Mist Empire’s Rise: Fake Noble to Fog Queen

Professor Mike was a tolerant teacher. Although he noticed the friction between the two girls, he had no intention of interfering.

To the elderly, the squabbles among children often seemed naive and amusing.

He didn't hold much hope for Luo Wei to answer this question, as it was indeed challenging for them. It would be normal if she couldn't answer it.

"Luo Wei, would you like to answer this question?" Professor Mike had already prepared himself for a refusal.

Luo Wei had already calculated the answer in her head, so she stood up when she heard him ask: "The answer is the square root of three, approximately 1.7 inches."

"It's okay if you don't want to... Wait, what?" Professor Mike's eyes lit up. "Can you repeat that? What's your answer?"

Vina almost laughed out loud. Haha, what square root of three? Is that even an answer?

She thought, giving a wrong answer when you can't do arithmetic, now Professor Mike will surely get angry. She looked at Luo Wei with pity.

Luo Wei's attention wasn't on Vina at all. She answered Mike seriously: "My answer is the square root of three, approximately 1.7 inches."

To be honest, she wasn't entirely confident because she didn't know how advanced the mathematics was in this world.

But square roots existed in medieval Europe, although they were read differently in various regions. "The square root of a certain number" was the most common way of reading it, so she used this to replace the square root symbol.

Professor Mike's eyes grew brighter: "You can calculate square roots and triangular numbers?"

Seeing that her answer was correct, Luo Wei breathed a sigh of relief and humbly said, "I was fortunate enough to learn a little, and haven't forgotten it yet."

"My child, you're too modest," Professor Mike praised. "I've taught many students, but most of them couldn't understand the calculations, they just rigidly drew diagrams."

Luo Wei didn't know how to respond to this, so she just maintained her smile.

Professor Mike looked at her with increasing satisfaction: "Good child, you may sit down."

He then turned to the others: "Luo Wei's answer is correct. Has anyone else figured it out?"

Vina looked incredulous. Why did Luo Wei know the answer when she hadn't even used her pen?

She persisted: "Professor, aren't you going to ask Luo Wei how she calculated it? I didn't see her use the sand table for calculations."

Hearing this, the students in the class craned their necks to look at Luo Wei's sand table.

"It's true, there's nothing there. Did Luo Wei do it mentally? That's amazing!"

"Luo Wei must be a genius!"

"As expected of a young lady from a noble family..."

Vina was so angry she could have ground her teeth to dust. She wanted them to question Luo Wei, not praise her!

Professor Mike looked at Vina with disappointment and called on Luo Wei: "Good child, can you explain your problem-solving approach to everyone?"

Luo Wei nodded, her demeanor composed: "First, calculate the distance from the center point of the hexagram to its six corners, then calculate the perpendicular distance from the intersection of the square's diagonals to its edge, which is the radius of the largest circle in the square."

"Then calculate the ratio between these two, and use the ratio to determine the length of the line segment in the reduced hexagram."

The classroom was filled with the sound of "swish, swish, swish" as the students hurriedly drew on their sand tables.

So that's how it's done, that's how you calculate it!

Half of the students had looks of sudden realization, while the other half were pulling their hair in frustration.

However, when they got to the end, many of them looked bewildered.

They knew the method now, but how exactly do you calculate the distance from the center of the hexagram to its six corners?

Seeing this, Professor Mike smiled slyly: "Can't figure it out, can you? That's exactly right."

"This question wasn't meant for you to solve completely. I just wanted to use it to introduce the mathematical knowledge we'll be covering next."

"Triangular numbers and square roots."

The students: !!

They looked at Mike reproachfully: "Professor, you're so mean!"

Professor Mike laughed heartily: "Your professor is a man of humor. Now, sit down properly, children. I'm going to continue the lesson."

The students sat up straight, picking up their small wooden sticks and looking seriously at the wooden board.

Vina also sat down, her face gloomy.

