Academic Brain and Artistic Brain

Since their candid exchange after the last night raid, the relationship between Cui Ciyou and Alice had quietly eased considerably.

Though there was still an indescribable awkwardness between them when they spent time together.

The most obvious change was that, over the past month, Alice had indeed kept her promise.

"No more skipping class." — Cui Ciyou's arithmetic and reading-and-writing lessons.

Whenever afternoon class began, Alice would at least appear in the classroom on time and sit fairly obediently in her seat.

In the past, Cui Ciyou would usually have to go to places like the stables or training grounds of the Boreas Estate to drag her back.

Of course, Cui Ciyou knew perfectly well that this only meant that "her body had shown up."

It seemed the Creator God had poured all of Alice's talent into areas related to swordsmanship, combat, and the body.

As for subjects that required extensive logical thinking—

Such as arithmetic and history, her performance could only be described as disastrous.

The problem did not seem to be whether Alice was willing to learn. Rather, she seemed... genuinely unable to learn.

Simply put, she was the classic type with well-developed limbs and a simple mind.

Faced with arithmetic lessons beginning from the most basic recognition of single digits, Alice showed unprecedented... effort, along with tremendous "difficulty."

She would seriously furrow her delicate brows and widen those bright, ruby-like eyes.

Staring fixedly at Cui Ciyou and the teaching aids he used for demonstration—the smooth little pebbles.

Her tiny fingers would nervously bend and straighten beneath the table. She was probably counting on her fingers.

It was clear that Alice was truly trying to understand and thinking as hard as she could.

But the results were often far from satisfactory.

Even the simplest single-digit addition required Alice to ponder for a long time.

And she would often give answers that were both ridiculous and amusing.

"Alice, look," Cui Ciyou said patiently, placing three small pebbles on the left side of the table, then two on the right.

"There are three on the left and two on the right. How many are there altogether?"

Alice's gaze moved back and forth between the two piles of pebbles.

Her lips moved faintly, as though she were engaged in a grueling struggle.

After a long while, she finally ventured an answer. "...Four?"

It's been more than a month, and she's still like this?

Cui Ciyou nearly rubbed his forehead and sighed as he complained inwardly, but then he reconsidered.

Still, Alice doesn't seem unwilling to work hard. It's more like... some kind of innate impairment?

Slightly more complicated concepts, such as merely introducing the basic idea of two-digit numbers—

Were even harder for Alice than climbing a mountain.

Her reading and writing showed much the same situation, with little improvement.

Alice learned letters and basic words extremely slowly, and she often forgot them shortly after memorizing them.

Whenever she practiced writing, she either knocked over the ink bottle or made a complete mess of the paper.

The quill pens of this era needed to be dipped in ink frequently while writing.

Her grip on the pen looked terribly clumsy, and the letters and words she wrote were crooked, like a child's scribbles.

She also often mixed up the order of letters, or wrote them without following the proper stroke order at all.

Simply put, compared to holding a pen, her hands seemed naturally better suited to gripping a sword hilt.

All of this formed an incomparably stark contrast with the astonishing talent she displayed in swordsmanship training, where she understood things instantly and could draw inferences from a single example.

Cui Ciyou could not help thinking: Was she purely an Athletic Brain type?

In the original story, Alice still couldn't write her own name by the time she was nine.

And she couldn't even master basic single-digit addition and subtraction.

Cui Ciyou recalled the plot of the original work.

Now, at least, she can count smoothly from one to ten.

She can also barely write her own name, albeit crookedly. That should count as quite a major improvement, right?

There's no need to rush these basics. It shouldn't be a problem.

As Cui Ciyou assessed Alice's learning situation, he thought this to himself without feeling overly anxious or tense.

Even if she truly never learns it, it probably doesn't matter much.

After all, she doesn't need to take any entrance examinations, and she is the daughter of a high-ranking noble.

At the same time, Teacher Edna, who was responsible for teaching Alice noble etiquette and history, had encountered similar difficulties.

Alice had always been fairly obedient in Teacher Edna's classes.

She would follow her teacher in learning how to curtsy, practice dance steps, and strive to memorize those lengthy and complicated family lineages and historical events of the kingdom, but the results were equally unsatisfactory.

Although she did not resist this gentle teacher, and her attitude toward learning was fairly earnest—

She simply could not remember all those complicated details of etiquette, nor could she learn the dance steps that seemed exceptionally difficult to her.

Cui Ciyou understood this deeply, because he was the unlucky dance partner.

He even suspected Alice was doing it on purpose—deliberately stepping on the tops of his feet.

Cui Ciyou was also quite puzzled. Alice clearly possessed such outstanding bodily coordination.

Why, then, did she appear so clumsy when learning a simple Waltz similar to Earth's ballroom dancing?

As for history class, with its lengthy names and tedious historical events—

Alice found it even more sleep-inducing, often forgetting everything the moment she turned her head away.

The only thing that could keep Alice intensely enthusiastic and focused—was Ghislaine's swordsmanship class.

In the field she loved, swordsmanship, she was like a fish returned to water, freely pouring out her sweat and talent.

Every day, she improved rapidly at a pace visible to the naked eye.

Faced with such an extreme situation, Cui Ciyou's knowledge from Earth began automatically searching and matching in his mind.

Cui Ciyou thought of Earth's theories about the Left Brain and Right Brain, as well as conditions such as Dyscalculia and Dyslexia.

Alice doesn't look like she has an intelligence problem. Her eyes are bright, and her reactions are sharp, especially in dynamic situations.

This is more like... a structural imbalance.

According to popular science material I had read before, different parts of the human brain had different roles.

The Left Brain, which governed logic, language, numbers, and analysis, was called the "Academic Brain";

While the Right Brain, which governed images, imagination, intuition, and Perception, was called the "Artistic Brain" or "Athletic Brain."

If this were a real world, Alice's condition would be a typical case of an exceptionally developed Right Brain and relatively weak Left Brain function.

She might even have rare conditions similar to Dyscalculia or Dyslexia.

Forcing her to use the Left Brain she isn't good at to process this information would be like making a right-handed person embroider with their left hand—twice the effort for half the result, with nothing but added suffering.

If that's the case... A flash of realization passed through Cui Ciyou's eyes.

Earth already has corresponding solutions. The core idea is—play to one's strengths and avoid one's weaknesses, letting the powerful Right Brain assist or even replace the Left Brain's work.

The most famous memory technique—the Memory Palace Method—turns boring information into vivid images and stores them in a virtual space.

Then perhaps my teaching strategy should be completely adjusted.

Use images, stories, even swordsmanship moves, in place of mere numbers and words. Let Alice use her greatest talents to overcome the obstacles she is worst at.

Though... I still think it truly doesn't matter whether the daughter of a high-ranking noble learns these things or not?

The moment this thought arose, a muffled sound of suppressed anger interrupted him.

Bang!

Alice had once again fallen into a logical loop over a simple arithmetic problem: "8 - 3."

In the end, the extreme rage she felt toward her own "stupidity" became unbearable, and she slammed her fist onto the solid oak table.

The table let out a groan as though it could no longer bear the strain, and the pebbles on top of it all jumped.

Seeing Alice in this state of utter rage, Cui Ciyou calmly announced that today's lesson would end early.

After Alice rushed from the classroom as though granted a pardon, heading straight for the training grounds—

Cui Ciyou tidied the table, then summoned Ghislaine and Teacher Edna.

He decided to hold the first "tutor meeting" among the three of them.