Lord of Rot

When Leech returned to the castle, he was slightly surprised by the letter that was delivered to him.

’Do girls really change that much as they grow up?’

In his memory, his cousin was someone who doted on everyone, so why did her letter exude such a literary flair?

The last letter had been short and formal, revealing nothing, but this one was completely different. He could get a sense of her personality from it.

It also seemed his grandfather intended for them to correspond long-term. ’Pen pals, huh? Piece of cake.’

Leech sat at his desk, mulling things over for a moment with his pen in hand before quickly finishing the letter. He then had the White Raven, which had rested for several days, carry the message away. It was clear this life of correspondence would continue for a long time to come.

Although Instructor Kolan was dead, the selection for squires hadn’t ended.

The boys who remained breathed a sigh of relief, glad they weren’t being sent home.

However, the next piece of news put them on edge again, because the one assessing them next was the Lord himself!

Gelan had been busy with the training recently. He knew the Lord’s intentions, so he had deliberately focused on cultivating the boys’ reading and writing skills. The results were pretty good. In the beginning, none of the 35 boys were literate, but after a few days of instruction, 14 of them could now barely keep up. These were mostly the younger, cleverer ones.

Of the remaining 21, eight couldn’t even learn to write their own names.

It wasn’t that the rest of them were incapable of learning, they just had no interest in it and even found it torturous.

A person can do anything when pushed to their limit—except for math problems.

Basic arithmetic happened to be part of the training, and this was where those 21 were stuck. When it came to math, if you couldn’t learn it, you just couldn’t. Their brains weren’t cut out for it, and no amount of effort would help.

Leech decisively sent these 21 home.

As they left, they complained to themselves. ’Isn’t it enough for a Knight’s squire to know how to wield a spear? Why do we need to do math?’

But they didn’t dare say a word out loud.

With the remaining 14 boys, Leech taught them addition and subtraction up to 100, as well as the multiplication table.

Fortunately, the numbers on Lu Leiyi were not complex and could be fitted into a multiplication table.

This was the wisdom of his ancestors!

It wasn’t just the Lu Leiyi Continent; even back on Earth, those Westerners didn’t know the multiplication table. They used that line method—drawing lines and counting the intersections. At first glance, you’d think they were playing Gomoku.

Since he was cultivating a group of apprentices who could handle odd jobs and do math, he couldn’t afford to drop the ball on this.

As the one who would be teaching them next, Gelan naturally observed the entire lesson. When the Lord mentioned multiplication and division, Gelan sat up straight. And when the Lord personally drew out the ”9x9 multiplication table,” Gelan’s eyes went wide.

All one had to do was memorize it by rote until it became second nature, and the answer would come instantly when needed.

”Only with the blessing of a Divine Spirit could one possess such wisdom.”

His eyes, fixed on Leech, were filled with admiration.

Before, Gelan could only count on his fingers. For example, if someone was selling white bread for 3 copper stars each and a customer wanted 20, they would hand one over, take 3 copper stars, hand over another, and so on. This was the clumsy but cautious way commoners did business.

The smarter ones would add 3 copper stars to itself twenty times.

Someone who’d been in business for a long time might have common totals memorized and could state the price instantly, but if a customer wanted 18 loaves of white bread, they’d have to start counting from scratch again.

But with the Lord’s 9x9 multiplication table... Gelan searched the chart and found 2 x 3 = 6. He was capable of simple extrapolation; with a single glance, he knew the answer was 60!

As long as one memorized this table, arithmetic would no longer be a problem!

”Memorize it thoroughly. Then I will test you,” Leech told the boys. ”Those who pass will stay. Those who fail will leave.”

’You can’t just make do when it comes to talent. If they can’t even handle basic math, then forget it.’

’Anyway, this won’t be my only recruitment drive. There are plenty of other craftsmen out there, like masons and carpenters.’

The 14 remaining boys shouted their assent excitedly.

They didn’t understand the miraculous usefulness of the multiplication table, but that didn’t stop them from striving to claim the position of a Knight’s squire.

’Isn’t memorizing this better than going back to the fields? Isn’t it better than being a slave?’

”My lord, you...” Gelan’s throat felt dry. He leaned close to Leech and whispered, ”This multiplication table of yours... is it a blessing from the Four Gods?”

”A dream,” Leech said with a serious expression. ”An infinite amount of knowledge bored its way into my brain.”

”You possess wisdom blessed by a Divine Spirit!” Gelan exclaimed.

’Even though I can get the answers for most numbers instantly out of habit, this convenient table, this convenient method of calculation... it’s filled with infinite wisdom. Only someone blessed by a Divine Spirit could have conceived of it!’

”Learn it well,” Leech said, patting Gelan’s shoulder. ”I’m still counting on you to teach them addition and subtraction.”

Unlike multiplication and division, the Lu Leiyans already used addition and subtraction in their daily lives; they just lacked a systematic concept for it. Multiplication, on the other hand, was rarely used and would be a huge help.

Watching the earnest and studious Gelan, Leech chuckled smugly. ’And I haven’t even brought out linear equations yet!’

’In mathematics, my knowledge topped out at a middle school level. I was useless with anything beyond the nine years of compulsory education.’

’Sigh, if only I had paid attention in math, physics, and chemistry. Now I have to rely on Magic for everything.’

Aside from his guest role as a teacher for the 14 chosen boys, Leech spent most of his remaining time exploring the Headland Catacombs.

Adhering to the principle of not letting anything go to waste, he had the corpse of Kolan Fosak under his control enter the catacombs.

Leech hadn’t actively practiced the control technique, but the number of corpses he could command had already risen from nine to sixteen, a proper little catacomb exploration team.

The commercial district of the Headland Catacombs was nearly fully explored, and he had killed off most of the harpies that flew through it.

Harpies weren’t strong in a fight; their only advantage was flight, so Leech hadn’t reanimated too many of them. The number of little blue-skinned goblins, however, was on the rise. Armed with spears, they could unleash a volley that would instantly turn their opponents into Porcupines. If their terrified targets turned to flee, the spears sticking out of their backsides made the resemblance even more striking.

A harpy, acting as a porter, flew toward a sealed room in the commercial district, clutching a bag of scavenged treasure.

The window opened, and a hand reached out to grab the bag from the harpy’s talons.

It was heavy!

The arm’s owner was yanked downward by the weight, nearly falling from the window.

The harpy turned and flew off as the hand pulled the bag into the room and shut the window.

”Whew.” Betty let out a breath.

More than twenty bags were already gathered in the room.

She tipped the bag in her hands upside down.

CLANG!

Out spilled gold statues, jewelry inlaid with colorful gems, an exquisite silver dagger, and a stubbornly curved silver rod that looked like a cucumber, among other things.

She sorted the treasures and put them away. As the army of the dead grew, her job had become one of classification and organization, confined to this small room day after day.

For now, she didn’t have to worry about food or water. The supplies brought back by the dead were from her own fellow Mercenaries, enough to sustain her for a long time.

Every time she saw fresh supplies, she knew another of her companions had met their end.

’Good riddance!’

Betty felt no pity for the bastards who had betrayed their own. They had used her as bait and tried to get her killed. They deserved to die.

Then she would sit in the corner, staring blankly out the window.

She had no way of knowing if it was day or Night outside the catacombs, or how much time had passed. Her desire to escape was still strong, yet she also found herself hoping for another knock on the window, even if it was just a reanimated harpy or a blue-skinned goblin.

Because she knew the monsters before her were just puppets. The one who was real was the person looking at her through their eyes.

He was protecting her, like a Mercenary in iron armor.