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An Otherworldly Scholar - 16
🕑 Added 2023-06-09 22:21:52 +0000 UTCExcitement crept through my stomach. Never before have I been so thrilled to teach a class, but again, never before I had been into a world of swords and magic powers. Not many teachers back on Earth could boast about teaching a gnome and an elf. I was so caught in the excitement of the moment that I didn't realize when Elincia burst into the kitchen.
“I had to fight them so they would brush their teeth! And I quote, ‘I don’t want to stop tasting the soup’, so I blame you for this.” Elincia made a fake wince as she closed the door behind her.
I wonder if she would blame me when I serve the beans.
“They said they had fun today, thank you.” Elincia came to my side to help me wash the dishes. I envisioned her cleaning the kitchen every night all alone for years and my heart sank a little bit.
“I had fun too. Ilya and Zaon made quite the comedic duo.” I replied.
“They do. Judgmental versus lenient, never gets old.” Elincia washed the bowls with a proud smile on her face. “Wolf should be getting better by tomorrow, he will be joining your class too.”
“So, nothing serious?” I inquired, remembering Elincia had been out in the Farlands searching for ingredients for a potion.
“Yes. Wolf is a half-orc. During puberty they grow quickly but their resistance against sickness is low, and being surrounded by a dozen snotty brats eager to climb into your newly-found muscles doesn’t help.” Elincia’s melodious laugh briefly filled the kitchen. “I’d warn you, Wolf might be stronger than you so I don’t know you are going to manage to win his respect.”
Two lawful students and two troublemakers. I liked those odds.
“I’m excited about this.” The words fled from my mouth before I could stop them.
“You are the only man I know who likes, no, loves to get into trouble.” Elincia replied.
“What can I say? I love trouble.”
Elincia gave me one of her mischievous smiles. Without the kids around she quickly abandoned her caring and lovely governess persona and returned to her impish nature.
“I’m a professional troublemaker, we will make a good team, Robert Clarke.” Elincia said.
In a blink of an eye, the kitchen was spotless again. There was no hint that minutes ago a small army of small kids had cooked and ate dinner in it. Elincia warmed Wolf’s soup in a small pot before putting it back in the bowl. It was late at night and the magic orbs had lost their shine, the only source of light left was the open stove. The flame’s shadows danced over Elincia’s pale features.
There wasn’t anything left to do for the day, just sit and relax in the childless silence.
“You can sleep in my bed tonight.” Elincia suddenly said.
Her words hit me like a rogue rubber chicken.
“Excuse me?”.
“We don’t have other rooms available at the moment and the couch in the reception room is on the hard side. I don’t mind hard surfaces, I’m kinda used to sleeping outside so a hard couch is enough for me.” Elincia said.
That made more sense than Elincia inviting me to sleep with her.
“I don’t mind the couch.” I stuttered, unable to conceal the fact my heart was hitting my chest like a hammer against an anvil.
You have obtained Denial Lv.6. Temporary.
Elincia woke me up before dawn, shaking my shoulder. I got up abruptly, my mind thinking I was still stranded in the Farlands at the mercy of packs of Black Wolves, stray Wendigos, and other indescribable creatures. I probed into the darkness trying to find my shotgun just to find Elincia’s soft hands. Only then I remembered I was in an orphanage managed by a half-elf of great beauty.
I also remembered what I had committed myself to; turning a group of orphans into Imperial Academy cadet material. After years of stumbling around in life I had returned to the path of teaching.
“Good morning, Elincia.” I greeted her with a sleepy voice.
The reception room was chilly even if the previous day had been pleasant as the first days of autumn and the night on the hard couch had left me with a stiff body. Ignoring the pain, I stood up and stretched. A thousand small bubbles of pain popped all across my back. Maybe it was the effect of me leveling up but I felt great compared to other rough nights back on Earth.
I wondered if time passed at the same rate in both worlds. If that was the case, then a week on Earth since my disappearance.
