Luna (3)
Chapter 4
During the day, Luna received an explanation from Adel about the orphanage facilities and her future life there.
There were many small rules to memorize, but Adel, for Luna’s peace of mind, only explained the basic precautions before guiding her to the dormitory where she would be staying.
Jimmy Orphanage basically houses four people per room.
As Luna entered the room, three pairs of eyes immediately turned toward her.
A brief awkward silence passed, but one of the three children already occupying the room—a girl with red hair—stepped forward confidently, placing her hands on her hips.
“Hi! I’m Karen! What’s your name?”
“…Luna.”
“Luna, huh! I’m the room leader, so if you have any questions, just ask me!”
“…Yeah, thank you.”
Karen was lively, talkative, and proactive, which made it inevitable for Luna to quickly close the distance with the other children in the room.
Karen, Mia, Johanna.
Most conversations were led by Karen, and the topics usually involved Ray.
Of the over a hundred children at the orphanage, about eighty percent had formed connections through Ray’s efforts. The question “How did you end up here?” often became “How did you meet Ray?” making him an ever-present common denominator among the children.
After chatting for some time, Karen leaned close to Luna and whispered excitedly.
“Tomorrow is Ray’s class.”
“…Class?”
“Yeah! Arithmetic class! Ray is super smart and even teaches older siblings much older than us!”
“…Wow.”
Luna skillfully feigned amazement.
Karen seemed pleased with Luna’s tact and blew a loud raspberry while puffing out her cheeks.
“Well, maybe I’m the second smartest after Ray! Anyway, you need to pay attention in class! If you don’t do well, you’ll get punished!”
At the mention of punishment, Mia remained calm, but Johanna shrank back fearfully.
Luna sat quietly, imagining what this ‘punishment’ might be. Would they hit her bottom? Or make her skip meals? Or perhaps force her to clean the floor all day?
Luna looked at Karen with an uneasy expression, but Karen simply placed a finger to her lips and declared,
“The details are a secret!”
Accepting this, Luna nodded and climbed onto her bed, pulling the blanket over herself.
It was now bedtime.
Despite lingering concerns about ‘punishments’ and other anxieties, Luna resolved that as long as she had warm meals and a comfortable place to sleep like this blanket provided, she could endure whatever punishment came her way. With that thought, Luna closed her eyes.
And the next day.
About twenty students rushed into the classroom within the orphanage.
Ray, who had been doing squats, arrived on time and closed the classroom door, starting the lesson with his first words.
“From now on, you must use honorifics when speaking to me. All of you.”
“Honorifics?”
“Yes, honorifics.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, even you, Karen.”
“But I’m the same age as Ray—nine years old?”
Still, there were indeed several students older than Ray in the classroom.
Ray nodded and pointed to himself.
“I’m your teacher, so as students, you need to show respect. From now on, if you speak casually to me, you’ll automatically receive penalty points.”
Karen’s mouth dropped open, but Ray ignored it.
Ray knew that age played a significant role in the hierarchy among the children, and to maintain discipline in the orphanage, he needed to differentiate himself.
Using honorifics subtly defined and constrained the relationship between each other, so rather than dealing with each child individually, this approach was easier and faster.
“Anyway… Luna, do you know how to calculate?”
“? ”
“Do you know how to add and subtract?”
“…Yes, I do.”
“You know letters and can add and subtract. Impressive.”
At eight years old, this level of knowledge made her elite in this world.
Of course, Luna hadn’t formally studied; she’d picked things up by observing others, but Ray didn’t delve deeper into that.
“Can you do two-digit addition?”
“…?”
“34 plus 77 equals?”
“…111.”
Gasps of astonishment erupted around the room.
Goodness gracious! She could do two-digit addition without having attended Ray’s lessons before! And the answer was a three-digit number!
Everyone’s eyes widened dramatically as Karen bit her fingernails. She sensed the emergence of a strong competitor.
After scratching her temple briefly, Ray asked again.
“Do you know how to multiply and divide?”
“…?”
“OK.”
Ray walked to the podium and briefly explained the concepts of multiplication and division.
