CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 17: THE CORNERSTONES OF CIVILIZATION

To turn those four children, who were young, illiterate, and nearly blank slates, into useful helpers, Li Yu needed to provide them with some essential training.

First up was teaching them numeral notation and basic arithmetic.

Since numerals are one of the important cornerstones of civilization, almost all modern natural sciences can’t do without numerical operations, especially the deeper one delves into their studies—reaching master’s and doctoral levels—when one can truly appreciate the importance of mathematics as a research tool.

Aside from these cutting-edge research fields, numerals also play an extremely important role in everyday life.

Without numerals, transactions couldn’t be conducted, it would be hard to express how many sheep one ax could exchange for, and even the most fundamental statistical tasks couldn’t be undertaken.

The many civilizations on the Bratis Continent, of course, had their numeral systems.

Take, for example, the currently popular Elf numerals that Li Yu learned about from Mr. Anton, which had a counting method quite similar to Roman numerals.

Basically, a few symbols were chosen to represent different numbers, and then through the sequence of writing, these symbols were added or subtracted to represent the desired number.

The advantage of this counting system is that you only need to learn about five or six characters to write all the numbers, while the disadvantage is also obvious, as it lacks a positional value system.

In Li Yu’s universe, when you write a number, such as 219, everyone knows that the second position’s 1 represents 10, and the first position’s 2 actually represents 200.

However, in Elf numerals or Roman numerals, there is no concept of positional value, and they basically just pile up a string of symbols, which brings a problem: when you first look at it, it is actually not clear what number it represents.

You need to perform a calculation with all the existing symbols to find out the exact number.

This is undoubtedly very time-consuming and increases the risk of making mistakes.

Therefore, Li Yu, in order to carry out statistical work and basic operations smoothly in the future, introduced Arabic numerals without hesitation.

He taught the four children the numbers from 0 to 9.

Just remembering ten abstract symbols wasn’t too difficult, even Aaron, the youngest among the group, didn’t spend much time before he could fluently write the numbers that Li Yu dictated.

But the challenge came when they moved beyond 10 and introduced addition and subtraction, though luckily, although the Elf numerals were cumbersome, they still used the decimal system, not the binary system like computers, or the more arcane systems like duodecimal or quindecimal.

Otherwise, Li Yu didn’t know how long it would take to get these children to reaccept the decimal system.

When it came to simple multiplication and division, the intellectual differences between the children became even more apparent.

After Li Yu introduced the multiplication table, which is akin to a nightmare for elementary students, a little girl named Nicole, though always trying to memorize, clearly lagged behind the other three.

She was obviously anxious, soon breaking into a sweat, but the more anxious she became, the worse her memorization efficiency was, reciting in jumbled confusion.

"Six sevens are forty-eight, seven sevens... seven sevens..." Nicole felt her mind was all muddled, clutching her hair, squatting on the ground, her little face full of despair.

"Don’t rush, if you can’t memorize it today, just memorize it for a couple more days, and I’ll check your work next time I come. Being a bit early or late doesn’t make much difference," Li Yu said.

He didn’t just say this to comfort Nicole, as Li Yu’s goal wasn’t to train these four children into mathematicians, but rather he hoped they could master the basic operations of grades two or three in elementary school, which was enough for the current stage.

The quality of their aptitude really wasn’t that important.

Moreover, a day for Li Yu was like three days here, and he wasn’t in a rush. Compared to that, he valued the attitude toward learning and working more.

Thus far, he was quite satisfied with that aspect, whether it was Nicole or the other three children, all of them were seriously learning.

Even though they didn’t yet know the usefulness of the knowledge they were acquiring, just being able to eat well every day, having a day off every five days, and receiving silver coins were enough to keep them motivated.

Nicole acted as if she hadn’t heard Li Yu’s words, still repeating with closed eyes, "Seven, seven, seven, seven..."

"That’s forty-nine, you know."

A voice drifted past Nicole’s ear. Li Yu turned his head and saw that the speaker was Clara.

The little maid had been quite happy recently because Fosto had tasked her with accompanying Li Yu and fulfilling all his various needs.

And Li Yu’s needs were merely to wander around, chat with people, and ask all sorts of bizarre questions.

Clara too could go out with this Foreigner in black clothes, enjoy the breeze outside the castle, bask in the sun, and smell the fresh grass. While Li Yu was talking to people, the little maid would pick flowers and grass, making various little animals to play with.

Not to mention that every time Li Yu came, he would go to duel with Mr. Anton, no, not right, attend classes. During this time, Clara had the chance to slack off, so right now, she was most looking forward to Li Yu showing up.

However, in the past few days, Li Yu had suddenly taken it into his head to start teaching children, no longer running outside the castle. The little maid couldn’t continue messing around with flowers anymore, and she wasn’t interested in those crooked symbols drawn on the ground, so she just stood by, yawning.

Li Yu didn’t mind her until Clara blurted out "forty-nine".

Actually, the little maid regretted it as soon as she finished speaking. Although she didn’t know why this Foreigner wanted to teach such strange things, obviously he was seriously busy at the moment, and Clara, as a maid, shouldn’t have interrupted.

But seeing Nicole’s pained expression, Clara couldn’t hold back.

However, she was quite familiar with Li Yu and, knowing that she had gotten into trouble, wasn’t too scared. She just sheepishly stuck out her tongue at Li Yu.

Li Yu then asked, "Seven times eight..."

"Fifty-six," said the little maid offhandedly.

"And eight times eight?"

"Sixty-four."

"Eight times nine?"

"I don’t know the rest; I didn’t listen carefully."

"That’s not bad, you have a good memory."

"Hehehe, Fosto said the same thing about me," Clara boasted, puffing out her chest proudly.

"Then let’s study together."

"Eh... That won’t be necessary." As soon as the little maid heard about studying, she was immediately terrified, not wanting to lose the precious lazy time she had finally gained. So she explained, "I’m just a maid; I don’t know anything..."

But before she could finish, Li Yu interrupted her, "Didn’t Fosto tell you that you must fulfill all my requests? Then I request that you study mathematics with these children. It would be a shame to waste such a good memory."

"......"

Clara was completely stunned, standing there motionless, deeply realizing for the first time what a disaster a slip of the tongue can be.

"Don’t even think about playing dumb or not studying properly in front of me afterward. Then I will tell Fosto to replace you with another maid. You wouldn’t want to lose such an easy job, would you?"

"But it’s not easy anymore," the little maid said tearfully.

"I will talk with Fosto about buying you out," Li Yu said. "That way, you don’t have to work in the castle anymore. You can focus on working under me, just like them, work five days and rest two days. You are an adult, two silver coins per month, and there are scholarships if you study well."