At around 8:30, Teerom and the dwarves had just exited the city through the eastern gate. They were on their way to a construction site deep in a forest, their job being to build a watchtower.
The dwarves sang a traditional song about the ancient lands of the Dwarven Isles. It was a story song, describing the dwarves' exiling from their own country by the humans; and their eventual return one day.
Teerom walked a horse behind the dwarves, which carried all their building supplies. The sky was filling up with clouds, emphasizing the rays of sunlight striking down. After about half an hour of walking, they arrived at the entrance to the forest. A few hundred meters in, they'd find the watchtower building site.
"Ah, let's see." Aleisar pulled out a map and tried to read it, moving his finger along the path they walked so far, "We're going this way. I think." He said with uncertainty, scratching his head.
"Wait, let me see," Teerom requested, and Aleisar handed him the map, "The site is..." He looked at the sun's position and faced north - to the left of the forest - and turned right while keeping the map facing north, "That way." He pointed straight to where the site probably was.
"I didn't know you could read maps," Wallas commented as they walked into the forest.
"You kinda pick it up," Teerom replied.
A dozen minutes later, they arrived at the construction site, where the trees had already been cleared out for them, and the ground was worked.
"Looks like we don't have to do any of the boring parts," Battdur patted Teerom on the back and prepared his tools, setting aside against a tree the ones he didn't need.
"Alright, lads! Let's get to building!" The dwarves cheered, taking out mugs of alcohol from their trousers.
Dillie took the orphans around the school, showing them all the different classrooms. Apart from the classrooms, there was a lunchroom on the first floor and two washrooms on both, and a small plant room.
"We do one subject a day. My class is doing History today." She explained as she finished her tour.
"Are we gonna be put into different classes?" Jurie asked.
"Yeah, probably. How old are you?" Dillie asked.
"I'm 15," Jurie replied.
"Yeah, you're probably gonna be put straight into Middle Stage 6," Dillie added as they went outside, "That's the last stage. Adimia and P-Paley are probably going to be in Middle Stage 4. And the rest are going in the Lower stages."
"What stage are you?" Paley asked, making her stiffen up like a soldier.
"I'm Middle Stage 4." She submissively mumbled.
"I see,"
Everyone's uniforms slowly started to glow white, and they all began shuffling indoors to their classes.
"That means it's time for the next period," Dillie said, waiting for the noisy crowd to go inside. Instead of bells, schools use magic to send messages to students through their uniforms, "I should get going. You guys go to Ms Lachi - I mean, the Headmistress. She'll give you your Student Passes and stuff."
And so, the orphans went back to the Headmistress' office, where she prepared them to take a photograph. She used a strange black box - a camera - to take the pictures. It had a small dint in the side, where she put her finger and let her magic flow into the camera.
Jurie was the first to take a picture. She sat down on the stool in front of the box, stiff as a plank.
"Smile!" The Headmistress put her mana into the camera, and it flashed, producing, with painful slowness, a picture out the back. Surprisingly, it was an extremely detailed picture of Jurie's face.
The rest of the orphans took the picture. Each of them smiled for it, but when it was Paley's turn, the Headmistress broke out into laughter.
"My, what a great smile!" She laughed at his awkward, broken smile. The Facimut Pulveris and his general inability to smile made him generate an expression that was nothing short of goofy.
The Headmistress slapped their pictures onto Student Passes, writing their names onto each one - without surnames as they were orphans.
"Here you go. And your Library Pass Stones." She handed them the Student Passes and a grey rock with glowing blue inscriptions on them. Paley recognized them; they were the stones he and Teerom saw a few students use to get into the second floor of the library.
The Headmistress told them what classes they were in and sent them on their way. Adimia and Paley were in the same class, 4B. Amasha was in Lower Class 1A. Rauba and Bacha were put in Lower Class 2B together, Reben was by himself in Middle Class 1B, and so was Jurie in class 6A.
Upon entering the classroom, Paley and Adimia noticed that they were unwelcome. Most of the kids there were middle class or higher. As a result, they shot daggers at the two peasant orphans that entered the room. The few commoners just ignored them pitifully. Dillie was also in this class, sitting at the back, half-cursing and half-thanking the moons for putting Paley in the same class as her.
"Go ahead and get seated. I'll hand you your textbooks in a bit. Make sure to go home and read it to catch up on everything you missed." The teacher, a dry man in his early forties, said. Paley chose the seat at the back next to the window and Dillie. Adimia sat a few seats to the right.
In Middle Stage 3, since pupils would have finished learning Rismian, the lesson would be replaced with History. In this lesson, Paley was supposed to learn of the Buleian period (a few centuries in which Eri was nearly conquered by the Bulei tribe). But, he didn't know any of the names or previous history that linked in to the lesson. So, he decided to just read the textbook from page one.
The textbook was laid out in chronological chapters, detailing things from the creation of the world up to the modern-day. He finished the first chapter in about twenty minutes.
The textbook taught that initially, the world had no life (including plants). However, spirits from the Spirit Realm opened a portal onto the moon, from which they cast out evil spirits. Those evil spirits left the moon eventually and arrived on the barren world. Upon their death, they gave birth to life, and over millennia, that life evolved into many different species. One of them being humans.
When the first few signs of civilization appeared, one woman, described as a lunatic by her people, ascended to the moon. She had a strange attraction to the moon, and therefore a strong faith in it. She was a kind woman, which helped her in her ascension to the Moon. From there, she's believed to have gone to the Spirit Realm.