“Good morning, Robert Clarke.” Elincia greeted me back. She was wearing a thin white nightgown and a woolen shawl which gave her the appearance of an ancient lunar goddess.
“I don’t really go with ‘Robert Clarke’. You can call me Rob when we are alone.” I said. It was weird for an adult around my age to address me in such a formal manner. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact I wanted to grow closer to Elincia.
You have obtained Denial Lv.7. Temporary.
I ignored the system prompt the best I could.
“Alright, Rob. Would you like to have breakfast with me?” Elincia invited me with a smile. It seemed impossible for a human to look so fresh so early in the morning but Elincia was only half human.
“I would love to.”
I followed her to the kitchen. On the way we checked on the small ones. They shared a long bedroom with a double row of four worn out beds. The shutters were closed but I could see their slow and rhythmic breath with the little light that began to sneak in through the cracks on the wood.
“The older ones have individual rooms at the end of the corridor so they can have a bit of privacy while the small ones sleep closer to my room.” Elincia explained. “We have space to spare since there aren't as many orphans right now. I will prepare you a room today.”
The kitchen was even colder than the reception room and Elincia rushed to light the stove. The embers weren’t enough to rekindle the fire.
“I’ll get my tinderbox.” Elincia said.
“Let me try something first.” I grabbed her hand as she crossed the kitchen. She looked at me with curiosity. If my suppositions about mana were correct I would be able to light the fire with magic even if I had no elemental spells.
It was all a matter of physics. Mana wasn’t an ethereal thing, it was a particle that could interact with the rest of objects. Proof of that was my mana blade cutting things.
I squatted near the stove and covering my thumb and index finger in mana, I snapped them. Nothing happened at first but I could feel the tips of my fingers heating if only a bit. For my second attempt, I circulated the mana in opposite directions as fast as I could and a blue gleam covered my fingers. I snapped again and a spark felt into the tinder, creating a small ember.
For a moment, I felt like an actual magician.
“Science one, tinder zero!” I laughed.
“What?” Elincia was as confused as she could be. “You are not supposed to be able to cast elemental spells, that is illegal!”
I explained to her I used friction to create just enough heat, it was the same principle of starting a fire with a spinning branch. It seemed that even that little trick required more mana than most people could channel.
The kitchen became warmer and warmer until Elincia shed on her shawl. She put a kettle on the fire and a mix of oatmeal, milk, butter, and water on a saucepan. We waited.
“You are a cheat magician.” Elincia sulked as she tried to imitate my trick without success.
“Let me figure out how to brew potions without a skill and you will be in trouble.” I replied.
Elincia poured me a cup of tea and a bowl of oatmeal. Food was not going to last forever so we needed a way to make enough money to feed the orphans. Something to season the food would also be nice. I added it to my to-do list.
“With your titles you could be teaching in the Imperial Academy. Not just researching, mind you, but teaching other Scholars.” Elincia sat in front of me and cradled her steaming cup next to her chest.
“Which is quite ironic. With my titles I can barely hold a bottom-of-the-barrel job back in the City of Light.” I replied as I drew lines with my spoon on the oatmeal. Comparatively speaking, this world was ages behind the scientific level of the western world. Even in my field of study I was a mere bachelor.
“The City of Light sounds a bit like a brutal place to be a support class. Can’t even imagine what one of your Alchemists can do.” Elincia admitted. “Well, it doesn’t matter. The little ones already love you and the older ones trust you, and that is saying a lot considering you have been here half a day.”
Her words made me oddly happy.
“They trusted me because you introduced me.” I clarified. “The secret is to treat them like normal intelligent beings, respect their opinions, and be curious about what they have to say.”
Elincia gave me a mischievous smile before replying. “And teasing me by calling me ‘Miss Rosebud’ behind my back didn’t have anything to do with it.”
I had been caught red-handed.
“A little bit of complicity goes a long way.” I smiled apologetically. “That way they know I’m approachable even if they fuck up.”
Elincia picked up my empty plate.
“A little bit of complicity goes a long way, indeed.” She said as she washed the dirty dishes and prepared the table for the kid’s breakfast. I offered her my help but she refused saying I had already helped her enough.
