Chapter 15: Staff Meetings and Sundays.

Half a year passed.

Recently, the usually well-behaved Eris has started reverting to her ferocious self.

Why? How? Who did what to make this happen!?
I panicked at first—but then I realized something.

There are no days off.

—

After dinner,
I called Ghislaine and the etiquette tutor to my room.

By the way, the etiquette tutor doesn’t live in the manor.
She commutes from her home in town.
So I asked the butler to pass along the message.

“First of all—nice to meet you. I’m Rudeus Greyrat.”

“I am Edna Railoon. I teach etiquette to Lady Eris.”

She placed a hand over her chest and gave a refined bow.
I returned it in the same polished manner I’d been taught.
As expected from an etiquette instructor.

Edna was a middle-aged woman with faint wrinkles starting to show on her face.
Her softly rounded features and gentle smile gave her a very mild, kind impression.

“Ghislaine.”

Ghislaine was, as always, pure muscle.
I offered both of them chairs.
After they sat,
I passed around the tea the butler had prepared and got straight to the point.

“The reason I asked both of you here today is simple:
I’d like to discuss a new lesson schedule for Lady Eris.”

“A lesson schedule?”

“Yes. Up until now, the routine has been:
swordsmanship in the morning, free time during the day, etiquette in the evening.
Is that correct?”

“Exactly.”

Eris is currently studying six subjects:
reading/writing, arithmetic, magic, history, swordsmanship, and etiquette.
In modern terms: language, math, science, social studies, P.E., and morals.

There are no clocks here, so lessons aren’t strictly timed by hours.
Instead, they’re divided by meals and snacks into morning, noon, and evening—three subjects per day.
Breakfast → study → lunch → study → snack → study → dinner → free time.
Something like that.
There’s no dedicated history teacher—Philip teaches it whenever he has time.

“Thanks to my arrival, we can now use the evening slot as well,
making it possible to fill the entire day with lessons.”

“Indeed. Lady Eris’s studies seem to be progressing well—
Master Philip has expressed his approval.”

Of course.

“On the surface it looks smooth, but a problem has arisen.”

“A problem?”

“Yes. Studying every single day without rest is building up a great deal of stress in Lady Eris.”

It’s especially obvious during arithmetic lessons.
She’s irritated the entire time.
Whenever she hits a difficult problem, she takes it out on me.
Very dangerous.
I never know when she’ll mount me.
Very dangerous.

“For now I’m managing somehow,
but eventually she might lash out violently or start skipping lessons altogether.”

“Oh my…”

Edna covered her mouth, but her expression said that makes sense.
I’ve never seen her etiquette lessons,
but presumably Eris attends them seriously?
She’s supposedly also Eris’s wet nurse…
I still don’t quite understand why Eris likes her.

“That’s why I’d like to propose one full day off per week—
a day with absolutely no lessons.”

By the way, this world does have a calendar system—months and days are numbered.
But there is no concept of a “week.”
There are occasional rest days throughout the year,
but nothing like Sunday.

Seven.
I chose the number seven simply because it’s easy for me to remember.
For some reason, seven is considered a special number here too.
It’s seen as lucky, and even swordsmanship ranks are divided into seven levels.

“Of the remaining six days,
I’d like to allocate time to reading/writing, arithmetic, magic, history, swordsmanship, and etiquette.”

“May I ask one question?”

“Of course, Edna-san.”

“If we divide it evenly, etiquette lessons would only happen three times—
what about my salary…?”

“No problem at all.”

Money, huh!
Please don’t blame Edna.
I’m doing this for money too.

What Edna is worried about is:
“If the number of lessons decreases, will my pay decrease?”
I already discussed this with Philip—no issue.
Her salary is monthly anyway—even if she teaches zero times in a month, she still gets paid.
Of course, zero lessons would probably get her fired the next month.

She should understand that without being told.
Anyone who doesn’t probably shouldn’t be teaching.

“Of course I won’t divide it evenly.
Reading/writing and arithmetic can be done twice in seven days.
Swordsmanship needs to happen every day to be meaningful.
Magic is necessary every day too—but since mana has limits, long sessions aren’t required.
So the leftover time will go to reading/writing and arithmetic.”

That’s already what we’ve been doing.
“Today I used Waterball X times and Waterfall Y times.
How many more Waterballs can I use?”
—questions like that, using Eris’s and Ghislaine’s actual usage counts.

Apparently it’s easier to understand when it’s about herself.
Because it’s personal, maybe.

Mana usage isn’t visible, so getting exact answers is hard…
But mental math improves with practice.
The goal is to make her use her head.

I plan to introduce chantless magic and science later too.
But those can wait until reading/writing and arithmetic reach a decent level.

“I’m sorry, Edna-san,
but etiquette lessons will drop to about three or four times per month.”

“Understood.”

She agreed readily.

Six days, three periods per day—
eighteen periods total.

Etiquette: 5
Swordsmanship: 6
Reading/writing: 2
Arithmetic: 2
Magic: 3

Something like that.

It might feel short on lesson time,
but since the focus is repetition, it should be fine.

“If you ever can’t teach for unavoidable reasons,
please inform me directly.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m in the manor on weekdays,
so I can fill any open slots with lessons myself.
So even if you take long vacations, it’s no problem.”

“Weekdays…? Understood.”

Edna kept smiling gently.
Does she really get it…?

“Also—I’d like to hold this meeting at the beginning of every month.”

“Why is that?”

“So the three of us can coordinate.
It’ll make it easier to handle sudden incidents.
It’s not strictly necessary… just for efficiency—and insurance.”

“No objection.”

Edna smiled warmly.

“Rudeus-sama—you’re still so young,
yet you think so carefully about Lady Eris’s needs.”

She looked at me like I was something adorable.
…Well, whatever.

And so—I gained a day off.

—

One week later—for the very first full day off—
Eris was visibly restless.

It was apparently her first time with an entire free day.
Maybe because she usually only gets to go as far as the upscale shops.

Either way—creating a rest day was clearly the right decision.

“Take me again next time!”

Arms crossed, standing tall—
the usual Eris pose,
but her cheeks were slightly flushed.
Is that anger? Humiliation…?

Huh?
Embarrassment?
No way—not with this Eris.

“Um…”

As I hesitated, Eris ground her teeth.
Then—holding her hair with both hands, thrusting her hips forward—

“T-Take me with you… nya…”

“Yes! I’ll take you! I’ll take you—so please stop that!”

I hurriedly stopped her.
That might actually be cute,
but it’s bad for my heart.
Every time she does it, I feel my karma meter rising.
And karma gets settled with fists.

“Hmph! Good—you understand!”

Eris tossed her hair dramatically.
Her waist-length red hair fluttered down
as she plopped onto the desk.

“Now! Continue the lesson!”

“You’re very motivated today.”

“You were going to say ‘only good girls get to come along,’ weren’t you?!”

O-oh my…
The young lady is being so obedient…!?

“Y-Yes, exactly!
Be a good girl and I’ll take you again!”

Deeply moved, I finished that day’s lessons.

—