I loaded the Mysticism panel.

"Are you good with your slingshot?" Richard asked a question that had nothing to do with Latin.

Tom paused for a moment.

The opening remarks of the first three tutors upon entering the room were all the same:

"Come on, let me check your Latin level first," or "Turn to page X of your textbook."

"...It's alright." He was somewhat wary.

"What have you fought?"

"Squirrels, sparrows, the cat from the neighbor's yard... That cat deserves to be punished; it stole our fish."

"Did you hit it?"

"I missed the squirrel, but I hit a sparrow." He puffed out his chest. "I hit the cat twice."

"What part of the cat did you hit?"

"Butt," Tom grinned happily. "It jumped so high."

He gestured with his hand to indicate the height.

Charlotte's brows furrowed, clearly not understanding why the new tutor was talking about slingshots.

There were light footsteps outside the door; Mrs. Dawn was probably listening in the hallway but didn't come in.

Richard picked up a piece of gingerbread from the coffee table and tossed it in his palm twice.

Do you know why a slingshot can launch stones?

"It's made of elastic bands."

"Yes, the longer the rubber band is stretched, the greater the elasticity when it is loosened, and the farther the pebble will fly."

But have you noticed that your fingers get the most tired when you stretch it to its longest length?

"yes."

"The same principle applies to Latin declension."

Tom's expression changed from relaxed to confused.

"The change in the ending of a noun is like a rubber band."

You take a word root and change its endings; each ending is like pulling a slingshot at a different angle.

The direction in which the shot is fired determines the prey hit.

He placed the gingerbread in his hand on the coffee table and drew a "Y" shape on the surface of the gingerbread with his finger.

"The first variation, the second variation, the third variation... you can think of them as the three ways to pull a slingshot."

The first method is for close-range targets, the second for long-range targets, and the third method uses the most tricky angles, specifically targeting things hidden behind tree branches.

Tom tilted his head and looked at the gingerbread on the coffee table.

"You mean, each variation is a...playstyle?"

"Almost." Richard broke the gingerbread in half, giving one half to Tom and keeping the other half.

"For example, if you want to shoot a sparrow at the top of a tree, you wouldn't use the kind of straight shot you use to hit a cat's butt, would you?"

"Of course not, that would require tilting the camera upwards."

"Okay, 'upturn' in Latin is equivalent to the dative or ablative case, telling the other words in the sentence: 'Attention, I'm about to change direction.'"

He picked up the sugar tongs from the coffee table and set them up on a tripod.

"The sparrow on the treetop is the nominative case; it is the subject, and it determines what the whole sentence does."

The stone is in the accusative case; it is launched by the slingshot. The slingshot rubber band is the verb; it connects the nominative and accusative cases.

Tom stared at the triangle made of sugar tongs on the coffee table, forgetting to eat the gingerbread in his hand.

"Nominative case, direct shot; accusative case, horizontal shot; dative case, upward angle; accusative case..."

He thought for a moment: "What angle is 'extraordinary'?"

"Duoge" means that when you stop firing, you put the slingshot away.

It means "to leave from somewhere" or "by some means."

"So, 'duoge' means 'to retract the slingshot'."

"almost."

Tom stuffed the slingshot into his pocket and sat back down in his chair.

He pulled a book out from behind the chair.

That was his Latin textbook, with several corners folded and the cover covered in doodles.

"Okay, which page should you turn to now?" Richard glanced at the publication information on the spine of the book.

"Page 12, list of first declension nouns." Tom turned to that page on his own.

This is something my previous tutors made me memorize countless times, and every time I would start to lose focus after the second line.

But today, he suddenly found this form quite interesting.

Next to each word's ending, images of a slingshot being pulled back at different angles automatically appeared in his mind.

-a means direct fire, -am means horizontal fire, -ae means elevation angle, and -ā means retracting the slingshot.

Richard didn't rush him, but took small sips of his tea.

After a while, Tom closed the book.

"rosa, rosam, rosae, rosā, rosa."

Five word endings, no pauses.

Charlotte's teacup hovered at her lips for a long while before she put it down.

She glanced at her brother, then at Richard.

"...Those are the five suffixes of the first declension." Her mouth gaped open in surprise.

"Yes." Tom shook his textbook. "The slingshot method is easy to remember."

In the hallway outside, a middle-aged woman in home clothes walked over from around the corner.

Mrs. Dawn's features were similar to Charlotte's, but she was a size rounder, with a soft layer of flesh covering her chin.

She had clearly been listening outside the door; the sound of her footsteps gave her away.

