Math Is Magic Chapter 22: CHAPTER 22: The Four Fundamental Operations

Read chapter 22 of Math Is Magic by iminchoo on NovelPedia.

{ 8 MONTHS AND 25 DAYS LATER… } In all these months, Mirac had accumulated a multitude of new knowledge! He hadn't limited himself to formal lessons but had taken advantage of every opportunity to delve into the history and geography of the Seven Kingdoms, spending—whenever he felt he could—long hours among the shelves of the royal library. However, despite his efforts, he had still not discovered anything concrete about the Chaotics or the supposed magical tool to identify them. At most, he had stumbled upon vague myths or ancient legends told in some dusty book. But once again, the real changes had come with Math! Over these months, the progress he made in this field had been extraordinary: by also studying from the book of his presumed father, Mirac had learned to perform addition and subtraction with ease, and after memorizing the multiplication tables, he even began to tackle multiplication and division. While with the first two operations he was now able to handle calculations with multi-digit numbers, the latter still required a bit more practice. Yet, despite his well-known deep disdain for Math, he had experienced a variety of emotions, completely unexpected: a mix of satisfaction, personal pride, and something akin to... joy?! Him, feeling... such an emotion... for Math?! IMPOSSIBLE! Precisely because it seemed inconceivable to him, Mirac had started to suspect that Math was a subtle manipulator, capable of somehow infiltrating his mind and manipulating his emotions. This thought had only increased, exponentially, his desire to somehow rid himself of that annoying Sintony with Math! And one day, while rummaging through the various books in the royal library, he discovered that such a thing was truly possible and achievable! Although the argument was long and tedious, full of pompous and unnecessary terms, the basic concept was clear: if a person hates or strongly rejects the element with which they are in Sintony, such aversion can break the metaphysical bond connecting subject and object, freeing them from that unwanted connection. This law had been described for the Elemental Sintonies, but Mirac couldn't help but hope that it was the same for the Anomalous ones! So, perhaps by persevering in his resentment and fueling his hatred, one day he would succeed in breaking free from that bond with Math forever! After all, he longed with all his being to live a free and carefree life again, without the constant fear of being discovered and executed because of his Chaotic nature. But unfortunately, despite harboring a perpetual hatred for his Sintony, Math still seemed completely indifferent to his resentment. In fact, throughout the year, instead of fading away as he had hoped, Math appeared to focus solely on his learning progress. The nights following the days when he had learned new mathematical concepts, in fact, had always been marked by the usual dreams in which the starry sky recorded his progress. In the dreamlike silence, the usual floating messages would appear, formed by the familiar white mist that suddenly appeared before him, condensing to form glowing words: [ You have learned how to perform: Addition ] [ You have learned how to perform: Subtraction ] [ You have learned how to perform: Multiplication ] [ You have learned how to perform: Division ] And each operation was precisely defined, like a lesson carved into the sky: [ Addition : A basic arithmetic operation that involves combining two or more numbers, called addends , to obtain another number, called the sum . Therefore, if 𝑎 and 𝑏 are two numbers, addition is represented as 𝑎 + 𝑏 = 𝑐, where 𝑐 is the result of the sum of 𝑎 and 𝑏 ] [ Subtraction : An arithmetic operation that involves calculating the difference between two numbers. Given a number, called the minuend , and another number, called the subtrahend , the result is called the difference . Therefore, if 𝑎 and 𝑏 are two numbers, subtraction is represented as 𝑎 − 𝑏 = 𝑐, where 𝑐 is