77 - First Lesson
"Lu~ggage, la la~♪ Writing board♪ Chalk♪ And a rag~♪"
In high spirits, I checked my belongings while humming a random tune. The writing board was essentially a blackboard. You use chalk to write on the black-painted board and erase it. The chalk was exactly that, chalk. Whether it was the work of reincarnators or not, occasionally things that reminded me of my previous world would pop up, but fundamentally, the lifestyle here was close to medieval. Paper was used commonly at the fortress and churches, but it did not seem to be at a price that ordinary households, especially for children to use for studying, could afford. You would do dictation on a writing board with chalk, and once you memorized it, you would wipe the board clean with a rag and use it again. I remembered hearing on TV or somewhere that they used to do the same thing in old Japan.
"...You are in a good mood, Tina."
"I am in a good mood, yeshu. Because I can finally shtudy."
Like a child before a field trip, I was giddy, repeatedly taking my things out of my bag and putting them back every few minutes. Even I thought my excitement was a bit much, but I could not help it. I was looking forward to it.
"What time do we go to the church? Leo-san said it shtarts today, did he not?"
"Tina's class is in the afternoon. In the morning, it is mostly kids from the lower town, near the church."
"Different in the morning and afternoon?"
"The lesson content is the same, but the lower town is busiest in the morning. They cannot afford to look after their kids during the busy hours, so more kids from the lower town come in the morning."
It was a rough division, so of course there were exceptions. Some children worked from early morning, so it was not absolute, and sometimes adults who never had time to study as children would come to the Menhishumi Church to learn their letters. As for me, who was free all day, I was apparently put in the afternoon class so I could take my time walking over.
Before leaving the residence, we had a small argument about whether I should wear the new clothes that had just been tailored, or secondhand clothes that would not make me stand out among the lower town kids. In the end, my guardian Leonardo's opinion won out, a frilly one-piece dress. They had gone to the trouble of preparing a secondhand bag and writing board for me, but I had a feeling I would stand out in the classroom from day one.
...A secondhand bag looks really out of place when Leonardo-san is carrying it.
It was a bag they had bought for me to use when going to the Menhishumi Church, but it did not match Leonardo's vibe at all. He was dressed casually but in well-tailored clothes. With today's outfit, even if I carried the bag myself, it would probably create the same mismatch.
...But, it is my first school. I wanted to carry my own bag and walk.
Leonardo seemed to think that even though I was a child, he could not let a lady carry her own luggage. He said he would basically have someone escort me, so it looked like I would not get to carry my precious secondhand bag. As I walked, thinking about such things, we reached the crossroads where the main street and central avenue intersected. Before, just walking this far would have tired me out, but now it seemed I had built up a bit of stamina. I had been walking around the residence garden every day under the pretense of building strength, and I supposed it had some effect.
When we arrived at the Menhishumi Church, Leonardo asked Guide Anna to take good care of me, then left. He was probably heading to the fortress from here. He warned me that Bart would come to pick me up, and that I was absolutely not to try walking home alone.
...I do have a record of walking home alone.
It was not my fault, but there was a precedent of me walking back to the residence by myself. It was no wonder Leonardo felt the need to warn me.
After watching Leonardo walk out through the Menhishumi Church gates, Guide Anna introduced me to a boy.
"Tina, let me introduce you. This is Nils. He will be helping you with your studies."
"I am Nils Brendrel. Pleased to meet you, Tina-sama."
He was a clean-looking boy with a shy smile. He was probably around twelve or thirteen. I had heard that children could attend the Menhishumi Church from age seven, but he did not look like he needed the same lessons. How to put it, he gave off the impression of a boy whose manners and education were already fairly complete. He had well-made clothes, good posture, and straight brown hair neatly trimmed.
...If this is the norm, maybe the new clothes were the right call after all.
I recalled Leonardo insisting firmly on new clothes as Nils led me down the hallway. I had thought I could at least carry my own bag inside the church, but Nils, who I could tell was well-disciplined, turned out to be exactly that kind of well-bred boy. Before I could feel any resistance about entrusting my belongings to someone else, he naturally took my bag from me and guided me.
...Yeah, he is definitely not a classmate. He is more like a servant, or a page, something like that.
