Chapter 6 - Chapter 5: The Sun School
The day after meeting Radi and Diego at the South Gate, Mika was heading to the church from morning.
Radi had spoken as if it was natural for Mika to go to the church today, but now he understood the reason.
Today was the day of the "Sun School."
It is called a school, but there is no separate building. It is just an open-air classroom under the blue sky.
It is a study session for children held by the church once a week on the day of the sun.
The day of the sun is the day of the week in this world, like Sunday, so to speak.
Six days make up a week: Day of the Sun, Day of the Moon, Day of Fire, Day of Water, Day of Wind, and Day of Earth.
By the way, one month consists of five weeks, and one year has twelve months.
In other words, one year is 360 days.
(Is it because the orbital period is set up that way?)
I thought astronomy in this world wasn't very developed, but since there is a calendar, has research been conducted to some extent?
Well, the heliocentric theory existed before the Common Era even if it wasn't accepted.
It is possible to establish a calendar without much relation to astronomy.
There will be discrepancies and contradictions, but those can be patched up arbitrarily.
Even with some discrepancies, it is easier to live with a cycle defined as one year than with no calendar at all.
There are examples where calendars were established based on simple celestial observations and the time when rivers tend to flood.
I don't know what basis the calendar in this world has, but it would be easier to just accept it as such.
(...But it's hard to say.)
Months are grouped in sets of three: Month of Earth?, Month of Water?, Month of Fire?, Month of Wind?.
After Month of Water 1, Month of Water 2, and Month of Water 3, it goes to Month of Fire 1, and so on.
And the date in this world is not expressed as Month/Day. It is expressed by Month, Week, and Day of the Week.
For example, New Year's Day is "Day of the Sun, Week 1, Month 1 of Earth," and New Year's Eve is "Day of Earth, Week 5, Month 3 of Wind."
As a Japanese person who tends to abbreviate everything, I want to abbreviate it to "Earth 1-1 Sun" or "Wind 3-5 Earth," but I'll keep that to myself.
(If I just replaced the months with Month 1 to Month 12 and the dates with Day 1 to Day 30, wouldn't that just become a cipher?)
This is a date notation method that is very easy for Mika to understand but difficult for people around him to understand.
Even if written as 3/21 or 9/23, people of this world won't understand it at a glance.
(Or rather, if written in Japanese, it's all a cipher.)
Even in my original world, it was a language in a special category.
In this world, it is truly "another world language."
By the way, I have not struggled at all with the language of this world.
Is it thanks to the memory of Mika Noisheim, or should I say the body remembers? I am a bilingual without any struggle.
Mika walked steadily and arrived at the church located beyond the Central Plaza.
Since the Noisheim family is near the southeast edge of the village, it takes about 10 minutes to walk there normally for Mika's legs.
Generally, houses are not painted, but the church has white walls and a blue roof, making it very conspicuous.
And on top of the roof, the symbol of the Church of Light, six rings, is displayed.
The six rings are arranged with four in a vertical line, and one ring on each side of the second and third rings.
(...It reminds me of a form like a sea angel.)
It was just a sudden thought, but I couldn't help but imagine a ball coming out of the top ring and nearly burst out laughing.
I hurriedly covered my mouth with my hand and told myself to calm down... calm down...
It is a common way to cover up when you almost laugh out loud while looking at the internet on your smartphone in a commuter train.
Well, my shoulders were shaking, so the people around probably noticed.
It seems the Church of Light is a religion that worships six deities who govern Light, Darkness, Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth as principal gods.
Originally, there should be no superiority or inferiority among these six deities, so it should be called the Six Gods Religion, but for reasons unknown, whether due to mythology or doctrine, it calls itself the Church of Light.
In this world, it seems to be normal to be taken care of by the Church of Light from the cradle to the grave.
As for Mika, even without particular faith, there is no discomfort in being taken care of only when necessary.
