“First of all, since we're talking about currency, let's start with something simple...”

Douglas didn't linger on the sight for too long, glancing around the spacious hall before continuing.

“In the wizarding world, there is only one currency system, although their names may vary slightly from country to country, the denominations and exchange rates are completely consistent. In Britain, we usually refer to them as Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts—um, you can all feel under your chairs now...”

Looking at the people who were simultaneously bending down to search, a sly glint flashed in Douglas's eyes, and he quickly said.

“Of course, there's nothing there. But don't worry, after this presentation, everyone will receive a pouch containing the salary Hogwarts has advanced to you, in the form of magical currency. Now you only need to familiarize yourself and memorize the exchange rules: 29 Knuts equal 1 Sickle, 17 Sickles equal 1 Galleon, which means 493 Knuts equal 1 Galleon. Isn't that simple and easy to remember?”

Following the middle-aged goblin's rapid-fire introduction, there was an extremely rare moment of silence.

A strange expression, resembling constipation, appeared on the faces of some people, as if they wanted to complain about something, but didn't know where to start. On the other hand, a very small number of scholars were first stunned, and then fell into contemplation.

“Don't you, um, I mean, doesn't the magical world find this a bit...um, inconvenient?”

To Vinogradov's left, a slightly younger middle-aged man raised an eyebrow.

“What I mean is, at least you could consider making the exchange between Knuts and Sickles consistent...”

These days, Jomochka had heard his teacher complain a lot about the huge gap in the mathematical field of the magical world. If it hadn't been for Alexei's daughter happening to enroll, he would have almost become the one to enlighten young children in mathematics.

He found it hard to imagine that a group of wizards who weren't proficient in even the four arithmetic operations and equations would use such currency rules.

“Sorry, I don't think there's anything wrong with this. This system has been in use for thousands of years.”

Douglas politely bowed slightly, grinned, and said softly.

“Even if we were to adjust it later, we could only adjust it starting with the Sickle, because when the magical world first established this currency system, they had already decided on one thing: as long as it's still a Knut, it must be 29.”

“Why? Because of your mysterious magical reasons?”

Jomochka shook his head, half-laughing, and asked bluntly.

Although he didn't know what kind of deal the mastermind behind this middle-aged goblin had reached with his teacher, he could feel an atmosphere that wasn't so harmonious, just from that nonsensical conversation and the subtle details of these days.

If it involved magical things, he really didn't understand.

But if the other party actively opened the "secret exchange field" to the numerical aspect, then Jomochka didn't think he would be worse than these short goblins. The more they talked, the more information they could obtain about the magical world.

“Not magic, Jomo.”

However, before Douglas could speak, a leisurely voice suddenly came to Jomochka's ear.

“Because...copper is 29—2-8-18-1, such a wonderful number.”

Arhipovna from the Landau Institute gently patted the "junior" on the shoulder and said with a complex tone.

If Jomochka, as a pure mathematician, was not so sensitive to the numbers and words in the goblin's mouth, then if researchers in either physics or chemistry didn't react to what the other party was talking about after hearing the other party repeatedly emphasizing the numbers twice, as well as the firm words in the sentence, it would be too embarrassing.

“You just said that this currency system has been in use in your magical world for nearly a thousand years?”

Arhipovna turned her head and took a deep look at the middle-aged goblin, "Then why isn't the Sickle 47, but 17 Sickles equal 1 Galleon? Shouldn't that be more in line with the conversion rules between this set of currencies?"

“Reason one, because Galleons and Sickles are not real gold and silver in the true sense. Reason two...”

The smile on Douglas's lips gradually widened, and he gently swiped his slender fingers in front of him.

Immediately afterward, dozens of shiny coins collided with each other, jumping out of his pocket one after another, and floating shakily in front of everyone, with a row of silver Sickles right in the front.

“As this gentleman reminded us, in order to make subsequent calculations slightly more convenient—”

…

“Let’s assume there are sixteen Sickles here, and assume you have one Sickle in your hand...”

