Chapter 480: Teacher Eris
There was a lot of work to do with only 3 days left until Christina’s coming-of-age birthday.
For the third time just this year, envoys and representatives from all over the Rockwell Kingdom and beyond were descending upon Misty City for a grand celebration.
The main hall, garden square, Manor, and a good portion of the city as a whole needed a thorough cleaning and to be decorated appropriately, while food and accommodations for the many foreign guests who would be attending had to be arranged as well.
Once again, Lucas found himself at the centre of preparations, especially when it came to the menu for the birthday banquet.
The chefs at the manor, and many of the employees at Christina’s own Princess Bakery Chain, were recruited by the boy as he shared with them all kinds of innovative cooking methods and recipes to make his Junior Sister’s 16th birthday one that no one would forget.
Christina herself tried to participate in this process, as her passion for cooking had only grown stronger over the past few months, but since it was for her party, everyone did their best to keep her out of the kitchen.
They were only somewhat successful as when a Royal Princess who also happens to the Disciple of the Marquess tells you to get out of the way, you really didn’t have much choice in the matter... but they had to at least try!
Eris was also helping out a lot with the preparations, albeit in a much more indirect way. The new Rising Phoenix Guild, which everyone agreed belonged to Eris, was accepting many job requests for the young orphan kids to run errands or make deliveries throughout the city. Some of the older kids, the ones who had recently left said orphanages, were even given commissions for small quests in the nearby rivers and forests, gathering materials that were needed for the party.
All of Misty City seemed to be in a flurry of activity, and with more and more people arriving each day, more shops and stalls going up, and more chaos filling the streets, it was the perfect time for those with hidden agendas to slip in unnoticed...
.....
"So, who can tell me the answer?" Eris, who had dressed up to make herself look more mature today, asked as she stood at the front of the main lecture hall in the Rising Phoenix Guild.
Looking out over the room, Eris couldn’t help smiling widely seeing it fully packed, which was quite a feat seeing how there was enough seats for 200 people.
Most of the audience was made up of young children, ages 6 to 10 years old, but there were also some older kids mixed in, and even a young adult or two, though they looked rather embarrassed to be there.
As one might have guessed, Eris was giving a lecture right now, or rather, she was teaching a lesson, a math lesson no less!
The girl who hated having to sit and learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, was now actually teaching other children how to do arithmetic.
Oh, how the times have changed, thought Sasha as she stood at the back of the hall, proudly watching her tom-boy daughter growing up right before her very eyes.
Sasha wasn’t alone in her doting, of course. Elliot Balfour, Sasha’s normally stern-faced father, was also there, making an even dopier smile than she was.
Sasha’s mother, Teagan, would also have been there, but administrative duties in the guild were currently keeping her busy, denying her the chance to watch her youngest granddaughter give this important lesson.
It took a while, but eventually, one of the ’students’ in the lecture hall raised their hand, just like they had been taught, and was called upon by the ’teacher’; unfortunately, the answer the young girl gave was wrong.
Pouting slightly, the little girl couldn’t help complaining, "Teacher Eris, why do we need to learn math? It doesn’t seem that important."
Looking at the little girl, Eris flashed a rather mature smile, at least for her, and replied, "I know how you feel, Nina. I used to feel the same way too, but learning at least a little math is actually very important."
"How?" Nina asked back, obviously not convinced.
Instead of answering right away, Eris picked up a piece of chalk with her new prosthetic hand, walked over to the blackboard, and began writing.
It was still a bit of a struggle for Eris to use this new limb, but a minute later, she finished a bit of simple writing, smiled, and pointed to the board, "This is today’s lunch menu! There’s the free lunch the guild offers, a 5 Copper option that comes with extra bread from Princess Bakery, and a 9 Copper option that includes an extra piece of fish from the market."
Turning back to Nina, Eris proceeded to ask, "Imagine you just finished a sweeping job you got from the guild and were paid 10 Copper for your work. Now, if you need 4 Copper in order to rent a room to sleep in tonight, and another 2 Copper to fix your broom so you can work again tomorrow, what meal can you afford for lunch today?"
"I need 4 Coppers for a room tonight!?" Nina jumped out of her seat and cried out in panic, wondering if she might be getting kicked out of the orphanage.
"Ah... no no no, uh..." Eris stumbled a bit, clearly not having expected this reaction.
Fortunately, the young red-head had always been rather quick on her feet and comforted Nina, "This is just an example, like for a future you who had left the orphanage and is now an adult."
"Oh! Oh..." Nina breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down before she began trying to solve the difficult problem using the little bit of math she had learned over the past few months at the guild.
Nina wasn’t the only one trying to solve the lunch menu problem, mind you. Many of the other children in the room were doing the same.
Some of them, who had learned a bit more or who had been studying a bit longer, managed to figure out the answer fairly quickly, but most were clearly struggling.
This wasn’t a surprise, though, seeing how almost all of the students here were from the poorest orphanages and households in all of Misty City.
Most of these children had no education at all, so the best they could do was recognize simple things from their daily lives, like the word for ’bread’, or perhaps how their name looked in writing. As for math, some might know what a few of the numbers were, or how to count on their fingers, but solving ’complex’ arithmetic problems was basically impossible.
Still, like they had been encouraged to do many times since the Rising Phoenix Guild opened its doors to them, they kept trying.