Chương 15: Chapter 1.15: Didactic Deficiencies

"Explain this to me again," Brutus demanded, staring up from the abyss over which the two of them had shared so many conversations in the last week.

"In your world, men who had the leisure and means to train their bodies chose to move weights, thus developing the ugly physique of a laborer. When instead they could have trained calisthenics and martial arts to sculpt a warrior's body?" Favius sighed and shook his head.

"It's more complicated than that."

"You always say that." The cultivator's voice was ripe with mirth, and he smiled. Favius ground his teeth together. Because it is. His new arrangement with Brutus had been very satisfactory. He had started with explaining Newtonian physics—momentum, rotation, and such concepts—to the man, to which he had taken like a fish to water. Then he made the mistake of discussing training methods with him. Favius sighed.

"It's just—people didn't train for war in my own world. They trained to look beautiful." Brutus snorted.

"And they considered a laborer's body beautiful? More beautiful than a warrior's body?" asked the man, stretching and flexing his lean muscles to demonstrate. Favius chuckled, burying his face in his hands. It's not that I can't explain it. He shook his head, letting his thoughts run for a moment. There are simply too many assumptions underlying this. A different culture, the rise of the middle class, and how that reduced the snobbishness of those who can afford to train.

"It's—" Favius groaned instead of answering.

"Every time we talk about training, you jump on this. The point I'm trying to make is that you should use progressive overload." He described training methods he had used in his university days. Back when he tried to balance the hours spent in lectures and exercises—and maybe bulk up so he could impress one or two girls as well. A spike of anger at the stolen memories of the woman he couldn't remember made him grimace. As the sun set, they made their way down the hill, and Brutus hummed.

"There is some sense to this. Any good warrior trains in armor, but you're suggesting that we get ourselves lead weights and bind them to our extremities and body?" Favius moved his head from side to side.

"Not lead. Lead is poisonous." Brutus climbed over a rock and spooked a herd of goats further down the trail. Their bleating rapidly disappeared in the underbrush.

"Never seen a man drop dead from drinking water from lead pipes." Favius pressed his eyes shut.

"We are not having this discussion again. Just—trust me, you shouldn't lick lead. And anyways, we were talking about training with weights." Brutus shrugged.

"Guess it doesn't hurt to try." As they left the forest and walked toward vineyards and orchards, the conversation shifted, as usual, to the other topic. Favius spent most of the time explaining modern perspectives on biomechanics, training, and combat to the cultivator. But Brutus also took significant chunks of time to share stories he had lived through with Severin. Favius smiled as he walked beside the older man.

The memory of this body's biological father bleeding out on the floor in front of him was still fresh and vivid, seared into his mind. From all I've heard of him from Brutus… he would have been a great father, even in this new world. A sniffle escaped him as he followed those thoughts, and Brutus reassuringly rubbed his shoulder. As night settled over the estate, the two of them entered through a side gate and were nearly instantly ambushed by Urania and Caliga.

Urania rushed forward, hugging Favius, while Caliga stood back, warily glaring at Brutus. Brutus returned a cold stare. What the hell is going on with them? But before Favius could start asking questions, Urania spoke up.

"Have you heard? Hesnia has found a tutor for us." A cold trickle of fear ran down his spine, and he looked over at Brutus. Urania continued, "My servant said that from now on all three of us will be educated together.""' As proper young aristocrats,'" Caliga sneered. Favius felt the rage, though it was distant. He looked over at Brutus, and the man smiled. Briefly, Favius considered the consequences. Hesnia will seek revenge if I do this. But ultimately, between fighting and submitting, there was no choice.

His shoulders tensed as he considered the disgusting woman. Never.

"Brutus, would you please inform our new tutor that you will be responsible for our physical training and martial education in the mornings?" Favius made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

"Please let him know you will teach the subjects you think you're good at." Brutus' smirk showed teeth as he inclined his head far too low, then slammed his fist into his chest.

"As my Dominus commands." With those words, the warrior shouldered his axe and left for the estate. Favius studied his siblings. Urania was somewhere between worry and relief, and Caliga looked almost excited. He turned to her.

"What's up with you and Brutus?" She stared at him, then pouted.

"That's none of your business." The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Favius frowned and studied her. She's far too young to have a crush on him. And he isn't acting like that, so… He shrugged as Urania threw an arm around his neck, and he was again immersed in gossip. Soon Caliga was vehemently defending her cute swamp snakes against Urania's complaints.

They snuck into the kitchen and stole some sweet pies, and under the light of Allfather and Daughter, they enjoyed them beneath the old oak. The next morning, Brutus greeted all three of them in the gymnasium with a smile somewhere between a cat who had successfully raided the pantry and a predator who had just found an injured lamb.

"I have informed your new tutor about the nature of our arrangement."

"How did he take it?" asked Favius, and Brutus chuckled.

"He refused the offer of a duel when I suggested it and thus—" Urania took a step forward.

"So who is he? Can you tell us something about him?" Brutus threw his head back and laughed out loud.

"Tell you about him? Oh no. I believe it's going to be far more interesting if you encounter him without any preconceptions." His mirthful eyes met Favius', and the boy pressed his eyes shut. Fucking hell, this can't be good. After Brutus instructed the girls in some simple calisthenics exercises and had them run around the estate, he and Favius settled into their combat routine. As soon as the training was over, all four of them found themselves in the bathhouse. But all too soon, it was time.

