Ryu's mother, Cecil, had her three sons sit in chairs in her study and began her lesson.
"Tauro and Giro, you can continue with yesterday's assignment. Ryu, since you can already read and write, I'll start with teaching you simple math."
"Yes, mom!" All three replied energetically.
Of course, Ryu was already capable of math, and in fact, as a former underground moneylender in his past life, he was faster than anyone else when it came to calculations.
Cecil had wanted to start from the basics and teach Ryu with raisins, but to her surprise, Ryu was already able to answer not only simple math problems but also addition with ease. His older brothers were amazed.
"As Father said, Ryu might be a genius!" Tauro said.
"That's amazing, Ryu!" Giro added.
"He really is a prodigy!" They all praised Ryu's intelligence, without a hint of jealousy or envy.
"Hmm... What should I teach you next? Ah, let's learn about history."
"History!?"
Ryu had been elated by his family's praise, but his mood changed at the mention of history. It was a subject he struggled with in his past life, especially with the foreign words that appeared in world history. Moreover, this was completely unrelated to his previous knowledge, and he had to learn it from scratch.
His unpleasant expression must have been noticed by his mother, Cecil, who then said with a mischievous smile, "There are things I can properly teach you too." with a mischievous smile.
From then on, Ryu was given an intensive education on the history of the Kingdom of Crestoria and the history of the Landmark Knight Viscount House, which served the kingdom.
In summary, the Landmark family had been given a part of the territory by the Earl of Sugo and served as his vassals. Therefore, they had an obligation to come to the Earl's aid in times of crisis.
The Landmark family's original patriarch, Camiza Landmark, had served as a common soldier in the Earl's army during the previous war and had been promoted to landowner due to his military achievements. Now it was Ryu's father, the second generation, who was working hard to maintain the family's position.
Camiza was still alive and well, but he and his wife Kay were living a leisurely retirement life in a separate mansion. Although they were in their forties, they were still lively and helped Ryu's father and Cecil.
The reason they had retired was simply that they did not like being invited to noble parties. Ryu sympathized with his father for having been forced to attend such parties.
Although Ryu enjoyed physical activities and was good at sword training, he realized that there was a significant gap in skill between him and his older brothers. He had hunted animals in the forest since he was young, but handling a sword was completely different. Was this the difference between having a skill and not having one?
Tauro, the eldest son, had the "Knight" skill, which made him an excellent swordsman, spearman, axeman, shield-bearer, and club user. Giro, the second son, had the "Cleric Fighter" skill, which gave him proficiency in swords, spears, clubs, and unarmed combat, as well as healing abilities. Both were excellent professions.
As long as these two were around, the Landmark family would be safe.
Ryu felt that he could support his brothers in some way, but he wasn't quite sure how yet. However, he soon found something he could do - managing the family's money.
He had known for a while that the Landmark family's finances were in trouble. Although his father was technically in charge of managing the finances, he inherited a rather careless bookkeeping tradition from his grandfather.
The family lent money to the villagers for side jobs, but they didn't keep proper records, and the repayment was left to memory. Ryu thought that this would eventually lead to the family's financial ruin, so he decided to work with Sebastian, the butler, to review the accounts properly.
At first, his father objected, but Ryu and Sebastian managed to convince him with logical arguments.