The Divine Hunter Chapter 19: Cadell House

There is a three-story building in the northeast corner of Zhongcheng District. The green tile roof and white windows are very delicately decorated. The wooden fence downstairs forms an extremely spacious yard. There is a sign standing here and there above the gate.

There is a farmland on the left side of the yard, which is full of seasonal vegetables. The side walls of the house are covered with withered yellow vines. Through the gaps between the vines, you can see colorful and crooked graffiti, which come from the immature handwriting of children.

In the center of the yard stood a hornbeam tree that was over forty years old. Its lush branches covered half of the yard and the roof. There are several rectangular tables that can accommodate twenty people under the trees, covered with mottled marks caused by rain and wind.

Roy stopped and observed for a moment under the hornbeam tree, then touched the rough bark with a moved expression on his face. This tree has been growing for at least hundreds of years, and there are some strange symbols carved on the trunk. I don’t know which naughty student carved it.

Roy gently pushed open the wooden door on the first floor of the house. Through the crack in the door, a gentle female voice came to his ears. A group of children sitting upright appeared in his field of vision, and one person was writing on a small blackboard with charcoal pen. Drawing of thin middle-aged woman.

"Our homeland of Aedirn lies east of the Mahakam Mountains, bordering Temeria, Lyria and Rivia to the south, and Kaedwen to the north. Its eastern border is bounded by blue Mountains constitute..."

"The current king of Aedirn is the son of Demavi III and Wilforel. His coat of arms is a gold-red arrow pattern on a black background. The capital Vangerburg is located..."

"Aden has been a hot spot for peasant revolutions since ancient times. In order to change the harsh and cruel ultra-high taxes, the revolutionary army launched a fierce struggle with the nobles and the top leaders of the kingdom..."

Roy frowned when he overheard this, always feeling weird.

"Teacher Cardell! There is someone eavesdropping at the door!"

A blond boy sitting in the back row of the classroom, with a big head, a small body and a very thin body, suddenly raised his small black hand and interrupted the woman's speech. Suddenly more than 60 pairs of curious and bright eyes, They all stared at the person at the door.

This group of children is almost evenly divided between men and women. The youngest is only five or six years old, and the oldest is fourteen or fifteen years old. They are poorly dressed and look thin. There was a super-normal person in the last row of the classroom. When she saw the person coming, her eyebrows were curved with surprise that could not be concealed.

"Roy, why are you here at school?" Vivien waved to him. In class, her dress was obviously not as gorgeous and unrestrained as last time. She was just wearing a clean and simple gray dress with long burgundy hair. It was tied into a ponytail and looked much younger.

Roy hesitated and sat on the empty seat next to her,

"Uncle Tross said you were a teacher at Cardell House. I just wanted to learn something, so I came here."

Vivien nodded lightly, her beautiful eyes full of recognition, "You have made a wise decision. Only knowledge can change your destiny. Welcome to study at Cardell House."

"My name is Tom, hello, Roy!" The boy who just raised his hand and shouted enthusiastically extended his hand to him, his facial features were wrinkled and his front teeth were exposed, and he smiled sincerely and a little funny.

Roy shook his hand.

"Keep quiet, children. Now review what you learned in history class. The teacher goes out to talk about something."

The middle-aged woman led Roy to the office room on the second floor.

"Child, you can call me Teacher Kadell. What is your name? Let me guess, you came to Kadell House to learn universal writing?"

"My name is Roy. I am not a local. Can I enter the school?" Roy nodded and asked slightly nervously. He didn't want to go to school in vain.

"Any student under the age of sixteen is welcome here. You seem to meet the requirements. You need to pay a tuition fee of 20 kronor a month and cooperate with me to register detailed identity information. Do you understand? Most of the students in the school are children. .” Kadel’s eyes were gentle, but her huge aquiline nose, deep nasolabial folds, and mean lips still made her look frighteningly stern.

"I have another question, do you have enough money?" Kadell looked a little suspicious. Few students came to school alone, and they were usually accompanied by their elders.

"I have a job over there in the market... enough to pay for my tuition, by the way, Mr. Kadel. And because of my work, I will only come to school every afternoon." 20 crowns was indeed a bargain that Roy had not expected. His original money is enough to pay for it without having to work part-time.

"Morning or afternoon, whatever you like, as long as you can keep up."

Kadel's assistance Roy completed the registration and stuffed the form into the cabinet under the table.