“What is your plan to get the kids accepted in the Imperial Academy? I tried to figure it out last night but I couldn’t come up with anything. I have seen great fighters from the orphanage failing the exam, even back when I was a teen.” Elincia asked as she kneaded a piece of dough.
That was an excellent question but I was prepared to answer. Last night I stayed up late thinking about the exam for the Imperial Academy. If I wanted to teach correctly then I basically had to know the questions on the test.
“If my instincts do not deceive me, the exam is not all about fighting. They are searching for a certain profile of a person. Think about a noble’s child. They have the advantage of training under great fencing instructors, but also have tutors who teach them arithmetic, economy, military history, and other stuff too.” I explained.
“Soldiers for the Army, Knights for the Academy, make sense.” Elincia muttered.
I had an approximate idea about what the Academy wanted from their students and I planned to dig more into the matter later. Meanwhile I needed to lay the groundwork to teach self-sufficient and dedicated students.
“I wonder if my Lv.5 [Swordsmanship] is enough.”
At that point I couldn’t just try to deceive Elincia about my knowledge of this world, I had to know how well prepared I was to teach my class.
“Well, passives usually go up to level ten. However, the higher the passive gets the harder it is to level them up.” Elincia crossed her arms over her chest in a meditative gesture.
As she continued baking, she explained that [Swordsmanship] was an advanced passive that reflected an overall knowledge in various types of weapons and combat situations. Unlike [Longsword Mastery], [Fencing], or [Fighting Stance], for instance, that only covered a fraction of what was contained in [Swordsmanship].
Maybe I was worrying too much about skills and levels. With or without good skills, I was already committed to the cause. Elincia left the dough on the oven and filled a basin with water.
“Would you watch the bread while I go wash my face?” Elincia smiled at me and disappeared through the doorway. My time alone in the kitchen didn’t last long until Ilya arrived. Her short hair was messy and her eyes were still half closed. She wore a sleeping tunic that probably belonged to someone taller because much of the cloth was dragging on the floor. She had to hold the folds to not trip on it.
“Good morning, Ilya. Did you sleep well?” I greeted her with a smile.
“The small ones slept all night so, yes.” She replied, getting closer to the stove and warming her hands.
“I thought the older ones had their own bedrooms.” I said.
“Yes, but I’d rather sleep with the small ones so if anyone has a nightly emergency they don’t wake Miss Elincia.” The gnome girl put another piece of firewood inside the stove and turned around to warm her back. “Are you going to replace Holst or are you going to abandon us like he did?”
Ilya’s straightforwardness betrayed her age.
I didn’t have the opportunity to reply when Elincia came to my rescue.
“I was going to make the announcement during breakfast but it seems you beat me to it.”
The white haired woman had shed her nightgown and had her commoner clothing on display; white shirt, dyed light blue bodice, a long dress to her ankles, and leather shoes. Behind her followed the younger kids, also dressed in old sleeping tunics, none of them of the right size.
A young half-orc stood out from the group. He was almost as tall as me but his physique revealed he wasn’t yet a mature adult. Still, his arms and shoulders looked strong even if he was on the thin side. His skin was pale green, his hair black as charcoal, and two small tusks protruded from his mouth.
That had to be my third student, Wolf.
Behind him, with a sour face, entered a young human girl with long chestnut hair, tanned skin that revealed the amount of time she passed outdoors, and a prideful stride. That had to be my fourth student, Holst’s favorite, Firana.
Both noticed my presence almost simultaneously. Wolf ignored me as he sat alone in a corner of the kitchen while Firana threw daggers at me with her eyes from the other side of the room. Maybe she already anticipated that I was there to replace Holst as the resident Scholar.
I wondered where Zaon was.
“Attention everybody!” Elincia hit a saucepan with a wooden spoon to attract everyone’s attention. The conversation died. The munching not so much. “As most of you already know, this is Mister Clarke, a Scholar from a distant town and a good friend of mine. Since Mister Holst went to the capital, Mister Clarke has agreed to work here in the orphanage as tutor and help me with the instruction of the older kids. Want to introduce yourself, Mister Clarke?”
