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Half a year had passed since I became a Home Tutor.
Eris quickly became the kind of child who refused to attend lessons.
Whenever arithmetic or reading and writing came up, she would vanish without a trace.
Completely unfindable.
She only resurfaced when it was time for swordsmanship training.
There were exceptions, of course.
Magic she was still willing to learn.
The first time she successfully cast Fireball, she danced around with pure delight on her face.
Watching the curtains rapidly catch fire, Eris made her declaration.
“Someday, I’ll cast magic even more powerful than Rudeus’s!”
I immediately extinguished the flames, naturally, and gave her a strict order: Fireball only when I was present.
Her satisfied expression, lit up by the burning curtains, made her look every bit like an arsonist.
But she was genuinely brimming with motivation, I’d give her that.
So the other subjects should be fine too, right?
That was what I thought.
I have to admit my read on the situation was completely off.
Eris refused arithmetic and reading and writing outright.
Every time I tried to persuade her, she bolted.
Every time I tried to catch her, we ended up in yet another brawl, and I had to drag her to class utterly exhausted.
I won most of those fights.
But I was starting to feel it.
If I kept letting her grow at this rate, hand-to-hand combat was going to become a losing proposition for me.
Not that I’d ever admit I was secretly using wind magic — the undetectable kind — to give myself an edge every single time.
So now I was in talks with Ghislaine about how to get Eris to actually sit through a lesson.
“Hmm…
Eris just doesn’t understand why arithmetic and reading and writing matter.
We need to find a way to make that clear to her.”
Ghislaine stood beside me and listened.
She nodded.
No commentary.
“Here’s the plan: later, when I drag her back to class, you casually bring up your adventuring days.
Like it’s nothing.
But make sure you work in the more miserable things that happened to you because you couldn’t do arithmetic or read and write.”
Paul had once said that even Ghislaine’s brain was made of muscle.
If someone like her came out and vouched for the importance of literacy and numbers, Eris might actually take it to heart.
“Hmm…
alright.”
Ghislaine thought it over, then nodded.
So you really do have stories like that…
I was half expecting to have to write the script for you.
If they’re real, even better.
Lived experience hits differently.
…
With the plan set, I went to track down the subject.
Eris was sprawled in the stable’s haystack, belly exposed, sleeping like she had not a care in the world.
“Huu~…
huu~…”
Dead asleep.
That face, when she wasn’t glaring at anyone, was actually pretty cute.
Surface-level impression only.
The moment those eyes opened, we’d probably be fighting again.
For now, I pulled her clothes down to cover her stomach so she wouldn’t catch a cold.
“You can actually sleep this soundly in a haystack…”
I’d have expected a pampered child to be completely useless in conditions like this.
Apparently not.
Eris had none of the young-lady airs you’d expect.
She’d always been more wildling than noble, which was strange, because both her parents matched every image I had of what nobility should look like.
After she’d slept another ten minutes, I moved close.
“Eris.
Time to wake up for arithmetic.”
She cracked one eye open.
Saw it was me.
Apparently decided she was dreaming and closed it again.
Honestly.
Fine.
Half-surrendering to the idea of giving up, I sat down beside her.
Her eyelids twitched.
Still closed.
“Eris, arithmetic and reading and writing are actually important, you know.”
Silence.
“If you’re serious about adventuring, you can’t go without them.
An adventurer who can’t even write their own name is going to get swindled down to nothing.”
“Th-then…
I just need to know how to write my own name, right…”
She mumbled it barely above a whisper.
“What about money?
Picture this: five-person party, you’ve hunted a monster, ten gold coins total.
How do you split it?”
Eris thought about it for a good long while.
Then, apparently having given up entirely, she shouted.
“I don’t need it!”
She sat up and bolted straight outside.
Well…
that answer had all the dignity of a young lady, I suppose.
…
Nothing worked.
The next day I forcibly hauled Eris back to class and put the plan into motion.
Midway through the lesson, Ghislaine spoke up.
She talked about her adventuring days, started with hunting monsters, then segued into the time she got swindled.
Turned out Ghislaine had a gift for storytelling.
She built the whole thing up before the gut-punch.
I hadn’t expected that from her at all.
The man in the story who did the swindling, though, he felt oddly familiar.
“Rudeus!
Ghislaine!
If I learn arithmetic and reading and writing, will you take me on an adventure?”
Adventuring with the young lady, huh.
Honestly?
That sounded kind of great.
I’d genuinely disliked this kid when we first met.
But after half a year together, I’d come to see it clearly.
She was just a brat with a good heart.
That was all.
A brat who was still, admittedly, a bit too much of a brat.
“Of course.
I’ll play support from the rear as a magician.”
Ghislaine nodded too.
“Then it’s a promise!”
And just like that, Eris was brimming with motivation.
…
The motivation lasted a week before it evaporated.
Eris lay facedown on the desk, sighing, eyes completely vacant.
Perfectly normal.
I’d seen it in my previous life all the time.
One bad test score and kids swear they’ll turn things around, then a few weeks later, that fire is gone and everything drifts back to baseline.
That’s just how children are.
No point fighting it.
Which, looking at it objectively, made me something of a master educator.
“Eris, finish these few problems and then you can rest.”
My standard line.
But today she’d apparently made up her mind about something, because she didn’t even react.
Hmm.
Maybe I should borrow a page from my previous life, two rest days a week.
No, wait.
In this world it should probably be three.
There was nobody competing with Eris for anything.
Basic arithmetic and basic literacy was genuinely enough.
That settled it.
“Eris, how about taking tomorrow off?”
I said it softly.
And I clearly saw her ear twitch.
But she didn’t move.
“What about two days?
Finish your homework and I’ll give you two days off…”
Eris shot upright and slammed her palm on the desk.
“Deal!
You promised!”
“Yeah, you’ve earned some rest.
But after those two days, it’s back to studying.”
“I know already!”
She said it grandly and got to work.
Half an hour later, I received a test paper where nearly two-thirds of the arithmetic was wrong.
“Well?
How’d I do!”
Eris stood there arms akimbo, beaming, radiating complete confidence.
Here’s the thing — I knew Eris was a hardworking kid.
No matter how much she complained, she did listen during class and she did do her homework.
As long as she actually showed up, anyway.
But why?
Why did she have multiplication figured out, and yet division was a total blank?
I looked at that confident face.
My mouth opened.
Then I pressed my lips together.
No.
I couldn’t crush a child outright.
Not long ago she couldn’t even do addition and subtraction.
I had to be gentle.
Couldn’t knock the confidence out of her.
“Hmm…
plenty of room to grow.
Anyway, let’s call it here for today.
We’ll do corrections once you’ve had your rest.”
“Oh!”
Eris left the classroom in high spirits.
I started packing up to go.
“Rudeus.
This is mine.”
Ghislaine held out her own test paper.
I took it and looked it over.
She had even more wrong answers than Eris.
I looked up at her.
Her tail was swaying gently.
She was smiling.
Damn it.
“Hmm…
improvement.
We’ll do corrections together after everyone’s rested.”
“Okay!”
Ghislaine walked out of the classroom with a smile.
…I really am too soft-hearted for this job.
➤ Next: Rest Day