Chương 16: Chapter 1.16: Exchange of Pointers

"I see no reason to interrupt my valuable studies for your childish whims." Cassian sneered down from his desk at Favius, which made his blood run hotter. This asshole comes in here, talks like his shit smells of perfume, and refuses to explain anything. Favius brushed off Urania's hand as she tried to pull him back by his arm. Next, he stood up and let the memories of this world guide his actions.

"I, Favius Ovinius Loran, challenge you, Cassian Norvius Lector, to a contest of mathematics. May the better of us win and be honored in the eyes of the Warrior." Favius' hand shot up, pointing at the older man sitting in front of him. Deep down, he suppressed a chuckle. Fucking hell, I really hope I look like I'm serious and not just some puffed-up kid throwing around formal dueling challenges.

Cassian stared at him for a while until Caliga finally chuckled and tossed a knuckle into the air before it clattered onto the floor. Both of them looked at her. She shrugged.

"What? Looks like things are finally gonna get fun." Cassian's face twitched. Then he turned to Favius.

"Very well, boy. Twenty-one plus fifty-three."

"Seventy-four," Favius shot back instantly. The man began firing simple double-digit addition problems at Favius in rapid succession. But he kept responding quickly. After nearly a minute of this, the tutor nodded to himself and chuckled.

"I should have expected this." He looked at Favius, then glanced at Urania.

"Your bloodline is giving you some sort of mental enhancements related to memory." Favius' eyes narrowed. Enhancements related to memory? That— He was about to shoot back and dismiss the idea, but then he frowned. It's hard to compare, but… yes, I feel that my memory is clearer. Hmm. Well, something for later.

"Don't know the answer, boy?" Cassian's voice and satisfied smile pulled him from those thoughts.

"Excuse me, I was thinking about something. Would you please repeat the problem?"

"With pleasure." The other man smirked.

"Three hundred ninety-nine minus two hundred seventy-four." Favius adjusted quickly, and the exchange continued. And Cassian's eyes continued to narrow. After five more exercises, Favius had enough.

"Add seventeen thousand..." He threw the problem at the other man and smiled. If he really only memorizes mathematics then— Cassian chuckled and picked something up from the side of the desk. It was a wooden frame containing strings with beads—an abacus, a primitive calculator. Urania tensed beside him as Cassian's fingers blurred across it, and the tutor responded with a smug smile. Then the tutor counterattacked.

"Fifty-one thousand…" Favius ran the numbers. Urania made a disapproving noise, and Caliga spoke up.

"You can't use an abacus while he has none! That's not fair!" Yet Cassian merely shrugged.

"Good preparation is a skill in itself." His gaze met Caliga's for a second.

"It is a valuable life lesson you ought to remember." Then Favius replied, "Nineteen thousand..." For the first time, Cassian's eyes went wide, and he gaped. Then he sneered and threw several more problems at him. After Favius continued holding his own, the man slammed the abacus on the table.

"Whatever Eastern tricks you are using, it is clear that you are slow. Your results may be correct, yet speed is a mathematician's virtue." Favius rolled his eyes and studied the abacus. The fact that he uses that thing… Well, it may be a computer, but it is a primitive one with extremely limited memory. With a vicious smile, Favius turned to his opponent.

"Multiply. Three hundred thousand and seventy-four…" Cassian laughed, put down the abacus, and laughed out loud.

"You think that spouting high numbers is meaningful in any way?" The man stood up and began pacing, speaking in a lecturer's tone.

"Philosophy in the absence of any practicality, as with those made-up numbers, is mere sophistry—and at that, a particularly poor attempt." But Favius smiled as he too stood up and stepped toward the sandboard that occupied a table next to the tutor's desk. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"So you are saying you can't solve it?" He poured some water into the dry sand and mixed it. Then he wrote out the problem. While he was focused on solving the long multiplication, Cassian stepped up beside him. The girls followed. He noticed them frowning and murmuring as he used Arabic numerals instead of the local symbols. Finally, he wrote out the solution and smiled.

"See? It is solvable. You may verify it at your leisure." He grinned smugly. But Cassian leaned down and then glared at Favius. He pointed at a place where Favius had used a zero when he translated the result back from Arabic numerals to the local script. He dimly remembered that the locals simply left a blank space between two points.

"What is this?" Cassian spoke, his expression oddly unreadable. Favius shrugged.

"It's just a zero. It represents—""Don't!" Cassian hissed, his eyes wide.

"Have your previous teachers not taught you anything? You dare speak such heresies?" Favius looked for support from the two girls, but even they had taken a step back. Urania covered her mouth behind a gasp, while Caliga studied the scene with an intrigued smile. Favius paused. I don't actually know what I did wrong. I guess it's some sort of taboo. He dimly remembered something Brutus had said about the local gods. Then he chuckled.

