Gwen put down the last engineering report that he needed to personally verify. He stretched his neck to relax his stiff cervical vertebrae and then looked around.
The study was very quiet, but he was not alone. Not far from Gwen's big desk, there was a small table against the wall. Betty was lying on the table, seriously writing the words that she had recently learned to spell.
Every night, she would take two hours to go to night school to learn how to spell. During the day, she would practice writing in front of the textbook. This seemed to have become Betty's daily routine. In order to provide a more convenient learning space for this little girl who loved to learn, Gwen specially allowed her to practice writing in his study. He also arranged a small desk for her here.
This obviously went beyond the treatment that a maid should receive. However, in this place, no one would question Gwen's decision. As for Betty herself, her mind did not seem to be complicated enough to consider the problem of "overstepping the rules".
Betty was indeed a girl who was not very smart. In fact, she was a little dull. Gwen knew that there was a word to describe this kind of girl, which was the so-called "dull cute". However, he did not feel the slightest joy from Betty's dullness. This girl did not have any congenital defect. Her dullness was only caused by malnutrition and the poverty of her family life.
Like most of the children of the destitute in this era, like most of the children of kitchen maids, low-level handymen, and serfs, the lack of nutrition at the critical stage of development and the lack of education at the most important learning period of life often affected their lives. They lacked knowledge, curiosity, learning ability, and independent thinking. The nobles often regarded the "lower class" as stupid, ignorant, and a kind of natural defect. They even used this as evidence to support the "truth" that nobles were born noble. Of course, there were exaggerations and unreasonable discrimination, but as he learned more about this world, Gwen had to admit a fact:
There was a gap in learning ability and thinking speed between the destitute children and the well-off noble children. Although this gap had nothing to do with the so-called "good or bad blood", its existence itself was an unavoidable reality.
So Gwen tried his best to reduce this gap, whether it was the free children's special meals in the night school or the food subsidies for children under the age of six in the territory, they were all part of his efforts. First, the children's malnutrition could be solved, so that their brains could be fully developed like the children of the nobles. At the same time, education was the most effective method he could think of. However, what about those who were already adults or were about to become adults?
Gwen stood up and came behind Betty, watching the stupid girl try to spell the words one by one. She made very few mistakes, and her handwriting was much neater than before, but she had to spell a word dozens of times before she could remember it. Until today, she was still learning many things in the first two months of the night school.
Betty was much better than most people of the same class. She was almost an adult, but she still had a strong curiosity. She liked to learn, and she liked to write. She wanted to be able to read and write fluently like Rebecca, Heti, and the others, but she still had a hard time learning. She was not a genius buried in a novel. She had missed the best age to learn, and this was something that hard work could not make up for.
In fact, if it was not for the disaster in the territory, if it was not for Gwen taking her to see too much of the 'outside world', Betty would not have known that there was any other way to survive other than doing rough work in the kitchen.
Just like when she first escaped from the territory, she always held her frying pan in her arms. That was because she really did not have anything else in her life. As a kitchen maid, the frying pan was the highest honor and mission she could imagine.
Betty finally noticed the figure beside her. She looked up, a little startled, and wanted to get up in a panic. "Master …"
"It's okay. I just finished my work and came to check on your progress." Gwen patted Betty's head to calm her down. "Ah … you can write very neatly now."
Betty smiled a little embarrassedly. She was very happy to be praised, but she felt a little wronged. "Pea learns faster than me …"
"She's still young. It's normal for her to learn things easier," Gwen comforted the little maid. "You're very hardworking. Sooner or later, you'll catch up with the others. And if there's anything you don't understand, I can teach you at any time. "
"Okay!" Betty nodded vigorously. At this time, Gwen noticed a few draft papers poking out of the stack of books next to the small desk. He curiously pulled them out and saw some simple basic runes drawn on them.
"You've already started to learn runes?" Gwen asked in surprise.
"Well …" Betty lowered her head. "Mr. Santis, who teaches rune literature, opened the classroom and allowed other classes to sit in. I followed him …"
"Can you understand it?"