After enjoying fish pies for lunch without the adults of the house, they found themselves in the assigned room and waited. Minutes passed, but the tutor failed to appear. Urania glanced around the room nervously. The desks held wax boards, and a dozen scrolls lay heaped upon the tutor's table. In front of it was a broad board littered with sand, next to which a jug of water stood. Favius studied the scrolls.

I do want to take a look at them, but it might not be a good first impression if the tutor finds me going through his personal items. Caliga had long ago lost all interest in the room, throwing her feet onto the desk. But as the wait passed the ten-minute mark, she reached into her robes and brought out a purse.

"Wanna play knuckles?" Urania's eyes lit up in excitement, and Favius took a moment to recall the game. He had played it before—a common child's game, played with knucklebones in various contests of dexterity. The winner would dictate the next set of rules. Soon all sense of time vanished as Favius focused on catching as many of the thrown knuckles as he could on the back of his hands. It was first to five, and he wasn't winning.

He threw a glance over at Caliga's certain smile and Urania biting her tongue in concentration. His adoptive sister threw up another one and caught it. She slammed the knuckles on the desk and jumped up.

"I won! Yes, yes, yes!" Favius dropped his knuckles with a playfully disgusted expression and turned to his sister.

"So what contest does the mighty champion propose we measure ourselves in next?" She bowed formally.

"That is indeed the question any loser wonders about, is it not, brother?" Favius tossed a knuckle at her without much heat, and she yelped—but caught it. Urania's knuckle hit her straight in the face, and she gasped in surprise. She raised her hands to retaliate, but the room's door slammed open. A man in elegant robes rushed into the room. His narrow eyes assessed and dismissed the three children with disgust as he walked towards the desk. Urania instantly rushed to hers.

Favius moved at a more leisurely pace, while Caliga began picking up the knuckles spilled across the floor. The man picked up one of the scrolls and paused, glaring at Caliga as she, with ever more deliberate slowness, gathered the final knuckles. As she sat down and put away the purse, the man sighed.

"My name is Cassian Norvius Lector. You will address me as Tutor. Is that clear?" Favius nodded along with his siblings, despite the unease spreading through his stomach. The man stepped forward, putting a scroll on Favius' desk despite him sitting at the corner.

"I have been hired by your mother to turn you feral children into worthy young nobles." He glanced over at Urania before lingering on Caliga.

"It is obvious to me that I have a lot of work ahead of me."

"So we shall begin with fundamental mathematics." He slapped his flat hand on his desk.

"The scroll contains a table of relevant additions. You will have a week to learn them by heart, and then you will be tested before we move on to more interesting parts of your education." He stepped to his desk, running his hands over the pile of scrolls. Then he turned and narrowed his eyes.

"And obviously, there shall be silence during class. Do not disturb my studies with meaningless babbling." Favius massaged his temples. Well, I'm going to give that a solid failing grade in terms of didactics. He unwound the scroll and placed it on the central desk in front of Urania so that all three siblings could study it. As he slowly unrolled it, Favius' frown kept deepening.

"What the…" he murmured under his breath. The local number system was relatively simple, and he dimly remembered learning to use it through Favius' foggy memories. Yet it didn't take him long to refamiliarize himself with the notation. Instead of the ten numerals he was used to, this system only recognized two: a 1 and a 5. He ran his hand over one of the addition problems written at the center of the page. 115. 5 + 11115. 11 = 1. 15. 115 I guess it's workable.

Better than Roman numerals at least and it kinda reminds me of the Mayan system. Though the dots separating each compound numeral are awkward. He looked up from the sheet at his siblings. Urania was looking somewhere between annoyed and frustrated, while Caliga was playing with a remaining knuckle under the table. Returning his attention to the document, he saw it.

"That can't possibly…" Then he saw it again. After a quick systematic search, he found four different examples of the number eight written with separation dots. The first and, in his opinion, only sensible form—1115—was clearly dominant. But about a third of the eights were written as 5111. He scratched his head. I mean, there's no fundamental reason not to start with the five, but— His eyes focused on the two offending possibilities. 1511 and 1151. Strange that those only appear in the middle of larger numbers.

He shook his head. Their system cannot possibly be this inconsistent. He searched his memories, but couldn't quite recover the answer. He took a deep breath and turned to Cassian.

"Tutor," he began, "would you mind explaining why—""I would indeed," the man's curt voice hit him like a slap in the face, as he continued reading his scroll. Favius narrowed his eyebrows and raised his voice slightly—not impolite, but determined.

"Why is the order in which the numerals are placed not fixed? Why does it vary?" Cassian looked up, and his hand flinched toward what appeared to be a willow rod by the side. Favius' eyes went wide, but Cassian's hand pulled back, as if he remembered something. His face reddened slightly, and he turned to the boy.

"I see no need to explain matters of numerology and divination to a child. Be silent and learn." Favius shook his head and steadied his voice to sound determined instead of petulant.

"I will not." Cassian snorted, but Favius continued, not letting him get a word in.

"There is nothing I can learn from this scroll, because I already know everything that is written in it." The tutor chuckled.

"I'm sure you have learned some addition problems by heart before. But make no mistake, child. I'm doing you a favor. If I did not begin by fixing the gaps in your education, I wouldn't be doing my duty." Caliga was leaning back and smiling broadly, while Urania's eyes went wide. Favius noticed that her hand had grabbed his forearm. He gave both siblings a smile, then turned to Cassian.

"If you believe that, how about it? I'm willing to test my knowledge." A vicious, almost mocking edge entered his voice, and his smile sharpened.

"And I'm going to show you who still has something to learn about mathematics."