Chapter 150 - Episode 145: Daily Life in the Arqvist Territory ② Clara's Case
In the Arqvist territory, it goes without saying that the lord, Noein Arqvist, holds final and total authority over military, administrative, and judicial matters; in other words, Noein is the most important person.
Then, who is the next most important? In the event that Noein is absent for some reason, those who bear responsibility for practical affairs would be the likes of Knight Commander Yuri, Vice-Commander Pence, or Anna, who stands at the top of the civil officials, but nominally, the person with authority second only to Noein is his wife, Clara Arqvist.
She is in a position to serve as the acting lord when her husband is unable to perform his duties, and Clara actually carried out the lord's duties with the assistance of the knights while Noein was away on campaign, but normally, she considers the operation of the school to be her primary work.
"Well then, I shall be heading to the school."
"Yeah, do your best today. Be careful."
"Please have a safe trip, Clara-sama."
"Yes. You and Matilda-san, please do your best with your work as well."
Morning. After finishing their meal, Clara parts with Noein and Matilda, who are heading to the lord's office, takes her work bag, and heads toward the school, which is her workplace.
That said, as the wife of the lord, she does not leave the mansion alone or walk the roads alone.
When she exits through the mansion's front entrance, one of the maids (usually Kimberly) opens the door for her, and in front of the gate, soldiers of the territorial army are waiting to escort Clara on her commute.
"Good morning, Madam."
"Good morning. Thank you for your hard work so early in the morning."
"Sir. This is my duty."
The young soldier, who seems to be today's escort duty, turns toward Clara expressionlessly, but replies shortly without looking her directly in the eyes. His voice is somewhat tense.
While Clara wishes he would relax his shoulders a bit more when interacting with her, she follows the teaching of her mother, Eleonore—that "being served by commoners and slaves is also the work of a noble"—and accepts this in silence.
To them, she, as the lord's wife, is in a sense an object of awe. If she does not allow them to be humble and closes the distance recklessly, it would only make them more intimidated. Even the friendly Noein maintains a certain distance when dealing with anyone other than his close subordinates and servants, so she, as his wife, cannot arbitrarily break that.
"Principal, good morning."
"Good morning, let's do our best today as well."
"Yes! I will do my absolute best!"
The other person waiting for Clara at the gate, who exchanges greetings with a bit more familiarity, is a girl in her early teens employed as an apprentice teacher at the school.
As a graduate of the first term, she moved directly to the working side of the school after graduation; she serves as Clara's assistant, learning how to conduct classes while also fulfilling the role of Clara's attendant during work.
With that girl and the escort soldier following behind her, Clara heads toward the school.
That said, the school, being a territory-established facility, is not very far from the mansion. Walking for about five minutes through the still-chilly air of early spring, she arrives and enters the grounds with the apprentice teacher girl.
The escort soldier remains standing in front of the school gate, becoming a guard. Clara thinks that in the peaceful capital city of Noeina, soldiers' protection for a school is unnecessary, but according to Knight Commander Yuri, "We cannot have a complete absence of guards where the lord's wife is located, so please forgive us." It is a difficult matter.
Entering the school building—though it consists only of an office with a few desks, chairs, and shelves, and one classroom that can hold a maximum of about thirty people at once—Clara first enters the office and begins preparations for today's lessons.
Even though it is called a school, the lesson content and teaching materials are not strictly decided. In the first place, it has been less than two years since the operation here began. Clara herself only has experience learning one-on-one from the tutors her father hired, so there are still many parts of group instruction that she is proceeding with by trial and error.
Even so, all the students of the first term were able to acquire the minimum basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and since many children told her that "studying is fun," Clara thinks she might have some talent for teaching.
"Now then, today, the children who are progressing quickly will start division, and those who are struggling a bit will review multiplication. Well then... I think I'll have you look after the review group. Watch each person's progress and help them solve the problems."
"I understand. I'll do my best!"
Classes are held three to four days a week, avoiding the busy periods of farm work, and it is set up so that students can choose to attend for about half a year to learn only the basics, or attend for another half year to learn slightly more advanced content.
Currently, it is the period where the education schedule for the first half year is almost finished, and regarding arithmetic, it will be complete once division is taught.
"And then... today was the day for Selfers-sensei to visit."
At the moment Clara muttered that while looking at the schedule blackboard hanging on the wall, there was a knock on the office door.
"Excuse me. Good morning, Madam. I have come early as I wished to do the lesson preparations and such here."
Speak of the devil, the person who entered was the doctor, Selfers.
"Good morning, Selfers-sensei, thank you for your hard work. Also, please call me Principal here."
"Ah, my apologies... Well then, I look forward to working with you today as well, Principal."
When Clara pointed it out with a smile, Selfers also laughed awkwardly and corrected his address.
"I look forward to working with you as well. You have your work as a doctor, yet thank you truly, always."
"No, no, for me as well, teaching medicine to the children is one of my pleasures... Besides, Liris is growing steadily as a doctor. I can feel at ease leaving the management of the clinic to her."
At this school, not only basic reading, writing, and calculation can be learned, but also basic knowledge of various fields; besides Clara herself teaching history, Edgar teaches agriculture, Christy teaches more advanced and practical mathematics, Yuri and Pence teach military affairs, and Selfers comes about once a week to teach the children medicine.
Thanks to that, many children have taken an interest in specific fields and decided their future paths, and Liris, who is learning as an apprentice doctor under Selfers, is a representative example.
"I am happy as the school's operator to hear you say that... Now, the children will be arriving soon. Let us do our best for them today as well."
"Yes!"
"Yes, I shall do my humble best."
When Clara spoke brightly, the apprentice teacher girl responded energetically, and Selfers replied modestly with a gentle expression.