Come to think of it, Guide Anna had introduced Nils as someone who would help me with my studies. In all likelihood, he had been assigned as an assistant to work for me within the Menhishumi Church.
...Is this really okay?
Was this not the kind of thing that would be called favoritism? Or was this something that was naturally provided for a young lady here? I thought of myself as just some village girl, but right now I was supposed to be Leonardo's little sister. If the Fortress Lord's little sister was attending the Menhishumi Church, maybe having an attendant was considered only natural for someone treated as a young lady.
"This room is the basic knowledge classroom."
The room we were led to was the one I had peeked into from outside when I visited the Menhishumi Church with Leonardo for a tour, way back when. There were thirty sets of chairs and desks, and at the front wall hung a large writing board.
...It really does look like a school. Well, I guess it is basically a school.
If you thought of it as a place that imparted basic knowledge, even a place called a church was not much different from a school. I felt like I had heard the term church school before, so maybe it was not so strange for a church to serve as a place of education. Even Japan used to have temple schools, after all.
"Seats are generally assigned from the front in order of height, but Tina-sama, this is your seat."
The seat I was led to was in the very front row, but second from the end. If I was getting special treatment with even an attendant provided, I had expected to be seated in the center, but apparently not.
...Ah, I get it. It is because Nils is here, this seat.
Nils, who was clearly older than me, was naturally taller too. But my height was slightly smaller than an average nine-year-old. If seats were filled by height order, there was no way we would end up next to each other.
...Leonardo-san seems to want me to make friends here, though.
Wearing nice clothes, with a cleanly dressed boy beside me who clearly was not a student. With people coming to escort me and not even carrying my own bag, could I really make friends here?
...Well, whatever.
Putting aside Leonardo's hopes, my goal was to learn to read. Having Nils around to help with my studies was a boon, and I could not imagine getting along with the other students who were real children anyway. When our eyes met, Nils gave me a warm, gentle smile. I decided I would start by building a rapport with this boy.
The first lesson was about learning the basic letters. The letters used in this country were apparently common across the continent. In other words, if I just learned the letters they would teach me from now on, I would not have trouble reading or writing as long as I lived on the continent.
...I will have to work hard to memorize them, then.
I copied five large letters written on the writing board onto my own board, practicing while checking the stroke order multiple times. There were twenty-six basic letters in total, with uppercase and lowercase, just like English. I had never reached a practical level, but I had managed to learn the alphabet. I should be able to memorize twenty-six letters here without too much trouble.
...And Nils really is my support staff, huh.
Nils neither copied the letters onto his own board nor practiced writing them. He just quietly watched my hands. He probably did not need to learn basic letters at this point.
After practicing for a while and perfectly memorizing the five letters on the board, I started to feel a bit bored. Each lesson was about thirty minutes long, and with classes only once every two days, it would take two weeks to learn all the letters. Considering that actually being able to read would come after that, the waiting time felt a bit wasteful.
"...Could it be, you have already memorized them?"
"It is only five lettersh. I have already memorized them."
Since we were in the middle of class, Nils spoke to me in a hushed voice. I replied in a whisper too. I had already memorized them, but the other kids were still practicing hard. I did not want to disturb them.
Nils quizzed me in a low voice, and when I answered all correctly, he taught me how to spell my name. In my name, which was only four letters long, only one of the letters I had learned today appeared.
...Huh? This is my name?
I did not need to count again, but no matter how many times I counted, it was still only four letters. I tilted my head in confusion, and Nils asked if something was wrong, taking the board from my hands to check.
...Did not Leonardo-san show me my ring once? I feel like there were more letters on it than this. Huh?
I was puzzled, but since I could not read, there was no way to confirm clearly. I decided I would ask Leonardo when I got back to the residence, and focused on memorizing the name I had been taught.
The math lesson did not really teach me anything. It was more accurate to call it arithmetic rather than mathematics. It seemed to start with memorizing numbers and then move on to simple calculations like addition.
...Well, I heard basic knowledge was just three months of reading, writing, and arithmetic, so maybe they really only cover the basics.
I already knew this world's numbers, so I did not even need to copy them onto my board. As I was wondering how to kill time, Nils hesitantly spoke to me.
