There is no Limit to Learning
Returned here after 6 years of hiatus. Hope there will still be people reading
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学ぶ事は制限がない。
After cleaning up dinner the night ended and soon morning came the next day. Since the mansion had only a few things left behind, clean-up moved rather fast, the couple -Lady Anna specifically was not so thrilled, but she continued to dust the place none the less.
“Ace, we have done all we can do here for now.” Once we have decided the place was clean enough. Sir Heid came up to me. “It is a sunny day, a good day to waste sitting doing nothing in the mansion, why don’t you familiarize yourself with the town.”
I do want to get myself familiarize with the town. And while at it, I might as well use the time to gather information about this world. There is also the fact that I have decided to see things through and help the couples however I can before I completely set off to another place.
While the couple had assured me that they will do something about their circumstances by themselves, and that I should not push myself with their problem. However, with them as my first human contacts since I got to this world’s civilization, I wanted to do something for them even if just a little.
Now that you mention it, this would be the first time I will be able to see another world’s townscape in broad daylight. When we arrive town yesterday, the sun was already setting off, we had registered and had that ordeal of getting harassed by some townsfolk.
As I might have guessed, while it looked medieval fantasy, the scenery really reminded me of modern society that I was quite accustomed to. Though not as many, the road pavements were littered with motor vehicles which undermined the medieval setting most otherworld themes I had read from light novels.
Just like the overview I had seen yesterday the town is shaped almost circular, with a neat and systematic arrangement. Like a pie, the town can be easily divided into four sections.
The Eastern Section houses a lot of the governmental undertakings, the Civil Registry which I had gone to yesterday was stationed there as well.
The Southern Section, also known as Entertainment District, houses most brothels and other bars, it also includes a gymnasium of some sorts. Unfortunately, as I have no one year residency I was no allowed entry.
The Northern Section used to be the nobles’ district. However, the distinction was primarily abolished from when lady Anna’s father was in Eldership and now become the residential area.
The Western Section is the commercial district where merchants and the likes do trading.
Now, you might wonder if the distinction is absolute where you can only buy on the western section of the town, however it seems to be not the case. Just like how one can set up shop anywhere in the any section, you may also set up residency anywhere long as you can provide the necessary documents and pay the necessary fees.
It is just that most government concerns are done in the east side to provide convenience like a one stop shop. This holds true to the commercial district, where the merchant guild is currently taken roots.
*****
So here I am now walking almost aimlessly I found myself in the commercial district, the marketplace of some sort. Although I say aimless, I was here in these busy streets looking for whatever clues that might be good ideas. But nothing comes to mind.
“Hmmm…”
“…”
“…”
“…Fish!”
“…Apples!”
“Please buy your vegetables here!
“…Your everyday fresh meat!”
Apparently, I was dozing off, and was only brought back to reality as I walked and got myself hungry. That and looking at the never-ending source of ingredients made my stomach growl.
“A Battle fought with an empty stomach is a losing one.” I convinced myself and started to choose among the selection in front of me.
While skimming through the wide selection of food in front of me, I noticed something that I did not notice yesterday.
Unknown texts…
On top of the cookie-like food was a signage with unknown language script. Of course, I should have already figured this out when I did not see this ability in my skills column, but it still shocked me when I found out about it. I probably cannot read any of the words in this world.
Now, I was glad that Sir Heid and Lady Anna offered and had filled-up those forms for me in the Civil Registry, I would have known about this weakness earlier but that would have been a hassle to explain why I cannot read or write when I was able to converse with them on an almost professional level.
Since I cannot read the signage, I almost gave up on buying, but then an idea flashed at me:
“Maybe if I use the Monocle of Appraisal…”
. Chocolate Cookies {
- A chocolate flavored cookie, 2 inches in diameter
- Item Rank: F
- Price: 25 Pera
- Regenerates LIFE FORCE by 5
“Ohhhh…! Looks like I can use this method to check on the items.” While I still need to learn this world’s script, this method should help me read for the time being. Relieved that the earlier weakness has a small work through, I then started to look for food that would suit my appetite and finances.
Since I am temporary-yet-officially bodyguard to the Romaria’s, I’m getting paid a suitable amount for the job, but since I know about the couples’ situation, I just decided to take one silver coin and free lodging and food for my services.
It is a good time so allow me to explain about the currency of this world as explained to me by sir Heid when he offered my bodyguard fees. As the Monocle of Item Appraisal had confirmed for me, this worlds currency is called Pera and the following denominations:
- Bronze Coin - 1P
- Large Bronze Coin - 10P
- Silver Coin - 100P
- Large Silver Coin - 1,000P
- Gold Coin - 10,000P
- Large Gold Coin - 100,000P
- Platinum Coin - 1,000,000P
Well, so much for that and more about my hungry stomach. Walking aimlessly and the hurdle of not knowing this world’s script had taken some of my energy, so, I then bought 2 meat skewers worth 1 Large Bronze Coin each and a cold orange juice worth 5 Bronze Coin. My change denominated to 7 Large Bronze Coin and 5 regular sized Bronze Coin. (75 Pera)
I then continued to walk while relishing myself with the well-cooked skewers and refreshing Orange Juice.
