The noon sun shone brilliantly.
Yet it couldn't mask the chill that rose from everyone's bones.
All eyes were frozen on Ghislaine.
Even Allen, who had expected to enjoy the show, was stunned.
Sure, he had steered the conversation in this direction—but he hadn't expected it to end up there. His blank expression was genuine.
In the original story, Ghislaine had merely mentioned being forced to eat monster dung due to lack of food. There was never any mention of eating human flesh!
Even knowing that dungeon exploration was a far cry from some casual picnic, this level of hellish detail was too much for him.
And not just him.
"Urgh!"
Even the stoic Edna, who could remain calm through a landslide, couldn't hold it in. She clutched her mouth and dashed out of the classroom.
But as Allen caught sight of her retreating figure, even amid the physiological response, her eyes still held a gentle smile.
He understood.
This woman did feel things. She just wore that smile like armor—her professional restraint iron-clad.
Even the ordinary private tutor of the Boreas family was extraordinary.
As expected from one of the most powerful noble families of the mighty Asura Kingdom.
Truly a land of "hidden dragons and crouching tigers."
Allen realized once again how limited his perspective had been, viewing the world of Mushoku Tensei solely through Rudy's first-person eyes.
Ghislaine, clueless to the atmosphere, simply glanced at Edna's departing back, then continued her tale without missing a beat.
Her expression remained taut.
"Then I got sick. First stomach cramps, then diarrhea, and soon after, a fever. I was too weak to move…"
"A group of monsters appeared."
Gulp. The three kids audibly swallowed.
"And then?" Eris's voice trembled.
Ghislaine cracked her neck, her expression suddenly relaxing. A look of relief crossed her face.
As expected.
The solution to her predicament had come swiftly.
"I ate them."
"I felt much better."
She smiled faintly as she continued.
"So clearly, as long as you don't eat food contaminated by monster stomach acid, you won't get sick."
"And since I'm a beastfolk, eating raw meat doesn't cause too much trouble."
She glanced at everyone's pale faces and finally realized—this was supposed to be a lesson on the importance of math, not a dungeon culinary memoir.
Ghislaine cleared her throat.
"In summary—"
"My experience in that dungeon taught me something important."
"When you enter a dungeon, your eyes can't be fixed solely on the sword in your hand."
She swept her gaze over the three children, making them tense up.
Her final line:
"Math is just as important."
Silence fell.
Allen clutched his head helplessly.
He had to admit it.
Ghislaine was something else.
Truly admirable.
He took a deep breath, calmed himself, straightened up, and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"In short, math is important. With solid arithmetic skills, you can handle anything, from everyday life to dungeon crawling."
"Got it, Eris?"
Eris was silent for a moment. Ghislaine's story had driven home the importance of math—but the accompanying imagery of eating monster dung and human flesh had thoroughly derailed any heroic romance.
She looked dazed.
Still, when she thought of the word "hero"—
The tall figure who had shielded her from blades in the rain, chased down enemies, and returned with severed heads—suddenly came to mind.
She turned to Allen, hoping to hear a more "positive" heroic tale to rebuild her shattered image of Ghislaine.
"What about you, Allen? Have you ever had any dungeon adventures? Tell us!"
Allen blinked.
He actually hadn't entered any dungeons. The question caught him off guard.
Eris clearly just wanted a story—but this was a math class, after all. He had to steer the topic back on track.
Still, if we're talking about arithmetic...
As a practitioner of the Water God Style, he knew exactly what to say.
"Well, there's nothing too special about dungeon adventures—just slashing monsters. But arithmetic is deeply connected to the act of cutting itself. At least in Water God Style."
Everyone turned to look at him.
At the mention of "Water God Style," Ghislaine's expression shifted. She sat up straighter, taking on the posture of a disciple.
She had great respect for those stronger than herself in any area. She'd sincerely called Rudy "teacher" in the original story, despite her outward ferocity. Her honesty was one of her most charming traits.
Allen's voice continued clearly.
"The essence of Water God Style is 'perception.'"
"Perceiving every environmental factor, then calculating it all to capture the full picture—predict the enemy's actions, then defend and counter flawlessly."
Then, right before everyone's eyes, Allen calmly closed his eyes.
He extended his hand above the desk.
The spring wind from the window swirled gently around his fingers.
Allen spoke.
"Perception."
"Direction of the wind—south, approximately three meters per second. For a beginner, that'd cause slight deviations in the blade's arc. With an iron sword, the resistance is minimal, around 0.1mm deviation. With a wooden sword, around 0.5mm. For skilled swordsmen, this can be ignored."
He flipped his palm.
"Sound sources—birds, rustling leaves, everyone's breathing and heartbeats, and then…"
He pointed toward the door, still eyes closed.
"Footsteps. Edna will arrive at the classroom in three seconds."
"3."
"2."
"1."
As he finished speaking, Edna walked in briskly. She glanced at Allen, but her professional training kept her from stopping as she continued toward Rudy's side.
As she moved, Allen's voice resumed.
"Given her stride length, she'll reach Rudy in four steps. By the third step, she'll…"
Everyone saw it.
Click.
A faint sound—the click of Allen's scabbard.
Edna blinked in confusion but continued walking and sat down.
As she settled in, a few strands of her bangs fluttered through the air.
And with Allen's unfinished sentence—
"…enter the slash zone."
Dead silence.
Edna's smile was frozen on her face as she subtly wiped sweat from her brow.
Ghislaine narrowed her eyes dangerously at Allen's blade. Eris, on the other hand, looked at his face with shining admiration.
Sylphy and Rudy were already used to Allen's daily displays of cool bravado and didn't react much.
