Chapter 15

Today, I was diligently learning magic once again. Though, I honestly didn’t know whether I should call this magic or mathematics.

I stared at Grandpa, who was enthusiastically writing formulas and explanations across the chalkboard in front of me. He looked so thoroughly overjoyed to be teaching me that a smile never left his face throughout the entire lesson.

“Now, this right here. It’s a term I came up with myself, but we call it a ‘quadratic equation.’ To put the method for finding the solutions of this quadratic equation briefly, if AB=0, it can be expressed as A=0 or B=0. Is it perhaps a bit too difficult?”

No. It’s fucking easy.

However, if I said that honestly, Grandpa might get hurt, so I pretended not to understand as much as possible.

“Eek, please explain it a little more simply, Grandpa.”

“Ho-ho, since it’s a theory you’re seeing for the first time, it’s only natural that you find it difficult. Alright, let’s look at this part here.”

I learned for the first time that pretending not to know something is much harder than actually knowing it. Still, in front of that purely delighted old man, I couldn’t possibly blurt out, Actually, I already know all the way up to college-level math.

Besides, the pacing wasn’t nearly slow enough to complain about yet, so I gritted my teeth and endured.

If it ever leaked out here that I was good at math, I might get kidnapped by the Magic Tower on the spot. Or at least, I’d probably encounter mathematics even more frequently than I already did. Flashing back to a glimpse of a 9th-circle formula I’d seen once before, I violently shook my head.

Whether the author who wrote this novel figured they wouldn’t be the one casting the magic or what was going through their head, I had no clue, but it was an absolute certainty that absolutely no one in this world could ever master 9th-circle magic.

The foundational formulas were on par with a Harvard University research paper; unless you were a genuine, one-in-a-billion genius, you couldn’t cast 9th-circle spells. I could bet my life on that.

Even someone like me, who considered himself decent at math, figured 7th-circle was the absolute ceiling. For reference, the 8th-circle was equivalent to Seoul National University’s Department of Mathematics level.

If there had even been a shred of hope of reaching the 9th circle, it might have motivated me to try hard, but this offered zero hope whatsoever.

“That is all for today’s lesson.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

When class wrapped up and I stepped out of the lecture room, Yul was waiting for me. Fortunately, thanks to getting plenty of rest when she was sick last time, Yul seemed even more full of energy than before. As I handed the notebook and writing utensils I’d been holding over to Yul, she took them naturally and spoke.

“My lady, the Madam is asking for you.”

“Hm?”

I had been fully planning to take a break, but Yul’s words brought me to a dead halt.

Madam?

Wait, I had a mom?

Thinking about it for a second, having a mom when I had a dad was completely obvious. It was just that I had never seen hide nor hair of her this entire time, so she had completely slipped out of my mind.

“Ah, really?”

“Yes.”

I answered offhandedly while reading Yul’s expression. If Yul’s expression looked gloomy, my mom was probably a dangerous person; if Yul’s expression looked bright, she was probably a human of the same caliber as Dad.

“Hm.”

Yul’s expression looked identical to her usual self.

Well, how bad could it be?

“Let’s stop by my room for a moment first, Yul.”

“Yes.”

After briefly heading back to my room to grab a quick breather, I soon followed behind Yul. After walking for roughly three minutes, a silver-haired beauty came into view in the distance. Since I certainly didn’t have an older or younger sister, that person must have been Mom.

Sure enough, Armienne had clearly inherited a massive share of her mother’s bloodline, because Armienne’s mom was drop-dead gorgeous too.

By any stretch of the imagination, how could this person possibly be a woman with a fifteen-year-old daughter—not to mention a son on top of that, making two kids in total?

Whenever I witnessed this kind of absurd spectacle, it served as a stark reminder that this really was a world inside a novel.

‘So, what should I do now?’

It wasn’t that I had completely forgotten about the existence of my mom, nor could I say I hadn’t paid any attention to her at all. If anything, I sought out Dad every day to ask for various things, so she might even feel hurt wondering why I never sought her out.

‘Let’s be as cute as possible.’

Deciding to act out a cute daughter casting aegyo toward her mom, I was just about to reveal myself in front of her when I noticed it.

Suddenly, a housemaid hurried past right in front of Mom. At that exact moment, Mom’s hand shot out by reflex. Her palm struck the running housemaid’s cheek with pinpoint precision. What an absurd reflex and proficiency at slapping cheeks.