I nodded as the younger kids looked at me with anticipation. Wolf ignored me the best he could with his gaze fixed on his plate. It was just like Ilya had told me, he didn’t care about a ‘weak’ Scholar like me. Luckily, I had a surprise in store for him.
Firana, on the other hand, glanced at me with vibrant hate.
“Most of you already know me since yesterday but for the ones who don’t, I’ll introduce myself again. I’m Robert Clarke, Scholar, and I’ll be in charge of tutoring the older ones.” I introduced myself again. The young ones seemed eager to start talking again so I allowed them to ask questions. Instantly, several hands were thrown into the air.
“Where did you meet Miss Elincia?”
“We met deep in the Farlands when she was picking ingredients. We teamed up together to return to Farcrest.” I replied, eliciting a generalized ‘wow’.
“Are you friends with Mister Holst?”
“I have never met him. He wasn’t in Farcrest when I arrived for the first time.”
“Are you a powerful magician?”
“Scholars can’t cast elemental spells. I do have some magic tricks up my sleeves however.” I said as I threw sparks from the tip of my fingers.
Another round of ‘wow’s filled the kitchen.
The questions slowly tended towards more banal matters including my favorite color, food, and plant.
“When are you going to marry…” One of the human kids was going to ask but Elincia stopped him just in time and sent them to brush their teeth and dress up. The sun had already appeared from behind the mountains and the morning started to warm.
“They are a handful.” Elincia sighed, already tired despite not even being midday. As much as she acted like everything was alright, I could see she was nervous. “If you are going to do physical exercise today, the equipment is in the shed. It’s not much but you should manage.”
“You take care of the younger ones and I will deal with the older ones, so don’t worry.” I said as I helped Elincia to collect the dirty dishes.
“Easier said than done, Rob. You go prepare your class and let me take care of this.” She kicked me out of the kitchen when I was about to start washing the dishes. Following her advice, I exited the manor and crossed the backyard into the shed.
The backyard was more spacious than I expected. Behind the orchard there was a small esplanade with old trees around the perimeter to hide the surrounding walls. Considering the spaces and the architecture, it was obvious the manor once belonged to a noble or a wealthy merchant.
Elincia had said a name before. Mr. Lowell’s Orphanage. I made a mental note to ask her later and focused on finding the training equipment.
Inside the shed I found the cart I had borrowed the day before. There were old tools and a small reserve of firewood among other things. In a corner, there were a bunch of practice swords with linen wrappings. Longswords, rapiers, smallswords, and wooden shields. The material of the grips was worn out and the blades showed intensive use, however, they showed no trace of rust. I grabbed the nearest one and felt the familiar weight.
My [Swordsmanship] triggered instantly, filling my brain with distant memories from my days in the fencing club. Everything was there, fresh, ready to be used. Holding the urge to swing the sword, I grabbed the bundle and returned to the esplanade next to the stump of a large tree.
I felt eyes on me. Ilya, Wolf and Firana crossed the backyard in silence, wearing boots, riding pants, and padded jackets. Firana and Wolf moved with the ease of seasoned fencing students. Ilya, on the other hand, seemed to be uncomfortable in her uniform.
“Take a seat, please. We have to discuss an important matter first… as soon as Zaon gets here at least.” I said, using the stump as a seat. The orphans obeyed me, exchanging dissimulated glances, unsure of what direction the class was going. At that moment, the door of the manor slammed open and Zaon ran in our direction with the padded jacket under his arm. He looked like he had just woken up.
The orphans glanced at Zaon with fearful looks, even Firana looked sorry for him.
“Come closer, Zaon” I said as he arrived by the stump.
The boy froze in place for a moment but ultimately obeyed, bracing himself for his anticipated punishment. He closed his eyes and clenched her teeth, but no corporal punishment arrived.
“Apologize to your classmates that have been waiting here in the cold and then go sit down.” I said.