He is flexible enough to eat cake and receive presents on Christmas since childhood, strike the New Year's bell at a temple a week later, and visit a shrine for Hatsumode the next morning, throwing coins into the offering box.
If a study session held at the church called the Sun School is a normal thing for children, there was no objection to participating in it.
Except for thinking, "It's a bit troublesome..." for a moment.
About six children had already arrived in front of the church, making a fuss and talking about something.
Since I couldn't actively join in the fuss, I just said "Good morning" and sat in a seat at the edge.
About ten chairs are placed in a semi-circle in a wide space next to the church entrance, which is usually enough.
There are more children in Rish Village, but the Sun School is voluntary participation.
Once children can read, write, and calculate to a certain extent, they naturally stop participating.
If more than ten people gather and there aren't enough chairs, they can go inside the church to get more.
And for the past few years, more than ten people have gathered only at the beginning when Mika first started attending the Sun School.
After attending for a while, older children stopped coming, then a few decreased, and younger children increased... and so on, increasing and decreasing, currently there are about eight people.
Usually, one more person would participate, but since it is voluntary, not everyone comes every time.
After sitting in a seat and waiting a little, Radi came and the Sun School began.
The children greeted energetically, and Radi also greeted them with a gentle smile.
Bathed in the sunlight as always, her figure shone brightly, like the Virgin Mary.
(...Even though you laugh like an old man.)
Mika still held a grudge about being laughed at.
Radi distributed small blackboards and chalk-like objects to the children.
The blackboards were wooden boards, sized for children to place on their feet and use.
They were horizontal rectangles about 30x40 centimeters.
The surface was coated with a blackish paint-like substance.
The chalk was called "Writing Stone," and as the name suggests, it was indeed a stone.
At first glance, the size was like chalk itself, but it seemed to be a processed stone to make writing easier.
They were also given ragged cloths along with these, probably to erase mistakes.
Something was already written on the blackboard handed over, and Mika immediately realized it was a calculation problem.
(Review from last time?)
Searching through the memories of Mika Noisheim, he realized these problems were a review of what was taught last time.
It was addition and subtraction of three-digit and four-digit numbers. Two questions of each were written.
Looking at the child in the seat next to him, different content was written on his blackboard.
Probably, the teaching content varies depending on age and proficiency.
Hmm... he thought for a moment.
He wasn't thinking about the answer to the calculation.
He could answer such simple addition and subtraction without even thinking.
What he was thinking was whether it was okay to write the answers quickly.
It seems the boy Mika was not very fond of studying.
Well, if there were children who liked studying, I would want to slap them and say "Wake up!" because I hated studying that much.
If that boy Mika suddenly wrote the answers smoothly, wouldn't it make Radi suspicious?
That was what he was thinking about.
"Did you forget what we did the other day?"
While Mika was wondering what to do, Radi, who was looking at the children one by one, spoke to him.
Even if the other children didn't know the answers, they were writing something on the blackboard vigorously in their own way.
She seemed to be curious seeing Mika not touching anything at all.
"It's fine. I was just recalling what we did the other day."
"Oh? Then give it your best shot. If you don't know, tell me anytime, okay?"
Saying that, she went to the other children.
(I don't want to be noticed for suddenly being able to do it, but I'm troubled if I'm noticed for being too bad.)
Not too good, not too bad. I want to be an ordinary child who causes the least trouble.
To reduce the risk of my true identity being revealed.
For now, I'll try to solve two questions before Radi comes back, and then the remaining two questions.
Just as I was about to write the answer, my hand stopped.
(Is it really okay to write this?)
I looked at the blackboard and the Writing Stone.
The blackboard was just a wooden board coated with a paint-like substance.
I was worried that the paint might peel off if I wrote on it with the Writing Stone.
(...The other children are writing normally, so it should be fine.)
For now, I straightened my mood and wrote the answer.
Then I waited quietly for Radi to come around again.