Roy glanced at it and could see several thick stacks of forms neatly arranged in the cabinet. After he paid the tuition again, he followed Cardell back to the simple classroom, and his position was arranged between Vivien and Tom.

As soon as Roy took his seat, he felt some unkind glances from beside him.

"It seems that not everyone welcomes my arrival!"

On the upper right side of him, there were several strong boys who saw him joining the classroom. Their eyes suddenly became as aggressive as those of wolves, especially the oldest one, who was fourteen or fifteen years old. There was a hint of jealousy and warning, as if a beloved toy had been taken away.

Roy didn't take this matter seriously because he didn't want to be jealous of a few brats.

"20 kronor per month, there are even fewer local children. Is Kadel House a charity hall? This amount of money is barely enough to cover the cost of feeding the children in Midtown." He counted roughly... In the classroom In addition to him, there are a total of 65 students and 2 teachers, namely Vivien and Kadel.

Eating out will cost you a lot of money every month. Reading and literacy are almost free, and accommodation is also provided for children with special needs.

"What are you thinking about, Roy?" Vivien glanced over with concern, "Aren't you used to the environment here?"

"I think it's pretty good..." Roy lowered his voice, "Are all of us kids from the lower city?"

"Well, they are all children from ordinary families," the woman joked. "Get along well with everyone in the future and don't bully them because of your age. If you don't understand anything, just ask me."

Roy nodded and devoted himself to studying.

The teaching conditions in this so-called "school" are very simple. There are no desks and chairs. The students sit side by side on a shallow carpet; there are no quills and ink, and they all rely on black charcoal left over from the fire. He wrote on his head; he also used crumpled and inferior straw paper, or he wrote directly on the ground and then wiped it, and then wiped it and wrote again.

The conditions are difficult, but hard-won, and the vast majority of students listened very carefully.

After a little accommodation with the new students, Kadel began to teach the basics of the common language popular in the north, a "new language" produced after the convergence of the celestial spheres, with letters and grammar similar to Slavic languages.

Roy felt strange, and suddenly returned to the world before. He was still the ignorant and young high school student sitting in class.

It turns out that Roy has lived in this world for more than ten years and has a certain understanding of the local language, which improved his learning efficiency to some extent.

His mature thinking and brainpower, as well as his forward-thinking vision, are a huge help. His 6-point spirit beyond ordinary people allows him to stay focused for a longer period of time. The most important point is that he has experienced the cruel compulsory education baptism before. of high school students. In terms of memory of knowledge points, it is not inferior to anyone in this world.

Several factors overlapped and produced an astonishing chain reaction. Roy learned this new language and became more and more comfortable.

……

As it was approaching noon, people gathered around several rectangular tables under the huge branches of the hornbeam tree in the yard.

The cold wind blew the steaming food on the table, and as the aroma lingered, a group of children sitting quietly swallowed their saliva in unison.

But no one took action. Their longing eyes were focused on the middle-aged woman giving orders in the center.

Kadel stood upright, like a commander before a battle, looked around at the students who were about to move, nodded with satisfaction, and began to lecture,

"Prophet Lebioda lit three fires for the general public, one is called justice, the other is called equality, and the last one is the fire of ideals... The children here all have ideals... Our fathers are all Farmers, cherish every grain of food they work hard and water with their blood and sweat..."

Kadel waved his hand suddenly, and the dining table instantly began to boil like boiling water.

The food on the table is nothing more than a portion of coarse grain bread made from barley and other grains, vegetable soup, pickles, and dried salted fish.

But the hungry students accepted everyone who came, stuffing food into their mouths as hard as they could, as if if they moved slower, nothing would be left.

Roy, who was nibbling the bread slowly, was startled by the students' fighting attitude. Assimilated by them, Roy inexplicably speeded up his eating.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the entire table of food was swept away, not even a drop of vegetable soup was left, and the leaves that fell from the hornbeam tree to the dinner plate were all devoured by some naughty kid. clean.

But Roy was only sixty percent full, and he could feel that most students were about the same. Not far away, the blond-haired Tom had a pouty mouth. With his small arms and legs, he couldn't compete with others, even if he was sitting in the center.

But I have to say that this meal was the most delicious meal Roy had ever eaten since time travel, even surpassing the delicacies served to him by Sevier Hogg.

"Sure enough, the food you grab is the most delicious."

Roy suddenly felt that what Kadel said before the meal had a profound meaning, claiming to be fair and just, but at the dinner table, a group of children were fighting for food according to their own abilities.