For example, “If there are three bundles of apples, and each bundle has two apples, then we have six apples altogether,” explaining it in a way the children could easily understand.
“Review seems good, so everyone, have you memorized the multiplication tables? I won’t let you off today.”
“Yes!!”
Among the enthusiastic responses, Karen’s voice was the loudest.
Impressed by her courage, Ray approached Karen with a heavy bag.
“6 times 5?”
“30!”
“3 times 7?”
“21!”
“Great.”
“Hehe!”
Ray pulled out a bear-shaped cookie from the bag and handed it to Karen.
Karen grinned widely and promptly bit into the cookie.
It was a heartwarming scene, but Johanna, sitting beside Karen, turned pale and tried desperately to avoid Ray’s gaze.
Turning to Johanna, who was crouching lower and lower under her desk, Ray began.
“Johanna, what is 4 times 7?”
“…”
“5, 4, 3…”
“Umm… twenty-four?”
“One last chance. What is 9 times 4?”
“…Umm… twenty-six?”
“Go study again.”
“Ahhh…”
With a sorrowful face, Johanna looked up at Ray.
“Will I get punished?”
“No, no! Please don’t punish me!”
Her pitiful cry echoed, but Ray maintained a stern expression as he pulled out another bear-shaped cookie.
Squeezing his fingers tightly, he snapped the cookie in half, separating the bear’s head.
Johanna hoped against hope that Ray would hand her the rest of the body, but…
“If you get it wrong next time, there will be no more.”
All she received was the tiny bear head, barely the size of a fingertip.
“Ahhh…”
Taking the bear head, Johanna burst into tears with a disheartened look on her face.
Watching this scene, Luna raised a question mark above her head.
Punishment? Is this it? Is reducing snacks considered punishment? And yet, Johanna is crying so bitterly…
Luna watched in confusion as Johanna nibbled on the bear head.
Meanwhile, the multiplication quizzes continued, and Ray distributed cookies to most of the children before stopping in front of Luna.
“2 times 3?”
“…6.”
“3 times 2?”
“…6.”
“Good job.”
Ray patted Luna’s head once and reached for the last remaining cookie.
“Wait! Hold on a minute!”
Karen shouted loudly and stood up.
“Why are you giving Luna such easy problems?! That’s cheating! It’s unfair!”
“Honorifics.”
“It’s unfair!”
“True, it is unfair.”
To match the difficulty level of today’s lesson for someone who just learned multiplication, Karen.
Karen wasn’t unaware of her own stubbornness, but the appearance of a new competitor made her want to clearly establish their skill gap.
So what if you’re smart? How smart can you really be?
I can also do three-digit addition and have perfectly memorized the multiplication table!
Looking at the fiery determination in Karen’s eyes, Ray spoke again.
“Hmm, then…”
Ray was also curious about Luna’s arithmetic skills.
“9 times 7?”
“…63.”
“6 times 8?”
“…48.”
“12 times 27?”
“…324.”
Two-digit multiplication!!
Shocked exclamations erupted from various places as Karen clenched her fists tightly.
There’s no way someone who just learned multiplication today could handle two-digit multiplication. She must be spouting random numbers. Karen was certain of it.
On the other hand, Ray furrowed his brows, sensing something odd.
Setting aside whether the answers were correct, why did Luna take the same amount of time to answer both simple and complex multiplication problems?
Just in case, Ray asked again.
“1254 times 627?”
“…786258.”
“…”
Ray stood frozen in place.
At first glance, it seemed like he was shocked, but in reality, he was busy calculating mentally.
He couldn’t just grab a pencil and start calculating; as a teacher, his authority would crumble instantly. So he worked hard, sweating nervously, to keep his brain sharp.
It took over thirty seconds for the answer to come.
“Uh, um.”
786258. The correct answer.
“Good job, Luna. That’s right.”
“No way! She must’ve just blurted out random numbers! Or Ray, are you conspiring with Luna to mess with us?!”
“Why would I bother doing that, Karen?”
“There’s no way Luna could solve a problem that I can’t!”
“Karen.”
