Chapter CVIII – No man can write two books.

86th of Summer 5859
In front of a building, Casamonu

Shakira stood in front of a building, one that stood inconspicuous due to being overshadowed by the castle above it. She vaguely remembered passing in front of this building several times, though she had never bothered to learn what it exactly was. It didn’t look that important, and she had no idea as to why the receptionist over at the guild had called her saying that an “important person” was waiting for her. Shakira instinctively dusted off her dress, an out-of-fashion piece that she had bought second-hand with the money she had received from carrying goods for the League. It was off-color, it had a few tears she’d have to sew together, and the massive sword she had on her back made her look more threatening than fashionable. She knocked on the door of the building, holding her breath and hoping that she wasn’t about to be kidnapped by a bunch of mobsters who had led her to a trap.

“Hm? Oh, hello Shakira!” Azra Inkwell jumped out the door and hugged Shakira. Shakira, in turn, awkwardly mumbled a greeting. She was doing her best not to move around and accidentally cut Azra’s arms in twain with the comically enormous sword on her back.

“H-hello- get off me, girl.” Shakira gently pushed Azra away. “Be careful, you’ll get cut by my sword.”

“Oh yes, the adventurer and her sword.” Azra nodded while taking a twirl around Shakira and examining her “A true adventurer can’t part ways with it even when she’s coming over for a visit, no?”

“Uhm…” Shakira examined Azra “Don’t people normally carry weapons?”

Azra shook her head. She took out a small, well-embellished dagger from the folds of her dress and showed it to Shakira. “I don’t think most people carry anything beyond this inside of a city.”

“Oh, right… I guess constantly being in the middle of wild adventurers did make me forget that not everyone carries weaponry everywhere.” Shakira unstrapped her enormous blade and let it lean on the walls.

“That’s so cool!” Shakira could practically see Azra’s eyes light up “That’s why I called you here, because I want to hear some stories of your adventures.”

“…really? Girl, I don’t have the time to dilly-dally with you.”

“Come on, I have drinks and pastries and-”

“Guess I can entertain you.” Shakira let herself be dragged further indoors. The inside of the building was pretty noisy, where presses of some kind were being operated by a group of workers. Shakira had seen olive and wine presses before, and she wondered what sort of drink they were trying to make by pressing paper. “What are they making over there?” she pointed at the presses.

“Printing.” replied Azra.

“Printing? What’s that?”

Azra took hold of a finished pile of bound paper “Copying prints, making these? Do you really not now…” she asked, her face dropping both in disappointment and in awe of Shakira’s ignorance.

“Words aren’t for me, girl. All the knowledge I need to live is stored here.” Shakira flexed the muscles on her arm with the content smile of someone who lacks brain muscles.

“Wow, that’s cool!” Azra couldn’t help but clap “So, tea or coffee?”

“Uh, no beer?”

“Drinking while operating heavy machinery isn’t a good idea, Miss Shakira.”

Shakira’s face dropped. She was disappointed at not having free booze “Hmm… Coffee, I guess. I’ve never seen or tasted it.”

“Despite having traveled so much?”

“It’s expensive, okay?” Shakira paused to let Azra have a good look at her getup. “I don’t have the money to spend on fancy drinks.”

“I guess. It is imported from the far, far North…” Azra quickly poured a cup of brown, strong-smelling liquid from an odd brass cup that was sitting on a table along with pots for tea and cups. She sat them on a separate table which was mostly occupied by papers and writing implements. Shakira and Azra sat on stools sat across to each other on the table.

“Slurp- puah!” Shakira coughed violently upon her first drop of coffee “This is how I imagine mud would taste like!”

“It’s definitely a taste you have to get used to for sure.” Azra’s head was turned to the print workers in the meanwhile. They had decided to take a break too upon seeing their boss sit down.

“I think I’d rather not get used to this.” Shakira sat the cup of coffee down. She followed Azra’s gaze to the workers “So, what kind of stuff are you printing with these doohickeys?”

“We’ve just been printing the Constitution and land grants for now.” Azra separated herself from the stool and stood up “Though, we’ll be getting a lot of work soon.”

“Hm? What, are they going to make you print another constipation, uh, constellation… const… constwhatever again?”

“No, they want some textbooks.”

Shakira scratched her hair “Don’t all books contain text?”

