“Churot,” Adam called, staring at the answers on the paper. “I uand that no normal person would buy three hundred and sixty apples, five crates of soap, and two mirrors, but that’s just part of the question.”

  “No sense,” Churot replied, simply.

  “That part isn’t meant to make se’s just part of the question,” Adam said, rubbing the side of his forehead.

  Churot remained silent, his eyes still staring up at the Half Elf. He was as stubborn as an ox, as one might have expected of the boy. He, who had grown uhe fort of his grandfather and grandmother, had been spoiled stantly. There was almost never a time he wasn’t near his grandfather and his tender care.

  “The guy whht the apples, soap, and mirrors was a mert,” Adam said. “He bought them in order to sell them off, so you o ahe questions.”

  Right. Merts. Churot knew of those people, those who bought wares and sold them off. Sometimes Iyrmen would act as merts, selling off a few wares in order t the back for the Iyr, but that’s not how the merts typically worked.

  “Why must I answer questions about merts?” Churot asked, speaking the lo sentence he had in some time.

  “It’s to test you,” Adam replied. “I know that chariots ot travel at one hundred kilometres an hour either, but I hope that Churot, who I know to be such a good young man, will ahe questions properly. Otherwise I’ll have to assume that you don’t know the ao the questions, and I won’t be able to teach you properly.”

  Churot stared up at the Half Elf, his face still bnk. He let out a soft breath and took the paper to ahe questions he had answered incorrectly.

  Once he received the paper back, Adam marked the answers which Churot had first answered incorrectly. “I didn’t realise our Churot was so smart.”

  Jarot huffed, about to pin when Mulrot pinched his arm. Her eyes told her husband to leave them be and to mind his own business. She uood it was a difficult ask, but this was for their grandson’s future.

  Adam tio test the young boy, from simple maths to more plicated maths. Eventually, Adam brought that thing into maths, a most devilish iion.

  Churot stared at the question before him. His eyes raised up towards Adam, w if Adam was joking with him. “What is this?”

  “Maths,” Adam replied.

  “Why is there a cross with the numbers?” Churot asked.

  “This is called algebra,” Adam said. “It is useful for maths.”

  Churot furrowed his brows. ‘Are y to stop me from learning magic?’ He wondered if Adam was trying tle out of the promise he had made.

  Adam could see the look in Churot’s eyes. Adam wondered if he looked at his teacher the same way when he brought letters into maths. “I know how you feel, Churot, but this is real. you a?”

  “No,” Churot replied.

  “Why don’t you try first?” Adam asked.

  “I do not know how.”

  “Good point.” Adam chuckled. “That was rather silly of me, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “It was a rhetorical question.”

  Churot wondered if Adam aruly spoke the same nguage. Adam showed Churot how to ahe question in order to find what the value of the letter x was. After a handful of examples, Adam left Churot to ahe questions.

  Even Mulrot wasn’t sure why Adam was bining both letters and maths together.

  “What?” Adam asked, staring at the pair of them, who had been sitting nearby, drinking warm milk aing snacks.

  “Why are you usiers and maths together?”

  “It’s meant to be useful,” Adam said. ‘I guess they don’t have algebra in this world? Or perhaps in just this nd?’

  “Useful? How?”

  “Uh,” Adam replied. “From where I’m from, people learn this just to make life easy. I know that there are mathematis who use algebra to find out all kinds of things.”

  “What kinds of things?”

  Adam paused, trying to think. “Everything?”

  “Everything?”

  “Everything.”

  Jarot exged a look with Mulrot.

  ‘They definitely have Arabiumerals at least,’ Adam thought. If they hadn’t, he wasn’t sure hoard maths would have been in this world. ‘Who was it that developed it? India, right? What else did they develop?’ Adam tried to remember what he had learnt about how different teologies spread through the world. ‘Right. We have start with the Greeks, India, and a. Then we have the Ismic golden age, followed by the European renaissance, and finally ialism.’

  Adam began to write down different notes, writing them in English. It was different to the nguages of this world, and there didn’t seem to be anyone else in the world, so he felt safe writing down these dangerous ideas.

  “What are you writing?” Jarot asked.

  “Some stuff,” Adam replied.

