CH 14

I quickly shook my head, choosing an excuse, and then paused.

‘No, wait. But maybe… Maybe it’s not a bad situation?’

Wouldn’t there be at least one kid who was smarter than the others and had some ability with mental arithmetic? 

Even I, the daughter of Enoch Rubinstein, who is equally superior. 

‘As the main character’s daughter, can’t I be a little smarter?’

There is a lot of work to do, so I can’t waste time learning multiplication tables repeatedly. 

Rather, let’s take the basic level and start graduating sooner rather than later. 

I say “yay” after thinking about it. 

“Teacher! Am I right?”

“Y, yes… How did you do it?” 

“Ung! It was easy because the teacher taught me well!”

“No, what did I tell you—”

“If two apples pop up three times, it becomes six! Thank you for teaching me, teacher.”

I bowed politely in my seat. 

“But, I didn’t tell you that if nineteen apples are made nine times, it becomes one hundred and seventy-one—.”

“T, teacher!” 

Let’s just move on. Please. 

I pretended I wanted to learn more as I rolled my short legs under the desk.

“You said multiplication and then division! It’s so much fun! Please tell me quickly!”

“….” 

Mrs Lena blinked her eyes blankly, and then, with excitement, she looked over her dry lips.

She said this as she put the question papers she was holding on the table.

“I, in my opinion, princess… You must be an extraordinary genius of the world that comes out once in a hundred years….”

Ugh, this is—.

“Huh. Lilith?”

“What is extraordinary?” 

Theo and Leon say one word at a time.

“Princess, I will do my best in your education from now on.”

Mrs Lena is determined.

In the meantime, when I solved a few multiplication problems and heard the sound of a genius, I felt so embarrassed that I couldn’t even put it into words.

I never dreamed that this action would lead to a huge future disaster—.

* * *

Late in the afternoon.

Enoch was constantly scribbling his pen in his office.

“Haa.” 

His daughter’s guesses that he would be busy turned out to be true. 

In order to take over all the duties of the duke that Nordic had been in charge of, even ten of his bodies were not enough.

‘I don’t have time to play with the princess….’

It was a pain to get used to the Duke’s title again after abandoning it for seven years, but he worked hard.

To stay as Duke Enoch rather than James Brown, his return to work is an unavoidable task. 

“Wow, no more!”

There were still half of the papers piled up like a mountain, but Enoch jumped up to his feet.

He didn’t want to be an ugly dad who didn’t even play with her because he was busy. 

“I have to play with the princess.” 

Enoch threw the pen away and quickly left the office.

Bump.

When he opened the door, the butler was standing there as if he was just about to come in.

“Oh, Rem.”

“Where are you going?”

“To my daughter.”

“But the princess is going out?” 

“What? with who?”

“Lady Ordia took her out. She said that she would go to a dessert shop after fitting the princess’ clothes in the dressing room. The twins Young Master also went with them.” 

“Wow, Nunim. She’s so mean. Without me?

“Hoho, is it time for the Young Lord to go on a leisurely trip to the capital?”

Enoch muttered as he returned to his seat after seeing Rem’s big smile.

“…Then I will just finish it, well. But why are you here?”

“I’m going to report this and that because I think you’ll be curious. Didn’t the princess have her first class today?

“That’s right, I asked my father to give her a etiquette teacher. How was my daughter? She probably had a hard time studying, which wasn’t fun.” 

“Oh, no. All the teachers really praised me and returned home. The Great Lord is very pleased with the report.”

Rem held up both thumbs.

“As expected, Young Lord. The princess did not neglect her education either.”

“What are you talking about. What have I done? What happened to my daughter? No, and— wait. Teachers? Did you say ‘teachers’ now?”

“Yes. Social Studies, Mathematics, Economics, Literature, History, and Etiquette. Even though it was my first class—” 

Rem’s words were blurred.

It was because of Enoch’s reaction, which shook his chin as if he were angry.

“W, what happened? Is there a problem?”

“Get out of the way.”

“Young Lord? Excuse me?”

Enoch came out with a loud noise after pushing Rem.

The place where he was furiously headed was his father’s office, Nordic Rubinstein.

“Father!”

When Enoch slammed the door open without knocking, Nordic, who was talking to the woman with glasses, gave a sharp impression.

“What are you doing?” 

“Are you joking? Still, father, I trusted you and entrusted her to you, but you leave her at her desk all day?” 

Bang—! 

“Oh, my!”

The woman standing next to him was surprised when Enoch, who approached like lightning, stamped his fist on the desk.