(By the way, even in this world, numbers are base-10. It's easy to handle, which is good.)
I don't know why base-10 became established in my original world, but maybe it was adopted in this world for similar reasons.
Since I was a programmer, I could handle binary and hexadecimal, but base-10 is still the easiest to handle as it is the most frequently encountered in daily life.
If this world used base-7 or base-12, I'm confident I could handle it immediately, but base-10 is still the most intuitive and familiar.
As a side note, when counting by folding fingers, normally you fold them one by one, so the limit with one hand is 0 to 5.
But a very small part, really a very small part of the weirdos (programmers), treat this finger as 1 bit.
Yes, counting in binary.
Then, it becomes possible to count from 0 to 31 with one hand.
Using both hands, it is possible to count up to 0 to 1023.
............It's a matter of course, but I'll add that this has never been useful.
After the calculation time ended, there was a short break, and then the topic turned to the scriptures of the Church of Light.
It wasn't a difficult talk; they picked out lessons from the stories of the gods and told them as fables easy for children to understand.
By doing so, the teachings of the Church of Light were ingrained in the children, and wisdom in daily life was learned together.
For example, there was a story about a certain fruit.
That fruit was very delicious, but the skin had a strong bitterness.
The myth gave a reason for why the skin of that fruit was bitter.
Originally, the skin had no bitterness, but a troublesome beast ate up the fruit that people were eating.
So, a certain god made the skin bitter to drive away that troublesome beast.
Then the god taught people how to eat that fruit.
If you peel the skin, you can eat it as before.
Through such fables, children are taught not to bite into that fruit as is, but to peel the skin.
Radi sat on the chair in front of the children and read the story aloud.
Today's story seemed to be about the [False God].
Regarding the [False God], it doesn't mean this god is a "fake god," but rather a god who governs the act of falsifying something.
It is a subordinate god of the [God of Darkness], and the scope of this god's defense includes false appearances, lies, pranks, and secrets.
And this god is actually quite popular with the children.
Because it governs pranks, it appears in fables quite frequently, playing pranks on various gods. And every time, it suffers painful consequences.
Perhaps that is funny.
In this story too, without learning their lesson, it seems the [False God] played a prank on the [God of Fire]'s important cup and broke it.
Seeing the broken cup, the angry [God of Fire] suspected the [False God] and tried to punish the [False God].
But the [False God] changed its form into an elephant and escaped successfully.
The [God of Fire], whose anger had not subsided, asked the [God of Truth] and the [God of Far-Sight] to find the [False God].
The [God of Truth] and the [God of Far-Sight] cooperated, saying, "If it is bigger than an elephant, we can find it anywhere in the world," and searched for the [False God].
Hearing this, the [False God] thought, "I will be found if I stay like this," and changed its form into a cow this time.
The [God of Truth] and the [God of Far-Sight], unable to find the [False God], said, "Let's look more carefully," and searched the world thoroughly so that if it was bigger than a cow, it would be found.
Hearing this, the [False God] thought, "I will be found if I stay like this," and changed its form into a wolf this time.
Repeating such things several times, finally, the [False God] became a fly.
The [God of Truth] and the [God of Far-Sight] apologized for not finding the [False God], but promised the [God of Fire] to continue searching in the future.
The [False God] chuckled, thinking it had escaped successfully, but then a frog came.
And the [False God], having transformed into a fly, was eaten.
If it returns to its original form, it can come out of the frog's stomach, but then it will be found by the [God of Truth] and the [God of Far-Sight].
So, reluctantly, the story is that the [False God] is still inside the frog's stomach in the form of a fly.
The children's reaction seemed excellent.
As the [False God] changed forms one after another and escaped the watchful eyes each time, the children raised voices of disappointment and protest, saying "Eh...".
But when it was finally eaten by the frog, they cheered happily, saying "Yay!".
It is a childish fable, but the lesson is probably "Gods are watching, so don't do bad things" and "Even if you escape successfully, retribution will come."