At the same time, in Hogwarts Castle, in the mathematics classroom.

Alexei stood by the podium, looking at the red-haired boy in front of him with a kind expression, and patiently guiding him.

“And if I give them all to you, then Mr. Weasley, you will eventually get...”

“O-One Galleon?”

Ron Weasley hesitated for a moment, answering cautiously.

“Well, that’s indeed a good answer, if you’re more used to thinking that way.”

Alexei glanced around at the faces in the classroom, thoughtfully and slowly said.

“Then I’ll slightly change the question just now. Suppose there are only ten Sickles here now, and you have seven Sickles in your hand, then combined...is it still one Galleon?”

Ron nodded nervously, feeling a little more confident in his heart.

If it was just ordinary questions and answers, he might be a little better, but the key is that all the words related to numbers in the above dialogues all used the French numerical expressions they had just learned.

In fact, strictly speaking, their first class was only halfway through.

Alexei even suspected that perhaps by the end of this semester, the young wizards in this class would be able to complete some basic daily pure French communication stutteringly, and do some simple pure French reading.

However, compared to Alexei's surprise, Elena, as the course arranger, didn't have much of an accident.

Unlike Russian, which belongs to the Slavic language family, modern English, although it belongs to the Germanic language family, has incorporated too many words and writing methods of the Romance language family where French is located in the process of development, so it is not too difficult to learn.

Especially when this "foreign language class" appears in the magical world, it is even simpler.

You know, the Romance language family originally evolved from "Vulgar Latin", and most of the spells in the magical world today are either based on "Latin" or "Old Futhark", which is naturally much easier for Elena and others who have been studying at Hogwarts for more than a year than for those children from the non-magical world.

Meanwhile, the conversation was almost at the end near the podium not far away.

Alexei picked up a stack of "teaching props" provided by Elena and placed them in Ron's hand one by one.

"Very good, but now you actually have seventeen (seventeen) silver coins, not one gold coin, so what should your answer be if you use French to describe it?"

"Ten plus seven (dix-sept) Sickles." Ron swallowed, and subconsciously answered.

"Absolutely correct, isn't that very simple? By analogy, according to the actual situation in the magical world, if you want to tell someone that the price of a commodity is eighteen Sickles, then you have more than one way to express it, right?"

Alexei nodded with satisfaction, turned around, and began to write quickly on the blackboard behind him.

"Ten plus eight (dix-huit) Sickles, or, one (un) Galleon one (un) Sickle."

Since learning about the currency system of the magical world from Elena Kaslana, and confirming the thoughts in his mind in class, Alexei decided to respect the "young lady"'s suggestion and slightly change the teaching method.

After all, the main purpose of this class is to train mathematical ability and mathematical thinking, not a real French class.

Therefore, if there is a "arithmetic hexadecimal expression" method in the magical world that is more suitable for students to understand, then Alexei is naturally willing to actively try it, especially with the research work in these years, he has begun to realize that most of the current languages and traditional expression methods are not so easy to use in some aspects that are more concerned with numerical density.

It has to be admitted that compared to children in the non-magical world, young wizards' reaction speed to numbers, and their ability to learn and imitate new languages, far exceeded Alexei's expectations. This may be the so-called problem of talent starting point.

On the other hand, there are also some subtle differences between children from wizarding families and children from non-wizarding families.

When facing abstract numerical operations, those children from wizarding families are indeed much more confused than children from non-magical families, but when this thing is linked to the currency in their daily life, they show another kind of talent that surprises him extremely, an incomprehensible arithmetic sensitivity to some strange hexadecimal calculations.

And this also means that there may really be the so-called potential to change the world in their bodies that Elena said.

Of course, before that...

Alexei picked up the chalk, and while speaking, quickly wrote on the blackboard.

"Now, let's use the readings we just learned to correspond to 0-9 in turn, as well as the characters α, β, γ, δ, e, ζ, η, and express them together. So if it is 31 Sickles, then the corresponding is 1e..."

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Chapter Two! Oh my god!! Oh my god!!!