To choose to spend the rest of their day in the library meant that the child must really love books. Satin moved quietly between the shelves, careful not to disturb anyone.
“Satin?” A child, crouched in a corner reading a book, spotted him.
“Hi.” Satin gave a small smile and sat down beside him. Though he wasn’t sure how to interact with kids, being friendly seemed like the right option. The child looked about fifteen, maybe younger, or maybe he’s just a tall twelve-year-old.
“Did you come here to read?” The child asked.
“Not exactly. I just want to find out something.” The child titled his head, seemingly unaware of Satin’s memory loss. Perhaps only the kids that play outside share that information. Satin pondered on how to explain his situation naturally and then spoke up, “Did you hear that I was in the penance room?”
“Mhm, I heard it from Tim this morning.” The child nodded without suspicion, showing that there is no division between the kids who played outside and those who stayed at the library.
“Do you know why I was there?”
“No, but you must’ve made the teacher really mad, right?”
“I don’t know either, I can’t remember anything actually.”
The child was taken aback, his eyes widened in surprise, “What do you mean?”
“I think something must’ve gone wrong. I can’t remember my past, so I’m trying to find out if anyone knows anything.”
“What do you mean you can’t remember your past? Does that mean you don’t remember me either?”
“Actually, um…” The boy’s eyes widened. He had long limbs but a round face that made him look like a loaf of bread.
“You don’t remember me? I’m Rogers, remember…?” Rogers leaned in closers after asking if Satin really doesn’t remember him. Satin gave an awkward smile, while Rogers’s expression grew serious. His eyes darted around as if trying to piece together a puzzle.
“Maybe it happened because of the magic research with the teacher. You might’ve heart your head using the dangerous magic.” Roger shared the same opinion as Rufus. It seemed everyone knew that Satin was involved in the teacher’s research.
“Did I ever tell you what kind of research it was?”
Rogers shook his head in response to Satin’s question. Then he paused as if something had occurred to him, “Do you remember something?”
“You once said things weren’t going well. Maybe it was about the research.”
“Not going well?”
“At that time, the school’s atmosphere was bad because of Maggie, so it might’ve been related to that.”
Maggie? Before Satin could ask who she is, Rogers trailed off and shook his head, “But’ I’m not sure though.”
Satin decided not to press further. He wanted to come off as friendly and persisting with questions could only worsen his impression.
“Thanks for telling me. I feel pretty uneasy not remembering anything and all.” Luckily, Satin seemed to have made a good impression. Rogers looked a bit embarrassed and gently pushed Satin’s shoulder, suggesting he should go since Rogers wanted to get back to his book.
Not wanting to seem suspicious by questioning too many kids, Satin left the library for now. Satin headed towards the west corridor, passing by the kitchen Where Rufus worked and the empty dining hall. There was one classroom, and opposite it were the washrooms, bathhouse, laundry room, and such. With only twelve students, one classroom is usually enough.
Satin recalled the last school he attended. His highschool graduation was from a different school, so his last memory was from a middle school graduation.
‘There were so many classrooms.’
There are seven classes per grade, music room, art room, performance room, science labs, and various other classrooms. Although the number of classrooms might be fewer now due to the small number of students, it still felt incomplete compared to those days.
The ages of the kids seem to vary too. Despite being eighteen, it feels odd to share the same class with younger kids like Tim and Heather.
‘Wait, there won’t be compulsory education here, is there?’
Even in Korea, it hasn't been long since children receive a systematic education based on their age. It hadn’t even been a hundred years yet.
If this world was established around the eighteenth or nineteenth century, this educational method might seem quite ordinary. Learning itself could be seen as a blessing. For now, Satin decided to go outside and meet the kids playing. The trees surrounding the school grounds caught his eye first.
‘It would definitely be scary to enter there at night.’
He wouldn't dare take ten steps in there without getting lost, especially in the dark. The path was quite rugged, and it didn't seem to be a busy road with people or transportation passing through.
Satin wondered why they would build a school in such an isolated place, but the concept would make a nice painting though. Observing the scenery, Satin headed towards where he could hear the children’s bustle.
