After climbing the stairs and reag the sed floor of the tral part of the royal pace, Carmen, Mirad Professor Shirkenn stopped in front of the door. The long corridor, adorned with pnts and golden debras, seemed to observe the young Prih a silent warning.

  "Now that we've arrived, I'll leave you alohen," said Carmen, exeg a fwless about-face to return to her many duties.

  But after just a few steps, she stopped abruptly, casting a final pierg g Mirac.

  "Young Prince… I don't think it's necessary to remind you to behave with the proper respect torofessor Shirkenn, is it?"

  A cold shiver ran through Mirac, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

  'Damn, when Carmen looks at me like that, she's really scary!' he thought, trying to keep a posed expression.

  Without waiting for a response, Carmen walked away with a determiride, leaving Mirad Shirkenn alone in a silence heavy with expectation. For a moment, the two stared at each other, a brief instant of mutual appraisal.

  "Alright. Umm… Shall we go in?" said Vi, attempting to break the awkward silence as he pced his hand on the dolden handle, uaiher to wait for a cue or to proceed.

  "I'd say the answer is obvious, Professor Shirkenn," Mirac replied in a slightly bored tone.

  With a quiod and a deep breath, Vi opehe door, revealing the that would bee their daily meeting pce.

  "Wow!" excimed Miraable to hide his amazement as his eyes roamed eagerly around the room.

  The was a marvel of elegand attention to detail, perfectly suited to a young Prince.

  The space was a rge, bright regle, with a light wood pnk floor that added warmth and a natural touch to the room. The walls were divided horizontally into two ses: the lower half was covered in dark, polished wood pnks, smooth and well-maintained, tinuing the natural and inviting theme of the floor. The upper half, oher hand, was simply pstered in a vanil-colored shade, simir to that of the pace corridors, helping to reflect the light ing from the windows and giving the room a sober yet sophisticated appearance.

  Tall arched windows domihe wall opposite the door, flooding the room with natural light and a panoramic view of the royal gardens. The lush flowers and pnts seemed to sway gently with the breeze, as if cheering on Mirac for his future lessons.

  In the ter of the room stood the only desk, entirely reserved for the young Prihe wood olished and finished with goldeails along the edges, a symbol of refi and royalty. On the desktop y a few books, a notebook bound in bck leather, and a silver inkwell with a raveher, ready for the first lesson.

  At the short end of the room, far from the door, a rge oak le decorated with golden floral inys dominated, apanied by velvet-cushioned red chairs. On one side of the table, a sele of leather-bound volumes ranged across history, philosophy, and military strategy texts, promising to guide Mirac through the vastness of knowledge.

  Behind the professor's le, a rge bck chalkboard framed in dark wood awaited formus and notes, with white chalks ly aligned along the edge. Above the board, a decorated bronze clock ticked rhythmically, marking eaent of this new beginning.

  Along the wall opposite the windows, a row of dark wood shelves housed books, a maps, and various study instruments: globes, passes, and brass astrobes.

  Between the shelves, curious objects could be glimpsed: a small golden telescope, scrolls tied with silk ribbons, gss vials filled with vividly colored liquids, and an a globe with unknown tis that sparked the young Prince's curiosity.

  'I'll study them carefully during geography lessons...' Mirac thought, already imagining himself expl those mysteries.

  Hanging on the walls, portraits of illustrious schors and a rulers seemed to scrutinize every er of the room, watg the young Prih stern eyes.

  'Am I mistaken, or are they watg me?' Miradered, though he ighe strange feeling and looked up.

  In the ter of the vaulted ceiling, a crystal delier hung elegantly, though more modest than the majestie in the reception hall, the setting of Mirac's first and ter birthday celebrations.

  The vault itself was a masterpiece: a fresco of dang fmes and wise warriors of the past, who seemed to e to life uhe natural sunlight.

  Fasated, Mirac turned his head, trying to follow the fresco's intricate lines, and without realizing it, sat at his desk, still absorbed in his ption.

  Meanwhile, Vi closed the door and made his way to the teacher's desk, carefully setting down his duffel bag.

  'Wow, I'm surprised he didn't fall...' Mirac thought, casting a g the professor.

  "So, shall we begin?" Vi asked, pg his hands on his hips and looking at Mirac with a smile that exuded a certain fidence, in trast with his initial awkwardness.

  Mirac didn't respond immediately. He simply tilted his head slightly to the side, as if his silent approval was more than enough.

  Vi, not paying much attention to the Prince's ck of words, pulled a part-bound dot out of his bag and pced it carefully on Mirac's desk.

  "Young Prihis is the plete list of lessons and schedules. Every day, from 8 to 13, we will cover a wide range of subjects," said Vi, almost with pride.

