Black Iron's Glory Chapter 10

Chapter 10
History Lesson

Whitestag National Middle School was located on a small hill north of the town . Claude and the other three arrived five minutes before cla.s.s started right before the school gates closed .

The reason a middle school and an elementary school was built there was partly thanks to Stellin IX . As the location where the first shot that led to the kingdom's restoration was fired, the officials Prince Karjad appointed after his ascension wisely chose to invest in the town and provided a lot of financial aid for education and infrastructure development .

The old army camp of the prince was made into a memorial site where a large memorial plaque was built . There was also a majestic sculpture of the prince on horseback holding his gun . But actually, the first shot the prince fired within his tent actually missed its target and made nothing but a small hole on the tent . Instead, it was his subordinates that rushed to his aid after hearing the gunshot and fought with the personal forces of the baron .

Claude was studying in second year, and there were four cla.s.ses of students for that year in total . There were three boy cla.s.ses with around 200 students and one cla.s.s of 32 female students . Even though males and females had equal rights to education according to the kingdom's education reform, most of the commoners prioritized their sons over their daughters . Some of them couldn't afford to pay for the education of both their son and daughter .

While the schools were allowed to take in female students, to prevent trouble, most schools split the cla.s.ses according to gender . Other than that, almost all female students were in the academic stream . While their academic stream subjects were identical to the males', their physical stream subjects were replaced with cla.s.ses on flower arrangement, painting, art appreciation, sewing, cooking and other home-economics-related subjects . But if the girls were interested, they would still be allowed to sign up for swordsmans.h.i.+p and horsemans.h.i.+p cla.s.ses .

There were three cla.s.s sessions each for the morning and afternoon segments . Unlike Claude's past life, each period lasted an hour and had a 20-minute break in between . The first session started at eight in the morning sharp and ended around 11:40 before noon . Lunch was provided by the school and the students were free to walk around within school premises, but now allowed to leave . Their afternoon session would begin at one in the afternoon all the way till after school .

Normally, academic stream subjects were taught in the morning segment . For instance, Claude had language, arithmetic and history on that day . He sat at the furthermost back row in cla.s.s because he was the tallest among his cla.s.smates and also because the instructors of the school would tend to let physical stream students sit at the back to prevent them from disturbing the academic stream students .

But when Claude raised his grades to the cla.s.s average as opposed to staying at the bottom of the cla.s.s, his homeroom instructor had asked him whether he wanted to sit a few rows further to the front so that the instructors would pay him more attention and care . However, he refused that suggestion . He believed that he should keep a low profile as a transmigrator and mingling among the rest without standing out was the best way to do it .

" . . . Faced with the suppression fire of the enemy's firearms, the mighty prince didn't lose his confidence for victory . His Highness resolutely refused his subordinates' wish for him to leave the battlefield and stood at the highest point he could find to observe the enemy lines that closed in to his camp despite being at risk of being shot by enemy artillery or stray bullets . Soon, His Highness realized a weak point in the enemy lines where the artillery units were far apart and ordered his guards to circle around the enemy line and turn back for an attack .

"That was already the last of the prince's forces . Out of worry for His Highness's safety, the subordinates strongly advised for him to not take such a risk . But HIs Highness said, 'As the commander of these brave soldiers, I should lead them to victory as they fight instead of retreating to safety . All of you, go fight . I will stand here and watch over you as you plant the banner of victory in the enemy's camp . '

"Motivated by the prince's speech, the guards charged through the enemy troops and obstacles like fierce tigers and took the enemy artillery camp in one fell-swoop . They turned the artillery around and bombarded the enemy lines . Being suddenly a.s.saulted by cannon fire from the rear, the enemy crumbled as the prince expected and escaped in all directions . Using that opportunity, His Highness ordered for his troops to go on an all-out attack and turned his loss into complete victory, conquering Engelir Hill .