Is it educating them about the cruelty of reality from an early age?

……

After lunch, the students had a short break and divided into more than a dozen small groups, chasing each other in the yard or chatting. Their young and childish faces were filled with smiles. Roy once again had that kind of feeling. The illusion is like returning to the physical education class in the old school.

He could not imagine that in the turbulent magical world, where the revolutionary army was in full swing, there would be a paradise like Kadel's House. There was indeed something about this school that he admired.

But there are also disharmonious elements in the "Promised Land". In every group, there are bound to be popular people and ignored people.

The kid named Tom who greeted him warmly at the beginning was one of the unlucky ones. Standing alone in the corner of the yard, playing with his fingers with a lonely face, he cast envious eyes at the lively scene around him from time to time.

"Roy, why don't you go over and join them?" A gust of fragrant wind came, and Vivien came to him quietly, with encouragement in her beautiful eyes.

Roy felt a chill in his heart and couldn't help but shook his head, "They and I have no common language... What's going on with that kid named Tom? Isn't he so pitiful?"

"Tom... is an orphan. Unlike other children, he has the love and protection of his parents. The school is his home." The woman sighed and lowered her tone, "He is too thin and small, so he often He was bullied by a few tall kids and was isolated by others. Principal Cardell and I tried to dissuade him many times, but it had no effect. We had too many things to manage, and we couldn't pay attention to him at all times, and we didn't care enough about him."

"This is a neglected child."

Roy nodded. Bullying is a difficult problem even in modern society, let alone this backward and dilapidated school.

"Let's go, Roy, let's go stay with him..." Vivien suddenly grabbed Roy's hand and walked towards Tom without allowing him to resist.

Following playtime is a half-hour nap. In the afternoon, it was Vivien's turn to give lectures: simple arithmetic, basic common sense, mixed with the definition of some common language vocabulary. A beautiful woman with outstanding figure and appearance, with a sweet smile and speaking in a gentle tone, made boring knowledge interesting.

At least Roy and the boys listened without blinking.

……

When the shabby wall clock in the classroom passed five o'clock, people started to pick up the children from Caddell House and returned to their homes in the lower city.

"Is it safe? The traffickers from the Sparrow Gang won't take action against these children?" Roy looked at the direction the students left and walked to Vivien and asked curiously.

"Five years ago, the Sparrow Gang kidnapped a girl from the school, and her body was found in the stinking ditch the next day. The desperate parents spent all their savings to buy kerosene and take advantage of the opportunity. One of the gang's strongholds was ignited in the night. The two of them rushed into the fire and died together with the sleeping gangster. I still clearly remember the scene of more than twenty burnt corpses being lifted out of the dark ruins. ." A few years later, Vivien talked about this incident ~IndoMTL.com~ with a hint of shock in her eyes, "Later, the school and all the residents in the lower city put pressure on the Sparrow Gang. Even Baron Tarwick was alarmed. , the Sparrow Gang made a compromise and will not dare to touch the bottom line again."

After hearing this, Roy couldn't help but think of Sevier Hogg's words, "The anger of an honest man can burn down the entire Mahakam." When he went back in the evening, he had one more thing to tell Toya. story.

"Come on, Roy." Vivien suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him to the classroom involuntarily, "On the first day, there must be a lot you didn't understand? I'll review it for you. Once again."

Roy was really flattered. From the first meeting, he had a feeling that this woman's attitude towards him was surprisingly good, but there was nothing wrong with her at the moment. If he could learn common writing as soon as possible, he would be willing to do so.

"Hey, Roy, why are you back again?" Tom, who was leaning at the door and staring enviously at the people coming and going, jumped over and grabbed his other arm. Hands, golden hair swaying, grinning to reveal two front teeth, like a puppy trying to please its owner, "Are you homeless too? Do you want me to come and play with you?"

Vivien grabbed his ear, causing the thin boy to wail and bend down, "Little Tom, Roy is going to review today's knowledge. Since you took the initiative to come to the door, let's come together. !"

The boy's face froze upon hearing this, and he struggled like a lively little squirrel, but was still dragged into the classroom by Vivian by his ears.

"Don't you usually dislike that no one plays with you? From now on, you will accompany Roy to learn more after school."

The bleak autumn wind carried the boy's wail far away, and the branches of the hornbeam tree that covered the sky and sun in the courtyard were blown away. The withered yellow leaves fell rustlingly, and the whole school seemed to wither along with it.