There is a three-story building in the northeast corner of the central city. The roof is very delicately decorated with green tiles and white windows. The wooden fence downstairs forms a very spacious yard. Above the gate, there is a sign standing slantingly.
On the left side of the yard, a farmland is cultivated, which is full of seasonal vegetables. The side walls of the house are covered with withered and yellow vines. Through the gaps between the vines, colorful and crooked graffiti can be seen, which are from the tender handwriting of children.
In the center of the courtyard stood a horned tree that was over 40 years old, and its luxuriant branches covered half of the courtyard and the roof. There are several rectangular tables under the tree that can accommodate twenty people, covered with mottled traces of rain and wind.
Roy stopped under the hornbeam to observe for a moment, touched the rough bark with his hands, and his face was moved. This tree has grown for at least a hundred years, and there are some strange symbols engraved on the trunk. I don't know which naughty student carved it.
Roy gently pushed open the wooden door on the first floor of the house. Through the crack of the door, a warm female voice came to his ears. In his field of vision, a group of children sat upright, as well as a man who was writing and drawing with a charcoal pen on a small blackboard. A thin middle-aged woman.
"Our homeland, Aden, lies to the east of the Mahakam Mountains, bordered by Temeria, to the south by Leiria and Livia, and to the north by Kaldwin. Its eastern border is formed by the Blue Mountains... "
"The current king of Aedirn is Demarvi III, the son of Villeferriel. The coat of arms is a gold-red arrow pattern on a black background. The capital, Vangerborg, is located in..."
"Adian has been a hot spot for peasant revolutions since ancient times. In order to change the harsh and cruel high taxes, the revolutionary army launched a fierce struggle with the nobles and high-level officials of the kingdom..."
Roy couldn't help frowning when he overheard this, always feeling weird.
"Mr. Cadell! Someone is eavesdropping at the door!"
A blond boy sitting in the back row of the classroom, with a big head and a small body, suddenly raised his little black hand to interrupt the woman's speech. Suddenly, more than 60 pairs of curious and bright eyes stared at each other in unison. The person at the door.
This group of children is about half and half male and half, the younger is only five or six years old, and the older one is fourteen or fifteen years old. In the last row of the classroom, there is still a person who exceeds the specifications. She can't hide the surprise when she sees the eyebrows of the person coming.
"Roy, why did you come to school?" Vivien beckoned to him. In class, her dress was obviously not as bright and unrestrained as last time, just a clean and simple gray dress with long wine red hair tied up A ponytail looks a lot younger.
Roy hesitated for a moment, then sat down in the vacant seat next to her,
"Uncle Tros said that you are the teacher of Kadel's house. I just wanted to learn something, so I came here."
Vivien tapped her head, her beautiful eyes full of approval, "You made a wise decision. Only knowledge can change your destiny. Welcome to study at Kadel House."
"My name is Tom, hello, Roy!" The boy who raised his hand and shouted warmly extended his hand to him, his facial features wrinkled, his front teeth exposed, and his smile was sincere and a little funny.
Roy shook his hand.
"Kids keep quiet, now go over what you've learned in history class. The teacher is out to talk about something."
The middle-aged woman led Roy to the office room on the second floor.
"Son, you can call me Mr. Kardel, what's your name? Let me guess, you came to Kardel's house to learn common script?"
"My name is Roy, I'm not a local, can I go to school?" Roy nodded and asked slightly nervously, he didn't want to run for nothing.
"Any student under the age of sixteen is welcome here. You seem to meet the requirements. You need to pay a tuition fee of 20 kroner a month, and then cooperate with me to do a detailed identification registration, understand? Most of the school are children." Dale's eyes were gentle, but a large hooked nose, deep nasolabial folds, and mean lips still made her look frighteningly severe.
"I have another question, do you have enough money on your body?" There was a little doubt in Kadel's eyes. Few students came to the school alone, usually accompanied by elders.
"I have a job at the market... It's enough to pay the tuition, by the way, Mr. Cadell. Because of my work, I only come to school every afternoon from now on." 20 crowns is indeed an unexpectedly low price for Roy. The money is enough to pay.
"Morning or afternoon, as you like, as long as you can keep up."
After Cadell's assistance, Roy finished the registration and stuffed the form into the cabinet under the table.
