Traveling through the second dimension, the joy system encourages me to laugh heartily!

The study was filled with the faint scent of parchment, ink, and wood. Outside the window was the distinctive Chariah skyline, composed of towering magic towers and traditional brick buildings, and the afterglow of the setting sun painted the sky a warm orange-red.

The time here is the evening after he spent his first "day off" specially arranged by him with his red-haired disciple, Alice.

His thoughts raced, and the images of several female protagonists from the original novel flashed through his mind:

The green-haired Hilfiet, a girl with half-elf blood, gentle yet resilient, has been adopted and placed in his home. However, she is still young, only five and a half years old, and is a little girl who needs to be cared for.

The blue-haired Lokishi Migrudia, the demon senior who has achieved remarkable success in magic but is somewhat naive, has already married him and become his wife.

In addition, there are Linia and Prusena, those two princesses from the beast race, who have already been won over by Chen Ming.

Meanwhile, the red-haired Alice is about seven and a half years old, and there is still time before the tragedy in the original story that changes her fate. Chen Ming has been systematically teaching her magic for a year as a tutor, not only trying to improve her strength, but also subtly guiding her character.

……

The next day, when Chen Ming saw Alice again in the study of the Boreas family, he could clearly feel that her mood was at its peak, as if she was surrounded by visible bubbles of joy.

The reason is simple: yesterday, for the first time, Chen Ming put aside his heavy schoolwork and rigorous training, and took her to play in the city of Sharia all day long!

From the bustling market to the tower overlooking the entire city, and even seeing a rather novel magical play, this was an unprecedented experience for Alice, whose daily life was filled with various classes and aristocratic etiquette.

Indeed, learning requires a balance between work and rest. It seems that arranging such holidays for her regularly is the right thing to do—Chen Ming thought to himself as he looked at the energetic red-haired girl in front of him.

"You have to take me out to play again! Where should we go next time? I'm already looking forward to it!"

These were the words Alice blurted out as she skipped over to Chen Ming upon seeing him. Her ruby-like eyes sparkled, filled with pure joy and anticipation.

After saying that, she seemed to feel that such a direct expression of excitement was not "mature" enough. She immediately crossed her arms and tried to puff out her still flat chest. She stood up with a swagger, trying to strike her usual slightly arrogant pose and regain some of the "majesty" of the eldest daughter of the Boreas family.

However, Chen Ming keenly noticed that beneath her slightly raised chin and feigned arrogant expression, two blushes, like those of the evening glow, uncontrollably rose on her cheeks.

What exactly is the cause of this blush?

That's so hard to guess!

This is the violent Alice, how could she possibly be shy?

The tsundere attitude has become obsolete!

Just as Chen Ming was internally complaining.

Alice completely misunderstood his brief silence, thinking he was unwilling, and she couldn't help but feel anxious.

Suddenly, she gritted her teeth, raised her hands, and quickly grabbed her long, fiery hair, deftly gathering it upwards and tying it into two lively ponytails on either side of her head.

Then, before Chen Ming could react, she suddenly twisted her waist forcefully, causing her body to form a slightly awkward but still curvaceous S-shape. At the same time, she forced out what she thought was her most "cutest" and "sexiest" expression, and said in a trembling voice, as if she were going all out, in an attempt to be cute:

"Please...please come play with me...meow~"

The girl used the "Boreas Family Female-Only Request Method (Imitating a Beast-Eared Girl)" that her grandfather had taught her.

The effect is outstanding!

"Okay! I'll take you! I really will! So stop! Don't do that!"

Chen Ming blurted out almost reflexively, raising his hand to stop her from continuing.

That action is indeed cute, but it's extremely harmful to the heart.

He always felt that if he made Alice, who was now at this age, do such a thing, he would feel a strange sense of guilt.

After all, she is too young, and some of her ideas can only be implemented when she is older.

"Hmph! Good that you understand!"

Upon hearing Chen Ming's prompt agreement, Alice immediately snorted triumphantly, as if she had won a battle. She quickly lowered her hands, which had been posing, and let her long, bright red hair cascade down like a waterfall.

Before her long hair had even completely fallen down, she had already plopped back down in her seat.

"Alright! Master Mugen, let's continue the lesson!"

"Looks like you're really motivated today."

Chen Ming found her feigned composure somewhat amusing and echoed her words.

"Hmph, of course!"

Alice raised her chin, revealing a shrewd expression that said, "I've seen through everything." "Because if I'm disobedient and don't study properly, you'll definitely use that as an excuse not to take me out to play next time, right?"

Oh?

Chen Ming raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised.

This young lady, who has always been used to solving problems with a straight punch and is not good at thinking indirectly, has suddenly become smart?

They even know how to analyze the pros and cons and use positive performance to earn rewards?

