Vol. 1 - Ch. 317 - The Duty of a Private Tutor (4)

 At the behest of Duid, Cain laid out the course of action they took in the last four days.

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The next day, Allen-sensei arrived at the exact time he had mentioned. He took me for a ride on a two-wheeler mana vehicle, and our first stop was the government district in the northwest of the royal capital.

Was I truly on the path of my choice? ...I had the same thought spin over and over in my mind, but I couldn't reach an answer. If the answer appeared far from reach, then I could only act first. 

Quoting the teacher's words—I lacked enough wider perspective of the fundamentals to give the finishing touch to my dreams.

At the government district, we first headed for the ministry of foreign affairs. However it wasn't for some concrete reason. It felt to me like an unplanned trip. The guard at the entrance tried to stop us, but he didn't follow up after the teacher introduced himself casually. 

I was quite nervous, like I was in the wrong place, but the teacher had a smile on his face. "There's nothing far more intriguing to me than exploring the unknown," so he said. 

Entering the building, the teacher soon struck a conversation with an experienced old lady at the reception of the Consultant Department's Travelling Section. He didn't know her, but just did it out of interest. 

He mostly inquired what he must do to visit Bearentz Archipalegao, or what he must bring with himself when he's visiting Kiruna, a snow laden country now the vassal nation of Rosemieur after the latter devastated it. 

Perhaps drawn by the teacher's enthusiasm for travel, the other employees privy of foreign affairs joined the scene out of curiosity and the small talk unfurled into debate of sightseeing spots, cultures, or history of other nations. ...Eventually, I also found myself drawn to the discussion and listened to them attentively. 

Amidst that, a stern looking middle-aged lady, Viola-san, entered the scene, saying what's all the loud chattering about, and immediately closed in to the teacher when she saw him, shouting "...You brat! What are you doing here?!"

Sensei's expression visibly trembled when she saw her, and tried to veer the question, "You seem to be busy. Are you not sleeping well?" However, we immediately escaped away when teacher saw the building anger as she remarked "Y-you have the audacity to ask this after causing all that——"

My heart was pounding like crazy... but it certainly was fun. 

Next, we knocked on the door of the Department of Agriculture, and the teacher discussed just as much as before. We were introduced to many facilities, like a plantation zone where they carried out improvement on fertilisers to improvise the growth of plants, or the facility that experimented on methods to ward off harmful beasts and so on. And the one facility we saw was the foodstock storage. The last one was unusually active as they're dealing with the effects caused by Hellrowcaust. 

At the end, we had lunch in their canteen which was lined up with aromatic dishes cooked with ingredients from all over the kingdom. 

The tour continued, and after lunch, we... arrived at the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was just a coincidence we happened to see it.

So you were working in the sewer section of the Urban Development Department, right, Father? ...I didn't even know this until then. 

I couldn't understand what they meant, but I saw the seemingly group of nobles shouting terrible things like "It's not enough. Push for more subsidiary aid!", "If you can't, try to explain to the commoners yourself," and "You must've been enjoying the suffering of commoners, aren't you?!" at you.

The teacher appeared astounded when I murmured 'father.' So I believe it was completely coincidental. 

Nervous, I inquired if he had made any mistake. He watched the situation for a moment before shaking his head. He said neither appear to be at fault. 

Then why would they be angry at the father and even had to bow his head, I asked. "The situation is... a bit too complex to explain here," he replied. There were barely any comforting words against the situation. I quite remember the bitter feeling I felt then. 

I couldn't say I agreed with his observation, but the teacher himself appeared drowning in some thoughts. ...I didn't say anything after, and we ended the day there with the teacher dropping me back to the house. 

To be honest, I couldn't see father in any good way then. Perhaps, he must have done something wrong. I mean, wouldn't it be strange if he was apologising for something he had no fault? 

"Until Lil' Dui is back, you shouldn't study," he said when he dropped me off. That I would not understand anything. And more importantly, that I should forget what I saw today.

......And then the next day, the teacher came around before dawn. It should be 4:00 AM when he woke me up with a knock on the second floor’s window. I nearly jumped in fright. 

He said we're going to do some work before breakfast. Apparently, the people in the past would wake up before dawn to settle their work. And even in the present time, the people in rural areas would have late breakfast and early dinner, living in two-time meals. There were even some who lived only one one-time meal. 

I found it extremely bizarre. I had thought it was common sense to have three meals a day, but apparently it wasn't even common? 

The place he led me to was the sewer drainage site. Indeed, we did actual physical labour. He explained how the work must be done in wee hours, or it becomes truly hard to go through it when the city is awake. 

We're not alone, though. There were other kids of my age already working there. Apparently, the teacher learned from them on how to handle most of the tasks. They're teachers of teachers. 

I was taken aback. I never expected him to do physical tasks by himself. As far as I knew, we didn't have a single person to tell us about chores even among my school friends. I would've never expected a student of Royal Student, much less the celebrity of my teacher, to learn such stuff from other kids. 

Surrounded by an awful stench, we worked with shovels to remove clogged garbage or sediment from the gutter while covered in the sludge. I heard the giggles and laughter of others at my repulsed expression, but... it was unlike the teasing or ridicule of my school friends. Somehow, I wasn't off-put by it. 

After we had done the cleaning—I might be scolded for this—we went to the slum at the outskirts of downtown. At the school, I had heard them saying we should stay away from the area. 

It was an orphanage we stopped by. The teacher handed me ten rea, saying it was my share. 

The money I earned for the first time. The copper coins were like any other coins I received as pocket money, but they felt entirely different. I didn't even have the urge to spend them. 

Afterward, we washed ourselves at the well of the orphanage, and had breakfast. It was just dried bread, and soup... Well, barely with much ingredients, but I was so hungry It felt like the best thing I had ever eaten. 

Once we're done with that, Po-kun—he's one of the guys who was laughing at me—came up saying 'you seem to be good with study, so teach me some things.' We held a joint study session then.

The subjects couldn't have been any easier, and yet the other felt amazed, repeating 'wow, you're so smart.' I was honestly embarrassed. The teacher didn't participate. He only watched us from a distance in silence. 

We ended the session as it appeared Po-kun had another task, to pick waste from the slum, in the afternoon and parted. 

“Did you know? Even poop can be sold. The Department of Agriculture's agriculture material section, that we had toured around the last day, worked in-hand with other organisations to create a cycle of functional society.” He explained.

Putting the orphanage behind us, we left for the Royal Library. Along the way, I learned from him how slums had no sewer, which created an unsanitary environment, caused disease to outbreak, and resulted in the death of children.  

I... never thought of it. It felt wrong that the same kids who worked hard to clean the sewers died because they themselves didn't have access to them. 

"The slum here is neither the first, nor will it be the last place in the kingdom to have such areas," he replied after hearing my thoughts. “However, this is where people like my father came in.”

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