Roy glanced at it and could see that there were several large stacks of tables neatly placed in the cabinet. After paying the tuition again, he followed Cadell back to the humble classroom, and the seat was arranged between Vivien and Tom.
As soon as Roy took his seat, he felt a few unkind glances next to him.
"It seems that not everyone welcomes my presence!"
At the top right of him, several strong boys saw him join the classroom, and their eyes suddenly became as aggressive as wolves, especially the eldest one, fourteen or five, with a faint look in his eyes. Jealousy and warning are like being robbed of a beloved toy.
Roy didn't put it in a few, so he couldn't be jealous of a few little kids.
"20 kroner a month, there are fewer local children. Is Kadel House a charity hall? It's barely enough to pay for the children's meals in midtown." He counted roughly... Except for him in the classroom , a total of 65 students, 2 teachers, namely Vivien and Cardell.
It costs a lot of money to eat in the moonlight, reading and literacy is almost free, and there is also accommodation for special children.
"What are you thinking, Roy?" Vivien glanced over with concern, "Not used to the environment here?"
"I think it's pretty good..." Roy lowered his voice, "Everyone is a child from the lower city?"
"Well, they are all children from ordinary families," the woman joked. "Get along well with everyone in the future, and don't bully them because of your age. If you don't understand anything, just ask me."
Roy nodded and devoted himself to studying.
This so-called "school" has very rudimentary teaching conditions. There are no desks and chairs, and students sit side by side on a shallow carpet; there is no quill and ink, and all writing is done on the black charcoal heads left by the fire; They also used crumpled, low-quality straw paper, or wrote and rubbed directly on the ground, rubbed and written.
The conditions were tough, but hard-won, and the vast majority of students listened carefully.
After accommodating the new students a little, Cadell began to teach the foundations of the lingua franca popular in the North, a "new language" born after the confluence of the celestial spheres, with alphabets and syntax similar to Slavic languages.
Roy felt strange and suddenly returned to the previous world. He was still the ignorant and green high school student sitting in the classroom.
The original Roy has lived in this world for more than ten years, and has a certain understanding of the local language, which has improved his learning efficiency to some extent.
His mature thinking and brain power, as well as his forward-looking vision are all huge boosts. His spirit beyond ordinary people's 6 points allows him to stay focused for a longer time. The most important point is that he used to be a high school student who has experienced cruel compulsory education baptism. . In terms of memory of knowledge points, it is not inferior to anyone in this world.
Several factors overlapped, creating an amazing chain reaction. Roy learned this new language and became more and more handy.
…
It was almost noon, and under the huge branches of the horn tree in the yard, a few rectangular tables were crowded with people.
The cold wind blew the steaming food on the table, and the aroma was lingering, and a group of children sitting quietly swallowed in unison.
But no one made a move, and their eager eyes focused on the middle-aged woman who gave orders in the center.
Kadel stood up straight, like a commander before the battle, looked around at the students who were about to move, nodded with satisfaction, and began to lecture,
"The Prophet Rebioda ignited three fires for the general public, one is justice, the other is equality, and the last is the fire of ideals... All the children here have ideals... Our fathers are farmers, cherish their hard work Every grain of grain that has been cultivated and watered with blood and sweat..."
Kadel waved his hand suddenly, and the table instantly boiled like boiling water.
The food on the table was nothing more than one serving, whole grain bread made of barley and other grains, vegetable soup, pickled vegetables, and dried salted fish.
But the hungry students refused to come, desperately stuffing food into their mouths, as if there was nothing left if they moved slowly.
Roy, who was slowly nibbling on the bread, was taken aback by the students' scramble, and assimilated by them, he inexplicably accelerated his eating.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the entire table of food was swept away, even the vegetable soup was licked to a drop, and the leaves that fell from the hornbeams on the plate were swallowed up by some naughty kid.
But Roy was only six full, and he could feel that most of the students were about the same. Like the blond-haired Tom who is not far away, his mouth is shriveled. With his small arms and calves, he can't grab anyone else, even if he sits in the most central position.
But I have to say that this meal was the most delicious meal Roy had ever eaten, even surpassing the delicacies of the mountains and seas that Sevier Hogg served him.
"Sure enough, the food you grab is the most delicious."
Roy suddenly felt that Kadel's remarks before the meal had a deep meaning, which advertised fairness and justice, but at the table, a group of children were fighting for food according to their abilities.