Azra couldn’t help but laugh “No- I mean, yes, they do, but no, as in that a textbook doesn’t refer to a book with text… I mean, okay, it is a book with text but…” She had to pause for a long minute to regain her ability to speak “Ahem, let me show you what those will be like.” She squeezed through the printing presses towards a door, and Shakira followed behind her. In the other room were a bunch of people gathered around on a table, with papers strewn all over the table and the floor.

A shout came from an otherworlder with jet black hair. Why math? Do you want to torture these people?!” Watanabe knocked on a piece of paper with fury “By the gods, I still have nightmares due to my college mathematics classes!”

“Knowing your numbers is important, Watanabe.” Rabanowicz shooed the man away from the papers “Do not take your anger out on the paper. It took me several hours to write down those problems.”

“Oh, I get it, you’re a sadist. A normal person wouldn’t spend several hours on penning down problems that’ll potentially torture people for generations…” Watanabe overdramatically covered his face with his hands “O’, the humanity!”

“I have no need to hear the ramblings of an ignoramus while I’m working. Shoo now, go chase some tail or whatever you do.” Rabanowicz turned to an old man who was busy writing on another desk in the room “Captain Brown, could you tell him to calm down?”

Brown raised his head up. He looked annoyed to have been parted from his passion project. “Young man, mathematics is the foundation to all sciences. Please don’t interrupt Doctor Rabanowicz because you are unable to comprehend that fact.” He noticed their guests “Oh, Miss Azra. Excuse us for the commotion.”

“Don’t worry, captain – we can barely hear anything from a room over with all the presses running” replied Azra. “I brought a friend over, since she was curious about what you were working on.”

“Well, I wasn’t really curious. I was just confused” said Shakira.

“You’re welcome as long as you’re ready to learn” replied Brown “We’re here preparing manuscripts for the soon-to-be elementary schools.”

“School… elementary… those two are words I know.” Shakira nodded with a modicum of understanding.

“To put it simply, we’ll be setting up public schools to educate the populace in elementary matters. Hence, an elementary school, and we need teaching material for these schools, hence the textbooks being written by Dr. Rabanowicz and Mr. Watanabe.” Brown finished a line of text on his desk. “As for me, I’m putting together an agriculture textbook.”

“Agriculture? Ain’t that for the peasants? Can they even read? What good will it do to educate those boonies folk?” asked Shakira.

“Ideally, they’ll all know to read in a few months, though we can have teachers teach from the textbook even if their students don’t know to read. As for what good they’ll do, I’d say its obvious: The rural folk doing a better job means that we have less of a chance to all starve. Plus, having cheaper and a higher variety of food wouldn’t be bad, no? I think our homesteading program will do great in combination with educated farmers and…” In the middle of Brown’s speech, everyone in the room began tuning out as the old man began ranting about his experience in trying to pioneer Timbuctoo, New York. How inexperienced settlers had been unable to adapt to the conditions, and how the land had turned out barren and unfit for settling in the first place. His account of the events went for way too long. “…which is why, I think, that such education should be given foremost. We’ll be giving an extra land grant to those who have gotten this fundamental education.”

“Oh, um, yes…” Shakira nodded as if she understood all of it.

“…ah yeah.” Watanabe nodded along as well. He had given up on listening and was assisting Rabanowicz on their textbook. “We’re doing a similar thing, just for a wider set of elementary skills. Like, this chapter on natural science about the fact that the world is round.”

“Huh… It’s round? I guess that makes sense.” replied Shakira. “I don’t really know what good that’ll do either.”

“Knowledge makes you stronger, miss.” added Rabanowicz. “An imbecilic muscleman can easily be defeated by a scrawny genius.”

“It makes you stronger?” Shakira looks at her arms. They sure could use getting even stronger… “Though, I don’t have money to join these schools. I hear that the noble folk pay top money to educate their children, so it must be expensive.”

“We’ll be having an announcement for registrations soon. Worry not – these schools are public. Anyone can join them, though unfortunately, I doubt we’ll have enough infrastructure to accept everyone in at once.” replied Brown “The textbooks we’ll distribute to students freely. I think the investment we make will be well enough worth it with the returns that we’ll make when the people of Gemeinplatz are well-educated.”

“Hmm…” Shakira took a look at the textbooks with their fancy-looking writing. Writing like that would be so cool, wouldn’t it, or so she thought.

It seemed that Brown had already found his first student.