Chapter 34

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
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He knew very well what kind of children the ones who entered the Gifted Center this year were.

‘I heard the nobles made a fuss to send their children.’

The sight of them making a fuss to somehow catch the Emperor’s eye was pathetic.

‘They’ll all just be flocking around together, supposedly making those connections of theirs.’

There was no way such children would listen to his classes.

‘I absolutely hate that kind of thing.’

He was famous even at the Academy for being difficult and unkind.

Moreover, he didn’t particularly have deep friendships with other nobles.

So Malles was confident that the number of applicants for his class would be zero.

But whether there was a child with faulty eyes, he received contact that one person had applied for his class.

‘This is a problem.’

He had planned to quietly do research alone at the Gifted Center for a year, take a generous retirement payout, and retire.

But he couldn’t let his time be taken away by one insolent noble child.

‘So I deliberately gave an absurd assignment.’

He told them to solve about 50 advanced mathematics problems by two days later.

If it were a sane child, they would have run away immediately, saying, ‘The professor is crazy!’

They would already be listening to another professor’s class.

The moment Malles opened the door while imagining a quiet classroom where no one would be.

“Uh…?”

He ended up making a dazed sound.

The classroom he had received was certainly bleak as could be.

A plain professor’s desk and a podium. And about five desks and chairs for students.

Besides that, it was a worn and bleak space where a few books he had brought were all.

Even though dust was piled up, he had not even asked for cleaning to deliberately drive away that one person.

‘But why is it so clean?’

The inside of the classroom was tidily organized without a single speck of dust.

The desks that had been scattered were neatly lined up, and the bottom of the chalkboard where chalk dust used to fly was wiped clean.

That wasn’t all.

On the professor’s desk was placed a vase with a newly bloomed flower, and through the open window, a cool and pleasant spring breeze came fluttering in.

‘Did the person in charge of cleaning come by?’

Even if so, to think they had organized it so neatly.

Even though he had deliberately chosen a worn and secluded place, as a human being, he liked it being clean.

It was when he was looking around the classroom with a satisfied face.

“Hello!”

“…”

He lowered his head at the voice heard from below.

There, a small child wearing the uniform of the Gifted Center was looking at him.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Evi Alden. Are you Professor Malles?”

Clear voice. Moreover, seeing the somehow emotional look on her face, he answered and nodded his head involuntarily.

“Yes, I am Professor Malles. Could it be… are you the student listening to this Advanced Mathematics class?”

“Yes, Professor!”

Evi answered vigorously and smiled.

Malles ended up being flustered.

He had wondered what kind of blockhead applied for his class, but to think it was such a young child.

Moreover, he thought she would run away after seeing the first assignment and not even appear today.

But far from running away, to think she was greeting him.

‘T, this isn’t it?’

The flustered Malles came to his senses after seeing his handwriting still remaining on the chalkboard.

‘Pull yourself together. Only by sending this child out will this year become comfortable.’

She was an unusually small and thin child to be thought of as a noble child of the Gifted Center.

Moreover, she didn’t show the insolent attitude characteristic of children of noble families.

But he must not be shaken. At this time, on the eve of retirement, he couldn’t be taking care of a young child.

He spoke to Evi with a deliberately blunt voice.

“Yes. Have you done the assignment?”

It couldn’t be possible.

In the first place, they were all difficult ones to the point of taking about one or two hours just to solve one problem.

No matter if she was a child to enter the Gifted Center, she wouldn’t be able to do advanced mathematics that easily.

He saw Evi’s expression harden a bit at Malles’s words.

Advanced mathematics was a book that even pre-majors found difficult.

But there was no way such a young child could have done it properly.

‘As expected, there’s no way she could have done it properly. That’s why she’s smiling and greeting so politely.’

It wasn’t once or twice that he had seen the appearance of someone trying to pass by while smirking without having done the assignment properly.

To think she was already trying to pass like that at such a young age.

It was the moment Malles firmly made up his mind to shout.

“I did do it, but there were difficult things, so I couldn’t solve them all.”