“I definitely told you to just give her an etiquette teacher.” 

“Lower your voice.”

“Did you lock up a seven-year-old in the study room, except for meals?”

He only asked for the basic etiquette of the nobles because she needed to learn it.

Society and economy—what else? Enoch’s eyes were turned upside down upon receiving Rem’s absurd report.

Nordic responded back calmly.

“She is a child with the surname of Rubinstein.. Should I do that when she lack learning?”

“My daughter is seven years old. She’s still old enough to want to play. And before she entered the training center, you said you would only teach her basic etiquette. When she get back, I’ll figure it out and—!” 

“Stop it. I also asked the teachers to only doing introduction today. It was Lilith who said she wanted to take a class.”

“Ha, father.”

With a desperate breath of anger, Enoch swept his hair.

“Lilith is a mature child. She had already reading her grandfather’s eyes. She couldn’t just say hello and send the teacher away, so she would have had to take the class more than once.”

“Is that so? But that’s not what I was told. Instead, they all said that Lilith seemed to have received her education not appropriate for her age.”

“She didn’t really teach anything. She’s just a smart kid.”

Enoch added, grinding his teeth.

“Enough, send everyone back except the etiquette teacher. And father, get rid of my daughter’s education. She’ll do the rest with after she go to the training center.”

Enoch, who had warned him, turned around and tried to leave, but only then found the woman standing next to him and stared at her.

“Who are you?”

“I, I, the math—” 

Enoch closed his eyes and took his time to calm down. 

“Excuse me, Duke? Would you like to listen to me for a moment?”

“Stop being angry and listen to the teacher. It’s Mrs. Lena, who is in charge of mathematics.”

“I have nothing to listen to.”

Enoch, who looked at Mrs Lena with displeasure, added.

“You don’t have to come tomorrow.”

“I, I can’t. Duke.” 

“What?” 

“The Princess has a natural talent for mathematics. She is also passionate about learning. I have to teach her more now.”

“I’ll take care of it. I’m not saying I won’t teach her. Slowly for her age—” 

Srrk. 

Mrs Lena unfolded a rolled-up piece of paper in front of Enoch, who was talking. 

The crooked handwriting belonged to Lilith.

Enoch, who was looking at the paper for a moment, gritted his teeth.

“…You made a seven-year-old do multiplication. Even 19 times 9….” 

“This is not all!” 

“I’ve only taught you addition and subtraction yet—” 

“Yes, yes! I asked the princess about her progress, and she said she even learned subtraction from the Duke. When she asked me to teach her multiplication, I only taught her the principle that 2 times 3 equals 6. But.”

Mrs Lena opened some more sheets of paper she was holding on her desk.

There were traces of division, regular operation, and even fractions and prime numbers.

Enoch’s mouth opened wide when he saw it.

“Are you kidding me now? What did you do to a seven-year-old?”

“P, please calm down. I was afraid it would be difficult, so I said I would only tell her about division, but the princess said it was so much fun and asked me to teach her more.”

Mrs Lena calmly pointed to the test paper.

“Besides, look. She didn’t get a single question wrong. I recognized 19 times 9 since she calculated it with her head.”

Mrs Lena added in her serious voice.

“The princess is a genius. She is a math genius who might only show up once every hundred years.”

“….” 

“If I teach one, she know ten. When I told her about division, she immediately learned the concept of fractions. She was curious about the number between 0 and 1, so she tried to count the decimal point by herself.”

“That’s—” 

“I really didn’t do anything. I was curious if this was really the level of a seven-year-old child, so I asked other teachers.”

“Look.”

After receiving Mrs Lena’s words, Nordic took out the results from today’s class that he had kept in a drawer. 

“The other teachers were only thinking about getting to know Lilith. Lilith was the one who said it was fun and asked them to teach her. Looking at it, it wasn’t like she was forced to do something she didn’t want to do.”

Enoch quietly scanned his daughter’s crooked handwriting.

Society, economy, literature, history—.

It was definitely something she had learned for the first time, but it was well organized.

“Duke.”

Mrs Lena said it as she lifted up her glasses.

“The princess is definitely a genius. And watching her as she did it, no. You can never make up a face that enjoys learning.”

“….” 

“Genius.” 

Enoch’s eyes, which had been silent, blinked slowly.

“She is really genius.”

Mrs Lena’s voice was like a devil whispering in his ear. 

“A total genius.”

Soon, the corners of Enoch’s lips twitched as if they were going to rise.