“What?” Zaon looked at me like a deer blinded by the lights of a truck. “I mean, yes, yes sir. I’m sorry to keep you all waiting. I’ll be more responsible in the future, it won't happen again.” He quickly added and sat by Ilya’s side. He wasn’t the only one surprised by my actions.
Good, things were going to drastically change from now on.
I examined my new class. It was hard to accept that by the end of the year they were going to be conscripted into the army. They were too young, barely kids by my standards.
“Mister Clarke?” Ilya derailed my train of thought. “Can I go back inside? Mister Holst never included me during training because I’m a gnome. I’m small and not suited for combat.”
I recognized Holst words coming out from Ilya’s mouth.
“In half a year you will be drafted into the army, Ilya. Are you sure you don’t need combat skills?” I pointed out.
“I’m a gnome, I’ll be turned into a Chef class or something like that.” Ilya replied, shrugging her shoulders.
“And do you want to become a Chef class?” I continued.
“No.” Ilya replied sparsely, as if she guessed what I was to ask next.
“Then, what class do you want to become?”
Ilya wanted to disappear from the face of earth but no matter how much she looked around for help, there was no way to avoid the question. She rubbed her hands nervously, all the audacity she had shown during the last days had disappeared.
“There is no wrong answer here, Ilya. Speak from your heart.” I said, warning the rest with a glance that any rude commentary would not be welcomed. [The Glance] was among my most useful techniques as a teacher.
“I want to be a Hunter so nobody in the orphanage goes hungry again, okay?” Illya said all flustered.
That explained her reluctance. If a gnome wasn’t expected to become a combatant, they weren’t expected to become Hunters.
“It’s really sweet of you to think about others. However, I doubt the army will let you become a Hunter.” I pointed out.
“I know. I will probably end up as a Chef, or worse, a Mender class.” Ilya replied.
I didn’t know what a Mender class was, but it didn’t sound really powerful by any metric.
“You have two choices, Ilya. One, you get conscripted into the army by the end of the winter. There you will be forced to be a Soldier, Chef, or Mender class. You will have to fight against strong and vicious creatures and there will be no assurance you will survive.” I said, catching their attention. “Or, you can train under my guidance and take the exam for the Imperial Knights Academy. There you will study under the best tutors of the kingdom and be able to aim higher.”
My words produced the effect I expected. They looked at each other in disbelief and then looked at me, as if they were waiting for me to say it was a joke. But I was dead serious.
“I’ll do it!” Zaon raised his hand up into the air.
“B-but Holst said it was impossible for me to become a Hunter. I’m a gnome, not an elf nor a human. Even Wolf could become a Hunter if he wanted and he is a muscle head.” Ilya’s trembling voice broke my heart but to make them grow I had to challenge their preconceived notions.
Wolf gave Ilya a quick ‘why me’ glance.
“If you give me the opportunity I will make you all worthy cadets for the Knights Academy. I promise.” I calmly said.
At that moment, Firana stood up. It has been a while since she had started showing signs of discontent, and that must have been the final straw for her. She was livid.
“Master Holst was a Lv.4 Fencer and a high level Scholar on the way to becoming a Tactician. There is no way a greenhorn Scholar can accomplish in less than a year what Master Holst couldn’t achieve in ten years.” Firana barked at me.
It was a bit flattering that she thought of me as a youngster. I had to thank the good nutrition and healthcare from my homeland for that, and maybe my mother's genetics.
“If Holst hasn’t gotten any of his pupils into the Knights academy in ten years, then he isn’t half the Scholar he pretended to be.” I replied, raising my voice so everyone nearby could hear.
Firana clenched her fist and gave me a murderous glance.
“You are not berating Master Holst in my presence. I challenge you to a duel.” The girl growled as she threw her gauntlet in front of me.
Comments
Dame
Little girl is about to get trounced. I hate "Master" Holst already. Good chapter.
@Alphamoonman
I paid $10 and I'd gladly pay another $20 for another four chapters...