Also, "Don't kill the frog" might be included.
Although frogs are beneficial insects, children might not understand that.
So, perhaps it is to say "There might be a [False God] inside the stomach."
However, is it just me who thinks it's strange to suspect the [False God] immediately upon seeing the broken cup?
And the [False God], why did it change into an elephant first to escape?
I want to say, "Change into something less conspicuous."
Thus, the Sun School ended.
Using about two hours of the morning on the day of the sun, they gradually learned about the gods and wisdom of life through letters, calculations, and fables.
There is no compulsory education, a very loose education system.
However, that is only because there is a church.
If the church did not hold the Sun School, it would be normal not to be able to read, write, or calculate.
Of course, the church probably has the ulterior motive of securing future believers, but even subtracting that, the benefits of the Sun School are great.
Moreover, the Sun School is free. There are no tuition fees, and it is covered by donations to the church.
I don't think the donations from Rish Village alone can maintain this church, so perhaps the budget is distributed from the donations collected by the entire church.
While thinking such things, Radi told Mika and another girl named Nuntzia to stay.
(...Did I do something wrong?)
I was startled for a moment, but if so, they would have kept only Mika.
If there are other children staying besides me, it shouldn't be anything serious, I thought again.
After everyone left, we helped clean up chairs, blackboards, and other things.
After cleaning up, Radi made Mika and Nuntzia sit side by side in the front seat of the church.
The inside of the church was small, with no stained glass or anything.
It seemed like a large house converted into a church.
Six statues of the gods were lined up on the altar at the back, and long benches were arranged facing them, a simple structure.
"Do you remember being called to the Village Head's house in spring and told to touch the crystal?"
At first, I thought "Huh?", but searching my memory, I immediately remembered.
It seems to have been about three months ago, and indeed something like that happened.
Taken by Amalia to the Village Head's house, there were several strange men besides the Village Head, and I was told to touch the crystal.
I touched the crystal, but nothing happened, and I was sent home.
At that time, I remembered that Nuntzia, sitting next to Mika, was also called.
Nuntzia nodded vigorously, and Mika nodded as well.
Confirming that both nodded, Radi continued speaking.
"That was to check your mana levels."
"...Mana?"
Nuntzia murmured at Radi's words.
(Oh my, oh my, oh my, another "ridiculous" word has appeared.)
I blinked a few times and looked at Radi, thinking, "Are you serious?"
Radi explained carefully one by one, as if to confirm whether Mika and Nuntzia understood.
This country is called the Kingdom of Ektrem, and according to the country's laws, mana levels are checked at ages 7 and 9.
That was the incident at the Village Head's house in spring.
It seems that if the amount of mana does not reach a certain amount by age 9, it will not increase much afterwards.
Then I thought it would be enough to check only at age 9, but for early children, they have already reached the standard amount at age 7.
And those children seem to grow better than children who reached the standard at age 9, and the earlier they start, the more they grow with training.
If the standard is reached at age 7, they will learn [God's Miracle] from age 8 at an academy gathering children with such abilities from neighboring domains, and go to the academy in the capital at age 10.
Children who reached the standard at age 9 also go to the academy in the capital at age 10.
The academy at age 10 is mandatory by law, and the academy at age 8 is optional by the local lord.
For the lord, there is a merit that if they can connect with talented people at an early stage, they might come to their domain after graduating from the academy.
Even if they don't come to their own domain immediately, many seem to think they will eventually return to their hometown.
So, they want to nurture that talent greatly.
"...Does that mean we don't have talent?"
When Mika said that, Nuntzia nodded vigorously as well.
"In the laws of Ektrem, that would be the case."
Was it an expected word? Radi seemed not to mind at all, wearing her usual smile.
There are laws set by the country, and if you reached the standard, it seems it is mandatory to go to the so-called "academy."
And since we missed that standard, the story should end there... normally.
