“Why are they being taken away?” Illyan mumbled to himself as he watched them leave the gates. Most of those chained people had grim expressions as if their life had ended, while others seemed to be in complete despair.
“They are prisoners who were sentenced to slavery. You are new here, right? This is normal here. Those guys always come once every few months or even years and collect people who were in the prison.”
Someone next to him started to talk as he looked indifferently at those guys.
“They are probably fucking thieves and rapists anyway, so why bother? Let them enjoy their lives in chains for the rest of their lives.”
The guy spat on the ground as he looked at those wagons, or rather at those people inside, with disdain.
“What will they do as slaves?” Illyan asked curiously, as he never knew the Vanaras kingdom had slavery.
“What else? Either fight in the arena of the capital, work in mines, or be fucked up by those fuckers.”
“Fuckers?”
“Well, those…” At this moment, the guy realized what he said as his face paled. He looked around to see if someone had heard him, but thankfully, nobody had, and so he sighed in relief.
“Nothing, I just spoke nonsense! I have to work now. Goodbye!” With that, the man disappeared into the crowd.
‘Those fuckers, huh?’
He could already guess that he was talking about those robed men. It looked like they collected prisoners for some reason, and they were even collecting dead bodies. But it seemed that even though they didn’t bother hiding it, this guy and Bor didn’t know about it…
‘Interesting…’
With this thought, Illyan turned around and left.
……..
After this incident, Illyan returned to the Academic Institute. The first thing he did was to return to his room and completely rearrange all his belongings. The herbs that were piled in one heap were separated by their names into boxes he bought. He put the medicine tools out on the table where he would use them, and the rest of his belongings were put into his new bag.
Once he was done, he could finally focus on the list of books that Ollie gave him. He knew that it would be more beneficial to him if he quickly became academic, and so he wanted to put his effort into it.
Seeing the long list of books, he frowned, wondering which he should read first.
‘The ones about medicine probably won’t be so useful to me, as I will be reviewing the knowledge I already have. So for now, I should try some of the miscellaneous…’
Reaching this point of thought, his eyes turned to one of the books.
‘The Language of Scholars: Mathematics’
Two days later, he would have a lecture about arithmetic, which was just one small branch of mathematics. To be honest, Illyan knew only basic counting and wasn’t well versed in this subject. But he knew that it was extremely important.
So, he didn’t hesitate as he went to the library to read the book.
However, he didn’t expect it to be so difficult.
‘What is this?’
While he expected the numbers, he certainly did not know all kinds of symbols without an explanation. There were walls of text, but the style of writing was completely different and mixed with all kinds of words he didn’t recognize despite him being able to read them.
After browsing through several pages and realizing that he wouldn’t be able to understand it unless he put a lot of time into it, he chose to abandon the book and look for another one.
Since he had an arithmetic lecture soon, it was a waste of time trying to learn it on his own.
Illyan returned the book and went looking for others. In this way, he spent those two days reading the recommended books while waiting for his first lecture.
The day when the lecture would begin, Illyan, together with Cara and Nord, went to the west wing and looked for the room where the lecture would take place.
Fortunately, it didn’t take too long as they saw other apprentices scurrying on the way and just followed them.
Illyan noticed that most of the people were going alone, looking as if they didn’t want to speak to anyone. However, this kind of situation suited him as he didn’t plan to make new acquaintances. Even Cara, Nord, and others were just someone he thought of as useful for the time being, and he kept his distance from them.
They noticed this too and didn’t care that much since they already saw that this was how Illyan acted to everyone, and it was not just them being the problem.
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As their group went through the corridors, it brought certain attention from others, but aside from some side glances, they were ignored as everyone hurried on to the lecture.
While there was enough space for everyone since there were not so many apprentices in the institute, people still preferred to sit close to the academic who taught the subject.
Once they entered the room, half of the seats were already filled up. What, however, took their attention was another group of people who were sitting together. It was other acquaintances of Cara and Nord who said they would rest for a few days before visiting the institute. Among them, even the young man named Erte, who got an arrow in the leg, was sitting with a pale face.
Cara and Nord both frowned when they saw them.
“They said they would look for us after they joined the institute.”
“Well, it looks like they are not that interested. Whatever. It is not like we were close. We are just from the same village.” Nord, who was more pragmatic, ignored them as he looked for the better seat.
Illyan, who wasn’t interested in the breakup of the crew, was already sitting at the back of the room where nobody was.
“Huh? Kaoran, you will sit here? Isn’t it better to sit in the front?”
“It is alright. The front seats are too crowded for me.”
When Illyan said this, they visibly hesitated. They thought of sitting together but feared that they would miss the words of the academic at the back. At this, Illyan only rolled his eyes.
