A large building was erected in the middle of my land in the Barony of Azif.
It was a temporary structure made by setting up square wooden pillars and covering them with only a roof. The building had not even been completed, but furniture was placed inside, and a signboard was hung.
Rohan Academy.
There were academies in Rubalt Kingdom as well.
The representative one was the Royal Academy, run by the royal family, and Rosencrantz Academy, run by ducal House Rosencrantz in the south, was also famous. And Albrecht Academy of count House Albrecht in the east was known as a Knight-training institution no less than the Royal Academy.
Existing academies were attended by the children of nobles and wealthy merchants. Their tuition was enormous, and academies were used as social arenas where students built connections with talented people from every field.
By contrast, most of the students at Rohan Academy were orphans. Even if they had parents, not one child paid tuition.
“Tom! What are you doing instead of working? Get out here right now!”
A man grabbed Tom by the scruff of the neck with a rough hand and tried to drag him away like an animal.
Children worked too. It was less a matter of inheriting the family trade and more that every child was used like a laborer.
“An academy, my ass! What the hell is this? We’re already busy as hell with farming!”
No one stopped the man. A few children even hid, thinking their own parents had stormed in.
I did not stop the man either. I merely preached to the children gathered inside the temporary building.
“From today onward, you will learn letters and numbers. It may seem useless right now. Most people of Azif have no trouble living even if they don’t know letters or numbers. However, Baron Azif gives preferential treatment to people who can read and write. And those who can do arithmetic can serve the baronial house for life. One gold every month. If you do good work, you can receive up to five gold.”
The children murmured among themselves.
The money they received while serving on my land was only 50 copper a day at best. They had to work two days to earn 1 silver, and they had to fill an entire fifty days of work to put 1 gold in their hands.
One gold was quite a large sum even for an adult.
When a poor harvest, famine, epidemic, or some other disaster broke out, there were months when they could not earn even 10 silver, let alone 1 gold. But the 1 gold I mentioned was guaranteed money paid by the baronial family.
‘If my goal were to raise people who would only earn that much, there’d be no reason to make such a fuss.’
I looked farther ahead.
I saw a world where Azif’s public order was strengthened, a proper system was built, and money circulated around my land.
I did not stop at merely seeing it. I made plans and put them into action.
That was my plan, made by me.
“If you want to earn money quickly, study hard.”
The children’s eyes began to sparkle. Among them was Tom, who had just been dragged away.
‘At most, only three or four children will be able to serve the baronial family. One at the mercenary office, one at the merchant guild, and perhaps one under a mage. That should be the limit.’
Even that was the maximum. It was based on the assumption that talents suited to those positions would appear.
‘This isn’t about forcing children into the existing system. It’s about creating a world where children can live comfortably. There’s no need to think of it as something grand. I can simply regard this as another way of establishing an Achievement. And it’s also a way of returning to someone else what I received.’
To my eyes, the swarming children looked like overflowing possibilities. I had resolved to pass on to them the hope I had enjoyed.
“This is the teacher who will teach you letters from now on.”
I said that, but no one stepped forward.
The children stared at me, and I pushed the back of the boy standing blankly beside me.
“Go, Baluka.”
―M-me?
Among those around me, Baluka was the only one who knew letters. I could have taught them myself, but I did not want to spend my precious time that way. For the sake of Achievements as well, I had to live a denser life.
“It’s an order. Teach the children letters, Baluka.”
―Yes, Master.
Baluka had learned letters from me. He memorized them faster than anyone else, and the secret behind that was “Hell, where time flowed differently.”
‘I’ll summon you again in 10 minutes. If you haven’t memorized it by then, I’ll call you again in 20 minutes.’
One day in this world was like a thousand years in Hell. Because that eternity of time was horribly painful, Baluka had no choice but to exert his concentration.
As a result, Baluka became smarter by the day.
He had been equipped not only with the common tongue I taught him, but even basic mental arithmetic.
Baluka took one step forward and looked around at the children.
Baluka looked like a boy in his mid-teens. His baby fat had not fully fallen away, giving him a soft impression, and he lowered his eyes as if he were shy.
The children who had never dealt with Baluka felt relieved. They looked at their teacher with eyes full of expectation.
FLASH!
When Baluka snapped his eyes up, the children who met his gaze head-on were horrified. Even the children who had only been watching from the side shut their mouths and swallowed.
They had instinctively sensed danger.
―I-I am Baluka.
A dead spirit’s speech was different from a person’s. It rang directly inside the head rather than through the ears, but fortunately, the children did not question it.
Perhaps the children’s instincts were sounding alarm bells over and over.
―I will teach you letters.
I listened to Baluka’s class too. Although he stammered a little, it was fairly worth listening to.
Since children of various ages, from newborns to fifteen-year-olds, had been gathered together, it was no different from a chaotic marketplace.
―Focuuuuus!
At Baluka’s shout, a few children burst into tears, and soon wailing broke out on all sides.