Is it teaching them the cruelty of reality from an early age
…
After lunch, the students had a short break and divided into a dozen small groups, chasing and chasing in the yard, or chatting with each other. The youthful faces were full of smiles. Roy had the illusion again, as if Back to the gym class at the old school.
He couldn't imagine that in the turbulent magical world, where the revolutionary army was in full swing, there was a paradise like Kadel's house. This school does have something that he admires.
But there is also an element of discord in "Land of Paradise", and there are bound to be people in every group who are popular, and those who are ignored.
The kid named Tom, who greeted him warmly at first, was one of the unlucky ones. Standing alone in the corner of the yard, he played with his fingers with a lonely face, and from time to time cast envious glances at the surrounding lively scenes.
"Roy, aren't you going to be with them?" A fragrant wind came, and Vivien came to him quietly, with encouragement in her beautiful eyes.
Roy felt a chill in his heart and couldn't help shaking his head, "I don't have a common language with them... What happened to that kid named Tom? It's so pitiful, isn't it?"
"Tom... is an orphan. Unlike other children, he has the love and protection of his parents. The school is his home." The woman sighed and said in a low voice, "He is too thin and small, so he is often referred to by several tall people. He was bullied and isolated by others. Principal Cadel and I tried to discourage him many times, but it didn’t work. We had too many things to manage, and we couldn’t pay attention to him all the time, and we didn’t care enough about him.”
"This is a neglected child."
Roy nodded, bullying is a difficult problem even in modern society, not to mention this backward and dilapidated school.
"Let's go, Roy, let's go with him..." Vivien suddenly grabbed Roy's hand and walked towards Tom without him resisting.
After playtime, there is a half-hour nap. In the afternoon, it was Vivien's turn to give lectures: simple arithmetic, basic common sense of life, mixed with the interpretation of some common language vocabulary. A beautiful woman with an outstanding figure and appearance, with a sweet smile, told in a gentle tone, boring knowledge has become interesting.
At least Roy and the group of boys didn't even blink when they heard it.
…
When the dilapidated wall clock in the classroom passed five o'clock, one after another, someone picked up the children from the Cardell's house and returned to their home in the lower city.
"Is it safe, the sparrow gang's traffickers won't take action against this group of children?" Roy asked curiously while watching the direction the students were leaving.
“Five years ago, the sparrow gang kidnapped a girl from the school, and the next day someone found her body in a stinky ditch. The desperate parents spent all their savings to buy kerosene and set it on fire at night. A stronghold of the gang. The two also rushed into the fire and died with the sleeping bastard. I still remember very clearly, the scene of more than 20 charred corpses being lifted from the black ruins." Shi. A few years later, when Vivien talked about this incident, there was still a hint of shock in her beautiful eyes, "Then the school and all the residents of the lower city put pressure on the Sparrow Gang. Even Baron Tavik was disturbed, and the Sparrow Gang made a compromise. After that, I dare not touch the bottom line again.”
After listening to Roy, he couldn't help thinking of the words of Sevier Hogg, "The anger of an honest man can burn up the entire Mahakam." When he went back at night, he had another story to tell Toya.
"Come on, Roy." Vivien suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him to the classroom involuntarily. "On the first day, you must have missed a lot of things? I'll review it for you."
Roy was really flattered. From the first time they met, he had a feeling that this woman's attitude towards him was surprisingly good, but there was nothing wrong with him right now. If he could learn common words as soon as possible, he would be willing.
"Hey, Roy, why are you back?" Tom, who was leaning at the door and staring enviously at the people coming and going, rushed over and took his other hand, golden His hair swayed, and he grinned showing two front teeth, like a puppy that pleases its owner, "You are also homeless? Do you want me to play with you?"
Vivien grabbed his ear, and the emaciated boy wailed and bent down, "Little Tom, Roy is going to review today's knowledge. Since you took the initiative to bring it to the door, let's come together!"
The boy's face froze when he heard it, and the lively little squirrel struggled desperately, but was dragged into the classroom by Vivien's ears.
"Don't you usually dislike no one playing with you? You will accompany Roy to learn more after school."
The bleak autumn wind sent the boy's wailing far away, and the horn trees that covered the sky and the sun in the courtyard were also blown to shake their branches, withered and yellow leaves rustled and fell, and the whole school seemed to wither along with it.