"Yes … I can understand part of it." Betty gestured with her hands to show that it was only a small part. "Mr. Santis taught very carefully and patiently. People can also ask questions, so I learned a little. Mr. Santis said that if I can memorize the basic 28 runes, he'll let me teach in his class officially. "
Gwen could not help but think of the thin, tall, and cowardly young sorcerer with messy hair in a shabby sorcerer's robe. Ever since the level-two arcanist was sent to teach runes and magic in Cecil General Academy, Gwen had not heard any news about him. Mr. Santis was a very low-key person. It seemed that as long as he was given a job, he would keep working in silence. However, judging from the results, he seemed to be doing a good job as a teacher.
Few formal sorcerers would be as patient as him in front of the commoners. He could even explain the relatively complicated theory of runes to the extent that even Betty could barely understand part of it. This was indeed an amazing talent.
After all, no one had ever thought about how to explain magic to a group of people who could not feel magic at all. Santis' teaching route was entirely his own.
"Mr. Santis said, 'You can't see the magic, but it's there,'" Betty said in a low voice. "But he didn't let us simply engrave runes on red copper coins and black stones. He asked us to practice on sand, paper, and writing boards first. We can only touch magic materials after we've mastered them …"
"Safety awareness is the first step to learning magic," Gawain said with a smile. "Listen to him on this."
After saying this, he suddenly turned around and looked in the direction of the window. He sensed that Amber's breath was quickly approaching.
Unfortunately, the anti- Amber device did not work this time. The half-elf, who was skilled in shadow magic, directly jumped over the mousetrap on the windowsill and landed steadily on the ground. Gwen noticed that her expression was a little serious.
It was rare to see a serious expression on Amber's face, so Gwen temporarily put away the idea of replacing the mousetrap on the windowsill with a tripwire next time. He looked at Amber curiously and asked, "What happened?"
Amber casually picked up Gwen's cup on the desk and poured the herbal tea in it into it. After drinking to her heart's content, she gasped for breath and said, "Phew — I'm exhausted from running all the way here. The patrol team in the mountains came back early. They encountered a group of suspicious armed men and brought back two disabled prisoners. "
Gwen suddenly frowned. "Suspicious armed men? What's the situation? "
"I don't know. Those people didn't have anything that could identify them. But I found map-making tools and some sketches of the Gloom Mountain Range on them." Amber waved his hand. "I couldn't get anything out of the two captives, and they were badly injured. Pitman didn't dare to force them to confess. He was afraid that he would accidentally kill them. Now they are being held in the barracks. The priest is treating their wounds. The patrol team is also there. "
Gwen frowned and looked back at Betty. "Stay at home and watch the door. I'll go out for a while."
The little maid nodded blankly. The next second, she saw her master and Amber had rushed out of the window. Only the faint voices of the two could be heard in the air.
"Damn it, that mousetrap!"
"Serves you right. Who told you to trap me with a mousetrap? You got yourself caught this time!"
"I can't go with you. Why did I jump out of the window with you?!"
Betty was stunned for a moment. She bowed her head and continued to write. It was too difficult to understand the behavior of Master and Amber when they were together. It was better to learn simple.
On the other side, it didn't take long for Gawain and Amber to arrive at the "captive holding room" in the corner of the military camp.
Here, he saw the patrolling soldiers who had encountered the enemy and the two captives they had defeated and captured. Just as Amber had said, the two captives were seriously injured. Their limbs were pierced by the heat rays, and there were many places on their torsos that were grazed by the heat rays as well. Their metal armor was melted by the heat, and their injuries were particularly serious. If the patrolling soldiers had not fed them healing potions in time, and if they had not been saved by the priests when they returned to the territory, it was hard to say whether they would have survived.
The priest, Wright, had completed the emergency treatment of the captive's wounds. Through a series of effective treatments such as bonesetting (physical), Cleansing (physical), Healing (physical), and a little bit of holy light, he stabilized the captive's condition. When he saw Gawain coming in, the priest immediately came up to him. "My lord, you're just in time."
Gwen saw the blood on the priest's hands and body at first glance. He was shocked. "If I came a little later, you would've killed them?!"
"Ah?" Wright froze for a moment and hurriedly waved his hand. "No, no, their injuries have been stabilized. I mean, if you came a little later, I would've been ready to cast a calming spell on them to make them fall asleep. By then, I wouldn't have been able to ask."
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