  “Is that Elvish?”

  “No,” Adam replied. “It’s… it’s the nguage of my home.”

  “What is it?”

  Adam shook his head. “It’s best not to know.”

  “Keepis from yrandfather?” Jarot asked.

  “Who is my grandfather?” Adam replied.

  “You will accept me one day.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “You will not tell me what you are writing?” Jarot asked.

  “I’m just writing down things to eventually introduce to the Iyr,” Adam said.

  “Like pizza?”

  Adam smiled. “Something like that.”

  Churht his test to Adam, having finished answering them.

  “Ho,” Adam said. “How smart are you, Churot?” The young Devilkin had mao ace the test with flying colours.

  “I am smart,” Churot stated.

  “Our Churot has always had a good memory,” Jarot said. “He remembers most things which are told to him the first time.” He ruffled Churot’s hair, who smiled slightly.

  “How amazing,” Adam said, smiling down at the teen. “Then I have the best student to teach. I’ll have to put in more effort in teag you then. I’ll try and figure out how to teaagic, but until then, learn the cepts I’m showing you.”

  Churot remaiaring bnkly at Adam.

  Over the few days, Adam tio teach Churot various cepts, basicepts to him, but new cepts to Churot. The cept of a number line aive numbers was something Churot had never learnt before, but it wasn’t long until Churot uood them.

  ‘This kid is so smart,’ Adam thought, rubbing his . As Churot had been learning the cepts, Adam had spent some time creating a spell scroll, using the Iyr’s materials to create a scroll for his trid a scroll for a first gate spell.

  The Iyrmen nearby, all members of the Rot family, had been watg him as he created the scroll for them to see. They didn’t uand why Adam had shown them all the process of how he made the spell scroll, but they decided against refusing such good fortune.

  “Will you teach me magiow?” Churot asked.

  “I’ll try,” Adam replied. “You should thank your lucky stars that I don’t remember calculus, otherwise you’ll hate me so much you’ll refuse learning magic out of principle.”

  “I wish to learn magic,” the Devilkiated.

  Adam revealed each scroll to him. Adam, as he had written down the spell scrolls, had realised how much maths and magic had in on. Though he didn’t recall every mathematics cept out there, he had found the simirities between maths and magic as he drew the scroll.

  “ you spot the differeweewo?” Adam asked.

  “This scroll is more detailed,” Churot said, pointing to the pattern on one spell scroll.

  “That’s right,” Adam replied, smiling at the Devilkin teen. “This is the first gate spell, and the other is a triotice how each of them is a long line of magical runes, but every so often, the first gate tains more plex runes, sometimes with multiple ruacked together.”

  Adam brought out his spellbook, before turning to the page for Identify, and pced the scroll side by side. “ you spot the differences?”

  Churot paused, looking to his grandfather, who was also slightly puzzled. Jarot, however, nodded his head slowly, allowing Churot to look at the spellbook.

  “They are the same spell, but they have different symbols?” Churot asked, noting that most of the symbols were the same, but there were small differenear the beginning of the spell.

  “Exactly. The difference is that this first se in my spellbook defihe time it requires to cast the spell, but when you cast off of a spellscroll, the time ges to a moment, right?”

  “Yes,” the boy replied.

  “So then we have something further in which has ged, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know what the difference is this time?”

  Churot thought about it for a moment. He knew how it was when it came to Blood Mages, but he wasn’t sure about Scribe Mages. “It is the pos required for the spell?”

  “Churot is not just a genius when it es to maths, but magic too?” Adam asked. “I’m jealous.”

  “Adam,” came a familiar voice.

  Adam remained smiling at Churot, before slowly turning his head to see Elder Teacher, who was staring at the pair of them. “Yes, Elder Teacher?”

  Elder Teacher remained silent for a long moment. Adam held a scroll before Churot, as well as his spellbook, which en before the Devilkin teen. Elder Teacher had been a Great Elder for quite some time now, so he had many years in practising how to keep a straight face.

  However, the utter fusion ran through the Great Elder’s blood as he tried to uand what was happening.

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  Adam: *Exists*A) Great Elder (Xianxia): C death!B) Great Elder (Iyr): ???