CH 6.1

An Illiterate’s Self-Cultivation (1)

Before Lucia lost her patience with these little children, the examiners finally came.

They wore different robes, and the green-haired boy standing next to Lucia whispered to her telling which gods they worshipped.

The one with red and gold robe and wearing a call coronet was the priest of Tanuman, the god of power.

The one whose robe was mainly green, inlaid with golden and khaki patterns was the priest of Lady Jormundra.

The one with gold and green robe was the priest of Kulatha, the god of wealth.

Among them, the most eye-catching one was a young man with light blonde hair wearing the robes of Kulatha who stood in front of everyone.

Without doing much, the calm temperament in his body already made people understand that he was the leader of this group of people.

“Next, you will be divided into two groups for the assessment. The person whose name I call should come here.” His voice was soft, “Babbitt, you are in charge of this group.”

“Yes, Lord Razelt.” Behind him, the priest Babbitt who was also a follower of Kulatha replied.

Razelt opened the list in his hand, lowered his eyes and said softly, “Susan White.”

“Yes!” a girl responded.

“Come here, child.” Razelt’s voice was much softer than what he used towards his companions, “God will bless you.”

“Thank you, Lord Priest!” Susan’s face flushed with excitement, and she trotted behind Babbitt.

Next, Razelt continued to call, and finally it was Lucia’s turn: “Lucia Farr.”

“Yes!” Lucia answered with the same joy as the children before, and ran towards Babbitt, who happened to be next to the green haired boy who was chatting with her before.

Seeing Lucia coming over, the green-haired boy whispered, “I didn’t expect that the person in charge of the assessment this time is Lord Razelt.”

After Lucia came to Serancha, she had been confined to Owl Street, and could not learn more about the city.

Now that she could hear more news, she immediately pricked up her ears and stared at the green-haired boy with expectant eyes – by the way, what was this little boy’s name again?

“Lord Razelt is the bishop of Serancha’s Kulatha Temple. Generally, only a priest is needed for this kind of assessment, and there is no need for Lord Razelt to come in person.” The green-haired boy was a little confused and a little excited, “This time, I have to perform well. If Dad knows that the examiner is Lord Razelt, he will be very happy!”

“Yeah, so let’s do our best together.” Lucia smiled sweetly.

After waiting for a while, there were fifty people gathered. Lucia and a group of children were taken to a hall, where seats had been arranged for everyone.

“Now we are doing a literacy test. Don’t be nervous, it’s just some simple everyday expressions. Just hand over the paper to me after you answer it.”

Lucia’s heart was calm, and she waited calmly to be given the paper. She found that there were not that many questions – probably just enough to fill the front and back of an A4 paper.

The questions didn’t have any Math, they were all Language questions.

After looking at the questions, Lucia calmly read them.

Today, I □□ and □□□□□.

Excuse me, what is □□□ doing?

…great, I really don’t understand what this □□□□□ means.

Although she was illiterate, Lucia still tried her best to find the word in the □ and copied it into the answer box next to her. It felt like was back to the time when she took English tests in the past.

She couldn’t understand anything.

Lucia began to read the next question, and what crept into her heart was an unspeakable fear of emptiness. The illiterate Lucia’s heart was filled with pain.

When Lucia began trying to make out the words and copy them to the answer box, two people were standing outside the hall.

“Lord Razelt, I didn’t expect you to personally preside over this year’s assessment.” Louisa approached, saying casually, “Is there any particular child you’re interested in participating in this assessment?”

“It’s nothing like that, something just happened.” Razelt replied, looking at the children in the classroom and explaining gently, “No matter when, children are always a joy.”

“Haha, that’s also because you are too far away from the seminary.” Louisa teased, “Children are really annoying when you see them, but if you don’t see them for a few days, you can’t help but miss them.”

Razelt laughed, looking at the children answering questions in the classroom.

Although these were the most basic vocabulary, it was still a little difficult for children from ordinary households.

From there, you could see the children in the hall racking their brains and scratching their ears while answering the questions.

But among them, there was a little girl with blonde hair who seemed especially unhurried.

Her clothes did not stand out among these commoners, but she sat upright in front of the table with her delicate eyebrows stretched and a slight smile on the corner of her mouth.

The little girl was already as lovely as the morning light in the first place. In such a chaotic room, she was like a quiet lady, and her beauty was eye-catching.

“This little girl… I think her name is Lucia Farr?” Louisa was bewildered by Lucia’s cuteness and calmness, and she praised, “She looks so different,”

“Yes, I think she must have been very well-prepared to remain so calm.” Razelt smiled.

“The rainbow fish always belong to the best-prepared fisherman, right?” Louisa smiled kindly, “Okay, it’s almost time, let’s see the results of these little ones.”

After the children had all left, the two walked into the classroom and waited for the invigilator to give their grades.

Since the test paper was very simple, it didn’t take long for the results to come out. There was a total of twenty simple questions, and none of the children answered all of them correctly.