"Oh, you mean because nothingness is associated with the eighth goddess?" Cassian pressed his eyes shut, massaged the bridge of his nose, and groaned.

"To speak of such things in polite company is simply uncouth. Absence is unnatural, child." Cassian threw dry sand over the calculations, making Favius' eye twitch.

"Such simple tricks with high numbers will impress no true natural philosopher." Favius glared at the man, then took a deep breath and focused on fighting down the equal mix of anger and mirth.

"Very well. If you think high numbers are meaningless, then answer this: what is eighty-one divided by eight? Or is that number also too high for you, honored tutor?" Caliga chuckled, and Urania again dug her fingers into his shoulder, but he shrugged her off. Cassian sighed and looked at him as though he were a crippled puppy.

"There is no solution to this problem. The very fact that you ask such a question shows your lack of refinement." Favius frowned.

"Of course there is. It's—" He frowned as he found no vocabulary in the local language for numbers smaller than one. He struggled to find the closest thing.

"The answer is ten and one remaining. Or ten and the first part of eight." Cassian smiled as he replied, but his eyes glittered and reddened.

"Do you take me for a simple merchant? Fractions are the realm of the common man, not of the philosopher. And to think of remnants in mathematics—how dare you insult the art of numerical philosophy like that?" He took a step back and grasped the willow rod in his hand, his knuckles white. Favius' breath hitched. The fuck is going on with these people? I'm a heretic for using a zero and now he wants to beat me because I use fractions? He made a split-second decision and stepped forward.

If he beats me, I'll have Brutus beat him. Favius recalled how Cassian had flinched away from the rod the first time. I think he knows that.

"There is nothing wrong with fractions. Any true philosopher of mathematics would see that they are simply a result of the nature of numbers—but you are apparently incapable of seeing that." Favius hissed his reply out between clenched teeth while both his siblings fled to the back of the room.

"That what isn't whole isn't complete, and the incomplete cannot be beautiful." Cassian tapped the willow rod onto the desk.

"This is a truth that the gods reveal to us through cultivation. Nobody can possibly deny it." He pointed at the sandbox, then twitched the rod's tip toward Favius.

"And given that all truth is beautiful, the way you resolved that division must be false." Favius took a step back despite his resolve as Cassian slapped the rod against the palm of his hand.

"And thus follows that your division is neither beautiful nor true. And thus not good. So it is evil." Cassian's face was red, and Favius expected him to attack at any moment. He took another step back and placed a hand in the sand of the sandboard. If he attacks me, I throw the sand and run. Brutus—Brutus will solve it then. But instead, a crimson-faced Cassian slammed the rod into the desk, making it splinter, and walked out of the room in a hurry. At the door, he paused and turned.

"Do not think there won't be consequences to what you've done." The man was gone. In the resulting silence, Favius fought to stop his body from shivering. Only after several long minutes did his heartbeat return to normal.

"Fucking hell. What an utter psychopath," he muttered, and the words broke the tension in the room. Urania jumped forward and hugged him and predictably began crying.

"By the Mother, how could you stand there while he—" Then Caliga broke out in loud, chittering laughter. She too hugged Favius and ruffled his hair.

"That was amazing! You showed that arrogant whore's son his place!" Favius rolled his eyes and began to chuckle as well, which earned both of them a punch from Urania. After he calmed his siblings, they all settled back down. Caliga walked toward Cassian's desk and began perusing the scrolls, but Urania grabbed Favius by the sleeve of his tunic and pulled him toward the sandbox.

"Can you explain how you did that?" She pointed at the sand. Favius chuckled and began writing out Arabic numerals and the local script. Soon Caliga stood beside them, too. She was frowning. But with each word, he realized Urania was following easily. As he explained basic arithmetic algorithms to them and gave his sisters practice problems, his thoughts began to race. I have a quest about spreading an innovation.

I haven't been focused on it because of all the things with Brutus, but I was thinking about a physical product. But knowledge... If I manage to spread ideas, that might be the easiest solution. Easier than trying to do something complicated and grand like steel or fucking gunpowder. He looked at the stacks of wax boards. Urania poked him and pointed to her equations—she had gotten all of them right, whereas Caliga had made a few errors.

Before he could give them new problems, Urania looked at him as she wiped the wet sand smooth with a board.

"What you did with the division—can you explain that?" Favius nodded and postponed any thoughts of writing a book. If I can manage to teach simple math to my sisters, then I know that the people of this world will understand it. So he turned to her and began.

"Consider that there are ten numbers between one and ten. And if you go in steps of ten, there are also ten numbers between one and one hundred, right?" Urania nodded as Favius sketched out a number line in the sand.

"So consider what happens if you cut the piece between zero and one into ten segments…" The afternoon turned into evening as he continued explaining and refining his ideas. He smiled, basking in his sisters' attention, and felt his certainty deepen. Yet, despite the smile spreading over his face, he still worried what Hesnia and Cassian would do in retaliation.