"...Do you not need to memorize the numbers?"
"I have sheen numbers at the market and shtuff, so I already know them."
"Then, shall we try some calculations?"
We spoke in hushed voices so as not to disturb the others. Nils was surprised when I said I could do addition and subtraction, and wrote a few problems on the board. As for me, the problems were so simple that I solved them without even needing to think.
"...All correct. Shall we try multiplication and division next?"
"Yeshu."
Single-digit calculations were no problem mentally. Double-digit took me a moment to think but I could still solve them in my head. For triple-digit and above, I was not sure if this world's calculation methods were the same as Japan's, so I used my fingers.
"Correct. Huh? How...?"
...Oh no, did I overdo it a bit?
I had just honestly solved the problems he gave me, but was that a problem? Still, at age nine in Japan, I felt like you would have learned division by then. Even setting Japan aside, I had heard you could attend the Menhishumi Church from age seven. If a child started right at seven, surely some of them could do division after three months. There was no reason I would stand out as particularly good at calculations.
I was sweating internally, but Nils seemed to have come to some conclusion of his own. He tilted his head, but nodded to himself several times as if convincing himself.
"...Calculation time is boring, yeshu."
"If there is nothing to learn, how about teaching the children who do not understand?"
"I should teach them?"
"At the Menhishumi Church, knowledge is considered a blessing granted by the god Menhishumi. Our doctrine says that those who receive a blessing should not hoard it and keep it to themselves, but should help those who have not yet received it reach for it."
In short, it meant that those who understood should help those who did not. I understood the intention, but today the children all seemed too preoccupied with memorizing numbers for me to have anything to teach.
...Also, I am bad at talking to strangers.
Beyond the age difference, as an adult in spirit, I could not imagine getting along with the other students who were real children.
While I was worrying, not wanting to disturb their number memorization and not knowing when to approach them, Nils, who had apparently decided I did not need watching during calculation time, left his seat to help other children in accordance with the Menhishumi Church's doctrine. Nils, who could naturally approach other children and join their circles, looked like some kind of strange creature to me.
...Yeah, I remember now. I am a shy kid.
Ever since Leonardo took me in, everyone I had met was an adult, and as a child under Leonardo's protection, I was always the one being spoken to. I had completely forgotten. Looking back, there was hardly anyone I had approached of my own accord.
...How do you even talk to people, again?
A tougher problem than studying, and the time I had thought was boring during calculation class vanished in an instant.
...In the end, I could not talk to anyone.
For someone who prided herself on being an adult, not even being able to talk to a child was too pathetic. When the calculation lesson ended, I stepped outside the classroom during the slightly longer break. The autumn wind, which had just begun to cool, stung me pitifully.
"...Ah, um!"
As I was slumping my shoulders in self-pity, I heard a girl's voice from behind. Who was she talking to? I looked ahead, but there was no one in front of me.
...Huh? Then this voice, could it be that she is talking to me?
At that faint glimmer of hope, I timidly turned around. Nils was standing a few steps away, and behind him stood a girl with black hair, even smaller than me.
"Um, I am Mirshe! Please tell me your name, big sister!"
I stood there dumbfounded at the forcefulness of the girl who called herself Mirshe. Was it my imagination, or were Mirshe's clenched fists trembling slightly?
"...Uh, me?"
I confirmed, just to be sure, that she was talking to me. Mirshe nodded vigorously in response.
...What do I do, she talked to me. I am a little happy.
I was happy, but also embarrassed, and I could not answer right away. I did not know what the right response was. I looked to Nils in confusion, only to receive a warm, beaming smile that made me want to punch him. Nils, who was supposed to be helping me with my studies, apparently did not involve himself in interpersonal relations.
"I... I..."
She asked for my name, so I just had to answer it. That was all. But it felt incredibly difficult. The more I felt I had to answer quickly, the more flustered I got, and my throat went dry.
"I am Ti..."
"Do not you bully my little sister!!"
Just as I opened my mouth to answer with some momentum, a voice echoed from somewhere, and at the same time, my hair was yanked from behind with all their mighty force.
Tina showing off her shyness for the first time in a while, and the usual kid.
Typos and missing words will be handled another day...
Any typos or missing words I found have been corrected.