"His Highness used fewer than eight thousand soldiers to defeat the enemy's 20 thousand . About 15 thousand enemies were exterminated . Not only was the Triumph of Engelir Hill the first battle His Highness fought in the north, it was also the first triumph that led to the kingdom's restoration . This battle symbolized not only the first proper victory on the battlefield, it also . . . "

"His Highness used fewer than eight thousand soldiers to defeat the enemy's 20 thousand . About 15 thousand enemies were exterminated . Not only was the Triumph of Engelir Hill the first battle His Highness fought in the north, it was also the first triumph that led to the kingdom's restoration . This battle symbolized not only the first proper victory on the battlefield, it also . . . "

This was the third cla.s.s session of the day, history cla.s.s . The history instructor, Mister Ellim, read away at his podium according to the textbook powerlessly . He pretended not to see the hushed movements of his students . As long as they didn't get in the way of his reading and schedule, Ellim usually didn't care about cla.s.s discipline . The students considered him to be the best teacher because of that .

Claude yawned uncontrollably . Welikro had long fallen asleep beside him and he would snort from time to time . Eriksson and Borkel were conversing in hushed voices and writing something on paper from time to time .

Claude flipped his textbook in boredom and frustration . Even if he were interested in the history of the kingdom of Aueras, he had been learning about the same old thing in history cla.s.s since elementary school . Everything they learned about history concerned the kingdom and anyone would feel sick of eating the same dish over and over again .

As a transmigrator, Claude was more interested in the history of the whole continent of Freia . However, those were merely glossed over by the history textbooks he had . One of the taboo words, however, attracted the transmigrator's attention . That word was none other than 'magic' .

The history textbooks state that there used to be a dark age that lasted millennia on Freia . That was a time when the evil magi ruled the continent . But five hundred years ago, the fearless stonemasons formed an underground brotherhood to resist the tyranny of the evil magi . They spent only eight years to defeat the elite evil magi and chased them off the continent to a distant island called Siklos .

The leader of the brotherhood, Stonemason Regius Au Syr, started the first dynasty of Amsra on Freia and appointed three thousand landed n.o.bles to administer the land all across the continent .

But the magi who had escaped to Siklos weren't willing to accept their loss and carried out one secret plot after another to ruin the peaceful lives of those on the continent . When Emperor Regius Au Syr pa.s.sed away, everything fell into chaos and the many landed n.o.bles started to fight and struggle among each other, sending the continent into a century-long war .

But the magi who had escaped to Siklos weren't willing to accept their loss and carried out one secret plot after another to ruin the peaceful lives of those on the continent . When Emperor Regius Au Syr pa.s.sed away, everything fell into chaos and the many landed n.o.bles started to fight and struggle among each other, sending the continent into a century-long war .

Three centuries ago, a small-time n.o.ble, Baron Aueras Tam Stellin, decided to end the chaos to protect his subjects . He brought his warriors with him to conquer the lands and expanded his territory bit by bit, laying the foundations for the founding of the kingdom . When he pa.s.sed away, his son didn't fail his wishes and finally founded a continent in the east of the continent, naming him after his father, Aueras .

And that was where the continental history ended . What followed was the kingdom's history all the way from Stellin I to Stellin IX . The things recorded in the history books weren't all that important and inspired much frustration . Claude couldn't even be bothered to complain about it anymore . However, he didn't have a choice as history was an important part of the tests, with extra emphasis placed on Stellin IX's restoration of the kingdom .

The history of this world is really odd, thought Claude . All of the historical records in the books he read merely glossed over the time when the evil magi ruled the continent . Even the fantasy novels in the world superficially depicted the brave knights defeating the evil magi and saving the damsel in distress in the end . Why the magi were considered evil wasn't discussed in the slightest bit . It was as if they were simply born as such .

Does this world really have magic in it? Claude remembered asking such a question when he was young, causing his father Morssen to get angry and teach him a real harsh lesson . His father stressed repeatedly that the magi were incarnations of evil and the word magic itself was a taboo . The mere discovery of traces of magic anywhere was an omen for misfortune .

