The Top-Tier Butler of the Marquis Family Chapter 37 : Chapter 37

Chapter 037

What was a butler?

A faithful servant who solved the Master’s difficulties and attended at his side.

I decided to remain true to that duty.

Of course, being true to one’s duty did not an one could expect a reward. Doing one’s assigned work well was only natural.

But I was different.

With only slight exaggeration, I had once been a promising engineering geek from South Korea. Solving a math problem was easier than dipping boneless fried chicken in sauce and popping it into my mouth. Ah, now I am hungry all of a sudden. Why does this world not have chicken?

In any case, if I could do more than rely do well and instead leave her astonished, then an Overnight Leave Pass would no longer be so unreachable dream.

To do that, I first had to draw Young Lady Sapiela’s interest.

I drifted a little closer to her and very obviously stared at her textbook.

At that, Arwen, standing off to one side, gave a small start.

Her shoulders twitched, her mouth moved soundlessly, and she began signaling at . It probably ant Do not anger the Young Lady. Well, it would be fine.

As expected, the sensitive Young Lady noticed my gaze. The mont she turned her head, I struck first.

“Are you having trouble with the problem? Shall I prepare you a cup of tea that clears the head?”

“......I am fine.”

If I retreated here, I would be an amateur. So, like the first-rate butler—or rather apprentice—I was, I decided to cling a little harder.

“A bit of fresh air might do you good as well, my lady. You have seed burdened with many worries lately, so how would a walk in the garden be? I can guide you to a lovely place. The flowers are in full bloom at the mont, so the scenery is splendid. I am sure it would lift your spirits.”

I did my utmost to win her favor. With a warm smile like spring itself, no less. But Sapiela’s expression remained midwinter.

“Dilen.”

“Yes, my lady. Has your heart been moved? Shall I make the arrangents for you to go out?”

She did not answer imdiately, but simply stared at .

Those sharp eyes were frightening enough that I nearly felt a chill.

“How insolent. Are you trying to interfere with my studies?”

“My apologies. However, when I saw the troubled expression on your face, I could not remain at ease. The duty of a butler is to bring comfort to the Master he serves. I was rely being faithful to my role. I beg you to understand.”

“You do have a convincing way with words.”

Sapiela lifted her chin haughtily.

anwhile, Arwen’s face had gone pale as death. Do not worry, my friend.

“Dilen. Have you ever been educated?”

“Educated in what sense, my lady?”

“In things like etiquette, or Eloquence. Most Butler Apprentices are commoners, so they do not use difficult words. But you give a sowhat different impression.”

“Is that praise?”

“It is closer to a question.”

I did not bother hiding the fact that I had learned such things.

Of course, a slight adaptation was necessary.

I glanced at Arwen. She looked startled. Apparently, she had never imagined Young Lady Sapiela would speak like this in such a personal way.

Then I turned my gaze back to the Young Lady.

“Before I sat for the apprentice exam, I learned many things at ho from my parents. My parents, you see, were excellent parents and exemplary private tutors.”

I had never once t them.

A letter had co once, though, and from that letter I had learned a great deal.

The philosopher Heidegger said that language was the house of being, and Wittgenstein said that the limits of language were the limits of the world.

In other words, if one examined the words a person used, one could learn many things about them.

The letter had been written in a gentle tone. It also contained details about earlier days that I myself could not rember. From those brief lines alone, I could tell how kind and dostic Dilen’s parents were.

The soul inside this body might belong to soone else, but at the very least I wanted to try thinking of them as my real parents. They were not the ones who had given birth to , yet they were parents the heavens had given all the sa.

I had been granted a second awakening in another world. I had no wish to live here as an orphan too.

Setting aside 10 gold from the reward money had been part of my larger plan to use a leave pass and et my parents naturally in person.

“What did your parents teach you?”

“My mother taught letters, and my father taught various practical subjects. The ones I liked most were science and mathematics.”

I put particular force on the word mathematics.

Naturally, I saw Sapiela’s eyes brighten at once. The thing she was struggling with right now was mathematics.

“At what level?”

“I do not really know. It was not as though I attended school or anything like that. Still, I can at least solve the sort of problem you are looking at there with ease, my lady.”

“So you were spying after all.”

A mont earlier, Arwen’s face had been full of relieved warmth because things were going well. Now it went pale all over again. I bowed my head deeply.

“My apologies. It is a subject I love greatly, so my eyes were drawn to it. Please forgive .”

I apologized politely, but I did not lose my particular confidence.

The most important thing in mathematics was not application. It was the confidence that one could solve the problem.

“In truth, the reason I hoped to work in the library was because I could read books there. But then my posting was suddenly changed......”

“Are you implying that is my fault?”

“Not at all. On the contrary, it is an honor far greater than I deserve. If word spread that I had been assigned to attend you, my lady, there would be a festival in my village. Arwen standing over there would surely bear witness to that.”

To ease the atmosphere a little, I brought Arwen into it. She was a maid beloved by the Young Lady. As if embarrassed, she lowered her head slightly.

Perhaps that was why the Young Lady’s expression softened as she looked at . She seed to be hesitating over sothing she wanted to say.

If it had been possible, I would have liked to place a hand on her shoulder and check her Status Window again.

When I rescued her before, there had been occasion to touch her body. I had to untie her bonds and remove the gag, after all.

