After a few seconds of hesitation, just as the witch was about to cast a spell on Ash to teach him a good lesson for disrespecting the knowledge, Ash finally gave in and blurted out.
"I... I can't read!"
"What?!"
The witch, who thought she heard wrong asked back without any hesitation while cleaning her ears.
"I can't read, I am an Illiterate!"
The witch had imagined all sorts of possibilities for Ash's rejection of her book – like telling her he had read better books or that it was too old to use– was completely dumbfounded by his reply. After all, although there is no schooling for commoners or a public education system built, but there is only one language curriculum in the entire region. So, most people taught their children reading and writing in their childhood. Even the poorest person or slave knew how to read and write to a normal standard, at least enough to handle simple tasks.