He nodded approvingly and admitted, "Indeed, you are very clever, Alice. So, as long as you behave well and complete your lessons diligently, I will keep my promise and take you out again to explore more interesting places."

Driven by the reward of "playing," Alice indeed suppressed all her temper and began to listen attentively to the lesson.

……

Time flies, and two and a half years have quietly passed.

During this period, Alice's education went very smoothly, and she made great progress in all aspects.

She seems to have a good talent for swordsmanship.

At only ten years old, Alice has already successfully advanced to the "intermediate" level swordsman under the guidance of Kyrie Il's system.

In this second world, the term "intermediate swordsman" means that one's strength is sufficient to rival that of a well-trained and experienced knight of average skill.

If we were to measure her strength in World One, she would be more than capable of defeating a powerful figure like the Grand Master of the Kingdom Knights!

According to Kyrie's prediction, given Alice's demonstrated swordsmanship talent, she should be able to successfully break through to the "superior" swordsman level within the next few years.

This makes him a swordsmanship genius who is extremely rare, even in the entire Kingdom of Asura and beyond!

In terms of academic subjects, especially reading and writing skills, Alice has finally made some visible progress and escaped illiteracy.

This was largely thanks to Gilead's assistance; during breaks in daily lessons, Gilead would tell Alice stories of his adventures across the continent in his youth.

But throughout these fascinating stories, Gilead repeatedly emphasizes and instills a core concept: in this complex world, if you are illiterate and cannot understand contracts and documents, you will find it almost impossible to get by. You will be deceived and exploited by countless cunning villains, forced to sign indentures, and may even end up as a slave who loses his freedom and lives a miserable life!

These bloody lessons from the past deeply stimulated Alice's sense of crisis, and it's no wonder that she gritted her teeth and desperately tried to overcome difficulties and learn those words that had once given her a headache.

Chapter 287: The Hedgehog Cat

However, Alice's progress in arithmetic was unusually slow—that's just how math is, if you don't know it, you just don't know it!

However, Chen Ming was not in a hurry about this.

Based on his understanding of this world, he realized that advanced mathematical knowledge wasn't necessary for everyday life. Whether managing territory, conducting business, or pursuing an adventurer's career, being proficient in basic arithmetic operations to handle daily accounts and calculations should be sufficient.

Alice's progress in magic courses has been relatively smooth, but she has inevitably encountered a significant bottleneck.

Alice has become proficient in using basic spells of various elements that rely on chanting incantations, such as fireball, water bullet, wind blade, and healing spells, through diligent practice.

However, intermediate magic remained out of reach, as if separated by an invisible barrier.

In comparison, Gilead's magical talent was much worse.

Alice has at least mastered the basic magic of all elements except earth.

The powerful sword king Kyrie Irgen, despite receiving the same training, only learned basic fire magic.

This shows that learning magic still largely depends on talent!

Chen Ming didn't have a way to improve Alice's magical talent at the moment, so he didn't push her too hard on the bottleneck she was encountering in magic. Maintaining the status quo, letting her continue to solidify her foundation in basic magic, while focusing more on her exceptionally talented swordsmanship, was a wiser choice.

After all, the essence of education lies in teaching according to aptitude.

Besides Alice's education going quite smoothly, her tenth birthday is also fast approaching.

In this world, especially among the aristocracy, a tenth birthday is given a special symbolic meaning—it marks a child's formal departure from their innocent infancy and the beginning of their growth stage.

Nobles have a long-standing tradition of holding grand banquets to celebrate the three key ages of their offspring: five, ten, and fifteen, in order to demonstrate to the outside world the prosperity of the family and the existence of a worthy successor.

The Boreas family had already begun preparations for Alice's tenth birthday.

As planned, on the birthday, the most magnificent main hall in the mansion, as well as the spacious atrium connecting to the main hall, will be open to the public to receive guests.

At that time, not only will they receive congratulatory gifts from all over the territory, but they will also send out invitations to many nobles in the town and neighboring areas to attend the banquet.

It's worth mentioning that the initial banquet plan was devised by Alice's grandfather, Sholos. This old lord, known for his martial prowess, proposed a very unrestrained buffet style of eating and drinking, based on the principle of ensuring everyone eats and drinks well and enjoys themselves to the fullest. He envisioned a noisy gathering filled with large chunks of meat and large bowls of wine.

Later, it was Alice's father, Philip, who placed greater emphasis on social etiquette and political influence, who raised objections. He believed that such an important social occasion should conform more to the conventions of the aristocratic circle, facilitating more respectable exchanges with the attached middle-ranking nobles, and ultimately changed the banquet into a ball.

……

That day, it was time for Chen Ming to come and give his lecture as usual.