Now that I have found a way to read in this world, I should start to focus my attention on how to help the couples. …Or so I thought, but apparently my problem about reading was not solve… not in the slightest…
The shop in front of me intrigue me a bit, it had a signage made with a pestle and mortar and the still unknown script written beneath the logo, curious I then aimed my Monocle of Item Appraisal unto the signage hoping to know more about the shop and was greeted with this:
.Wooden plank {
- Item Rank: D
- Wooden plank made of cedar
- Price: 75 Pera
“Damn it!”
*****
Realizing that my weakness in reading this world’s text had me frantically, no -that was an understatement… I was practically running back to the Romaria household.
“Ace, you’re back early?” Lady Anna was tending to the garden when she saw me in front of the mansion and saw me flustered. “Did something happen?”
When I first met the Romaria’s I was able to converse with them normally using what is called the universal language in my previous world so I thought I would not have any problem with conversation.
But unfortunately, they had a different language script which is unlike anything I have seen thus far in my previous world so reading and writing was going to be a great problem for me here.
“Yes…” my voice trailed a bit as I was unsure how to tell them about it without having to tell them I am from another world or that I have a magical ship stored in some sort of magical barrier. “Can you please teach me to read…”
“I am sorry…?” My sheepish gestured seem to have looked comical as Lady Anna had started to laugh heartily. For some reason I knew that she was not ridiculing me, but it was embarrassing none the less. I am guessing that she was still feeling under the weather and my asking to be taught how to read fumed all her worries.
“You were able to easily converse to me and Heid, that it never came up to me but… I guess there are a lot of things that we do not know about each other isn’t there?”
She then told Heid of my circumstances and the two had promised to teach me how to read. Thankfully, the Romaria mansion had books in their library which became my temporary room as per by Lady Anna’s suggestion.
When they first guided me to the library upon my request, we were expecting it to be empty or completely defiled beyond recognition. Fortunately, aside from the books being toppled over their shelves or dust and cobwebs all over them, most of the books seem to be still of great use. I guess thieves really have no use for books. Thank be the gods.
I will have to go back to the basics here, so with that in mind, I then decided to lower my bodyguard rate to 50 Large Bronze Coin and asked them to teach me how to read and write using the letters of this world as part of my remuneration.
I read and write as per instruction from my mentors Sir Heid who would teach me about politics of this world and Lady Anna who would teach me the basic of reading and writing, going out only when either of the two goes shopping. I was also able to help with the food problem by providing meat and other food ingredients through hunting and foraging in the nearby forest.
As a teacher in my previous world. Learning was one of my greatest joys. I was not the straight ‘A’ type of person that could learn immediately, so learning something new was difficult but I have to say not impossible. With hard work and persistence, I can learn things albeit slow and steady.
Thankfully, the scripts this world is using is quite similarity to the Universal Language in my previous world, they have 26 scripts for each of the upper and lower case and though they have their unique nuances the grammatical sense are almost the same, and thus learning proceeded at a spectacular pace. The lack of cursive and other quirks even made remembering their so-called ‘UNISCRIPT’ easier.
The numerical scripts where a bit difficult though, while they say it just like the universal language. Doing their numbers is almost cumbersome to write and memorize as they have symbols for every big number you can think of. But the concept and application are almost the same as the roman numerals so it will be a matter of time before I can master it.
But in a sense, learning this world’s script will have greater impact for me in more ways than I would expect. Now that I have started learning the ‘UNISCRIPT’, I was able to study on books about metallurgy and ‘metal-crafting’, and so my blacksmithing skills should be starting here.
“Practice without theory dwindles to unsatisfactory results.” With my selected amnesia, I have forgotten who said this but there seem to be truth about it since I have now the new knowledge of how to approach blacksmithing by learning the theory behind them.
“Ohhh! Hurray for the Theory and Practice!” and shouted like some simpleton and ‘dabbed’ like an idiot to showcase my pleasure. But, soon stopped as I saw the couple on the door smiling musingly at my weird gesture.
“Ahemm, I learned a lot today.”
“Well, there are more to learning, now it’s time to eat.”
To Lady Anna’s beckon, I headed for the small dining table, which is the only furniture in this big empty hall. We decided to eat here since the kitchen is off limits to both me and Sir Heid, only Lady Anna can enter there.
The meal that Lady Anna prepares are not only delicious. The food also packed a lot of LIFE FORCE regeneration add-on as stated in the Monocle of Appraisal, when I used it secretly.
“Anna your food is as usual very delicious.” Sir Heid who is not in the slightest embarrassed and easily praised his wife’s cooking.
I must agree though, her cooking would not lose to any 5-star restaurant in my previous world, not that I have gone to one though.
“Yes, this meal is quite exquisite…” since I was savoring the flavor of the food something almost went past my head, thankfully still due to the wonderful flavor of Lay Anna’s cooking the idea pushed in my head. “Ah!”