Gru

“In theory, yes.”

Looking at the young boy before her, Vivian paused for a moment before speaking slowly.

“Though in practice, there will be many difficulties, such as oceans, mountains, dangerous magical beasts—but in principle, it is possible.”

Excitement gleamed in the boy’s eyes.

“Then… then if the earth is round, what about the sky? Is the sky also round? And the sun and moon, are they outside the earth, or…”

Listening to his endless stream of questions, Vivian couldn’t help but laugh.

‘This kid is interesting.’

“What is your name?”

“Grue, Lord Demon.”

The boy said respectfully.

“Grue…”

Vivian nodded, committing the name to memory.

“Your questions are excellent; they show you’re thinking seriously—however, answering them requires more knowledge to support.”

With that, Vivian paused, showing an encouraging expression.

“Knowledge is like building a house; it must start from the foundation, built step by step. It cannot be achieved in one leap. Study hard, and once you’ve mastered enough basics, I will personally answer your questions—perhaps, with time and learning, you’ll grasp the answers yourself.”

“Yes! Thank you, Lord Demon!”

Grue, affirmed by Vivian, bowed deeply in great excitement and respect, then hurriedly ran off.

Vivian watched his retreating figure, a surge of gratification welling up in her heart.

Children like this were exactly what she wanted to nurture.

Curious, daring to ask, fond of thinking.

As long as there were enough such people, the future of the Evernight Territory would surely change—and her ideals would certainly come to fruition.

On her way back to the camp at night, however, Vivian heard muffled arguing along the path.

She quietly peeked and found two students talking.

“…I just don’t understand why Lord Demon wants those slaves to attend school too! Do they deserve it?!”

One voice carried strong dissatisfaction, clearly laced with thick superiority and disdain.

“But Lord Demon said that in the academy, there is no distinction between nobles and commoners…”

The other voice hesitated.

“That’s Lord Demon being merciful! But think about it, those lowly fellows have been slaves for generations—can their brains even work properly? Letting them learn knowledge is simply a waste of resources!”

The other voice was full of contempt, and at this, Vivian frowned.

It seemed changing mindsets was even harder than she had imagined—despite her clear statements, some still harbored resentment in their hearts.

But this was within expectations.

She did not interrupt the two students but turned back to her tent, writing a line on her work schedule.

“The purpose of education is not only to impart knowledge but also to change mindsets—this will be a long battle and test.”

Vivian knew her advanced ideas and thoughts could not be fully accepted by everyone immediately, but she also understood it was a gradual process—she needed to take it step by step.

In the following days, Vivian even set aside time to personally teach several “basic arithmetic” classes to the first batch of students.

Unlike the traditional demon clan’s rote memorization filled with mystical “mathematical magic,” what Vivian taught was true mathematical logic—from the most basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, to the concept of place value, then to simple word problems. During her lessons, even “teachers” like Luna had to listen attentively below, learning and understanding.

In today’s class, Vivian wrote a problem on the blackboard:

“Evernight City currently has 8,000 bags of grain in storage, consuming 120 bags per day. Without new grain supplies, how many days can the stock last?”

The classroom fell silent.

Most students stared at the blackboard, calculating furiously in their minds. Some counted on their fingers, some drew lines on the ground, and others simply closed their eyes in deep thought.

“Sixty… no, sixty-five?” one student answered tentatively.

“Sixty-six days!” another shouted loudly.

Vivian shook her head slightly.

“Both wrong.”

She wrote the calculation process on the blackboard:

“8,000 divided by 120 equals…” She paused deliberately. “Who can figure it out?”

The classroom grew even quieter.

This kind of division was truly too difficult for students just beginning systematic arithmetic.

Just then, a voice rang out.

“Sixty-six and two-thirds days.”

Vivian looked up and saw it was the beastman hybrid boy named Grue.

“Oh?” she asked with interest. “Explain your calculation process.”

Grue stood up, somewhat nervously.

“8,000 divided by 120—I first calculated 8,000 divided by 100, getting 80, then since it’s 120 not 100, it should be a bit less… 120 is 100 plus one-fifth times, so 80 divided by one and one-fifth… no, that should be…”

He frowned in thought for a while, then his eyes lit up.

“I’ll try another way! 8,000 divided by 120 equals 8,000 times 10 divided by 1,200! 80,000 divided by 1,200—first divide by 6 to get… about 133.3, then divide by 2 to get 66.66… approximately sixty-six and two-thirds! But it seems… it doesn’t divide evenly?”

Vivian was stunned.

This child had actually figured out “converting division to multiplication” and “step-by-step calculation” on his own?

Though the process was a bit clumsy, the thinking was correct.

“Very good!” Vivian nodded approvingly. “Grue, your calculation is correct—though the process is a bit complicated, the reasoning is clear.”

She turned to the class.

“Did everyone see? The method Grue just used breaks a complex problem into several simple steps to solve! This is the charm of mathematics—it’s not rote memorization but a way of thinking.”

Then, Vivian turned back to the blackboard and wrote a more concise calculation method.

“Of course, there’s an even simpler way. We can use the ‘Arabic numerals’ and ‘long division’ I taught before to calculate… Of course, this division only gives an approximate result, but in real life, we’ll face similar issues.”

She demonstrated the long division step by step, and the students watched intently.

“But anyway… see, isn’t it simple?” Vivian put down the charcoal pen. “As long as you master the right method, any complex calculation can be done easily.”

The classroom erupted in enthusiastic applause, and Grue sat back down, his face unable to hide his excitement.

After class, Vivian did not leave immediately but called out to Grue.

“Grue, come with me for a moment.”

The boy followed Vivian nervously to the office.

“Th-that… Lord Demon?”

“Relax, I’m not going to punish you.”

Facing the somewhat tense boy, Vivian gestured for him to sit.

“I just want to ask how you learned those calculation methods. I remember I haven’t taught that advanced content yet.”

Grue scratched his head.

“I… I don’t know.”

He hesitated for a while, seeming to organize his words.

“I just find numbers interesting. When I have nothing to do, I like to ponder them—for example, seeing a pile of stones, I’ll count how many there are, then think about dividing them into groups and how many per group… or looking at the stars in the sky, I’ll try to count them…”

His voice grew quieter, as if he found his own actions strange.