"Hey, Claude, hey! What are you thinking about?" called Borkal softly .

Claude snapped out of it . "Oh, I'm fine . I was dozing off . "

With a look of understanding, Borkal handed a piece of paper to him . "Take a look . These are the things that Eyke and I decided we need . Check if we missed anything out . "

On the piece of paper were the things they needed for camping . They didn't have to buy much as they could gather some of the things they needed from their homes .

With a look of understanding, Borkal handed a piece of paper to him . "Take a look . These are the things that Eyke and I decided we need . Check if we missed anything out . "

On the piece of paper were the things they needed for camping . They didn't have to buy much as they could gather some of the things they needed from their homes .

"Wero says he has a tent at home and Eyke mentioned that we can also use the tents used on his father's s.h.i.+p . Two tents should be enough for the four of us . Wero also said that he can bring his father's gun along, but we'll have to buy gunpowder and lead bullets ourselves from the shops . He doesn't have many left . Eyke said that he'll be bringing a simple, short handgun and the bullets and gunpowder won't match those used by Wero's gun . "

Borkal went on and briefed Claude about it .

"We'll be spending the most money on renting a boat . Old Sunny said that he can rent his single-sail fis.h.i.+ng boat to us for two days for four riyases, but I managed to convince him to charge us only three riyases and two sunars . However, he won't be leaving the fis.h.i.+ng nets for us to use . I thought that it wouldn't be a problem since we will only be going to the lake island Egret for a camping trip without doing any fis.h.i.+ng . "

Claude pointed at the four bottles of gran wine listed on the paper . "What's with this? We don't really need this for our trip, do we?"

Borkal chuckled . "Well . . . I heard Wero mention that the nights in the mountains are cold, so his father brings alcohol along to warm himself up just like a bonfire . I was thinking that since we will be camping near the coast of the island, we'll need four bottles of gran wine to keep warm, you know, given the strong sea breeze . One for each of us . "

Claude snorted . Everyone knew that 16 year olds were in their most curious phase . Given that they couldn't drink alcohol at home, Borkal didn't want to miss this chance to buy some to try out during their trip .

However, Claude believed that Borkal would definitely come to regret it . Gran wine wasn't the kind of good wine that he had at home . Instead, it was preferred by sailors and coachmen for its strength that would even cause one to feel a head-rending pain even after a night's rest .