As usual, he instantly teleported above the Boreas family mansion. Before he even landed, he was drawn to the bustling scene inside and outside the mansion.

Servants hurried about like worker ants, carefully hanging up decorative ribbons, flowers, and family banners, rearranging and polishing tables and chairs, and gleaming silver cutlery in the sunlight... The entire mansion was immersed in an atmosphere of excitement and tension in preparation for a grand event.

As you can see, a young maid with fluffy dog ​​ears is running down the corridor, carrying a large stack of brand-new tablecloths. Her ears, which are trembling slightly with urgency, are particularly noticeable.

Generally speaking, in the mansions of noble families who valued etiquette, maids were strictly forbidden from running in the corridors.

But the Boreas family seems to be an exception, showing exceptional tolerance and pampering towards these adorable beast-eared maids.

Just as Chen Ming was looking down at the bustling scene with great interest, a sudden commotion caught his attention.

"That's enough—!"

A sharp, impatient shout from a young girl suddenly rang out.

Immediately afterwards, the door to the room used for "etiquette lessons" was violently pushed open from the inside with a loud bang. Then Alice burst out like a small, lit cannonball!

Her signature fiery red hair seemed to sway slightly with anger, and her clenched fists and tense muscles exuded a strong aura that said "keep away."

The girl dashed across the ornately carpeted corridor like a whirlwind, her skirt billowing, her steps swift. Finally, with a nimble dodge at the corner of the corridor, she vanished completely.

Almost at the same moment she disappeared, someone chased after her from the ceremonial room.

That was a well-dressed woman with a dignified demeanor; she was Edna, the teacher in charge of instructing Alice in aristocratic etiquette.

"Young Miss...! Please wait!"

Edna called out anxiously, lifting her skirt and running quickly into the corridor. She looked around, but Alice's agile figure was nowhere to be found.

She searched in vain for a while, and finally had no choice but to stop in despair. As if all her strength had been drained, she leaned against the pillar in the corridor and sighed in frustration.

"Ugh……"

Just as she was sighing, Edna seemed to sense something and subconsciously looked up, just in time to see Chen Ming, who was suspended in mid-air, taking in everything.

Edna was taken aback at first, then a complex expression appeared on her face, a mixture of embarrassment, exhaustion, and the feeling of seeing a "savior".

"Oh my, it's Lord Infinity..."

Her voice was tinged with helplessness, and her expression seemed to be silently telling me—you've come at the perfect time, please, please let me pour out my troubles!

This was the first time Chen Ming had ever seen Edna, who was known for her professionalism and composure, show such a near-"collapsed" expression, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

He landed in the corridor in front of Edna and greeted her with a smile, "Looks like you've had a long day."

Edna, as was her habit, straightened her back and gave a standard greeting with elegance, but the worry between her brows was still hard to shake off: "I'm so sorry to have made you see such an...unseemly scene."

"It's alright," Chen Ming waved his hand and asked, "What just happened?"

“Well… as you can see,” Edna said, rubbing her temples with her fingertips, looking troubled. “The young lady has run away again.”

She paused, organizing her thoughts before continuing:

"It's a bit embarrassing to admit... Actually, I'm currently teaching the young lady the social dance she needs to perform at her birthday ball. But no matter how I teach her, she's not learning it very well... So these past few days, whenever we start practicing, she immediately runs away like today, hiding in some hard-to-find spot in the mansion, and only shows up after practice time is over."

"Oh dear, that must be really tough." Upon hearing this, Chen Ming immediately nodded in empathy, his tone filled with genuine concern: "I can totally understand how you feel."

His words were by no means polite.

Looking back, when I first started teaching Alice academic subjects, similar scenes played out almost every day. Back then, Alice would get a headache just looking at words and would try every possible way to avoid studying, including hiding and running away.

Later, it was only through Gilead's use of those thrilling adventure stories as bait, subtly emphasizing the importance of cultural knowledge within the stories, that the hot-tempered young lady was finally managed to settle down at her desk.

In contrast, Edna's situation was much more difficult at the moment—after all, given her physical abilities and strength as an etiquette teacher, it was almost an impossible task for her to capture and forcibly bring back the increasingly agile Alice.

“Lord Philip’s requirements for this ball are actually not too high,” Edna continued, her brow furrowed as she recounted her stress. “He only asked that the young lady be trained to the point where she wouldn’t embarrass herself at the ball, just like a typical ten-year-old noble child.”

However, judging from the current teaching progress and the young lady's level of cooperation, it seems difficult to even meet this minimum requirement...

With less than a month left until the birthday banquet, if things continue like this, the young lady, who has no dance background, will likely embarrass herself in front of all the guests. That would be a significant blow to the reputation of the Boreas family and to the young lady's own confidence.