The midday sun was brilliant.
But it couldn't dispel the chill that crept up everyone's spines.
They all stared blankly at Ghislaine.
Including Alan, who had been ready to enjoy the spectacle. Even though he had personally steered the conversation in this unexpected direction, the dumbfounded look on his face was genuine.
In the original story, Ghislaine had only mentioned eating monster dung because she had no food. There was no part about eating human flesh! Although he knew that labyrinth exploring wasn't some picnic, this grim turn of events had left him speechless.
He wasn't the only one.
"Gag!"
Edna, who could face a collapsing mountain without flinching, finally broke. She covered her mouth and fled the classroom.
As Alan watched her go, he noticed that even as her body's reaction forced her to escape, her eyes still held a gentle smile.
He understood.
So, she did have emotional fluctuations. It was just her professional dedication that kept a smile permanently fixed on her face. Even a seemingly ordinary tutor in the Boreas household was so extraordinary.
As expected of the top nobility in the Asura Kingdom, the most powerful nation in the Mushoku Tensei world.
Truly full of hidden talents.
It made Alan realize again that his perception of this world had been limited by seeing it only through Rudeus's first-person perspective in the original work.
Ghislaine, oblivious to the atmosphere, simply glanced at Edna's retreating back and continued, her face still tense.
"Then I got food poisoning. It started with stomach pains, which quickly turned into diarrhea, and then a fever. Just as I felt all my strength draining away…"
"A pack of monsters appeared around me."
Gulp. The three children swallowed in unison.
"What happened next?" Eris's voice trembled slightly.
Ghislaine rolled her neck, her expression suddenly relaxing into one of relief.
As expected. The solution to her problem arrived quickly.
"I ate them."
"And I felt my strength return."
She continued with a slight smile.
"So it was obvious. If you don't eat 'food' tainted with monster stomach acid, you won't get diarrhea."
"And since I'm from the Beast Race, eating raw meat doesn't cause a particularly strong adverse reaction."
She glanced at the pale faces of the others and suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be teaching them the importance of arithmetic, not discussing labyrinth cuisine.
Ghislaine cleared her throat.
"In summary,"
"My experience in that labyrinth taught me a lesson."
"When you enter a labyrinth, you can't just focus on the sword in your hand."
She scanned the three children, and their bodies tensed up.
Her final, summarizing words fell.
It wasn't that having a good appetite was also important.
It was…
"Arithmetic is also important."
Everyone was silent.
Alan ran a hand through his hair, exasperated.
He had to admit it.
Only Ghislaine.
She was truly something else.
He took a deep breath, composed himself, and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"In short, arithmetic is important. If you master arithmetic, you can go anywhere in the world without fear, including but not limited to labyrinth adventures."
"Do you understand, Eris?"
Eris was silent for a moment. Ghislaine's story had made her realize the importance of arithmetic, but it came with the gruesome facts of eating monster dung. While that might have a touch of tragic heroism, eating human flesh and devouring raw monsters had no heroic connotations at all.
The young lady was clearly stunned.
But thinking of heroes…
The towering figure who had blocked a sword for her in the rainy night, who had pursued his foe and returned with his head, suddenly flashed into her mind.
She turned to look at Alan, subconsciously hoping to hear some 'positive' heroic tales from him to rebuild Ghislaine's 'grand image' in her mind.
"What about you, Alan? Did anything happen to you in a labyrinth? Tell us about it!"
Caught off guard, Alan froze.
He'd never actually been in a labyrinth; the question had put him on the spot. Although Eris clearly just wanted to hear labyrinth stories, this was an arithmetic lesson, and he had to bring the topic back around.
But if it was about arithmetic…
As a practitioner of the Water God Style, he was very familiar with it.
"Speaking of labyrinths... nothing particularly special happened. It was mostly just swinging my sword and killing monsters. But arithmetic is actually closely related to the act of swinging a sword itself, at least in the Water God Style."
At his words, everyone turned to look at him.
Hearing "Water God Style," Ghislaine's expression became serious, and she even assumed the posture of a disciple.
She had great respect for anyone stronger than her in any field. In the original story, her sincere respect for Rudeus as a magic teacher proved this point. It was one of Ghislaine's most charismatic traits—she appeared fierce on the surface but was incredibly sincere.
Alan's voice continued to echo in their ears.
"The core principle of the Water God Style is 'Perception'."
"Perceiving all the environmental information around you, then calculating it to achieve a complete 'capture' of that information. You anticipate the enemy's moves and then execute a perfect defensive counterattack."
