CH 397

Grandmother Mia is Passionate About Education

Back at Saint-Noel, ten days had passed since Mia’s speech about bread and cake at the entrance ceremony. She was in the library at the moment. Was it to look for information that could help Cyril with his study on wheat? It wasn’t, no. She came to help Bel do her homework.

“I don’t think I’ll have much free time this summer, so we should start getting ready for your tests as soon as possible. It’s time for you to get serious about your studies.”

Now that she knew Bel’s grades were iffy, she crossed her arms and hardened her heart. Right now, sympathy wouldn’t help Bel.

“Oooooh,” Bel moaned as she put her chin on the table and pouted. “Mia-neesama is now a homework police. There’s still a lot of time before the tests…”

“You do know that Lynsha tells me things, right? You’ve been putting things off again, haven’t you?”

“But why do I have to study so much, Mia-neesama? Is it useful?” Bel asked Mia, looking up at her.

“Yes, of course!” Mia said this with her chest puffed out. “If you do well in school, one day you’ll be able to give that smug four-eyes a piece of your mind. I mean, go to your intellectually enthusiastic vassals and get back at them for—Gah! Look, what I mean is that you’ll be able to impress people, all right? It will feel great.”

Even though Mia’s honest thoughts came out more than once, Bel was too busy pouting to pay attention.

“Reaaaally? Will it really help me?” she asked herself as she reluctantly opened her workbook and began to read.

Mia put down her own book next to hers. It was titled “Hundred Mushroom Delicacies,” and it had recipes for unusual mushrooms from all over the world. The author was a famous explorer who was known for saying, “If poisonous mushrooms don’t kill you, you can eat them!” In other words, he was a little off his rocker.

Mia looked deep in thought as she opened this crazy man’s book. But, really. What do I need to do?

She had no choice but to worry. Obviously not about which recipe to make. Bel was the cause of her worry. Mia was, in the end, a good girl. The future of her granddaughter was more important than mushrooms. But just barely.

At the end of the day, Bel’s “I could leave at any time” attitude is the cause of both her dislike of learning and her wasteful spending habits. Her attitude of giving up is the main problem. The fact that Bel thought this way made Mia feel sorry for her. Mia didn’t have no heart; she cared about the girl. But I can’t keep letting her waste money this way. The axe is always close… If I don’t watch out, it will catch up to me before I know it!

She had a picture in her head of a two-legged guillotine running toward her, and every gold coin she threw away made it move forward a hundred steps. The guillotine used by Tearmoon was known for how fast and far it could move. She had learned that the hard way. She had to find a way to get Bel to change her ways.

Also, Bel needs to go to school if she wants to keep living in this world. I have to find a way to get her to work harder on her school work… Even so, if I talked to father, I could probably get him to give her a peerage and some land. It looks like that would be enough for her to live a pretty good life…

She’d never say that out loud, though. Moons knows that the girl didn’t need any more reasons not to do her homework. In general, Mia wasn’t too bothered by people who slacked off, whether it was her or someone else. But when it came to her granddaughter, she couldn’t let it go for some reason.

If I did that, I’d be letting Bel’s mom down… The mother of Bel is my daughter.

Grandma Mia was a passionate educator.

“I don’t understand this, Mia-neesama.”

“Moons, Bel. Okay, so which part? Let me see.”

Bel pushed her book toward Mia, who took it.

“Hm.”

Then there was a time of deep thought.

“Hmmm.”

Then there was a time of tapping on temples.

Mia made her brain work harder by pushing it. Mia’s way of learning was winning by sheer numbers, so that’s not a surprise. That is, of what was learned by heart. She tried to remember everything that could be tested. Not surprisingly, this kind of learning to remember things didn’t last very long. Most of it would be gone pretty quickly after the test was over. Bel was also learning math, which was one of Mia’s weaker subjects. This made things even more complicated.

Anne… Where is she?

Before Mia knew it, she was looking for her trusted advisor, but Bel’s sparkling, eager eyes made her stop. The unspoken message in those eyes was clear: “Wow, I can’t wait to see how the esteemed Great Wisdom of the Empire solves this problem!”

“Hm…”

She went back to making sounds like she was thinking. Given the situation, it wasn’t possible to have Anne solve it instead. She tried even harder to stare at the book.

No problem. I’m good at this. With my memory, I can definitely…

You’re right. Some things were just too important for Mia to forget. She might forget the pages and pages of useless information she learned for tests, but she would never forget information that was vital to her survival, or the shame she’d felt in the past.

I swear that stupid four-eyes taught me this at some point! Again, what did he say? Something about how you need to be good at math to make deals… That’s right, that’s when…

If she knew something that could be used to get back at Ludwig, she kept it by writing it over and over in her notebook with a vengeful passion. She kept telling herself that over and over again.

“Don’t forget this, Bel. When it comes to these kinds of questions, there are almost always practice questions right next to them. So, look at how the practice questions are answered and then use that information to…”

She then stole Ludwig’s ideas almost word for word. It was educational plagiarism. She did it by memorizing a lot of information, which was an amazing feat. So, she looked like a smart teacher who kept the answer from her student to get her to think for herself. The difference was that smart teachers usually already knew the answer. Mia was only acting. If her student really couldn’t figure it out, she wouldn’t give an answer. Still, she looked like the part pretty well, so that’s something!

“It doesn’t help to just remember what someone tells you when they teach you something. You have to think about it and understand the ideas behind it,” said the person who was just repeating things she had learned without understanding a thing.

“Wow, everything Grandma Mia says is so wise! Okay, I’ll try to figure it out on my own,” Bel said with a serious nod as she put her textbook back on the table for another try.

Mia sighed and looked up. When she did, she saw Chloe standing in front of a bookshelf with her head down.

“My, Chloe. You’ve come back?”

The merchant caravan from Forkroad & Co. was moving through Saint-Noel at the time, so Chloe left the island for a while to see her father. Mia smiled at a friend she hadn’t seen in a few days and was eager to talk to.

“Is Sir Marc—or rather, is your father doing well?”

Chloe didn’t reply. She didn’t move and kept her head down. Mia got up and walked over because she wasn’t sure if she had heard her.

“…Chloe?”

“Oh, Princess Mia…,” she said.

This time, Chloe paid attention. She turned to face Mia, and Mia frowned when she saw how upset her friend looked.

“Chloe? What’s up?”

“There’s nothing wrong…”

“That doesn’t look like someone who has nothing wrong. Why are you hesitating? We’re book buddies, aren’t we? You can tell me the truth.” Mia grabbed Chloe’s hands. “How about we go to my room first? I think I have some sweets over there…”

“Oh, Miss Mia, I’m free to go! Let me handle it!” Bel jumped up from her seat and ran out of the library. “I’ll go to the kitchen and tell them to make something,” she said.

Don’t ever say that Bel wasn’t smart. She took advantage of opportunities as soon as they came up.