History Lesson Whitestag National Middle School was located on a small hill north of the town . Claude and the other three arrived five minutes before cla.s.s started right before the school gates closed . The reason a middle school and an elementary school was built there was partly thanks to Stellin IX . As the location where the first shot that led to the kingdom 39 s restoration was fired, the officials Prince Karjad appointed after his ascension wisely chose to invest in the town and provided a lot of financial aid for education and infrastructure development . The old army camp of the prince was made into a memorial site where a large memorial plaque was built . There was also a majestic sculpture of the prince on horseback holding his gun . But actually, the first shot the prince fired within his tent actually missed its target and made nothing but a small hole on the tent . Instead, it was his subordinates that rushed to his aid after hearing the gunshot and fought with the personal forces of the baron . Claude was studying in second year, and there were four cla.s.ses of students for that year in total . There were three boy cla.s.ses with around 200 students and one cla.s.s of 32 female students . Even though males and females had equal rights to education according to the kingdom 39 s education reform, most of the commoners prioritized their sons over their daughters . Some of them couldn 39 t afford to pay for the education of both their son and daughter . While the schools were allowed to take in female students, to prevent trouble, most schools split the cla.s.ses according to gender . Other than that, almost all female students were in the academic stream . While their academic stream subjects were identical to the males 39 , their physical stream subjects were replaced with cla.s.ses on flower arrangement, painting, art appreciation, sewing, cooking and other home economics related subjects . But if the girls were interested, they would still be allowed to sign up for swordsmans.h.i.+p and horsemans.h.i.+p cla.s.ses . There were three cla.s.s sessions each for the morning and afternoon segments . Unlike Claude 39 s past life, each period lasted an hour and had a 20 minute break in between . The first session started at eight in the morning sharp and ended around 11 40 before noon . Lunch was provided by the school and the students were free to walk around within school premises, but now allowed to leave . Their afternoon session would begin at one in the afternoon all the way till after school . Normally, academic stream subjects were taught in the morning segment . For instance, Claude had language, arithmetic and history on that day . He sat at the furthermost back row in cla.s.s because he was the tallest among his cla.s.smates and also because the instructors of the school would tend to let physical stream students sit at the back to prevent them from disturbing the academic stream students . But when Claude raised his grades to the cla.s.s average as opposed to staying at the bottom of the cla.s.s, his homeroom instructor had asked him whether he wanted to sit a few rows further to the front so that the instructors would pay him more attention and care . However, he refused that suggestion . He believed that he should keep a low profile as a transmigrator and mingling among the rest without standing out was the best way to do it . . . . Faced with the suppression fire of the enemy 39 s firearms, the mighty prince didn 39 t lose his confidence for victory . His Highness resolutely refused his subordinates 39 wish for him to leave the battlefield and stood at the highest point he could find to observe the enemy lines that closed in to his camp despite being at risk of being shot by enemy artillery or stray bullets . Soon, His Highness realized a weak point in the enemy lines where the artillery units were far apart and ordered his guards to circle around the enemy line and turn back for an attack . That was already the last of the prince 39 s forces . Out of worry for His Highness 39 s safety, the subordinates strongly advised for him to not take such a risk . But HIs Highness said, 39 As the commander of these brave soldiers, I should lead them to victory as they fight instead of retreating to safety . All of you, go fight . I will stand here and watch over you as you plant the banner of victory in the enemy 39 s camp . 39 Motivated by the prince 39 s speech, the guards charged through the enemy troops and obstacles like fierce tigers and took the enemy artillery camp in one fell swoop . They turned the artillery around and bombarded the enemy lines . Being suddenly a.s.saulted by cannon fire from the rear, the enemy crumbled as the prince expected and escaped in all directions . Using that opportunity, His Highness ordered for his troops to go on an all out attack and turned his loss into complete victory, conquering Engelir Hill . His Highness used fewer than eight thousand soldiers to defeat the enemy 39 s 20 thousand . About 15 thousand enemies were exterminated . Not only was the Triumph of Engelir Hill the first battle His Highness fought in the north, it was also the first triumph that led to the kingdom 39 s restoration . This battle symbolized not only the first proper victory on the battlefield, it also . . . This was the third cla.s.s session of the day, history cla.s.s . The history instructor, Mister Ellim, read away at his podium according to the textbook powerlessly . He pretended not to see the hushed movements of his students . As long as they didn 39 t get in the way of his reading and schedule, Ellim usually didn 39 t care about cla.s.s discipline . The students considered him to be the best teacher because of that . Claude yawned uncontrollably . Welikro had long fallen asleep beside him and he would snort from time to time . Eriksson and Borkel were conversing in hushed voices and writing something on paper from time to time . Claude flipped his textbook in boredom and frustration . Even if he were interested in the history of the kingdom of Aueras, he had been learning about the same old thing in history cla.s.s since elementary school . Everything they learned about history concerned the kingdom and anyone would feel sick of eating the same dish over and over again . As a transmigrator, Claude was more interested in the history of the whole continent of Freia . However, those were merely glossed over by the history textbooks he had . One of the taboo words, however, attracted the transmigrator 39 s attention . That word was none other than 39 magic 39 . The history textbooks state that there used to be a dark age that lasted millennia on Freia . That was a time when the evil magi ruled the continent . But five hundred years ago, the fearless stonemasons formed an underground brotherhood to resist the tyranny of the evil magi . They spent only eight years to defeat the elite evil magi and chased them off the continent to a distant island called Siklos . The leader of the brotherhood, Stonemason Regius Au Syr, started the first dynasty of Amsra on Freia and appointed three thousand landed n.o.bles to administer the land all across the continent . But the magi who had escaped to Siklos weren 39 t willing to accept their loss and carried out one secret plot after another to ruin the peaceful lives of those on the continent . When Emperor Regius Au Syr pa.s.sed away, everything fell into chaos and the many landed n.o.bles started to fight and struggle among each other, sending the continent into a century long war . Three centuries ago, a small time n.o.ble, Baron Aueras Tam Stellin, decided to end the chaos to protect his subjects . He brought his warriors with him to conquer the lands and expanded his territory bit by bit, laying the foundations for the founding of the kingdom . When he pa.s.sed away, his son didn 39 t fail his wishes and finally founded a continent in the east of the continent, naming him after his father, Aueras . And that was where the continental history ended . What followed was the kingdom 39 s history all the way from Stellin I to Stellin IX . The things recorded in the history books weren 39 t all that important and inspired much frustration . Claude couldn 39 t even be bothered to complain about it anymore . However, he didn 39 t have a choice as history was an important part of the tests, with extra emphasis placed on Stellin IX 39 s restoration of the kingdom . The history of this world is really odd, thought Claude . All of the historical records in the books he read merely glossed over the time when the evil magi ruled the continent . Even the fantasy novels in the world superficially depicted the brave knights defeating the evil magi and saving the damsel in distress in the end . Why the magi were considered evil wasn 39 t discussed in the slightest bit . It was as if they were simply born as such . Does this world really have magic in it Claude remembered asking such a question when he was young, causing his father Morssen to get angry and teach him a real harsh lesson . His father stressed repeatedly that the magi were incarnations of evil and the word magic itself was a taboo . The mere discovery of traces of magic anywhere was an omen for misfortune . Hey, Claude, hey What are you thinking about called Borkal softly . Claude snapped out of it . Oh, I 39 m fine . I was dozing off . With a look of understanding, Borkal handed a piece of paper to him . Take a look . These are the things that Eyke and I decided we need . Check if we missed anything out . On the piece of paper were the things they needed for camping . They didn 39 t have to buy much as they could gather some of the things they needed from their homes . Wero says he has a tent at home and Eyke mentioned that we can also use the tents used on his father 39 s s.h.i.+p . Two tents should be enough for the four of us . Wero also said that he can bring his father 39 s gun along, but we 39 ll have to buy gunpowder and lead bullets ourselves from the shops . He doesn 39 t have many left . Eyke said that he 39 ll be bringing a simple, short handgun and the bullets and gunpowder won 39 t match those used by Wero 39 s gun . Borkal went on and briefed Claude about it . We 39 ll be spending the most money on renting a boat . Old Sunny said that he can rent his single sail fis.h.i.+ng boat to us for two days for four riyases, but I managed to convince him to charge us only three riyases and two sunars . However, he won 39 t be leaving the fis.h.i.+ng nets for us to use . I thought that it wouldn 39 t be a problem since we will only be going to the lake island Egret for a camping trip without doing any fis.h.i.+ng . Claude pointed at the four bottles of gran wine listed on the paper . What 39 s with this We don 39 t really need this for our trip, do we Borkal chuckled . Well . . . I heard Wero mention that the nights in the mountains are cold, so his father brings alcohol along to warm himself up just like a bonfire . I was thinking that since we will be camping near the coast of the island, we 39 ll need four bottles of gran wine to keep warm, you know, given the strong sea breeze . One for each of us . Claude snorted . Everyone knew that 16 year olds were in their most curious phase . Given that they couldn 39 t drink alcohol at home, Borkal didn 39 t want to miss this chance to buy some to try out during their trip . However, Claude believed that Borkal would definitely come to regret it . Gran wine wasn 39 t the kind of good wine that he had at home . Instead, it was preferred by sailors and coachmen for its strength that would even cause one to feel a head rending pain even after a night 39 s rest .