You may be a rare orphan, but Luna is a unique orphan. Have you heard the saying, ‘Above those who jump are those who fly’? Luna is the one who flies. No matter how much you run around, you’ll only end up staring at the tail of the one who flies.
Ray softened the thoughts that raced through his mind as much as possible when expressing them.
“A powerful competitor has appeared. You need to stay alert, Karen.”
Karen’s cheeks puffed up like balloons.
*
“My goodness, this kid is truly a genius.”
Ray munched on an apple while looking at the formulas Luna had written down.
Actually, being quick with multiplication and subtraction can be overlooked.
Speed in calculation isn’t necessarily a definitive measure of intelligence, and Luna might have separately learned mental arithmetic techniques somewhere.
Therefore, Ray had Luna sit separately and spent about an hour lightly covering multiplication, division, the Cartesian coordinate system, area concepts, the area formulas for rectangles and triangles, unknown variables, and propositional logic.
Then, after drawing an obtuse triangle and providing only the base and height, he asked her to find the area. Right away, Luna derived the formula on the spot.
(a+χ) × h ÷ 2 – χ × h ÷ 2 = a × h ÷ 2
“Damn… what is this?”
Even though Korean elementary students know the formula for the area of an obtuse triangle, deducing and proving it instantly is an entirely different matter.
Especially when the student has only been learning math for an hour.
Thinking it might be a coincidence, he drew a long curve on the coordinate plane and asked her to approximate the area. Immediately, she divided the curve finely into perpendicular segments along the x-axis, averaged the heights, and summed the areas of the rectangles.
“Is this kid a reincarnation from Korea?”
Unless it’s reincarnation, Luna’s intelligence far surpasses even the ordinary prodigy.
Don’t most humans seem about as intelligent as monkeys? Ugh, ugh, ugh?
“I need a teacher.”
While Ray can cover a substantial part of academic content,
Ah, this is called the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. It’s something you learn on the first day of university.
Ah, this is Faraday’s Law. Knowing this makes electricity generation possible. It’s common knowledge for middle schoolers in Korea.
In any case.
There were a few extraordinary children at the orphanage, but Ray couldn’t accurately assess the exact application of their talents.
To help them find fields where they can flourish requires teachers from various fields.
Luna, judging solely by computational ability and intelligence, appears to have the makings of a high-level mage, but she might be inept at handling mana or prefer conventional academics instead of magic.
“In any case, it would be good if we could regularly invite mages and knights… but the problem is persuading Jimmy.”
Even though Jimmy might be gullible, he wouldn’t likely agree to inviting mages or knights to teach the orphanage kids.
“Hmm, with Jimmy’s gullibility, if I nag for a few months, he might agree once or twice?”
“Stop eating.”
Jack grumbled while snatching the third apple Ray was holding.
“Recently, you guys are taking more than selling.”
Jack’s complaint made Ray nod knowingly.
“The situation has worsened a bit, hasn’t it? Before the organization grew, everyone listened to Jimmy and behaved properly. Even after warning them that anyone caught extorting beyond the protection fee twice would lose their wrists, nothing’s changed.”
“Are you the one to say that?”
Jack sighed deeply, tossing the apple back to Ray, and requested,
“Please talk to Jimmy for me. The atmosphere on the streets has gotten much worse recently. If such misconduct continues, I might find it difficult to help you.”
From the store across the street where Jack gestured, screams of people could be heard.
Jack’s fists trembled with anxiety and anger.
Understanding Jack’s emotions, Ray finished chewing the apple and stood up.
“I was already planning to tighten up the discipline anyway.”
“…Ray?”
“At first, I thought I’d give Jimmy time to handle it personally, but I need to assert myself, and these troublemakers need to be dealt with quickly.”
As Ray moved to walk toward the store where the commotion was happening, Jack stopped him.
“Just a moment, Ray. It’s dangerous. Those guys don’t listen to Jimmy properly.”
“Don’t worry, Jack.”
Ray smiled confidently.
The kids who lure orphans into criminal activities and those who ignore Jimmy and disrupt the organization’s discipline are the same group.
“I’ll just tighten up the discipline and be back.”