  Mirac grabbed the sheet and, sing the dense lines of subjects and times, his eyes widened. Every day acked with lessons: a histeography of the kingdom and the ti, history of military strategies, philosophy, religion, grammar, and even an introdu to magical arts.

  'Wow, so many subjects to study! Especially sidering that, teically, I'm only 7 years old!' Mirac thought, as a mix of ay aement stirred inside him.

  Fag those hours filled with such varied subjects, Mira a hand through his hair, trying to hide his nervousness.

  'On the bright side, though, I'll finally get to learn a lot about this new world!' he told himself, staring at the titles with a renewed sense of determination.

  Afterward, Mirac lowered his gaze to the schedule, feverishly searg for the lesson he would have that m.

  'Let's see: Monday... Already sed period, sihe PROFESSOR arrived te... OH NO!'

  Before he could finish his thought, Vi raised his voice with mispced enthusiasm:

  "Young Prince, let's begin our first lesson: MATH!"

  "…"

  g his teeth, Mirac remained speechless. Or rather, the words swirling in his head were decidedly inappropriate to say out loud.

  'I hope you're dragged to the depths of hell, and that there you find no pea Lucifer's cws!' Mirac thought, uo hold back the wave of mental curses.

  He was definitely exaggerating, but the idea of starting his studies with the subject he hated most was driving him crazy.

  It wasn't just anger: it ure disgust, a visceral unhappihat crawled into every fiber of his body.

  Notig Mirac's distent, evident from the disgusted expression on his face, Vi asked in a ed tone:

  "Young Prince, is there a problem?"

  Mirac barely held back the impulsive response bubbling up in his mind:

  'Yes, damn it! You show up te and think it's normal to start with MATH?! If I could, I'd sentence you to death right here!'

  He was furious and khat with the provocation, he would explode.

  'Calm down… breathe…' he thought, f himself to take a deep breath.

  He o be rational: avoiding the lesson would only postpohe iable. Moreover, asking to move the math lesson to another day wouldn't solve anything.

  With this realization, Mirac returo studying the schedule.

  'So… Four hours of math per week: two on Monday m, one on Wednesday from 10 to 11, and the st one on Friday, again in the m. At least they're well spread out. And today, given the dey of this oddball, it'll only be one hour!'

  This discovery was a small relief. He couldn't have ewo secutive hours of that subject he hated so much, at least not that m.

  Vi interrupted him again, fused.

  "Young Prince?..."

  Mirac, calmer now, smiled with a feigned determination.

  "Alright, Professor Shirken's begin."

  Vi, fused by Mirac's reflective sile smiling with excitement for their first lesson, turoward the board. He grabbed a piece of chalk and began writing a sequence of numbers from zero to ten, from left tht.

  "They told me that you are very intelligent for ye," ented Vi as he finished writing the st number.

  'Hehe, modestly...' thought Mirac, holding back a smirk as he copied into his notebook peared on the board.

  "But still, it's always better to start with the basics. A castle, to be solid, needs strong foundations, right?"

  After pg the chalk on the edge of the bckboard, Viuroward Mirac, whose gaze was distracted. His eyes were slightly squinted, and his apathetic expression immediately betrayed the student's desire for the lesson to pass quickly.

  While writing, between one yawn and the , Mirac immediately reized the symbols on the board. But not because of his innate uanding of the nguage of that new world...

  The numbers, in fact, were writtely the same way as in his previous life!

  And in this regard, Mirac had discovered it a long time ago.

  When he was still a child, by pure ce, he had caught a glimpse of a small notebook with a long shopping list stig out of Carmen's skirt pocket.

  'Another mystery, huh? This is already the fifth one on the list...'

  This was the thought that immediately struck Mirac that day as he carefully examined every detail of the list he could see and read.

  He pondered for a long time on how it ossible, vihat it couldn't be just a ce.

  This new evidence led him to firm what he had already suspected: he was now certain that, in one way or another, some knowledge from his old world had been introduced into the new one he had reinated into!

  Thus, Mirac immediately ected the mystery of the o that of the Gregorian dar. He thought it was highly likely that the person who introduced the Gregorian system might have been the same one whht the numbers. Or perhaps someone from an even earlier time.

  In any case, there was no way to solve that mystery at the moment, so it didn't make seo keep rag his brain over a puzzle that, until his first lesson with Vi, Mirac had almost fotten.

  "Please, young Prince," said the gray-haired man, his voice respectful yet stern, "repeat after me."

  Vi poio the first number with his finger and slowly moved it from left tht, pronoung each digit and waiting for Mirac to repeat, though with visible disi.

  "Zero."

  "Zero..."

  "One."

  "One..."

  "Two."

  "Two..."

  "Three."

