Chapter 54: Going to School

Ivan pushed the door open and hung his coat on the hook behind it.

He sniffed the air and a smile appeared on his tired face.

"What delicious food are you making?"

A girl poked her head out from the kitchen. There was a smudge of dirt on her cheek, and her hair was tied up loosely behind her. She smiled when she saw Ivan.

"Father, you're back. Where's Ken?"

"He went to pick some fruit on his way back." Ivan glanced into the kitchen, where a fish was bubbling away in a pot.

"Where did the fish come from? Weren't they forbidden to go out to sea recently?"

"I picked it up from the shore this morning, along with quite a few razor clams. I made some soup, and oh!"

She turned around and brought a wooden bowl from the room, containing four plump eggs.

Ivan glanced into the bowl: "Gaia, you climbed up the trees to poach bird eggs again."

The girl's eyes widened: "No way! I picked these up from... from the shore!"

Ivan put on a mock sigh: "You're not young anymore. Who would want to marry a girl who climbs trees all day?"

"I'm only fifteen!" the girl protested loudly, her hands on her hips. Just as she wanted to say a few more words, she caught sight of the smile at the corner of Ivan's mouth, so she stamped her foot in mock annoyance and turned to run back into the kitchen.

The front door opened again. Ivan turned to look, and a teenage boy was squeezing through the door sideways. He held his coat in his arms, which was stuffed full of a large pile of fruit.

"Dad, look how much I picked!"

Looking at the blades of grass in the boy's hair, Ivan wanted to put on a straight face and lecture him again, but the smile at the corners of his mouth refused to be suppressed.

Looking at these two children, Ivan always felt that no matter how tiring life was, it wasn't that bad.

He took the coat from the boy, carried it to the kitchen, scooped out some clean water, and began to wash the fruit.

"How is the work lately?" Gaia glanced at him.

"Very good. The new lord's steward has gone mad, tearing down the old brewing workshops and building new ones. I went along to do some odd jobs, and I make a full two rios a day."

"Two rios..." Gaia sighed with yearning.

Old Ivan used to be a fisherman. Aside from keeping enough to feed the family, the fish he caught were all sold at the market, and he couldn't save even a few rios a week.

Now, both he and Ken were working at the construction site, and the two of them could actually earn four rios a day.

This was top-notch work. According to the foreman at the construction site, workers in Rheingold didn't make more than this wage, and that was a big city.

The lord had sent people two days ago to forbid fishermen from going out to sea, and Ivan had been a bit worried at first, but if he could earn two rios every day, whether he could go to sea didn't matter anymore.

Ivan threw the fruit into the pot. This was the traditional way of eating in Castel; the sweetness of the fruit mixed with the freshness of the fish, and after eating it, all the fatigue of the day would vanish.

"Father, your workshop is almost finished, isn't it? I heard they're not hiring new people at the site anymore."

"Don't worry, there won't be a shortage of work in the future."

Old Ivan's greatest confidence lay in his intuition. Back when they still lived on the mainland, rumors of famine began to spread. Although their family still had some grain left, Ivan didn't hesitate to bring his entire family to this small island of Castel.

Sure enough, famine followed by plague came wave after wave. Not many households survived in their old village, and Old Ivan managed to raise his two children by fishing and gathering fruit in the mountains.

Now, many people working at the construction site were beginning to worry that they would be laid off once the workshops were finished, but Ivan had no such worries at all. He had figured it out long ago:

The lord had built so many workshops, yet there were only a handful of artisans. They would definitely need to hire people in the future.

Being an artisan was a lucrative trade; whether brewing or blacksmithing, it was much better than fishing.

Ivan had always been dexterous, but he had never had the chance to learn a craft. He would definitely sign up this time when they recruited apprentices, and Ken could go along as an apprentice too. He was reaching the age where he needed to take a wife, and having a skill was never a bad thing.

As for Gaia...

Old Ivan hesitated slightly.

He knew Gaia wanted to go to school.

Two days ago, that steward went from house to house to announce that the newly established school was about to start classes, and all the lord's hired laborers and their dependents could enroll for free.

Free enrollment was great, but he had asked around and heard that students needed to buy some paper and pens, and textbooks cost money too. The prices of those things weren't completely unaffordable, but...

He had never heard of anyone sending their daughter to study.

Girls were bound to get married eventually. If they couldn't save up a dowry in time, it was very likely they wouldn't find a good family, and if she dragged it out until she was older, she might have to marry some old man.

Instead of letting her study, it was better to save the money for her dowry, which might make the second half of her life happier.

Besides... he still had a son, Ken.

The three of them gathered around the table and finished their dinner. Ken and Gaia chatted and laughed playfully. For some reason, Old Ivan didn't have much appetite.

"...Those olive trees aren't very tall, but they aren't short either. Most of them can be reached by hand, and the higher ones can be reached with a stick."

"What are those olives for? To eat?"

"I've tried them, they taste far worse than sweet fruit. Word is they're used to press oil."

"Whoa..." Gaia sighed. "If only I could see it."

"I'll bring you a handful tomorrow. Those things are everywhere in the valley. I heard the oil-pressing method isn't complicated. We can get more and use them to fry fish in the future."

"Then I'll go back to the beach tomorrow and pick up more fish!"

"... "

"... "

The room suddenly fell silent. The previous liveliness seemed to have slipped away up the chimney.

Gaia was somewhat at a loss. She looked at the two silent figures, not understanding what had happened.

"Gaia, go to school."

Ken said with his head lowered, in a muffled voice.

Old Ivan glanced at him.

"Ken and I will continue working at the construction site, making four rios a day. They provide lunch at the site, and I'll pick some fruit on the way back at night so we'll have breakfast the next morning."

Gaia opened her mouth. She lifted the frayed hem of her skirt and stood up in a panic.

"No, you don't have to. I was actually just mentioning it. After thinking about it, even if I got an education, there wouldn't be any jobs for me in Castel anyway. I mean, I don't really want to study that much..."

She looked at Old Ivan: "Or..."

"Gaia, you're smarter than me. It's useless for me to study. I might as well learn an artisan's craft; at least I won't starve." Ken forced a smile. "Maybe you'll need me to bail you out in the future."

Gaia grew anxious, her face flushed red as she hurriedly muttered something, while Ken stuck out his neck, refusing to budge no matter what.

Old Ivan felt a sense of disorientation, suddenly remembering when he first decided to come to Castel. The children's mother was still alive then, and the two of them had argued just like this at home.

That was many years ago.

When he snapped back to reality, Old Ivan looked at the two children beside him, then at the empty space across the table, and sighed.

"Stop arguing, both of you. Go to school."