The Adopted Princess Hopes to Escape the Genre - Chapter 33
The sudden appearance of an old friend after five years left me utterly dazed.
Nowhere in any romance fantasy novel had I ever seen calculus included in the math curriculum.
‘Something is seriously wrong. It said it was easy! It said even a fool could solve it with their eyes closed!’
Staring at the dizzying array of numbers and symbols, I felt as if my vision were shaking with a magnitude 4 earthquake. With trembling hands, I carefully closed the book I had just opened.
Hias quickly picked up on my reaction.
“What’s wrong? Why did you close the book?”
He had been facing the chalkboard just moments ago, yet he had sensed my movements instantly.
They say teachers have eyes in the back of their heads, and maybe that was true after all.
Caught red-handed, I lowered my gaze and nervously picked at my nails under the desk.
‘At this rate, I’m going to be considered a talking potato.’
I had planned to slowly reveal my intelligence and pretend to be a hidden genius, but instead, I was about to fall straight into the role of a fool. While going from fool to fool wouldn’t be a problem, going from genius to fool was simply unacceptable.
Determined, I snapped my head up and fixed my gaze on the back of my teacher’s head. Placing both hands flat on the book, I lifted myself slightly from my seat.
“Teacher, you do realize I’m seven years old, right?”
Hias pushed up his glasses with a finger and turned his body fully toward me.
“Of course, I do. But… I’m curious as to why you’re asking.”
“Well, it’s just that this is my first lesson, and the difficulty… doesn’t it seem a bit too high? And the title of the book doesn’t match the contents at all!”
Rather than pretending to be a genius and having my shallow knowledge collapse in one blow, it was better to go with the lacking persona from the start.
Hias’s gaze shifted.
“Difficulty?”
Now, he set down his chalk and stepped down from the podium. He walked toward my desk, his eyes fixed on me.
“Uh, teacher? Hold on a second.”
I instinctively leaned back.
“Why?”
“Your eyes… They look weird right now.”
Hias’s eyes gleamed with a mix of intrigue and something close to madness.
Did I press some kind of button? Was this one of those, ‘why keep a brat around that can’t do these things’ kind of situations? They said they’d hire a tutor, not a lunatic!
The closer he came, the harder my heart pounded. By the time he was right in front of me, I was convinced my heart would leap out of my mouth.
The small hands I had confidently placed atop the book began to tremble.
Finally, Hias stopped in front of me and asked,
“I never told you what we’d be learning today. What exactly did you use to assess the difficulty of my lesson?”
I hesitantly moved my hand away, revealing the title of the book, then glanced up at him cautiously.
Hias stood there, waiting for my answer.
Hias stared at me so intensely it felt like he was trying to burn a hole through me.
I cautiously flipped the book open and pointed to the subheading inside.
“It’s written right here in the subheading.”
His gaze followed my finger to the table of contents. Raising an eyebrow, he asked,
“And what does the subheading say?”
Was he seriously treating me like an idiot?
“Calculus.”
“Do you know what calculus is?”
It sounded like one of those street preachers asking, ‘Do you know the path to enlightenment?’
I almost blurted out, ‘Isn’t it about differentiation and integration?’ but caught myself just in time.
Would a normal 7-year-old know anything about calculus? No matter how absurd this world’s standards were, that would be pushing it.
Then again, a tutor handing a 7-year-old a calculus book was even more bizarre.
‘Is he testing me?’
I put on the most innocent, clueless expression I could muster and answered,
“No, I don’t. I just read the subheading from the table of contents. And since it’s something I’ve never seen before, I assumed it would be difficult.”
The more nervous you are, the longer your explanation becomes. And right now, my words were practically stretching all the way to the imperial palace.
Hias hummed a little tune, seemingly amused.
Hearing that sound above my head, I frowned in confusion.
Then, without another word, he turned around and walked back to the chalkboard.
‘Phew. Is it over?’
Only then did I let out a relieved sigh, placing a hand over my chest.
But just as I thought the ordeal was over, Hias turned back around, his lips curling into a vague, unreadable smile.
“I actually didn’t want to take this teaching position.”
His sudden behind-the-scenes hiring confession caught me off guard, but more importantly, my internal danger sensors blared like an emergency alarm.
“But! After seeing you, my mind has changed.”
“No! Don’t change it!”
I needed to shut his mouth immediately.
“I, Hias, with this unparalleled intellect, have encountered countless fools in my time. And yet, in all those years, I have never once met another genius like myself.”
Clearly, he was too absorbed in his own monologue to hear anything I said.
“Naturally, that meant I have never taken on a single disciple.”
And why was he telling me this?
“Not even once.”
“I figured as much.”
“But now, I’ve made up my mind.”
“Spit it out. Swallowing something like that will only make you sick.”
“I will take you on as my disciple.”
At that moment, all I could do was clutch my head in despair.
I had to find a way to escape from this eccentric genius who refused to listen to reason.
If anyone asked why I was trying to avoid him when crazy geniuses like him always ended up as the female lead’s strongest allies, I had a simple answer—
I wasn’t a genius.
And in exchange for having him as a mentor, I would be endlessly pressured to prove and validate my supposed brilliance.
The moment my so-called brilliance failed to meet expectations or ran dry, that soaring admiration would be the first thing to vanish.
I had no interest in such exhausting and headache-inducing matters.