"Mrs. Dawn." Richard stood up and bowed.

"Please have a seat." Mrs. Dawn walked into the small living room and sat down in a chair near the door.

Her gaze first fell on her son, and she was also somewhat surprised to see that Tom had put his slingshot back in his pocket and his textbooks were spread out on his lap.

"Mr. Williams, I've overheard some of what you just taught me outside."

"Sorry, the slingshot analogy might be a bit... crude."

"Rough? That's just the cleverness of young people!" Mrs. Dawn chuckled.

"The previous teacher made Tom unable to even memorize the genitive form of Rosa properly."

Tom chimed in from the side, "That's because the previous teacher wouldn't let me play with a slingshot."

"Your last teacher didn't use a slingshot to teach you either," Charlotte chimed in.

She looked at Richard, as if she had put a temporary checkmark on her mental form.

"Mr. Williams, I'd like to confirm your schedule."

"One hour each Saturday and Sunday, either in the morning or afternoon."

"It's better in the morning; Tom can't sit still in the afternoon."

Charlotte flipped to a page in her small notebook, which already contained a list of items.

"As for the tuition fee, the reference standard given by the Northern District Office of the Classical Society is two shillings per lesson."

Two shillings per hour, two hours per week, that's about sixteen shillings per month.

That's quite a lot. The main thing is that this part-time job doesn't take up too much time, and he doesn't need to prepare lessons in advance to tutor this child.

He was about to nod when Mrs. Dawn spoke first.

"Charlotte, I don't think two shillings is appropriate."

Charlotte turned and glanced at her mother.

Mrs. Dawn's gaze fell on Tom, who was still squatting on the chair flipping through his textbook:

"We also paid that Royal College graduate two shillings an hour, but Tom drove him away in just two days."

The grammar school teacher, with eight years of teaching experience, was paid two shillings and sixpence and left in six weeks.

The retired public school teacher, we added three shillings to his account, but it didn't last more than two months.

She counted on her fingers: "The cost of the lessons and the wasted effort for the three of them is not to mention the time wasted. Tom's entrance exam won't wait for anyone."

Mrs. Dawn turned to Richard, her gaze becoming serious:

"Mr. Williams, today you taught Tom in five minutes something he couldn't memorize even after three months of memorization."

If you can really keep teaching him and raise his Latin level to the entrance exam threshold…”

She glanced at Charlotte.

Charlotte's expression remained unchanged, but she did not object.

"Three shillings an hour," Mrs. Dawn decided. "Today's trial lesson will also count as a regular lesson; we'll settle the accounts later."

She took out a small ledger from her skirt pocket, opened it, and made two entries.

"In addition, if Tom's Latin grades at school improve significantly over the next six months..."

We will give an additional bonus; the exact amount will be determined based on the results later.

"In addition, we will arrange lunch for each class. You can eat here before leaving. Transportation to and from class is also included..."

She thought for a moment: "How far is Highfield Road from where you live?"

"About a 30-minute walk."

"Then I'll have the coachman take you there. He'll pick you up before class and take you back after lunch."

Richard quickly did some mental calculations.

Dawn's family would provide lunch for each class, saving me two meals, and the pick-up and drop-off service also saved me a lot of time.

The total monthly income is around two and a half pounds, not including the promised bonus.

"Can we start next Saturday?"

"certainly."

Charlotte stood up from her chair and looked in her brother's direction.

"Tom, what should we say to Mr. Williams?"

"Goodbye, teacher." Tom said politely, but his hand had already pulled out his slingshot.

He raised his slingshot, aimed it at the window, and muttered, "Shoot...direct fire..."

Mrs. Dawn's face twitched, but she didn't scold him as usual.

The first time my son recited the declension table in front of his tutor, even though his posture wasn't very elegant, it was still a million times better than just spacing out.

Mrs. Dawn sent her maid to fetch three shillings, the exact amount for today's one-hour trial lesson.

Three gleaming silver shillings were handed over in a small envelope, on which Mrs. Dawn neatly wrote the words "Mr. Williams' tuition fee" on neatly.

This way of doing things improved Richard's impression of the Dawn family even more.

They don't treat tutors with the condescending attitude of giving alms to beggars; they pay promptly, keep clear accounts, and treat tutors like professionals.

Charlotte paused on the steps of the foyer when she saw him to the door.

Mr. Williams.

"Please speak."

Her hand rested on the door frame:

"The teachers who had previously noticed my brother's problem had also noticed it."

He's not stupid; you could even say he's very smart, but he can't seem to focus his attention on knowledge.