Herald of Steel

Chapter 1450: Lady Nanazin’s Test

The reason for Alexander’s test was of course obvious.

Without calculators and only the most basic abacus, most businesses relied on mental math to get their daily transactions.

It would be too tedious to get a pen and paper for simple problems like 27 minus 14.

But naturally, they had to be also accurate, not just fast.

A fact that was all the more true for a business like banks. Alexander did not dare imagine the kind of shenanigans that would unfold if the tellers and cashiers started to make basic arithmetic mistakes.

Hence he had decided to test their boss first, presenting her with quite a difficult problem.

And indeed, this little test was much harder than it might seem on paper.

Because remember Alexander did not say anything in the beginning.

There were no instructions on whether to add, subtract, or multiply... heck there were no clues that he was even taking a test.

He had just started speaking out of the blue.

Thus the fact that Lady Nanazin was able to pass this and pass it with such flying colors really showed her mettle. The Adhanian queen had relied purely on her instinct and state of mind to predict Alexander’s move and then preempt it.

It was a level of skill even Alexander himself did not think he had. Nor did he think he would have been able to so quickly catch on,

This memory was not that quick.

Although that might be more due to the difference in curriculum between him and Lady Nanazin.

Whereas his one teaching concentrated more on creativity and learning the basics, Lady Nanazin’s family education consisted of mostly reading and memorizing... lots and lots of reading and memorizing.

And then simply regurgitating that she had been taught like a well trained parrot.

Reasonable deductions in those courses were literally non existent- probably because reasonable deduction as a concept had not entered the human psyche yet.

This was one of the reasons why progress was so snail like in ancient times. Almost nobody questioned anything and simply believed whatever was written in the books as gospels.@@@@

With little curiosity, new things continued to remain hidden.

The only good side effect of this type of curriculum that Alexander could say was that perhaps everyone who studied had a really good memory.

Years of practiced memorization had ingrained in them the skill to easily remember things that had happened even long, long ago, and with great accuracy.

A skill that would be a really important asset in a time without computers or easily accessible data storage. Being able to quickly remember details was the bread and butter for offering a quick service.

So why should their spending match 30?

Hence she thought either Alexander was making a mistake or she was misunderstanding him.

"Ahem.. I think I can see the trick here." It was Lady Parthia who was the first to see through this mass of jumbled up information.

Giving a small grin, she chimed in a slightly amused tone.

"The answer to my lord’s question about where the 1 ropal is, is that there is no missing ropal. The three men spent 27 ropals- 25 on the room and unknowingly 2 to the ’light fingered’ maid. I believe my lord has added the 2 ropals the maid took twice."

Lady Nanazin’s face revealed a dawning realization, while Alexander’s thought that this woman really had brains was once again reinforced.

It barely took her half a minute to solve the relatively tricky problem.

Alexander himself remembered that the first he saw this, it took him a while, as he, for whatever reason decided to focus on the maid dividing and giving each 1 ropal instead of the flat 3 ropal.

"Ahhh... if that’s the case, then I have 100 ropals. I spend 2 on a small meal, leaving me 98 ropals. Then I buy a beautiful bangle for 5, leaving me with 93. So tell there where did the 191 ropals come from (98+93)? What a stupid problem!"

The man’s thoughts were however suddenly shattered by this sudden shout from the other mature lady, who could be seen giving Alexander a very angry scowl.

Lady Nanazin felt almost cheated by Alexander, as she determined the question was not well phrased. It asked something- finding the missing 1 ropal, but really wanted something entirely different.

Thus driven by jealousy of her much more successful partner, the curvy lady was not afraid to let her lover know of her distaste.

"Hahaha, here I have to disagree with your Lady Nanazin. I think this is an excellent problem. It teaches us the mistake of counting things more than once?" While Lady Parthia appeared to be in a much more jovial mood, and proudly chuckled her own thoughts.

"Is this what you wanted us to point out?" She then turned to phrase the question, although the absolute confidence in her voice clearly told Alexander she knew the answer.

’This women...’ The corner of Alexander’s very perceptibly twitched at this, just the slightest of creeping fear dripping into his heart.

In front of Lady Parthia, Alexander felt like almost an open book most of the times. As if she could see his thoughts forming into speech bubbles right above his head.

Even the few times Alexander managed to beat this terrifying woman was mostly him using his advanced knowledge.

Alexander certainly did not like this feeling.

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