Ryuu Lion was serious.
As a tavern waitress, the elf girl possessed a near-perfect appearance. At the same time, just like Lunor and the others, she had absolutely no lack of "hard power."
However, when it came to professional skills, she was quite terrible.
Serving the wrong dishes, breaking plates, and today, as the cashier, she kept making mistakes with the money, making a complete mess of the bills.
Ryuu was troubled by the nickname "Useless Elf" and desperately wanted to change everything!
A whole year had passed.
Originally, the elf girl thought that her unfamiliarity as a waitress would slowly turn into proficiency over time.
But up until now, there hadn't been any changes at all!!
Ryuu had long since asked her friends Syr, Anya, Lunor, and Chloe for advice. But obviously, the other girls had absolutely no talent for being "teachers."
So at the very least...
After witnessing Al's "speed" at noon today, and hearing Lunor, who returned from the Dungeon in the evening, say that Al was smart—even smarter than those students from the School District.
It made Ryuu have to muster her courage.
She decided to grasp this sliver of a chance to "improve"!
"Please!!"
"Uh..."
Al swallowed all the beef fried rice in his mouth, then picked up the orange juice next to him and took a sip—Wow! It's so sweet. Was extra sugar added? Or, just as Miss Lunor said, the fruits and vegetables sent by Lady Demeter were a bit too sweet?
Afterward, he turned his attention back to the elf girl in front of him.
"I don't really mind."
It's just.
If he was going to teach someone math, where should he start?
"Miss Ryuu, you just want to... um... master the ability to calculate bills, right?"
"Yes!"
"Well, then basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division should be enough."
She doesn't even know these?
Al couldn't quite understand. In his view, profound mathematical problems should be...
"Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?"
"..."
"..."
For a moment, the two looked at each other in dismay. Al looked at the elf girl's incredibly innocent eyes.
He suddenly realized that he seemed to have fallen into a terrible "massive pit."
That makes sense.
Perhaps this other world didn't have the concept of "mathematics"?
Or maybe, Miss Ryuu probably never went to elementary school?
Well, this other world didn't have nine-year compulsory education or anything like that. Furthermore, for elves, if they had schools, what would they teach?
Probably archery, or magic.
Aren't elves one of the races with a natural affinity for magic?
After all, they couldn't just be taught how to build treehouses and communicate with the "wind" and "nature", right?!
But even so, this wouldn't scare Al.
He was the most outstanding mechanic in the Celestial Realm, bar none.
How could he possibly find it difficult to teach a beautiful elf girl the simplest addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?
Impossible, absolutely impossible!
"How about this, how do you usually calculate bills, Miss Ryuu?"
Al felt.
First, he needed to know Ryuu's own "math" capabilities.
"Um... let's take what I'm eating right now. One portion of beef fried rice, one portion of chicken and vegetable stew, and one glass of orange juice. How much is the total?"
As a result.
Just as he finished speaking.
He saw the elf girl seemingly enter a "crashed" state.
Her pretty face went blank, her beautiful azure eyes rolled up slightly, and her thin lips parted a bit, as if she had frozen in place.
Then, she subconsciously raised both hands, spread her ten fingers, and blinked from time to time. He had absolutely no idea what she was thinking about.
...
Al fell silent for a moment before reminding her.
"Miss Ryuu, I need you to show your thought process."
"Eh?!"
"Thought process"?!
This was clearly somewhat out of the syllabus for a certain useless elf.
"I mean... um... excuse me, Miss Lunor, could I borrow a pen and paper?"
"Sure, wait a moment~"
The currently unoccupied girl quickly brought over a pen and paper.
Then, seemingly out of curiosity, she didn't leave. Instead, she sat down next to them, as if watching a play.
Let alone her.
Including the two catgirls, Anya and Chloe, as well as the other waitresses—even the incredibly imposing Mama Mia who had been behind the bar counter all along, and the gray-haired human girl beside her.
They were obviously quite free tonight.
As a result, Al and Ryuu suddenly became the center of everyone's attention.
"Come on, write down the calculation process, Miss Ryuu."
"Write? Write what?"
"Um... let's do this. How many Valis is one portion of beef fried rice?"
"450."
"And the chicken and vegetable stew?"
"780."
"Alright, so how much is that added together?"
"Um..."
"Don't just think about it in your head, say the calculation process out loud."
"Yes!"
Although she was energetic.
But quickly, Al couldn't hold it in, because...
"450 is four 100s, the stewed chicken is seven 100s, so... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven... one, two, three, four... a total of eleven 100s..."
"???"
What kind of damn calculation method is this?!
Al was greatly shocked, but he had to admit that the elf girl was right, it was just that...
"Then, adding five 10s and eight 10s, a total of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight..."
The girl continued to count on her fingers.
Subsequently, as expected, she fell into a prolonged state of confusion, and ultimately arrived at the completely wrong answer of "1480."
Al actually wanted to ask, who on earth taught you this?!
But now was obviously not the time.
Miss Ryuu.
In terms of pure "math," she was probably worse than an elementary school student.
It was truly terrifying.
Thinking of this, Al couldn't help but sigh.
"In that case, let's start by memorizing the most basic addition and subtraction tables, um..."
Al wrote rapidly, quickly writing down "1+1=2" all the way to "9+9=18" on the paper.
"Come on, read it out loud once, and then you have to memorize all of it."
"Eh?!"
The elf girl's pretty face began to flush slightly red.
Especially.
When she noticed that she had now become the center of attention for everyone in the shop.
"That's right, it must be loud! Hurry, what does 1+1 equal?"
"Um... it equals 2!"
"Good, that's right, continue..."
"1+2=3!
1+3=4!
1+4=5!!
1+5=..."
Not bad, very energetic.
Then, after having Ryuu recite it consecutively several times, Al suddenly asked.
"What does 5+6 equal?"
"Eh?!"
The elf girl crashed once again and attempted to...
"No counting on your fingers!"
"Ugh..."
After subconsciously revealing an incredibly cute expression, which failed to elicit even half a bit of sympathy from Al, Ryuu gave the completely wrong answer of "14."
Therefore.
"Hold out your hand."
Al had no choice but to have his mechanical assistant drop a long, strip-shaped piece of iron from the workshop.
Then.
Smack!
"It hurts!!"
"Alright, next question. What does 7+9 equal?"
"..."
Facing Al, who was holding the iron ruler.
Ryuu suddenly felt that she had seemingly made the worst decision of her life tonight...
...