“Satin, is it true that you have lost your memory?”
Several kids were playing around a large tree. One of them had tied a swing to a thick branch, and the kid who had just called Satin was sitting on it. Tim, who was pushing the swim from behind, chuckled, “I did say that, didn’t I? Hehe.”
“Is it really true though?” The kids gathered around Satin, brimming with curiosity rather than worry, as if they had stumbled upon something interesting.
As Satin hesitated with a surprised “Uhh”, Tim muttered under his breath.
“Satin, quickly confirm that it’s true. I know you’re not lying.”
“Yeah, it’s true.”
“See, I told you. Satin doesn’t know anything right now. He became a complete idiot.” Not knowing anything doesn’t make you an idiot though. Satin felt a little shaken but found it difficult to argue back, so he just smiled. He didn’t want to come off as a petty adult trying to argue seriously with kids.
Thinking that Satin agreed, Tim grinned triumphantly. Anyways, since everyone already knew about the memory loss, it made things easier to talk about, “Hey, guys, does anyone know why I ended up in the penance room yesterday?”
The kids looked at each other and then one of them responded, “I don’t know. But Satin must’ve done something wrong.”
“Why?”
“Because to make the teacher punish you like that…” The kids nodded in agreement with each other.
“Everyone seems to like the teacher here.”
One of the kids burst into laughter at Satin’s comment, “Well, duh! I don’t even want to think about what will happen to me before coming here.”
“Me neither…”
“Yeah, it was really tough.”
The kids shared their difficult experiences, saying that they had a hard time living on the streets without families or a place to go to. If the kids adore the teacher so much, why does Cain dislike him? While there’s a description about being an experimental subject in Dark Age, that hasn’t really happened yet.
Satin glanced around and then asked, “What about Cain?”
One of the kids tilted their head, “Cain?”
“I share a room with him, but he doesn’t seem to like me. So I’m a bit curious about Cain.”
After a brief pause, the kids continued in a disorganized manner. The high-pitched voices of kids who haven't gone through puberty yet, resembled the chirping of small birds, regardless of gender, “Cain never liked the teacher from the beginning.”
“Cain might run away.”
“Run away? What do you mean?”
Tim replied, “Sometimes kids run away, but I don’t get why though.”
“Why can’t they just leave? Why run away?”
Tim and the other kids shrugged at each other, “That’s just how it is.”
Two years ago, a wizard by the name of Laigeis first appeared in Cloverland, a city of moderate size, neither too big nor too small, a city that had almost no wizards.
There were a few elderly wizards, but they all had honorary positions in the administrative and security office, living the life of nobles. In fact, the old wizards all tend to be mostly similar to each other.
Laigeis was a bit of an unusual wizard. Despite being old enough for his hair to start graying, he didn’t hang around the administrative or security offices. He didn’t show off his power or take expensive commissions either.
When Laigeis first came to cloverland, the first thing he did was scout out buildings. At first, he looked into mansions near the city center but found nothing suitable. After considering nearby villages, he eventually bought a rundown mansion in the middle of an empty forest. The mansion was dirt cheap because it’s located in a forest notorious for getting people lost.
Since the mansion was inhabitable without repairs, Laigeis hired several laborers. They were paid handsomely due to the forest’s bad reputation. Rumors began to spread from the laborers from Cloverland and nearby villages, saying that the eccentric wizard seemed to be building a school.
As a result, people from Cloverland and other cities came to visit. They brought their children and wandered around the construction site. Some even tried to bribe the laborers to get information about Laigeis.
It was no surprise because most wizards tend to train only one, or at most two, successors. Wizards considered their scarcity as their true weapon.
Aspiring wizards are easy to find, but the path of becoming a wizard is narrower than a keyhole. So parents were desperate to send their children to schools that taught magic. Laigeis turned everyone away. While he had plans to build a school, it wasn’t a school to train wizards, so everyone left disappointed. Amidst this, someone asked, “What will you teach, then?”
"Anything. I plan to bring in poor, homeless children and teach them anything they want to learn,"
Credits:
TL: Sajin
TL comments:
TL: Awwh that’s really sweet actually.
