As I approached the open door, the man sitting facing me suddenly looked up.
“Oh, Miss Bettina, good afternoon.”
“Hello. Sorry to bother you, but Rudolf insists on looking this way. We won’t be a nuisance, I promise.”
“Oh, so you’re the famed second son, I see.”
The man, who looked to be in his late twenties with a somewhat relaxed air about him, gave a friendly smile.
The older brother sitting across from him glanced over at us once, then immediately returned to his writing at the desk.
It looked like he was practicing calculations on a slate.
Since it seemed we only needed to wait until he finished a few problems, the man casually stood and took a few steps closer to us.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Rudolf. I am Nikolaus Bessel, the tutor appointed to teach Lord Wolf.”
He placed his right hand over his chest and bowed earnestly toward me.
I had no idea about standard etiquette toward nobles, but it seemed a bit much for a baby.
Was this normal, or just the tutor’s personality?
A faint, wry smile nearly escaped from Bettina, so the latter seemed likely.
“Today, Lord Rudolf seems quite intent on looking this way, so we thought we’d peek in for a moment.”
“Oh? A child interested in studying at such a young age—he must have a promising future. Since he’s so quiet, I don’t mind at all if you observe.”
“I don’t think it’s interest in studying.”
‘Older brother, try to keep your muttering to yourself.’
“Lord Wolf will surely focus more if his little brother is cheering him on.”
“Is that alright?”
Invited by the tutor in a friendly manner, Bettina stepped inside.
The room was spacious with wooden floors.
Bettina had told me before that this was the Martial Arts Room.
There were several wooden swords standing at the back, probably used by father and brother for sword training.
Now, near the entrance side of the room, there was a table that could seat four people.
The brother and tutor sat opposite each other, and Bettina took a chair beside them.
Settling onto her lap and stretching up, I could see the tabletop clearly.
Looking down at my brother’s hands, who was silently moving his slate pencil with a slightly stern face, it was indeed calculation practice.
Though I couldn’t read the numbers, so I had no idea what the problems were.
Feeling a bit disappointed, I glanced over at the tutor’s materials and saw a fairly large wooden board nearby.
Several large characters were written on it, but what caught my attention was the very top row.
There were ten relatively simple-looking characters lined up: hii, fuu, mii…
‘Oh!’
Could these be numbers?
I thought it likely this was the sample of digits at the start of a beginner’s math textbook.
If so, it was probably 0 to 9 or 1 to 10.
Trying to interpret them as 0 to 9 and matching them to my brother’s calculations, with some guesswork on arithmetic symbols, it seemed to fit.
21 + 48 = 69
Checking other problems on the slate and the notations on the wooden board confirmed there was no mistake.
So the numbers in this world are just shaped differently, but the decimal system is basically the same as Arabic numerals.
Memorizing these ten digits should be enough to use numbers without trouble.
‘Yes! Numbers unlocked!’
While I silently celebrated, the tutor and Bettina continued their conversation quietly, careful not to disturb my brother’s calculations.
“Miss Bettina, have you continued studying letters since then?”
“Yes. I practice writing in my free time and borrow books from Lord Wolf to read.”
“That’s commendable.”
From the conversation, it seemed that about a year ago, Bettina also learned reading and writing alongside brother.
To encourage my brother’s motivation to study, our parents arranged for her to receive some basic lessons.
“Thanks to that, Lord Wolf’s progress since the start of this year has been remarkable.”
“It’s not Bettina’s doing,” muttered someone again.
“Oh yes, the knight candidate training camp in the Kingdom’s Capital this spring was very stimulating.”
“Yeah.”
Bettina’s comment was met with a strong nod.
“That’s right. In any case, getting motivated by peers of the same age is a very good thing.” The tutor nodded calmly.
To add what I heard later: Noble children usually begin their education with a tutor around eight or nine years old.
Brother’s education started later due to our father’s busy schedule, poor harvests in the territory, and mother’s stillbirth, which caused turmoil at home.
Until then, brother had been a child who preferred sword training and running in the fields, so he initially struggled to adapt to academic study.
To encourage focus on studies, Bettina was made to learn alongside him.
Brother was determined not to lose to a servant one year his junior, and the parents’ plan worked perfectly.
The knight candidate training camp is an annual outdoor camp in the Kingdom’s Capital that gathers noble children around nine to ten years old who aspire to become knights from all over the country.
It serves as the first opportunity for children before entering the Noble Academy at age twelve to meet peers from other territories, providing great stimulation and is well received by parents.
For Lord Wolf, it had such an effect that even father and tutor were amazed at how much his attitude toward study changed afterward.
“Gaining motivation like that and awakening one’s ambition is truly a precious experience.” The tutor nodded repeatedly and smiled at us.
While listening to the conversation, I was completely absorbed in decoding the numbers.
Brother’s calculation practice still seemed elementary.
Mostly addition and subtraction of two- to three-digit numbers, and once I could read the numbers, I could do it all in my head.
‘Huh? Do it in my head?’
What does that mean?
I hadn’t thought much about it before, but could it be that my brain is abnormally advanced for this world?
My brother’s age might be understandable, but I’m still only six months old.
A cold sensation ran down my spine, and my face stiffened.
‘I must keep this secret from everyone.’
Just as I made that resolve I heard: “Still, the younger brother may have inherited the desire to learn as well. He’s been fixated on his older brother’s studies this whole time.”
‘No, tutor, it’s better if you don’t notice unnecessary things.’
I was a bit flustered, but Bettina eagerly responded to the tutor’s words.
“That’s right, teacher. Lord Rudolf is very talented. Even at six months, he can say ‘Mother’ and ‘Brother.'”
“Hooh.”
“He can already crawl, tells us before he wets himself, hardly ever cries, and is very well behaved. It’s amazing.”
“That is remarkable. Probably exceptional for a six-month-old baby.”
“Is that so?” Brother looked up involuntarily, and the tutor nodded back at him.
“I think your family’s pride is well justified.”
“Hmm.”
“Right? Right?”
One person was more excited about the bragging than even the family.
I worried that the conversation might spiral into the topic of the ‘Blessing,’ but Bettina seemed to regain her composure just in time.