She couldn't understand why Luo Wei, who was supposed to be a commoner, knew so much.

Could she really be a noble?

After class, as Luo Wei walked out of the classroom, she had a little shadow following her.

After walking for a while, she turned around helplessly: "Vina, what exactly do you want?"

Vina looked at her with a complex expression: "Are you really a noble? Which country are you from, and what title does your family hold?"

Luo Wei's expression was cold: "Vina, it's very impolite to ask like this."

"Shut up!" A flash of resentment appeared on Vina's face, clearly remembering how Luo Wei had scolded her yesterday.

Luo Wei stopped paying attention to her and turned to walk towards the dining hall.

The midday sun was a bit dazzling. A group of vibrant young men and women chatted and laughed as they passed through the tree-lined path, heading towards the academy cafeteria.

"Clang, clang, clang—"

Copper coins scattered on the ground, some rolling into the grass along the sloping path.

"Ah!" The girl hurriedly bent down to pick up the coins, sweating profusely amidst the coming and going crowd. "I'm sorry, please make way, I dropped my coins... Please lift your foot, you're stepping on my coin... Thank you, I'm so sorry..."

A coin rolled to Luo Wei's feet, and she stopped it with her foot.

She looked at the girl, picked up the coin and walked forward: "Your—"

"Ah, I'm sorry, am I blocking your way?" Seeing a glimpse of an elegant skirt, the girl quickly stood up to make way. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

Luo Wei pressed her lips together and held out the coin: "I just wanted to say, here's your coin."

The girl suddenly looked up, staring at her with wide eyes, seemingly shocked.

After seeing the girl's face clearly, Luo Wei also paused for a moment.

In the original owner's memories of the next seven days, this was the only person who tried to give her water when she was hung on the city wall for public display.

And those commoners, even though they were commoners themselves, were also clamoring to kill her.

Luo Wei's eyes darkened for a moment before she came back to her senses and extended her hand again: "Don't you want it?"

The girl quickly wiped her hands on her clothes and respectfully accepted the coin with both hands: "Thank you, thank you very much!"

"You're welcome," Luo Wei crouched down, "Let me help you pick them up."

"No, it will dirty your skirt," the girl hurriedly tried to stop her, "I can do it myself."

"It's alright, it doesn't matter if it gets dirty." Luo Wei picked up the coins from the grass and noticed from the corner of her eye that the girl kept looking at her. She turned her head and asked, "What's wrong?"

The girl shook her head awkwardly: "No-nothing, it's just that I've never met such a noble and kind lady like you before."

Luo Wei paused for a moment, then picked up the coin and handed it to her: "What's your name?"

The girl nervously straightened her back: "My name is Winnie, Winnie Charley."

"I'm Luo Wei," Luo Wei extended her hand to her, "Winnie, can we be friends?"

"Of course!" Winnie held her hand and helped her up, her eyes shining brightly as she said, "As long as you don't mind!"

Luo Wei...

She meant to shake hands, not to be helped up.

Well, it seems that handshakes aren't very common among commoners.

"Count and see if you've picked them all up," she said.

Winnie counted once and finally smiled: "Thanks to you, otherwise I wouldn't have enough money to rent a horse."

"Rent a horse?"

Winnie nodded: "I'm an intermediate magic apprentice. There's an entrance exam the day after tomorrow, and we need to take a horseback riding test. I can't afford to buy a horse, so I can only rent one."

"Horseback riding class, doesn't the academy provide free horses for students?" Luo Wei thought to herself, "Oh no," because she didn't have money to buy a horse either.

"They do provide some, but those horses are all very old," Winnie explained. "The noble students all use their own horses, which are very fast. If my performance is too poor, I'll lose my scholarship."

There's even a scholarship?

Luo Wei, who was as poor as a church mouse, became interested. She still hadn't figured out how to pay for next semester's tuition.

"Is it difficult to get a scholarship?" she asked casually.