If it had been the usual Baluka, he would have suppressed them with knifeplay, but that kind of shit was not permitted.
―D-don’t cry! Pleaaase!
The crying spread more and more, and it seemed impossible to control.
I slowly stood up and gestured toward the children.
“If you want to cry, cry as much as you want! You can cry all you like. But I’ll throw out those who do nothing but cry and fail to learn.”
For a moment, the children’s crying faltered. Their frightened eyes turned toward me.
“Remember only one thing. The reason you are learning is to build the strength to survive. Whether you cry or laugh, if you want to live on my land, learn. Only those who learn will survive to the end.”
The crying died down a little, and the eyes of the children who could at least understand words began to sparkle.
“Continue, Baluka.”
―Yes, Master.
After finishing a class of a little over thirty minutes, Baluka came to me looking as if he had been bleached white.
―Master, I will do anything. Please order me to do anything except this. No, please just send me back to Hell instead.
“Denied. Class will be held every day after breakfast for one hour.”
―Maaasteeer!
Baluka fell into despair, but I discovered possibility in him.
“Think of it as washing away your wrongs. If you killed ten thousand, you should do something that saves ten thousand. For reference, saving someone is ten thousand times harder than killing someone.”
Baluka’s eyes were hollow. As if he were memorizing a foreign language he had heard for the first time, he rolled the same words under his tongue and pronounced them.
―Saving ten thousand people......
***
The next day, Baluka steadied his heart and stood before the children.
―If you cut corners...... I will kill you.
At Baluka’s threat, the children were frightened and burst into tears. One child pounded the desk and resisted, while another tried to sneak out.
Baluka panicked as if the children’s crying frightened him more than a blade. His voice came out twisted, to the point that it was impossible to tell whether it was a threat or an attempt to soothe them, and the children became even more confused.
The class was utter chaos, but after a few days, the crying began to decrease little by little. Instead, crooked letters began to remain on the paper, and both Baluka and the children were slowly getting used to one another.
―Don’t cry...... please. I won’t get angry anymore.
At times, Baluka tried to soothe a crying child, but his awkward way of speaking only increased their fear.
He was skilled at slaughter, but he knew absolutely nothing about how to deal with children.
“Attention!”
The children turned to me with tense expressions.
“From now on, when I say attention, you clap your hands once, look at me, and shout, ‘Attention!’ Attention!”
“Attention!”
The children clapped their hands and looked at me.
As the clapping cut off whatever they had been doing before, the children focused on me. Seeing that, Baluka looked at me with an expression that even seemed to contain faith.
“Do you intend to spend your entire lives wandering the streets and picking through garbage to eat? You don’t seem to understand at all how precious this opportunity is for you bastards. Fine. From now on, those who fool around will be sent to the workplace. Those who prefer using their bodies to using their heads, stand up right now and go tamp down the ground.”
A few stood up, but most did not move an inch.
―......I am amazed. What kind of magic did you use?
“It wasn’t magic. I merely said something the children could understand. If you want to talk to a child, think from the child’s position.”
―The child’s position......
As I watched Baluka and the children, I confirmed one fact.
Fists before words!
This was not an age where children could be coaxed gently and taught. I could understand why Baluka had been throwing such a fit.
“I’ll allow you to punish them within precise rules.”
What I wanted was a system that would run naturally even without me.
When children who were too young cried, they were sent outside. From the age of ten onward, they went to the back and stood as punishment. And I placed several children aged fifteen and above as managers and had them control the other children.
Then the atmosphere began to settle. The children also seemed to realize that no one was being scolded without reason.
The mood among the children, who had been horrified by merely meeting Baluka’s eyes, loosened little by little.
Some even snickered at Baluka’s flustered appearance.
‘Is education too much for Baluka?’
Every person had different talents. Baluka was a serial killer and a talent specialized in assassination. He was a yaksha on the battlefield, but in an educational setting, he seemed useless.
Baluka did his best, but all he could manage was writing and reciting letters like a machine.
‘I should speak to Branch Manager Carlton and ask him to look for a suitable teacher.’
As class came to an end, one child approached Baluka.
It was a girl who looked about twelve years old, Anna. She took the hand of the dazed Baluka and said,“We’ll work hard, Teacher. Please don’t cry.”
Baluka looked at Anna’s hand gripping his fingers, then started in surprise and swung his arm. Anna fell on her backside from the force, and tears welled in her eyes.
―N-no! Don’t cry!
“I’m okay. Really.”
Anna looked back at me. Her expression said she wanted me to forgive Baluka.
‘There are no second chances.’
That was what I had grown up hearing. So I had struggled to live perfectly, and I had met most of that standard. Perhaps that was why I often forced that same standard onto the ones under my command.
“Just this once, I’ll let it slide specially, Baluka.”
―Th-thank you, Master!
Baluka bowed deeply to me. Then he looked back at Anna and said, his expression somewhat moved,
―......Thank you.
“I’m glad you didn’t get scolded, Teacher.”