As noon drew near, bright sunlight bathed the bustling streets, and the entire town brimmed with life and vitality.
Walking down the road, Samael withdrew his surveying gaze and secretly shook his head.
What a pity. Very soon, everything here would change.
"This is too hard..."
Just as Samael paused to sigh to himself, a gloomy wail with a familiar voice came from an ice cream shop by the roadside.
"This problem is too hard..."
The Ancient Serpent instinctively turned his head and immediately spotted a high school girl with a single ponytail, wearing a white knit sweater. She was slumped over the table, biting the end of her pen with a miserable expression as she stared resentfully at the open workbook before her.
After racking her brains to no avail, the baffled high school girl gulped down some iced coffee, forced herself to stay alert, and prayed inwardly.
Lord, please grant me the wisdom to solve this problem. If this keeps up, I won't finish my homework before school starts.
"Let me take a look..."
At the same time, a familiar teasing voice sounded beside her ear.
Jeanne looked up in astonishment and saw the face that had always refused to leave her mind.
"I thought it was some century-defining problem. This?"
While the Saintess was still dazed, Samael had already come to the table and casually taken a seat. He picked up the workbook, glanced over the large swaths of blank space and scribbles, then looked back at Jeanne with a touch of contempt in his eyes.
Jeanne was sixteen and had only just entered high school. High school mathematics was nothing more than introductory material like sets, probability, basic functions, and solid geometry. Samael had not been particularly good at math in his previous life either, but