The next moment, under everyone's gaze, Alan calmly closed his eyes.
He extended his hand, hovering it above the table.
The spring breeze blowing in from the window played around his hand.
Alan spoke.
"Perceive…"
"The direction of the wind—a south wind, moving at three meters per second. For a beginner swordsman, this would cause a slight deviation in the blade's path. If using an iron sword, the resistance is negligible, with an accuracy deviation of about 0.1 millimeters. If using a wooden sword, it's 0.5 millimeters. For any swordsman above the beginner level, the effect of this wind speed can be ignored."
Alan turned his palm over.
"The source of sounds—the chirping of birds, the rustling of leaves, everyone's breathing and heartbeats, and then…"
Keeping his eyes closed, he pointed toward the door.
"Footsteps. Edna will arrive at the classroom in three seconds."
"3."
"2."
"1."
As he finished, Edna hurried in. She glanced at Alan, but her professional demeanor kept her moving forward towards Rudeus.
As she moved, Alan's voice continued.
"Based on her stride, she will reach Rudeus's side on her fourth step. Given the distance, on her third step, I can…"
It was as if the sunlight in the room flickered for an instant.
"Click."
A soft sound came from the scabbard at Alan's waist.
Edna blinked in confusion, but she didn't stop, sitting down on the stool.
As she sat, a few strands of hair from her forehead drifted down, caught and tossed by the spring breeze…
Falling along with his unfinished words.
"…enter the range to sever her head with a single strike."
Silence fell. A difficult smile remained plastered on Edna's face as she subtly swallowed and wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead.
Ghislaine narrowed her eyes dangerously, her gaze fixed on the sword at Alan's waist. Eris, however, looked at Alan's face, her eyes sparkling with awe.
Sylphie and Rudeus, already used to Alan's 'cool guy' routine, had no particular reaction. They hadn't fully tracked the blade's trajectory like Ghislaine, nor had they seen the faint glint of the blade like Eris, who was already an elementary Sword God Style practitioner.
But they knew.
Alan had just executed a sword draw.
He remained still, eyes closed, his hand resting calmly on the table.
The next second, Edna's strands of hair "happened" to land on his index finger, which he caught.
Alan opened his eyes and held the hair in front of him.
"The vibration of the air, the shape of the object—as Edna's hair fell through the air, it created vibrations, 'ripples.' These 'ripples' struck my skin, creating an echo, a 'wave,' allowing me to accurately calculate the hair's shape and position, and to move my hand to where it would fall in advance."
"Of course, this level of information is difficult to capture, so for a moment, I entered the 'Flow Perception' state."
Eris blinked rapidly, her body swaying with excitement, the stool beneath her groaning under the strain. Her mind replayed the unforgettable scene of Alan catching an arrow with his bare hands in the rain.
Alan flicked the hair away. Ghislaine finally tore her gaze from the sword at Alan's waist to watch the hair dance in the air.
"The burst of killing intent—when I drew my sword, one person present revealed killing intent. It was Ghislaine. The 'aggressiveness' wasn't strong, and her gaze was focused on my sword's hilt, indicating a defensive posture. In the 'Flow Perception' state, I 'saw' this clearly. This kind of 'calculation' relies more on a swordsman's intuition and doesn't count as the kind of arithmetic we're learning now."
"That's the basics of it."
Alan turned to Eris.
"Do you get it?"
She blinked.
"No!"
"Was it cool?"
"Yes!"
"Do you want to learn arithmetic now?"
"No!"
Rudeus's mouth twitched. Sylphie covered her face in exasperation and was about to say something to Eris.
Just then, Alan spoke again.
"That was to be expected. That kind of 'calculation' is too abstract, the words are a bit vague, not very precise, and hard to understand. Let me be more specific, using the concept of 'equal division' from division as an example."
"The meaning of 'equal division,' when applied to a sword strike... is this."
Alan looked at Eris and pointed out the window.
At that instant.
A leaf drifted in through the open window, dancing and tumbling on the spring breeze swirling by the windowsill.
Then it "happened" to land on Alan's fingertip.
In the next moment.
The leaf split perfectly down its central vein into two completely symmetrical halves. They drifted down with the wind. Alan waved his hand, and the two halves were stirred by the breeze from his palm…
Fluttering…
Spiraling…
And landing on the table.
Eris tilted her head to look.
The leaf, symmetrically cut by the fighting spirit on Alan's fingertip, lay on the table in a "wing-flapping" posture, like a fledgling bird spreading its newly developed wings to learn to fly.