They hadn't seen the blade's path as clearly as Ghislaine, nor glimpsed the flash of steel like Eris, who was already a beginner of the Sword God Style.
But they knew—
Allen had just unleashed a Twentyfold Slash.
Even now, with his eyes still closed, he calmly rested his hand on the desk.
In the next second, Edna's falling hair strand landed precisely on his index finger, which he gently pinched and lifted.
Allen opened his eyes and examined it.
"The vibration of the air, the shape of the object—Edna's hair passed through the air, the ripples brushed my skin, and the echoes told me its precise shape and position, allowing me to react ahead of time and place my finger where it would land."
"Of course, detecting this level of detail is difficult. Just now, I briefly entered the 'Flow Sense' state."
Eris blinked rapidly, thrilled, her chair creaking as she shifted excitedly.
She remembered Allen catching arrows barehanded in the rain.
Allen flicked the hair strand away, and Ghislaine finally looked away from his sword, watching the fluttering strand.
"When a surge of killing intent erupts—just now, one of you projected it. It was Ghislaine. Her 'attack' was mild, her eyes focused on my hilt. More of a defensive stance. Within 'Flow Sense,' I could see it all clearly. That kind of 'calculation' relies more on intuition than arithmetic."
"That's basically it."
Allen turned to Eris.
"Understand?"
She blinked.
"Nope!"
"Impressive?"
"Totally!"
"Want to learn math now?"
"Nope!"
Rudy twitched. Sylphy covered her face with a sigh and was about to speak when—
Allen's voice rang out again.
"As expected. That explanation was too vague and abstract. Let me be more specific. Let's use division as an example."
"If we relate division to swordsmanship, it means…"
Allen pointed out the window.
At that moment—
A leaf drifted into the room, swirling and tumbling on the spring wind.
It gently landed on his fingertip.
And in the next instant—
The leaf split cleanly down its central vein, into two perfectly symmetrical halves.
They floated down.
Allen waved his hand, stirring them into a slow, dancing spiral.
They landed on the desk.
Eris leaned over to look.
The halves, sliced by Allen's ki-charged finger, resembled wings. Like a young bird learning to fly, they spread gracefully.
Allen's voice followed, clear and calm.
"To make 'cutting' beautiful."
"That is the meaning of 'division' in swordplay."
He rested his chin on his hand, watching Eris.
"Understand now?"
"Nope!"
"Want to learn?"
"Yep!"
"Then we'll start with division."
"Okay!"
Sylphy blinked, staring at the leaf fragments, then smiled at the familiar performance.
Rudy, across from her, was staring blankly at the leaves.
That scene reminded him of the ambush two nights ago.
The torrential rain, the carriage rocking.
From inside, Rudy had peeked out—
And in the downpour—
The first assassin was already upon Allen.
They locked eyes through the window.
That man didn't stop, thrusting his blade forward.
And then—
His entire arm was sliced into paper-thin pieces by Allen's sword.
They fell.
Screams pierced the rain—
Then fell silent.
He died.
After Allen rushed off to chase the others, Rudy had dumbly returned to the ruined carriage.
With no walls blocking his view, he finally saw the "spectacle" inside.
A body slumped nearby, its dismembered remains horrifying.
The red-and-white muscle patterns of the flesh slices were neatly laid around the shattered floorboards.
It reminded him of delicately plated sashimi from his past life.
Now—
The scene faded, blown away by the spring breeze.
Rudy blinked.
In his vision was Allen's smiling face.
The same smile as that night.
And in that instant, he understood what Allen had really meant.
He hadn't been talking about making cuts beautiful.
He meant—
To give death… beauty.
—
The math class ended soon after.
Unexpectedly, the division lesson had been a success.
Eris didn't master single-digit division.
But—
She understood fractions.
1 ÷ 2 = 1/2.
Ridiculous.
But somehow… fitting.
It all began with a simple question she asked while doing practice problems.
"If you split a leaf into two pieces, that counts as two leaves, right?"
Rudy blinked and answered, "I guess so?"
"I get it! Then 1 ÷ 2 = 2!"
Sylphy quickly corrected her.
"Mathematically, that's actually 1/2."
"1/2?"
"One half of one. That's 1/2."
"Huh?"
"If something indivisible is split in two, each half is called 1/2."
"Why would you split it?"
"So it can be shared."
"Why share? I can just have it all myself!"
Sylphy blinked her reddish-brown eyes.
"What if it belonged to Ghislaine in the first place? It was never Eris's to begin with."
Eris frowned, glanced at Ghislaine, and after a moment of thought—
"I'd let Ghislaine have it!"
Sylphy nodded.
"That's right. Because it was hers."
She paused, then asked quietly—
"But what if Eris really wanted it?"
Eris crossed her arms and thought for a long time.
"…If it's Ghislaine's, then… I'd ask her to share it with me! But if she doesn't want to, then I won't take it!"
Ghislaine glanced at her and replied coolly, with a rare soft undertone—
"I'll share it with Ojō-sama."
"Really?!"
"Really."
Sylphy rested her chin in her palm, smiling gently.
"In that case—"
"1/2 has meaning."
"You're amazing, Sylphy!"
Eris lunged forward and hugged her neck. Sylphy laughed awkwardly.
Then her gaze shifted.
Class had ended, and Allen was politely inviting Edna to lunch. She smiled brightly, declining with overly dramatic gestures.
Her face said "no," but her body language said otherwise.
Sylphy blinked, a little exasperated, but not upset.
She had thought about a lot of things last night.
And so her expression remained calm.
"If someone doesn't want to share…"
"That's okay."
"Because…"
"That 1/2 was never meant to be mine."
(End of Chapter)
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