Evi brought her notebook with a discouraged voice and pushed it in front of him.

Malles took the notebook and checked it.

‘It’s obvious without even looking.’

He too had been in a teaching career for a long time.

It would be certain that she only made an effort for the first few problems and was whining that it was difficult.

Thinking so, the moment he opened the notebook, his eyes widened.

Formulas were written densely from the first page.

Malles scanned the round handwriting that had written down those solutions densely without gaps, following them with his eyes involuntarily.

“Hoo.”

An exclamation flowed from his mouth.

It was a very neat solution. To the point it could be included in a book just like this.

His eyes hurriedly scanned the next solution. This time too, the solution was perfect.

Looking at the solutions of several problems like that, finally, one that wasn’t solved properly appeared.

Malles felt sorry rather than glad that something to find fault with had finally appeared.

“Why couldn’t you solve this? It’s a problem utilizing formulas like the previous ones.”

“I think I need to apply the Pirna formula together from that problem… but I haven’t learned that yet. I saw the explanation in the book, but I didn’t understand it well…”

Evi’s voice answering became increasingly smaller.

She had somehow solved the previous problems even if it took time, but she couldn’t solve any more from exactly there.

“Heh, this is something. This won’t do!”

Malles thumped his chest as if frustrated.

Evi shrank even more at the appearance of the bulky professor unable to contain his frustration.

Will he be angry? Will she be scolded for entering the Gifted Center without knowing even this?

At that moment, Professor Malles went to the front of the desk and said to Evi.

“You, try sitting here!”

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And one hour later.

“Child, this is…”

Malles was giving an explanation to Evi with a very kind voice.

“Now, do you see the starting point here? If you draw a straight line from here like this…”

Malles took a piece of chalk and drew various graphs and figures on the chalkboard.

Evi watched what he was drawing and diligently followed along on her notebook.

“It ends like this here. Do you understand?”

“Yes!”

When Evi answered vigorously, a bright smile hung on Professor Malles’s face.

It was such a bright smile that if others who knew him had seen it, they would have rubbed their eyes, wondering if they were seeing things.

It’s Professor Malles, famous for being blunt and without smiles.

When he taught at the Academy, he was also famous as the professor who made students burst into tears.

He was the one even Academy students, who were second to none in studying, disliked facing.

To think such a person was explaining kindly. Even wearing a smile.

“Tell me if it’s too difficult. Because I’ll explain it again.”

“No! It was a bit difficult when I saw it in the book yesterday, but hearing the professor’s explanation, I understood it all!”

“Is that so? A book written by some idiot…”

Professor Malles, who was speaking until that point, remembered that he had written the advanced mathematics he gave to Evi and cleared his throat.

“Ahem, I did write it a bit difficultly. No, but that’s because it’s a book for adults at the Academy. If I had known a young child like you would see it, I would have written it more easily.”

Having made excuses hurriedly, he picked up the chalk again.

At that moment, the sound of a bell from the distant clock tower was heard. It was time for class to end.

“It’s already over.”

Regret dwelled on Evi’s face at the sound of the bell.

In Malles’s eyes, that appearance looked so commendable.

‘Yes! This is the appearance of a student!’

Is it not the duty of a student to be regretful of the learning they couldn’t finish, rather than being busy rushing out when the bell rings?

Thinking that others would shake their heads if they heard, Malles looked at the book.

‘To think we almost finished the first chapter even though we only had a day of class.’

It was truly an amazing speed. When he had class at the Academy in the past, it took two weeks to finish the first chapter.

But to think it’s almost finished in just one day.

‘Her understanding is very fast.’

Moreover, even though it was a class for over two hours at once, her concentration didn’t waver, and far from it, her eyes shone every time he informed her of something new.

Thanks to that, Malles also ended up getting excited along with her.

‘I don’t know how long it’s been since I taught so passionately like this.’

He had always seen those sitting as if crumpled with faces saying they were dying of sleep.

Then, seeing a student who diligently listened to his explanation, immediately asked what she didn’t know, and tried to understand, his heart welled up.

‘It was exactly this kind of student I wanted to teach.’