His voice rang out again.
Crystal clear.
"To give the 'act of cutting' a sense of beauty."
"That is the meaning of 'equal division' in a 'sword strike'."
Alan casually rested his sword against the table and looked at Eris, propping his chin on his hand.
"Do you get it?"
"No!"
"Do you want to learn?"
"Yes!"
"Then let's start with division."
"Okay!"
Sylphie blinked, looking at the leaf on the table and hearing those familiar 'pretty words,' a smile spreading across her face.
Opposite her, Rudeus was also staring at the leaf, but his expression was dazed.
The scene reminded him of the assassination attempt two nights ago.
In the torrential rain, just as he peeked out of the carriage.
Through the curtains of rain.
Outside the carriage in front of him.
The first assassin had already reached Alan. They locked eyes through the window for a moment.
The man's charge didn't slow as he thrust his blade through the window.
And then…
His entire arm was sliced into perfectly uniform thin pieces by the flash of Alan's sword.
They fell.
A scream pierced the downpour.
Then silence.
The man was dead.
After Alan had rushed off in pursuit of the other assassins, Rudeus had dazedly returned to the wrecked carriage. With the cabin gone, he could finally see the "grand scene" inside.
The body was slumped to one side, the mangled limbs a gruesome sight. The image of death flooded his mind.
Slices of flesh were scattered inside the carriage. The red and white muscle fibers surrounding the cross-section of the shin bone were arranged neatly at the bottom of the slanted carriage floor.
It reminded him of the exquisitely plated sashimi from his past life.
Now, in this moment,
That memory was blown away by the spring breeze.
Rudeus blinked.
His gaze met Alan's smiling face.
The smile was identical to the one from that night.
In that instant, for some reason, he understood the subtext of Alan's earlier words.
He wasn't talking about "giving the 'act of cutting' a sense of beauty" or anything so bloodless.
What he meant was…
The meaning of 'equal division' when applied to a sword strike, is to…
Give death.
A sense of beauty.
The arithmetic lesson soon ended.
The result of the division lesson was, once again, beyond everyone's expectations.
As expected, Lady Eris did not have a sudden epiphany and master division within single digits.
However.
She did master fractions.
1 ÷ 2 = 1/2.
It was absurd.
But it also made perfect sense.
It stemmed from a question Lady Eris asked while doing her exercises.
"If one leaf is divided equally into two parts, should that count as two leaves?"
Rudeus answered with a stunned expression.
"I... suppose it would count as two pieces?"
"I get it! Then 1 ÷ 2 = 2!"
It was Sylphie who answered her.
"In terms of arithmetic, that would be 1/2."
"1/2?"
"'One' divided into 'half' is 1/2."
"Oh?"
"If something that can't be separated is divided equally into two parts, each half is called 1/2."
"Huh? Then why separate it?"
"So you can share."
"Huh? Why share? Can't I just have it all to myself?!"
Sylphie looked at Eris and blinked her reddish-brown eyes.
"What if that thing belonged to Ghislaine in the first place? What if it wasn't something Eris owned at all?"
Eris frowned in thought, glancing at a bewildered Ghislaine.
"Then I would willingly give it to Ghislaine!"
Sylphie nodded.
"...That's what should happen, because it was Ghislaine's to begin with."
She was silent for a moment before looking at Eris and asking.
"But…"
"What if, just what if, Eris really, really wanted it?"
Eris crossed her arms (or tried to), and for once, she actually thought for a long moment before speaking hesitantly.
"If it's Ghislaine! Then! Then! I... I would ask Ghislaine to share half with me! But! If she doesn't want to share! Then I won't take it!"
Hearing this, Ghislaine looked up at Eris. Her tone was still cool, but there was a subtle, upward lilt to her voice.
"I would be willing to share half with you, milady."
"Really?!"
"Really!"
Sylphie propped her chin on her hand, watching them for a long moment before speaking.
"When there is a desire to share,"
"1/2 gains its meaning."
"Sylphie, you're amazing!"
Eris threw her arms around Sylphie's neck, and Sylphie smiled, a little embarrassed.
She shifted her gaze to the side.
Class was over. Alan was politely inviting Edna to join them for lunch, and Edna was smilingly waving her hands in refusal.
Her facial expression and body language were completely different.
Sylphie blinked, her expression a little helpless, but not overly troubled.
Because she had thought about a lot of things last night.
So her expression was calm.
'But if you don't want to share,'
'That's fine, too.'
'Because…'
'That 1/2 was never mine to begin with.'
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