Reincarnated as a mana core

Argul pointed with her pen at the circle she had drawn and cut it into four equally sized parts. “Let’s take this circle for example. You see the four parts it is made of?”

Mia nodded. ”Now you take three of these pieces away.”

Argul filled out three of the quarters with her pen. “The piece left didn’t change in any way, but if you look at the whole circle what is that piece?”

Mia thought about it for a moment and looked at Argul, uncertain about her answer. “One circle piece of four?”

Argul smiled. “Exactly and that’s also how you would write it as a fraction. Over the line you have the amount of pieces of the whole that are in your possession and under the fraction line you have the amount of pieces that exist, even those that you don’t have.”

It wasn’t exactly right, because you could have fractions larger than one, but it hopefully helped Mia to visualize things.

Mia looked at the paper questioningly. “I don’t understand why we need this, can’t you just calculate the stuff with the decimal notation?” 

The girl had already known about this before for some reason so Argul had continued to teach her about this.

She ruffled the hair on Mia’s head. “You can, but using fractions is easier for numbers with a lot of digits after their comma. You will see once you learn a bit more about them.” Not today though, Argul could see that Mia needed a break.

She looked out of the window. It was around noon right now so it was time to stop anyway. 

Argul closed her book and put her pen on top of it. “Allright, that was enough for today. Is there anything you want to do after lunch Mia?”

Mia looked up from her own workbook. “Can I go out with Aly and Arthur?”

Argul looked at her still sleeping daughter and shrugged. “I don’t mind as long as they are okay with it and you are back before dawn.”

Mia’s eyes lit up. “Yes!!”

Argul could only smile at the girl's antics. Seeing Mia excited was extremely cute.

She began to collect the school material they had used today and stacked it neatly on the table. Then she went over to the kitchen and peeked inside.

Luna was currently cooking a light soup and upon opening the door the smell escaped into the large room of the first floor.

Argul knocked to make sure Luna didn’t get surprised by her. “Hey Luna, how long do you think until the soup is ready.”

Luna looked up from her spot and smiled at Argul. “Oh, hey Argul. Has all the thinking made you hungry?”

Argul managed to put a forced smile on her face. That remark had been completely unnecessary in her opinion.

Luna grabbed a random spoon. “Wait a second, I will just test the taste real fast.”

She took a spoon full of soup out of the pot and carefully took a small sip. “Hmm, I would say another 10 to 15 minutes until the soup is ready.”

Argul nodded. “Allright, thank you. I will tell Arthur.” Cooking had been an incredible skill to have before mana already, but how Luna managed to do it with a wood fueled fire was even more incredible.

She closed the kitchen door behind her and went back to Mia. Argul crouched down and whispered into the girl’s ear. “If you want you can wake up Aly. Lunch will be ready in about 15 minutes.”

Mia grinned mischievously. “I will do it!” Ahh, the girl was about to make a mistake.

Argul nodded and got up, trying hard to hide her thoughts. A good victim a day keeps the devil at bay or in this case Alyra. 

She picked up the workbooks and writing tools and went upstairs to store them in their room.

On the way out of their room Argul picked up Aina who was busily eating a random piece of paper and held the slime up to her head height. “The paper is not food Aina.”

Argul made sure to glare a second longer at the blob before she hugged it again. Aina had started to eat more and more lately and if Argul’s knowledge domain wasn’t failing her that meant there would be two slimes in a week or two.

She would have to tell Luna, maybe the girl wanted a slime herself. They were pretty good at cleaning dirty dishes.

Aina jiggled around happily and Argul gave her a few pats while she walked over to Arthurs door.

She knocked and waited for him to respond. Rule number 1, never enter a mans room without invitation. Argul could live without embarrassing memories she got just because she was too lazy to knock.

A few seconds later Arthur’s voice sounded out. “Yeah?”

Argul sighed and shouted back. “Lunch will be ready in 10 minutes. If you want anything to eat then be there.”

Something tinkled behind the door and Arthur responded. “Okay, I will be there.”

Argul stood in front of the door a moment longer before she turned around and went downstairs. She really wanted to know what the guy had been collecting, but she wouldn’t ask. Everyone had his secrets and a right to have them.

She walked down the last stairway and entered the large room just at the right time to witness Mia sneaking up on the sleeping Alyra. The girl stalked around the couch and then jumped on top of Alyra.

Argul’s daughter made a surprised sound that turned into chortling when Mia started to tickle her.

Alyra laughed and tried to fend off Mia who was having quite a lot of fun herself.

Then, all of a sudden Alyra stopped laughing and grabbed Mia’s arms. She smirked at the girl. “You chose the wrong target.”

Alyra rolled over and the two of them fell to the ground, though Alyra took most of the force. Now she was on top of Mia and in full control of the situation. Mia tried to free herself, but had no chance against Alyra’s strength and speed.

Alyra carefully secured Mia’s arms with her legs, making sure not to hurt the girl and slowly moved her hands towards Mia’s belly. “They don’t call me a crusher of tickle assasins for nothing, girl.”

Mia looked wide eyed at Alyra with desperation. “Please spare me!”

Alyra grinned and now it was Mia’s turn to laugh and wheeze.

Argul smiled and shook her head. Those two made a good sister pair for sure. She walked over to the eating tables accompanied by the sweet laughter of a child and sat down, still hugging Aina.

A minute later Mia began begging for mercy, but Alyra gave her none. The girl only had one option left. “Aunt!” 

She laughed again and Alyra intensified her attack. Mia didn’t give up between her wheezing for air. “Aunt– need– help!”

Alyra stopped her tickling for a moment and Argul looked at the pair judgingly. “I don’t know. I am not the one who decided to attack Alyra.” Sometimes punishment was deserved.

Mia looked at Argul with betrayal in her eyes, still breathing heavily. Alyra began to slowly move her hands back to Mia’ weak spots, but was interrupted by Luna opening the kitchen door.

The innkeeper looked around with a pot full of soup in her hands and smiled brightly. “It’s time for lunch everyone!”

It looked like at least fate had mercy with Mia.