NOVEL NEXT 31 – Gratitude
As soon as the White Hawk trading caravan arrived in the village, I was confused as to why they all had such beautiful books to carry around with them.
At first, I thought that these books were just displayed to show off and show how rich they were, but when I saw the book cover change before my eyes, and then I saw the white cloak on young Rosalind's body, I realized that these books could be magical artifacts!
This actually served to intimidate me perfectly, as I had seen very few magicians in my 50 years of life, let alone magicians using magical artifacts in front of me.
But unlike the other magicians I'd met, Rosalind was much nicer and more humble to me, treating me like a normal person, not humiliating me, offering fair prices for the goods she offered to sell, and even buying our products at fair prices.
Of course, despite how polite and nice she was to me, I wouldn't take advantage of that to ask about the magic artifact.
I lived to be 50 because I knew what to talk about and what not to talk about.
Unfortunately, the children didn't...
When Matilda, a little girl of 6, saw the delicate book in the hand of one of the guards change from a cover with a drawing of a cute pigeon carrying letters in its mouth to the artwork of an imposing wizard controlling dragons of fire and ice, Matilda's curiosity took control of her mouth and she simply asked.
"Sir, why has the cover of your book suddenly become so beautiful?" Matilda's curious voice was heard in the area, causing not only me, but also Matilda's parents and the other villagers living with us to freeze and worry.
I looked at the big warrior with the book as I approached the little girl, even though it might offend them, I couldn't let them do anything bad to the innocent little girl.
But to my surprise, the warrior showed no anger and explained with a polite smile.
"That's because this is no ordinary book." The man explained.
"Thank you for the information Lord Warrior, I apologize for the little girl's rude question..." I said as I lowered my head, trying to defuse the situation even more.
Fortunately, the man didn't want to pursue the matter, but the voice of young Rosalind, the leader of this trade caravan, came to us and asked.
"What happened, Harris?"
"The little girl was curious about the book on the Internet, Lady Rosalind." The man replied politely to the young girl.
Hearing this, Rosalind raised her eyebrow in surprise and shifted her gaze to little Matilda.
Seeing this made me even more worried.
If the chances of dealing with a warrior like Harris were slim, dealing with Rosalind was practically impossible, since she was a mage, an identity almost as high as that of a noble in our kingdom...
At that point, I could only hope that she was as magnanimous as the warrior.
When a book like the warrior's appeared in her hand out of nowhere, I felt my heart squeeze even tighter with worry, while Matilda's eyes shone even brighter with excitement.
"Are you curious about the book, little girl?" Rosalind asked.
Matilda didn't think much about it and just nodded.
"This book contains many important things, such as knowledge about how to read and write, knowledge about how to plant more efficiently, about how to prepare delicious food dishes, fun games, and even knowledge about magic, so that one day you could try to become a wizard like me." Rosalind said as she held the book in one hand and made a small ball of fire appear in her other hand.
Seeing this, I could see Matilda's eyes light up even more as she looked between the fire in one of Rosalind's hands and the book in her other hand.
But while Matilda marveled at the sight, my heart froze even more as I imagined that there was no point in Rosalind telling us something like this unless she was playing some kind of sadistic joke.
I had heard of sadistic and evil things that nobles did to commoners in other areas, so I was really afraid that Rosalind would want to do something like that to us.
"Would you like a book like this, little girl?" Rosalind asked as she showed the cover of the book, which turned into a beautiful drawing of a princess before Matilda's eyes.
Please Matilda, say no... I mentally begged the little girl to say no, even though I knew it was practically impossible.
"Yes..." Matilda said the one word I didn't want her to say....
"No problem, in the capital of Arcantor practically every citizen has such a book now." She said as she smiled and stood up to look us in the eye.
When I heard what she said, I was confused.
Seeing the confusion on my face and the faces of the other adults, Rosalind explained to us that this book was not a magical artifact, but a divine artifact!
After she explained all the functions of this book and even showed us the games it had at our disposal, I felt my blood boil.
Not because of how much fun these games were, but because I thought about the possibility of all the knowledge I had on this Internet... if it really was as Rosalind said, this knowledge could help the village produce much more food and that could greatly improve our living conditions!
Hearing the prayer Rosalind had taught us and trying it out for the first time, feeling the beautiful, delicate book in my hand, shocked us all.
As one of the few educated people in the village, I regretted that it would be more difficult to share this most important information with everyone, but with the book in hand, it was possible to teach everyone slowly, right?
Confused, while I was using the Internet to familiarize myself with it, a sign appeared in front of me.
Rosalind saw it and picked up her book, looking surprised for a second before speaking.
"You're in luck, a new internet update has appeared, anyone with an internet book can use the app [School] to listen to free lessons from Father Robert that will teach illiterate people how to read and write!" Rosalind said smiling. "The only recommendation is that you get together to listen to these lessons in a single person's book, as this would use less of your mental power, as well as not make the God of the Internet use so much divine power to help you learn."
When I heard that, I froze.
Was she saying that the God of the Internet had not only provided us with free knowledge, free entertainment, but had also provided us with a free way to learn to read and write in order to absorb as much of that knowledge as possible?!
As I processed all this information, I couldn't help myself and felt my nose begin to sting as tears streamed down my face.
"Thank you Lady Rosalind, you are changing the fate of our little village..." I said emotionally.
"Don't thank me John, thank the God of the Internet as he is responsible for making all this available, I'm just passing this opportunity on to other people." She said, making me realize that I really should be thanking the God of the Internet.
Thank you, God of the Internet, I will pray in your name as much as I can every day... I thought gratefully as I clasped my hands together in the prayer pose that Lady Rosalind had taught us.
- Adrian's POV -
Listening to this heartfelt prayer, I had a proud smile on my face when I realized that the first believer to give thanks for the [School] app was actually an old headman from a small village that Rosalind had visited on her way out of the kingdom.
To make Robert and Amber even more excited, I added a feature that allowed them to see how many times the audio of the lesson had been listened to.
In the last few minutes since the Internet was launched, six believers had already played it out of curiosity, making me feel my divine power being slowly drained to meet this demand, something I just ignored, but which brought a big smile to my face when I saw how excited the two of them were to realize that six people were listening to the audio they had recorded.
It was a little difficult for Robert to start recording because he was really nervous and lost without knowing how to record without an audience, so Amber and I sat where the students were in the church and acted like students paying attention to his class, which made it much easier for him to start explaining.
After five minutes, Robert had completely lost his embarrassment and was teaching with the same quality as in his other classes, which was great.
As soon as we'd finished recording, I showed them how to upload it, and now they were watching the number of plays on the audio go up.
With my work here done, all I had to do was be patient and let the Internet develop over the next few days.
With the current literacy level of the population, there wasn't much I could do.
Even if I wanted to develop a game of Duel Monsters with cards, it would be a lot of Divine Power spent on something they wouldn't even know how to read the effects of, so it was better to let them learn to read for now, and I would just focus on increasing my power for a while.
As the test time passed, it was good that I was as prepared as possible for a possible confrontation.
////NunuNote////
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