Richard, sitting at the table, glanced at Pandora and with a flicker in his eyes, spoke up, "Pandora?"
"Ah?" Pandora snapped back to reality, looking over as if startled awake from a dream.
"The Multiplication Table I taught you, how much do you remember?"
"That..." Pandora’s eyes gradually widened, and after a long time, she spoke with evident unease, "Pretty much, yeah, pretty much."
"Pretty much? Okay then, recite it for me."
"Ah!" Pandora’s eyes grew even larger, "Right now?"
Under Richard’s watchful gaze, Pandora began to speak unwillingly, stammering through her recitation.
"One times one is one."
The one-character table passed smoothly.
"One times two is two, two times two is four."
The two-character table passed smoothly.
"One times three is three... four times four is sixteen."
Afterwards, the three-character and four-character tables also passed, and then came the five-character table.
"One times five is five, two times five is ten." Pandora continued to recite, the first two phrases quite fluent, but in the next second, she suddenly got stuck.
"Three times five, three times five, three times five..." Pandora repeated the words "three times five" over and over, her gaze utterly blank, as if searching for an answer smaller than a leaf upon the vast ocean.
After a long while, Richard couldn’t help asking, "How much is three times five?"
"Three times five, three times five, three times five..."
"Huh." Richard exhaled, encouragingly saying, "Think hard, three times five—"
Encouraged by Richard, Pandora’s confidence was bolstered, her eyes gleamed, and in the next moment, they shone brightly, as if she had suddenly found that minute answer in the vast sea.
"Three times five is thirty-five!" Pandora exclaimed.
"Three times five is thirty-five!" Pandora’s voice grew louder, filled with confidence.
Richard stood up and walked ’tap tap tap’ over to Pandora, raising his hand and lightly tapping her on the head.
Pandora cried out, holding her head—not in pain, but rather in puzzlement, "Why? I got it right, so why hit me?"
"You’d be mistaken to think you got it right." Richard seriously corrected her, "Three times five is fifteen! It’s five times seven that is thirty-five!"
"Oh, is that so." Pandora lowered her head, her confidence rapidly deflating.
"Start over and recite it again." Richard spoke very sternly.
"Okay." Pandora pouted and began again.
"One times one is one."
"One times two is two, two times two is four..."
"One times three is three, two times three is six..."
"One times four is four, two times four is eight..."
She quickly reached the five-character table again.
"One times five is five, two times five is ten, three times five—three times five—" Her smooth voice halted slightly, then began to repeat.
A familiar formula, a familiar taste.
"Three times five, three times five, three times five..." Pandora muttered repeatedly, looking up at Richard somewhat sheepishly, meeting his gaze.
"Three times five..." Pandora said.
"Three times five?" Richard asked.
"Three times five..." Pandora repeated.
"Three times five?" Richard asked again.
"Three times five..." Pandora furrowed her brows, "Three times five... I don’t know!"
"Three-five, three-five, three-five..." Pandora thought hard for quite some time, then hesitantly asked, "Three-five... twenty?"
Taking a deep breath, he asked with a stern face, "If three-five is twenty, then what about four-five?"
"Four-five... umm, twenty-five?" Pandora ventured again.
"And what about five-five?" Richard rubbed his forehead. "Don’t tell me it’s thirty."
"That... is it thirty-five?" Pandora’s confidence was seriously waning.
Richard’s hand once again lightly tapped on Pandora’s head.
"Five times seven is thirty-five! If five-five is also thirty-five, then are you saying that five-five is the same as five-seven, five is equal to seven?"
"So five is equal to seven!" Pandora "suddenly realized."
"Of course five isn’t equal to seven!" Richard said.
Pandora shrank her neck back, "Then you should have said so earlier, I thought five was equal to seven..."
Richard took another deep breath, not wanting to continue this topic with Pandora, and said seriously, "Remember well, one-five is five, two-five is ten, three-five is fifteen, four-five is twenty, five-five is twenty-five! Now you recite it."
"Just reciting," said Pandora, beginning to recite quickly, "One times one is one..."
"No need to start from the beginning, start directly from the Five-character table," Richard interrupted.
"Oh." Pandora vocalized, tilted her head in thought for a good while, then said, "One-five is five, two-five is ten."
"Right, and three-five?"
"Three-five—three-five, three-five... three-five!" Pandora got stuck, her large eyes rapidly spinning in their sockets.
Richard was about to say something when suddenly there was a knock on the door.
"Hm?" Richard was surprised, wondering who would be knocking on the door, since he had not heard any footsteps approaching before the knocking.
Pandora heard the knock and felt like she had been pardoned, as she was having trouble reciting "three-five", and quickly said, "I’ll go open the door."
With that, not allowing Richard any chance to refuse, she dashed towards the door and swung it open the next moment. However, after looking left, right, up, down, she saw not even a Shadow, let alone a person. It was as if the knocking had been just an illusion.
"Strange, there was clearly someone knocking, how can there be no one?" Pandora closed the door again, scratching her head and walked back full of confusion.
Richard waved his hand, "Never mind whether there was someone or not, you recite the Multiplication Table first, from the Five-character table."
"Again?" Pandora made a face.
"Fine." Pandora reluctantly spoke, "One-five is five, two-five is ten, three-five—three-five—three-five—"
Then came the familiar knock on the door.
"I’ll go check again." Pandora’s expression changed, and she rushed energetically toward the door, swinging it open again with a "creak". But after a thorough search, she still couldn’t find the person who had knocked.
With a "creak", she closed the door again, and Pandora walked back, sitting on the bed, and looked at Richard, asking tentatively, "Do I still have to recite?"
"Of course you have to recite," said Richard. "At least you need to recite the whole Five-character table, it’s been five days already, one table per day, you should be on the Five-character table by now."
"Okay," Pandora hung her head and began to mutter softly, "One-five—equals five! Two-five—ten! Three-five—"
The life-saving knock arrived on schedule.
Pandora instantly got ready to jump out of bed to open the door but was pressed back onto the bed with a "bang" by Richard who was empowered by Wind Force and the Wind Lord.
Pandora looked up at Richard, uttered, "Huh?"
"Never mind the knocking, recite the whole Five-character table first," Richard said.
"But..." Pandora pouted and rolled her eyes, then spoke out righteously, "But the knocking is distracting me! Yes, it’s the knocking that’s distracting me, and besides, three-five is so hard, that’s why... I can’t recite it."
As if on cue with Pandora’s words, the knocking sounded for the fourth time.