Crossing my arms and resting my chin on my hand, Mika thought, "Hmm..."
(The country's law clearly sets the line, so the story should end there. Why did Radi call us? By the way, she said she would try something yesterday...)
Radi saw Mika deep in thought and found it interesting.
Perhaps he is a child with stronger curiosity than she thought.
Just a week ago, he tried to go to Kotontesse alone.
That was a very dangerous act, and indeed Mika collapsed on the way, facing a danger to his life.
But there must have been something inside him that forced him to do so.
And yesterday, he asked me again. What is [God's Miracle]?
He must have seen [Heal] several times before.
But until now, he had never asked such a question.
He had said "Amazing" when seeing him heal injuries, but he had never asked what it was.
Until now, he had simply accepted it as [God's Miracle].
I don't know what kind of change in mindset it was, but I decided to wait patiently until Mika surrendered.
(Country law, obligation. Mana measurement. Men at the Village Head's house. Country or domain officials? Radi... Sister, church.)
Mika thought up to that point and had a flash of inspiration.
"...The church's standard?"
The country sets the standard for mana levels.
In that way, the country takes away all the talented people.
Then, what about the church?
There are people who use [God's Miracle] in the church, like Radi.
Isn't it possible that they set some standard and select talented people in a way that does not conflict with the country's law?
For example, if the limit of a person's mana level was 100, and the country's standard was 60.
Then, what happens to the person with 59?
With proper guidance, wouldn't they grow to be a user comparable to the person with 60?
I don't know the specific method, but perhaps the country raises those who reached the standard at age 9 at the academy, and the church raises those who did not reach it, selecting talented people in a different way from the country's standard.
While organizing these thoughts in my head and conveying them, Radi was frozen in surprise.
"You didn't ask your family... Amalia-san or Loretta-san, did you?"
When Mika nodded, Radi let out a big sigh.
"There are many children who heard and knew, but this is the first time I've heard of someone thinking and realizing it themselves. I haven't heard of it before?"
Radi seemed truly surprised.
(Well, normally people don't think that far. They are 7 years old. If there were such a child, of course, they would be surprised.)
If I asked, Radi would have answered normally.
That was why she called us.
Straightening my mood, Radi continued the explanation.
"From now on, I will flow a little of my mana into both of you. If you feel anything, please tell me."
It was a very vague content.
(If you feel anything, what do you mean? Mana? What does mana feel like?)
I didn't understand at all.
But with the explanation that followed, I finally understood a little.
It seems to be testing sensitivity.
"Checking the mana level is indeed reasonable, but there is something else important when handling [God's Miracle]. The power to feel mana."
It seems that mana is something everyone has in the first place.
Or rather, everything, including things around here, has mana.
Including the air.
Strictly speaking, they are not mana but magic particles, but the point is that this world is full of mana.
But normally, people cannot feel or see mana.
You can feel your own mana, but it seems you cannot feel mana other than your own.
Even that own mana is stable and full from birth, so if it doesn't fluctuate, you won't realize it.
The test we are about to do seems to be feeling your own mana interfered with by Radi's mana, not feeling Radi's mana directly.
Even people with a lot of mana find it hard to improve if their sensitivity is low, and conversely, people with slightly less mana but high sensitivity improve easily.
And the slight difference in mana amount can be reversed at any time later.
Radi did not explicitly state that much, but it seems the church has such thoughts.
In this way, the church can secure users of [God's Miracle] without clashing with the country's policy of prioritizing mana levels.
"Then, hands."
Saying that, Radi held out both hands to Nuntzia.
With palms up, Nuntzia placed her hand on top of those hands.
"Breathe in slowly and deeply. Exhale. There is no pain or fear. Calm your mind."
As instructed, Nuntzia breathed in slowly and deeply, and then exhaled.
Mika watched the two of them intently, but the one watching became nervous.
Feeling the heartbeat growing larger and faster little by little, I told myself to calm down... calm down...