Otherworld Nation Founding Chronicles

Chapter 9: Arithmetic

TL: Pengu

ED: Manga Hunter

“Mumumu……”

“What are you doing, Tetora?”

Tetora smelled my body for some reason.

Did I eat something bad-smelling, yesterday?

“It smells like a woman.”

Are you serious?

That nose is too good.

“In fact, yesterday……”

Tetora knits her eyebrows when I speak about last night to her.

“It’s suspicious. The woman is absolutely dangerous. You shouldn’t get close.”

“Is that so? Though she is suspicious, but she didn’t seem dangerous at all.”

She is rather a naïve young girl.

I seemed to be able to push it down by a margin, though it doesn’t work.

“Women’s intuition.”

“What is that?”

In my experience, the women’s intuition has not been proven right at least.

However, this world is the world with curses and divine protection.

Possibly, is it a premonition? Women’s intuition is right……maybe.

“Then i will be careful for the time being.”

“It is useless with only that. I’ll accompany you.”

“Tetore said it is dangerous. Only I am more agile, so you don’t need to come.”

Actually, I, who walks the forest every day, have the geographical advantage.

My feet became considerably fast recently because my physical ability rose.

It’s easy to run away when alone.

However, there is Tetora, when the worst happens; I need to carry Tetora on my back to run away.

“U……then, there is no other way.”

Tetora withdrew easily.

“Since Tetora is good at distinguishing sounds, it really helps.” Pull it immediately if you think that what I say is right. On the contrary, she gives advice if she thinks that it is not right.

When it is Ron and Roswald, they ask for the impossible and don’t know how to back down.

On the contrary, I begin to worry about Gram and Soyon as they don’t oppose at all.

I must have the children acquire power to think for themselves, soon.

The important one is the power to think logically.

To forge the power to think logically……

Is it teaching?

It is not necessary now, but it is useful by all means from now on.

It shouldn’t be a waste of time.

Well then, how do you teach………?

“First, please look at this.”

I write a number in all languages other than the local language Karisha, on the ground. Why did I write in a foreign language? That is because this area does not have an original letter.

“Please read them in order. Ron.”

“Eto, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”

“Correct answer.”

“As expected, it is readable like this.”

Ron said dissatisfied.

No, I don’t know that if I do not confirm it.

Well, it is easy to learn the numbers even if I say them in a foreign language.

There is the excellent teacher Tetora, too.

I continue to write this way in the ground.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. (No matter where you look at it, it is other world language)

0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

“What is that?”

“It is the written numbers of my hometown below. The top are the numbers in Karisha. I want you to learn the numbers below.”

“Why such a troublesome thing………”

The children look dissatisfied.

Recently, though I have gotten Tetora to finally learn it, why must you do something like this? They seem dissatisfied.

“This is because the numbers of my hometown are more convenient. There are a lot of countries in my hometown and all countries have their own original numbers. But only this Arabic numeric numbers are used all over the world. In other words, it is in fact easy to use.”

The Arabic numeric is a very reasonable figure.

Though in present, the science and technology of Europe is more advanced than that of Middle East now, but when the world was in the Middle Ages, the science centers in the Middle East and Islam.

I think there are various things as a reason, but it is apparent that the numeral becomes a big factor.

Though it is trivial, the origin of Arabic numeral is in India.

“Huh.”

The children have a face of consent to which I said, but the meaning doesn’t come forth for the most part. In the first place, these children may not know a sense of different words depending on the country.

For them, their world is their own village and which city state that village belonged to. Even if mentioned a large prefecture in Japan, it is still on a local degree. There are no chances to touch upon [Foreign language].

“What is the lower circle under this empty column?”

“It is the number call Zero. It shows that there is nothing.”

“Though there is nothing, but you have that?”

I heard that Tetora.

I was waiting for the question here.

There are no “zero” years in Christian era. The beginning is year one.

Haven’t you thought it was strange?

Because of this, there are a lot of people who think that 101-200 A.D. is the 1st century.

Why is it so troublesome?

The reason is simple. It’s because there is no concept of zero in Europe when the Christian era was made.

“There is nothing for nothing, but it is inconvenient when I do not define it. For example, here is a leaf. How many is it?”

“It’s one piece.”

“Then, how many is this?”

I cover the leaf.

“……Nothing.”

“This is called zero.”

On the face of the children float a [?].

“The beginning of numbers is one. I do not understand what would be the problem. There is nothing for nothing.”

“It is so……then let’s assume this is one leaf. How many pieces is this?”

I tear the leaf in half, throw away one half to one side, and then show everybody the remaining half.

“One piece.”

“It is different. Isn’t the complete form of the leaf a little while ago one piece? If you put half and this half together it makes one piece. In other words, it is half of one piece. This is 1/2 or could be said 0.5. Do you understand?”

“????????????????”

Sheet, it seems hard. Because the beginning of number is zero is common sense for modern Japanese, so there isn’t a sense of incongruity.

It is different for these children.

“Then let’s do it this way.”

I write the number line on the ground.

“Remember this start is zero. Next to this is one. Then, what is between zero and one?”

“In the first place, does it start with one?”

“The number in between?”

“I think one half is different from one!!”

“In short, it is two.”

“Does it increase when making it half?”

“Sshhiiiiittttttt!!!!!”

