Chapter 68: Learning Work from Marin-sensei

In the very corner of the room sat Marin-sensei’s desk. So this is where she works! I thought, genuinely surprised. It was dark, and the desk itself was quite worn out. Marin-sensei is actually working in a place like this. In an environment like this, no wonder work doesn’t get done. And on top of that, now she’s stuck with me as extra baggage?

"Please sit there."

The chair Marin-sensei pointed to looked quite dirty. Without thinking, I unconsciously cast:

"Purify."

I cleaned the chair and sat down. When I looked at Marin-sensei, her eyes were wide open.

"Marin-sensei, is something wrong?"

For some reason, voices rose around us: "Did he just say Marin-sensei!?" So noisy.

Ignoring them, Marin-sensei asked,

"Lord Robby—no, Lord Robin... w-what did you just do?"

"What do you mean? The chair looked dirty, so I just cleaned it."

"Eh!? Lord Robin, you could use magic?"

"Hm? Didn’t you know, Marin-sensei?"

"I-I didn’t know at all! Were you hiding it from me?"

"No, I wasn’t trying to hide it. I just never had a chance to use it in front of you before, right?"

"Y-Yes, that’s true... There’s no need for magic when teaching martial techniques..."

There was a slight hint of anger in her voice. Marin-sensei still seemed unconvinced, but she at least stopped asking questions for now.

"Then, Lord Robin, I’d like you to do some calculations. Do you think you can manage?"

Her tone was polite, but it clearly carried the nuance of "I’m sure it’s impossible~ Just say so from the start~"

"I won’t know until I try."

Because honestly, I really wouldn’t know until I tried.

"Here, please take a look at this."

What she handed me was a ledger. It was the income and expenditure ledger for a certain knight order, and surprisingly, it used single-entry bookkeeping. Well, I guess that’s normal here, I thought, but it was neatly organized in table form. For this world, it was pretty well done. I was impressed.

Marin-sensei proudly said,

"Have you never seen bookkeeping before, Lord Robin? It’s amazing, isn’t it? About 150 years ago, the person known as the God of Calculation, Lord Kalk, invented it. Lord Kalk also established the decimal system and applied it to the monetary system. He was truly a great man."

What a simple name—Kalk. It didn’t sound like a real name. And I bet that person came from another world. He probably introduced double-entry bookkeeping in some workplaces. It seemed like almost everything useful from my otherworldly knowledge was already being used here. The common trope of using otherworldly knowledge to rise through the ranks clearly wasn’t going to work for me. I had held onto a tiny bit of hope, but now I could give that up.

"I understand. So, what should I do?"

"Please calculate the numbers in this vertical column and check if they match the total written at the bottom."

"Got it."

I stayed silent for a moment and did the calculation mentally.

"Yes, I’m done. The calculations are correct."

It didn’t take me very long—though not as fast as I used to be.

"Eh!? No way! What are you saying!? How did you calculate it? You didn’t even write anything on paper! How is that possible!!"

Marin-sensei looked quite angry. It was obvious she thought I was lying. She had already decided it was impossible for me. With no other choice, I explained the results one by one. Marin-sensei nodded along, checking each one until she reached the bottom line and confirmed the calculations were correct.

She looked at my face with an expression like she was staring at a mysterious creature.

"...They match."

"See?"

"Yes, they do. But... something’s strange. Lord Robin, are you feeling unwell? Do you have a fever?"

Marin-sensei leaned in close to look at my face. M-Marin-sensei, I can see everything. From the gap in her collar, I could see two soft hills. It looked like I might even catch a glimpse of the peaks soon. The soft mounds that her husband probably loved to knead were right there.

But Marin-sensei didn’t seem to care at all (naturally, since she hadn’t noticed) and kept pressing closer. The only disappointing part was that her chest wasn’t big enough to rest on the desk. They were more like gentle hills than mountains.

Anyway,

"Lord Robin, please try calculating another one."

She handed me a different sheet. I scanned it quickly and did the mental arithmetic.

"Um, excuse me. I think this result is wrong. The correct answer should be... this."

I reported it nervously.

"Ha!?"

Marin-sensei made a face so terrifying I thought, So this is what an oni looks like, and glared at me. Her temple was even twitching a little. When she taught me swordsmanship, she always had a gentle smile, but today she was being unusually harsh.

Marin-sensei looked over the paper from top to bottom, calculated it herself, then calculated it again.

"It’s not wrong! It’s correct!"

She declared it forcefully.

"Um, but if you look at it this way..."

I moved my chair next to hers and explained step by step.

"This part becomes this, so the next one is..."

While explaining, I kept stealing glances at Marin-sensei’s profile and her chest. She had a slightly chubby, round face with plump cheeks, big sparkling eyes, and a nose that was a bit low for this world. She wasn’t exactly a stunning beauty, but she had a cute, adorable charm that suited her perfectly. And from her loose collar, I could see the adorable shape of her breasts. The peaks were even peeking out a little. Thank goodness there are no bras in this world. Of course, there were substitutes, but it seemed tight-binding styles were disliked. And since the accounting department was mostly women, everyone worked with their chests relatively open. I was currently in a blissful space where I could clearly see the contents of the older ladies’ cleavage as they leaned in to watch my calculations alongside Marin-sensei.

One of the older sisters watching our work from across the desk seemed to notice my gaze. She pulled her collar down even lower, making the view even better. I could almost see all the way to her navel!!

Please don’t smile at me like that, ma’am! You’re going to get me excited!