  "Three..."

  "Four."

  "Four..."

  "Five."

  "Five..."

  "Six."

  "Six..."

  "Seven."

  "Seven..."

  "Eight."

  "Eight..."

  "Nine."

  "Nine..."

  "Ten!"

  "Ten..."

  "Good! Now, let's repeat it a couple of times."

  'Tsz!' Mirac huffed, but followed the exercise.

  * * *

  After the third repetition, Vi stopped, his finger now covered in white chalk dust. He wiped away the numerical sequend turned bairac:

  "Now try it on your own, young Prince."

  Despite the plete ck of enthusiasm, Mirac dared not disobey for fear of possible repercussions from Carmen.

  'What's the point of all this? I'll never be good at math anyway…'

  With that demoralizing thought in mind and his eyes rolling upward, Mirac recited, following Vi's instrus:

  "Zero, owo, three, four, five, six, seve, en..."

  After pronoung the st number, Mirac straightened up suddenly, abandoning his zy position. The shock took him by surprise: his eyes were glued to the y bckboard.

  "Great job, young Prince! After just three repetitions with my help, you mao learn how to t!" Vi excimed, with a proud tone.

  Mirac stared at the bckboard, uo believe it. His hand, gripping the white quill pen, trembled above the notebook, leaving small smudges of ink on the squared pages.

  "I... I learned how to t?" Mirac murmured, incredulous.

  "Exactly, young Prince," replied Vi, not uanding the full extent of his statement.

  "Me? I learo t? ME?!" Mirac repeated, his voice trembling and full of astonishment.

  "Uhmm... Yes, young Prihat's exactly right!" firmed Vi, puzzled but pleased.

  Miratio doubt it. He thought it might have been just a stroke of luck. So, he decided tain, ting slowly:

  "Zero, owo, three, four, five, six, seve, en..."

  And again: "Zero, owo, three, four, five, six, seve, en!"

  Finally, almost shouting: "ZERO, OWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVE, NINE, AND TEN!!!"

  He had not made a mistake, nor was it a fluke: Mirac had truly learo t!

  "I-I 't believe it..." he whispered, as his emotions exploded.

  Vi, notig Mirac's trembling and his hands clutg the pages of the notebook, immediately rushed to his side.

  "Young Prince! Are you all right?!" he asked, worried.

  He then tried to fort him with slow, gentle movements on his shoulder, though they felt awkward and stiff, as if it were his first time.

  Mirac lowered his gaze, releasing his grip oebook. He then looked at his hands, where the tears tio fall, as if firming what he had just realized.

  "Zero... One... Two... Three, four... Five... Six... Seve, nine... And ten..." he ted the tears, which were actually far more than he could ee with the little knowledge he had just acquired.

  Each siear represented a small victory, a triumph over a past filled with frustrations and failures.

  What had once been an impossible goal throughout his entire life was now finally within reach.

  Yet, Mirac's mind was overwhelmed by a whirlwind of fusion and astonishment. For a few moments, he stood still, tinuing to wonder how this could be possible.

  'Yeah, of course!' he thought, as the aruck him like a lightning bolt. 'How could I not have thought of this before, after all these seven years?!'

  Amazed and almost incredulous, Mirac hypothesized that the cause of all this y in his new body, radically different from the previous one and equipped with perfect brain funs. No longer limited by itive impairments, his brain was pletely renewed, finally free from the severe dyscalculia that had tormented him in his previous life, preventing him from grasping even the simplest cepts reted to numbers.

  In short, at that moment, everything seemed to have been resolved!

  The first ten numbers, whice were difficult for him to memorize ae in order, noeared familiar and easily accessible.

  What once required tration and effort—ting to ten—now occurred smoothly and naturally.

  'With this new body... Will I really be able to... learn math?!'

  The answer was clear and obvious in itself.

  This realization was, for Mirao, better yet, for Vector!—the most extraordinary discovery of his new life!

  "Young Princ-"

  "Professor Shirkenn..." Miraterrupted him, wiping his tears with his sleeves.

  Vi watched him with , log eyes with Miraow filled with deep and ued gratitude.

  "Thank you!" excimed Mirac, a sincere smile lighting up his face.

  Vi, taken by surprise, nervously scratched the back of his ned withdrew his hand from the young Prince's shoulder.

  "Oh, umm... You're wele, young Prince... It leasure!"

  "And please, Professor Shirkenn..." Mirac added, l his voice.

  "Yes?"

  "Help me t the ears!" Mirac excimed, his voice a mix of innod determination, as he smiled at the man who had helped him in an endeavor he hought he could face.

  Vi, vaguely grasping the deep meaning hidden behind those words, returhe smile warmly.

  "Of course, young Prince... You t on me!"