“We are here to study. It is not like we need to sit together. Focus on the subject if you want to succeed.”
He gave them small advice which they immediately understood as they went to find their seats.
They didn’t wait too long before the last apprentice arrived and seated himself.
Not long after, the doors were opened again, but this time, an old gentleman with a cane and book in his hands walked in.
Everyone in the room got quiet as they waited for him to speak. However, the man just lightly smiled at them as he calmly went to his front table where he put his study materials. The clicking noise of his cane clinking over the floor was the only sound that reverberated in the room.
Illyan noticed that nobody showed impatience, and so he deduced that this happened normally.
“Good morning, apprentices. I see that there are many new faces, so I will introduce myself. My name is Korin Moratte, and I am an academic in the subjects of Mathematics, Architecture, History, and Archeology. Today we have another lecture on arithmetic, which is quite a difficult topic, so be careful to record everything I will say.”
He spoke up with a gentle voice as he put one extremely large piece of parchment on the back wall behind him. It was obvious that it was made from the hide of a gigantic creature, but Illyan couldn’t guess what kind. Instead, he looked at the content that was written on that parchment and immediately memorized it.
He was delighted to realize that there were some explanations that were missing in the books and could finally connect the dots.
However, he was in an even better mood once the academic started to talk. It was obvious that he was very eloquent as he started to talk in even greater detail than what was written on the big parchment.
The sound of scribbling resounded in the room as everyone started to write notes of what Mr. Korin was saying. Nobody wanted to miss even one word that he said, as there were many details that were not recorded in the books. That was also the reason why most of these bookworms even decided to stop reading books and participate in this lecture.
Illyan also didn’t hesitate as he took out the five parchments that he got as a training tool, together with a feather quill and ink bottle, as he started to take notes in a serious manner.
While his eye memory was outstanding to the point where he remembered everything with a glance, his hearing memory wasn’t that good. It was only average or slightly above average, and so he couldn’t afford to just listen.
Fortunately, his hearing was acute, and so he didn’t miss even one word that was said.
The more Mr. Korin talked, the more Illyan felt that this man really knew what he was talking about. This kind of erudite person who could explain the difficult topic with a few words was always something Illyan admired and strived for.
Unfortunately, instead of wholeheartedly listening, he had to put most of his focus on writing.
Illyan had difficulty with writing as he wasn’t used to it, and so he wasn’t as smooth as others. He made several blots on the first parchment, and it felt as if he was scratching instead of writing.
However, after the first parchment came the second, and after it came the third. The more time passed, the more he felt that he got better at it. His handwriting seemed to be more pleasant to the eyes, and there were fewer blots in the text.
He also got quicker.
Thanks to that, he could focus more on what was said. Most of it was still beyond him, and he couldn’t understand, but some of the words resonated in him as he
remembered them from the mathematics book he browsed through.
In this manner, these three hours of lecture passed.
“...And in this manner, you can calculate this formula… Oh my, look at me, we ran overtime! I guess you are tired after this, but you should not forget to absorb the knowledge and train it a little to understand it better…”
Many of the apprentices were dead tired as they had to focus for so long, and their wrists hurt.
For Illyan, though, it was nothing, and so he didn’t hesitate as he took his belongings and went to the front table where Mr. Korin was also packing his things.
“Excuse me, Mr. Korin.”
“Hmm?”
When Mr. Korin heard someone calling him, he turned around. His eyes widened as he had to raise his head a little up, as the one who called him was just that tall. When he saw the red eyes staring at him, he felt like this man didn’t look like a scholar at all.
“What can I do for you, apprentice?”
However, as someone who lived for a long time and went through many experiences, he was still calm and asked with a gentle smile.
“I have a few questions for you regarding mathematics if it doesn’t bother you.”
“Aha. I don’t mind, ask away.”
Illyan didn’t waste any time as he started asking about things he didn’t know about. It was mostly about what each symbol meant, as there were still many that he didn’t know about.
‘So he is a beginner, huh.’
After this thought passed through his mind, he started to meticulously explain each and every question.
Illyan listened while asking some additional questions that came to his mind.
While Mr. Korin was patiently explaining this to Illyan, the other apprentices started either to leave or also came closer to the academic with some questions in mind. Since Illyan had a lot on his mind, it took quite some time, and so some of them gave up and left, while others were impatiently fidgeting.
But in the end, Illyan stopped asking as he got the basics. Now, he just needed to go read that book before asking another question.
“Thank you for answering me.”
“Haha, that is no problem!”
After that, Illyan thanked Mr. Korin with a little bow and left the classroom in a hurry. The only thought in his mind now was to go read the book he left alone before. There were so many things he had yet to learn, and so he didn’t want to waste any time as he once again submerged into the sea of books in the library, seeking all the knowledge within for the rest of the day…