“Naa, Don’t you understand?”

After all, is my teaching bad?

I ask Tetora whose head was best in this.

“Somehow, it can be understood, but also not understood……In short, the figure is not thought by delimiting it one by one, it is thought of as one line instead?”

Oh……probably so.

Such a thing, I have not thought difficult!!

However, some of the children’s faces are cleared up thanks to the remark of Tetora. As expected of Tetora.

“I don’t understand it at all.”

“As expected.”

Roswald and Ron look more puzzled. They seem to have been confused by Tetora’s explanation even more.

Today class has ended just to have all members understand the zero concepts.

I feel uneasy about what happens in the future………

One month passed after I taught arithmetic.

Children learned it like sponge absorbing water, and even the slowest child was able to master the subtraction of one figure.

By the way, it is Tetora that understood the earliest, which is addition, subtraction (in brief, I calculate on paper) of three figures are done already.

Originally, there seem to be some that are able to calculate.

Because a big difference has begun to appear slowly in the proficiency, teaching by myself has become difficult.

So, I decided to make the child who can’t do it go with the child who can do it.

It is not possible to teach when you don’t really understand. There isn’t an effective review by just telling a person.

However, Tetora seemed to be dissatisfied. She has a look that she does not want to study the addition of two figures now.

Even if I say so, there is only me.

Ten good human brains are more helpful to some extent than one human being who is extremely bright.

A dissatisfying thing will be dissatisfying thing, though………

“It’s done. Please check it.”

“OK. Let me see……”

I decided to teach Tetora mathematics overtime; the time that I had free for class.

“If you said don’t be unfair then rather than let you work only as a teacher and not be able to tell at all is unfair; and I am in trouble when I do not have you lend a hand because I teach you words,” which she said.

Because you thought to that extent it becomes this way, it is the case that it is taught.

“Are all the questions’ answers correct? First of all, if addition and subtraction of three digits is perfect then let’s move on to the next one.”

“Is the four digit next?”

“No, neither three digits or tour figure changes. Next is multiplication.”

However, multiplication is done in an abnormal speed of one month.

Although, the field of length unit is reached, it is a considerable acquisition.

After all, is it the difference between motivation and ability of the person?

“For now, memorize this.”

“What is this?”

“Memory card.”

I hand the card, which has the multiplication table written on it, to Tetora.

Even though I say card, it’s made of a wooden board, so it’s quite large. It was hard to make it.

“This is troublesome……I can calculate by addition usually.”

“It would take time. You can learn it more easily.”

To be frank, most of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations between one digit are almost memorized.

I think small numbers were being done strenuously using both hands, but now it is answered instantaneously.

Well, continuous solving of similar problems several hundred times also contributed to that fact.

“However, it is virtually almost over, if the multiplication table is learned. Because division calculation is easy and similar to multiplication, too, you can learn it immediately.”

If this is over, the arithmetic operation will end.

When you are able to do arithmetic operations, then everyday life will not be a problem.

Following arithmetic is calculation lengths, area, volume then it will likely become speed and distance.

Honestly, it is more troublesome to teach than arithmetic. I don’t know the unit of length and weight of this world.

If I recall, the people had defined the Earth’s diameter somehow or another, and in the first place, whether this world is a globe or not is still unknown. Possibly, mysterious powers may exist as a replacement for gravity.

“Hey, Almis.”

“Huh? What is it?”

There is still a little incongruous to be called Almis. This is because I am usually called by Nii-san or leader. Only Tetora and Julia call me Almis.

“Was everyone able to do it in your hometown?”

“Well, it is so……all the children are the same age as Tetora. Well, though I think that Tetora is more excellent because they all began at 7 years old, and it normally takes two years to remember until multiplication.

“Does everyone learn it?”

“Ah. My country has compulsory education and it is considered to be a human’s right.”

By the way, a child has the right to get an education, without obligation. It is the parents’ duty to make them receive education.

“Why do they do such a thing? You should monopolize the knowledge for rich people.”

“It may surely be good for the privileged class, but there are many countries in my world including my country. Each country is competing with each other, but when knowledge is monopolized, wouldn’t excellent human resources not be gathered? So when it does, you will lose the competition.”

Especially, for the capitalistic society, education is the lifeline.

When democracy is performed, the nation with fools doesn’t become talk.

“It’s sure is troublesome.”

“It is so……”

Certainly, it’s possible to see so for certain.

In this world the competition is not extreme like there. No matter how hard I tried, it will often point gradually from nature to agriculture. The return can be obtained with little effort.

Do you think this is poor? It depends on the person whether you think it calmly.

According to a Japanese, the people of this world seem to take it too easy. According to the person of this world might think that Japanese hurry too much.

………The Japanese vigor dispatch is getting recognized as superior in the world.

Although it work well, it is inefficient.

Being in a hurry is not to live, it seems that people who have lived in order to hurry is too much………

The story just got tangent. It has become just complaints.

“By the way, Almis.”

“What?”

“When am I able to master your words?”

“…Though you may not know it, it is extremely difficult to learn a different language.”

I’m opposite of the children, I wasn’t able to readily learn it.

Still it is quite fast compared with the speed of English acquisition.

“How should I live if the divine protection of language was cut off?”

“Yeah, however, will arithmetic not be taught in that case?”