However, she came back down to teach and spread the lunar faith. Eventually, the Moon's Church would be formed to make it easier for people to ascend to the Spirit Realm. Heaven. The first believer - the woman - became revered as the Priestess, and to this day, she's a symbol of truth and kindness. Her name was Luneia.
Paley found this 'History' complete bullshit. He didn't care whether or not there is or isn't a logical explanation to how the world was created. But, he found that those people calling themselves 'kind' were the ones plundering villages and killing innocent people. The Moon's Church and The Sun's Church had such strong beliefs that they constantly clashed in conflict and caused too much collateral damage to the people.
Paley continued reading the textbook for the rest of the lesson until the third chapter. The second chapter told the formation of the six ancient empires, split along the equator.
Four were under the Sun's Church, and one was under the Moon's Church.
People often overlooked the sixth one, and so did the textbook. Through the short paragraph that talked about it, Paley learned of the Demon Cultists. Heretics, who learned how to use Dark Magic. They weren't talked about much, but they created the Dark Conjurer bloodline.
Paley closed the book and sat back. Dillie watched him as he blankly stared out the window.
"Are you okay?" She asked, fidgeting around with her pen.
"Yeah. I was just reading the textbook a bit. Do you believe in any of this stuff?" Paley asked. She shook her head.
"We all know it's just a story. But our parents say that we *have* to believe in it. Probably because the knights will kill us otherwise." Dillie rested her head on her hand.
"True," Paley looked back at the front of the class, where the teacher was writing down different dates, rulers and knights' names they had to memorize.
When break began, the orphans met up on the playground. Amasha, Rauba, and Bacha looked like lifeless ghouls. When Jurie asked what happened, they explained how they were bummed out by the curriculum.
"I thought they were gonna teach us about herbs." Bacha frowned.
"I thought they were gonna teach us about magic." Rauba frowned.
"I thought we were gonna explore the world." Amasha frowned.
"What gave you *that* idea, Amasha?" Adimia and Reben laughed.
"What were you guys learning?" Bacha asked.
"Ugh, we're doing History." Adimia groaned.
"What's wrong with History?" Paley asked.
"Everything! It's so boring,"
"I think it's interesting- well, apart from the lies."
"Can we go meet Teerom now?" Jurie asked restlessly.
"Sure, let's go somewhere less crowded." As Paley turned to walk, Dillie stood in his way.
"Take me with you," She asked.
"No," Paley replied bluntly and walked past her.
"I'll tell everyone your secret!" She shouted. He turned around quickly and sighed, frustrated. "Fine, come on."
'Oh, crap.' Teerom thought as he looked down from the thin ledge he stood on. The ground was at least twenty meters below him, almost taunting him.
"I've got this," He patted his chest and took out a hammer, which he used to nail down support planks for the watchtower. The dwarves were small, so they could easily walk around these thin scaffolding ledges, but Teerom was big, so for him, the danger was much more real.
"Teerom! How are ye doing over there?" Aleisar shouted from above.
"Good! I'm just getting this last piece in." Teerom continued hammering carefully, "When are we taking a break?" He asked.
"You tired?" Candul popped his head out on his left.
"No, I just didn't think it would be this high."
"You know what they say. High pay," Wallas began. "High places" Gilray finished.
"I've never heard anyone say that..." He mumbled, "My siblings are gonna be on their break, so can we have it soon?" Teerom requested.
"Don't worry. I'm getting a bit tired too, so we'll have a break soon." Aleisar reassured.
"Man, I haven't done this in so long," Battdur said from below. Teerom sighed and went back to hugging the wall as he worked. After a while, he began to hear the growing screams of a young girl.
He turned to see Paley approaching by air with all the orphans - and Dillie, who was the one screaming.
"Paley!" Teerom almost forgot he was standing on a ledge twenty meters above the ground and nearly fell off. The orphans landed slowly below, Paley falling to the ground, exhausted.
"Teerom, you want your break?" Aleisar asked.
"Yes, please!" Teerom began to climb down. It was comically slow, but at least he didn't fall. Though, there was always Paley to catch him if he fell.
"Hey!" Jurie ran over to him and hugged him. He hesitated to hug her back because he was afraid for his heart, but he managed to do it. "How's work?" She asked.
"Great! Apart from being that high up all the time. I've learned so many things. What about you? How was school?"
"School's awesome. We learned a lot of things too, well, apart from them." Jurie faced Amasha, Rauba, and Bacha. Teerom noticed that Paley was on the floor listening in on their conversation with his face on the ground.
"What happened to you?" He asked.
"I used too much mana. We thought you were gonna be at the hut, so I flew us there. But then we saw the note you left and flew here." Paley explained.
"Why didn't you just walk?" Teerom asked.
"Because of her. Blackmailing snake." Paley pointed to Dillie, who smiled and waved. Teerom waved back awkwardly.
"Don't worry, lil bro. We have some meat left over for you." He walked over to a tree branch which a bag of meats hung from and bought two cheap cuts over to Paley.
"Thanks." Paley mustered the strength to sit up and took a handful of meat out, cooking it with Fire magic.
They had about forty minutes of break left, so they spent it conversing with Teerom. He showed them some of the building techniques the dwarves taught him. Dillie seemed to hit it off with everyone. She told many entertaining stories of previous school years, portraying herself as the main character.
Paley listened and watched monotonously as she told story after story.