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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: A Pudding-like Genius
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His already fearsome face became twice as terrifying, and a chill sent my heart racing even faster.
In an instant, my vision narrowed and my thoughts simplified.
‘D-Don’t tell me the Duke is the type of person who can’t stand seeing someone clench their fist in front of him…?’
A clenched fist could, I suppose, look like a challenge to a fight.
A cold sweat trickled down my back.
I smiled as harmlessly as possible to show that I absolutely did not mean to pick a fight.
At the same time, I carefully lowered my clenched fist, hoping the Duke wouldn’t notice.
But it seemed the fist wasn’t the problem, as his tightly sealed lips twitched with anger.
‘Then what on earth is the problem?’
What had gotten on his nerves?
As my eyes darted around in thought, the Duke reached a hand toward me.
I flinched reflexively. His hand paused in midair before gently touching the ribbon in my hair.
“…It’s crooked. It’s not balanced.”
“Bawance!”
Realizing what had irked the Duke, I let out a sigh of relief.
‘The Duke hates things that are unbalanced!’
I had heard of people like that.
People who feel extremely uncomfortable with things that aren’t symmetrical or that deviate from the rules.
‘So that’s the kind of person Duke Elpinade is.’
I diligently made a mental note.
‘I must maintain perfect balance in front of the Duke.’
As I steeled my resolve, the Duke’s gaze quickly scanned my attire.
He seemed to be checking if anything else was out of balance.
I figured there wouldn’t be any major issues since the flower-named trio had worked so hard to dress me up, but I couldn’t help feeling nervous as I was being evaluated.
“…It’s passable.”
After a long moment, a positive assessment came from the Duke’s lips.
“The shoulder line is correct. The shoes seem to fit perfectly as well.”
“Yees. I got new cwothes and shoes today. Fwom the dwessmaker’s.”
I quickly brought my hands together over my stomach and bowed my head respectfully.
It is very important to consistently express gratitude to one’s benefactor.
“Fank you.”
“How many new sets came?”
“One dwess and one pair of shoes.”
At my answer, the Duke’s face crumpled into a frown.
“What good is one set? They should have sent ten of each.”
As the Duke muttered grimly, I made another mental note.
‘Duke Elpinade. Likes multiples of 10.’
* * *
“Hah.”
Lukas, the youngest scholar of the Ivory Tower, let out a deep sigh as he looked at the little girl sitting before him.
“So… you are Lady Lesia Elpinade?”
“Yees.”
“And you are here to take the test on the recommendation of His Excellency, Duke Elpinade, the chairman of the Ivory Tower’s Invitation Committee.”
“Yees.”
He would administer the test, as it was an order from Duke Elpinade, but she was just a four-year-old kid.
Hadn’t he, Lukas, who was called a genius since childhood, only passed the Ivory Tower’s exam when he was seven?
Unlike ordinary academies, the Ivory Tower’s test had no age limit.
A one-year-old and a hundred-year-old received the same level of questions.
This was because a minimum level of intellect was required to study at the Ivory Tower.
After passing the exam at seven, Lukas had skipped grade after grade, becoming the youngest scholar of the Ivory Tower at sixteen.
But even Lukas, looking back on his four-year-old self, could only remember a clueless, snot-nosed kid.
‘So what’s the point of giving a test to a little kid like this?’
He was bound to see a pathetic answer sheet anyway.
‘His Excellency the Duke must have had no choice but to give her a chance.’
No matter how bad her conduct was or how low her reputation had fallen, she was still a Saintess officially recognized by the Central Order, so he was probably just showing her as much courtesy as possible.
“The time limit is one hour. Just try to solve the problems you know. If there are any, that is.”
“Yees.”
Was ‘yes’ the only thing she could say?
Lukas placed the test paper in front of Lesia with a sullen expression.
Lesia awkwardly picked up the pen with her small hand and began to solve the problems.
The paper was filled with questions requiring highly complex calculations, but Lesia’s hand didn’t seem to know how to move.
She just made a small grunting sound as she stared at the questions for a long time.
‘Hmph. Just as I thought.’
Lukas scoffed at the predictable scene.
Lesia did move her hand to jot down some numbers, but it was obvious she was just writing down whatever came to mind.
Lukas craned his neck to check the answer Lesia had written.
It was 18.
‘…18?’
Lukas’s mind snapped to attention.
He was the one who had created this test.
The answer to every question was already in his head.
The answer to the first question was 18.
Exactly 18.
Lukas rubbed his eyes with his hand.
He thought he must have seen it wrong, but the answer Lesia had written was indeed 18.
The paper was clean, without a single line of her work.
‘D-Don’t tell me she solved that in her head?’
That was absolutely impossible.
‘Right. It must have been a lucky guess.’
Lukas tried to soothe himself.
That made more sense.
Trying to calm his racing heart, Lukas checked Lesia’s next answer.
This time, it was 9.
‘Hah!’
Lukas sucked in a sharp breath.
‘Nine!’
She was right again!
And again, there was no work written down.
‘N-No way!’
Whether Lukas was surprised or not, Lesia continued to solve the problems at a rapid pace.
Her handwriting was squiggly, as expected of a child with a weak grip, but that wasn’t important.
Right or wrong.
That was all that mattered in a test.
Before he knew it, Lukas was leaning so close to the desk he looked as if he might be sucked into the test paper.
His shadow fell over the page, and Lesia glanced at him with a hint of annoyance, but he was in such a state of shock that he didn’t even notice.
There were five problems in total.
Two of them were already solved.
The reason an entire hour was given for just five problems was that each one was incredibly difficult.
And yet Lesia, a mere four-year-old girl, had solved two of them in less than ten minutes.
And before thirty minutes had even passed…
“Aw done.”
Lesia put down the pen she had been holding awkwardly and handed the test paper, which contained only the neat answers, to Lukas.
Lukas received the paper with a trembling hand.
He had been checking her answers as she solved them, so there was no need for him to grade it.
They were all correct.
‘Even the last question was so difficult that I myself only recently figured out how to solve it cleanly…!’
And even then, it had required a long and complex process.
It was absolutely impossible to solve in one’s head.
“This last problem…”
Lukas thrust the paper back in front of Lesia’s face and asked.
“You didn’t write down any of your work.”
“Yees.”
“How did you arrive at this answer?”
“Just… ’cause it’s the answer. I dunno how to ’splain.”
“Th-That’s!”
Lukas shuddered, feeling as if he’d been struck by lightning.
People assume that explaining the reasoning behind a complex problem is the most difficult task, but in reality, proving the answer to a simple one is far trickier.
For example, trying to prove why one plus one equals two.
The conclusion is so self-evident that explaining the intermediate steps is difficult.
‘Which means…’
To Lesia, this final problem was as mundane and easy as ‘1+1=2’…!
Lukas reached an immediate conclusion.
‘A genius…’
This soft, pudding-like little kid was, without a doubt, a genius