At that ti, the Status Window had not appeared. My guess was that it was because she had not yet ford any particular emotion toward .

But now things were different.

She had ordered to attend at her side, and more than that, I was the Foremost Contributor who had saved her from danger. Even if it was not the sort of relationship between a man and a woman, there was still every chance she had developed so special feeling toward . Gratitude, for instance.

If so, would her Status Window not appear now?

“I have never t an apprentice who liked studying.”

“I think learning is always a joyful thing. Ah, I have spoken out of turn. My apologies.”

“No.”

Young Lady Sapiela beckoned for to co closer. Keeping my head slightly bowed, I stepped toward her.

That white nape, that abundant hair, and the fragrant scent rising from her body. She truly was a beauty worthy of being called one of the treasures of the Adeline Marquis House.

Arwen was pretty too, but when the two stood together, Arwen would have to yield by a full level.

“So then, you say you can solve this problem?”

“Yes.”

“I would like to see your talent.”

“It is an honor, my lady.”

Once again, I read over the problem that her private tutor had assigned her. It was a rather difficult one: provide a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.

It was the sort of problem that demanded creativity and a fresh approach.

Back in the world where I used to live, there had been a great many proof thods for it, but things here might be different.

And when one considered that the Young Lady was only learning mathematics as part of a general education, there was no way she would be able to solve such a problem. Had she sohow offended the tutor during class?

Naturally, I knew several different thods for proving the Pythagorean Theorem.

The first that ca to mind was Garfield’s proof. If one possessed even a little geotric knowledge, it would be easy enough to understand.

“Would you like a pen?”

“Yes.”

The Young Lady first moved to take a pen from the drawer, but then instead passed the quill she herself had been using. For a mont our hands nearly touched, but unfortunately, they did not.

I took the pen. It was the kind that had to be dipped in ink, and once again I found myself thinking that I needed to create a fountain pen or a ballpoint pen as soon as possible. I would make a fortune then.

Before beginning the proof, I laid out the premise first.

“There are many ways to prove this theorem.”

“There are many?”

“All phenona have causes. And the ways of explaining those phenona are extrely varied. Just as science and mathematics appear to be different, yet share common ground once one goes deep enough. Even the motion of an object can be expressed through equations.”

The Young Lady looked sowhat blank.

Ah. I have gone too far ahead.

I failed to consider the level of knowledge in this world.

I had occasion to look through the library before, but there was as yet no scholar like Newton who had mathematically demonstrated natural phenona in a great work like Principia.

Of course, such a scholar might exist and I might simply not know of him. The library of House Adeline was magnificent, but it did not contain every book in this world.

“The problem before you is a proof in a very traditional style. A proof using three squares. I will use a slightly different thod.”

I drew a right triangle with the pen. The pen and paper were both in poor condition, so it did not co out very prettily.

“First, we draw a right triangle like this, and then we add one more congruent right triangle on top of it. Like so.”

Now there were two right triangles of equal size, forming an L shape.

Then I drew one diagonal line connecting the vertices of the two triangles.

“Do you see? It has beco the shape of a trapezoid.”

The Young Lady gave a small nod. With the mindset of a kindly upperclassman tutoring a freshman, I continued explaining gently.

“Now then, let us find the area of this trapezoid. A question, if you please.”

“......?”

The Young Lady looked flustered. Fair enough. She could never have imagined that an apprentice would dare start playing the teacher.

“There are two ways to find the area of the trapezoid in this figure. What would they be?”

The Young Lady could not answer.

I made no sign of noticing and continued the solution.

“You already know how to find the area of a trapezoid, my lady, so I will skip over that part. Instead, shall we calculate the areas of the three triangles that make up the trapezoid one by one? The point we must be careful about here is that, before we can find the area of the third triangle, the one drawn last, we must first prove that one of its angles is a right angle.”

I assigned symbols to the sides and began writing formulas.

“The way to prove the right angle is by using the angles. Like this......”

I explained the concept as naturally as water flowing.

The Young Lady was already completely absorbed in my explanation.

Thus, after passing through several steps, another proof of the Pythagorean Theorem was completed.

Mathematics really was beautiful.

“There. With that, the proof is complete. What do you think? It seems your assignnt has been resolved rather neatly.”

“......You truly never attended an academy?”

“No.”

The Young Lady looked as though she could not believe it. I did not know the exact level of the private tutor who taught her mathematics, but it seed my explanation entered the mind far more cleanly.

“Is there anything that remains unclear to you?”

“The last triangle. I do not fully understand how its area was found.”

“I will explain it again.”

After finishing the supplentary explanation, I set the pen down.

Only then did I see that the worry shadowing Young Lady Sapiela’s face had vanished.

I understood perfectly well.

It was the feeling of finally finishing long-delayed vacation howork.

When I turned my head slightly, I saw Arwen looking at in admiration as well. Teaching the Young Lady, of all people, was no ordinary thing.

“Thanks to you, it was helpful.”

“I am glad to hear it, my lady. If there is ever anything you are curious about in the future, please say so whenever you wish.”

“Then......”

This ti, the Young Lady took out a different book.

Now it was physics, the study of the motion of objects.

My favorite subject of all.

Before my eyes, I could already see the outline of an Overnight Leave Pass wavering in the air.