that humans tend to be smart, but this is something else.”
The teacher’s words made my heart skip a beat for a moment, but it didn’t sound like she was doubting me—just expressing her honest surprise. What a relief.
That said, please don’t just sit there and let the student do all the teaching!
Well, I was just so happy from the wave of “aha” moments that I went ahead and taught them addition and subtraction too, so… that’s on me!
What do you think about this chapter?