Slap!

“Kkyaaaah!”

Accompanied by a sound that made your skin crawl just hearing it, the maid shrieked and collapsed, while I froze solid in the exact posture I’d been using to run over.

Even though there was still some distance, Mom’s voice piercing my ears was overflowing with aristocratic dignity and pride.

“Not content with daring to cross the path of the lady of this estate, you scamper about so ungracefully, are you truly looking down on me, you wretch?!”

“………….”

Trembling and weeping at her words, the maid seemed to realize what kind of catastrophe she had just committed; turning as pale as a sheet, she dropped to her knees and frantically rubbed her hands together in front of Mom.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Hmph!”

Seeing Mom sneer even at a scene that ordinary people would find pitiful, I finally realized how Armienne had turned into a villainess. If you grew up under a mother who displayed such a textbook example of villainy right from childhood, even a divinely blessed saint of the century would probably end up transforming into the most formidable evil b*tch on earth.

Look at that. That villainess was actually getting angry at the maid’s apology!

“Such noisy, squawking cackling. Today happens to be a truly wonderful day because I get to see my daughter’s face, so as a special favor, I shall forgive you by having your tongue cut out.”

Oh, Lord. Or rather, Author-nim. Just what kind of mindset led you to create a villainess like this? Because she’s in a good mood, she’s going to cut out someone’s tongue—probably nobody else in the universe would ever say something like that.

The more I looked, the more of a spectacle it was; the more I looked, the more terrifying it felt. Mustering up whatever courage I had left, I stepped right in between the maid and Mom.

The moment I locked eyes with her gaze, which felt as piercingly freezing as a raging blizzard, my body stiffened on its own, and I shivered involuntarily. Was this the exact kind of feeling Carusien experienced every time he looked at me?

However, the moment she laid eyes on me, the raging snowstorm instantly melted away softly, and the sensation of blooming flowers began to emanate from the woman right in front of me.

Feeling the body that had frozen in fear just moments before finally relax, I called out cautiously.

“M-Mom.”

At my words, the woman beamed brightly.

Good grief.

“Oh, Armienne. It’s so good to see you.”

The woman wearing a bright smile was so drop-dead gorgeous that it was impossible to imagine she was the same person who had been whipping up a freezing, chilling gale just moments ago. Her smile was steeped in boundless maternal affection, and her words overflowed with endless love.

If I had witnessed this scene first, I surely would never have believed Mom’s true nature. But what I needed to be thinking about right now wasn’t that.

My top priority was rescuing the maid, who was still shedding tears, convinced her tongue was about to be sliced out, from this spot.

“Me too, Mom. But you know what? We don’t really need to see bloodshed on the very occasion of you and me meeting.”

Hearing my words, Mom smiled gently and nodded her head. Was that a yes?

“That is true, too. In that case, I shall order my knights to slice it out where we can’t see.”

Insane, my words hadn’t gotten through to her at all.

I quickly changed tack.

“N-no, you can’t do that.”

“Why ever not, my cute Armienne? Could you explain the reason to your mother?”

Hearing her speak with elegance and refinement, yet carrying a tone that made it clear she had zero intention of ever bending her will, I felt my body breaking out in that familiar army of cold sweat along my spine.

“If I happen to walk past someone lacking a tongue while out and about, I feel like it would ruin my mood.”

“I see. That could very well be.”

Did it work this time?

Yet, it seemed I still hadn’t fully grasped that the villainess standing before me was a cut above the ordinary.

“In that case, let us simply snuff out her life instead.”

It got even worse!

The maid, who now looked as though she were about to lose her neck instead of her tongue, was on the absolute verge of fainting. No, she seemed to be holding on purely out of the terrifying thought that she might actually die for real if she passed out here, but even a casual glance showed how precariously she was hanging on.

What would happen if I just bluntly said, I don’t feel like punishing the maid. Let’s drop it?

Well, I could only picture disastrous outcomes. If I dared utter words like that to her—a villainess down to her very marrow, just like the woman before me—she might suspect me while simultaneously administering some extreme, drastic remedy. If that happened, even a cheat like me couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t turn into a bona fide villainess like Armienne.

That was just how terrifying the woman in front of me was, serving as the absolute epitome of a villainess.

In the end, I had no choice but to deploy my final resort.

“No way. I’ve decided I like her!”

It looks like I’m unintentionally going to have to add one more maid to my staff.