Chapter 2: Chapter 1
Joseph and Mary Schneider.
On the Twenty-Fourth day of the month of the dragon and the year of the tortoise, Mary and Joseph, two ordinary people gave birth to an extraordinary child. What had set this child apart from his age group was the amount of intelligence he possessed. This was obvious when he reached the age of 4. He could talk and converse with adults fluently, a rare talent for one with such a young age. And if one looked into his eyes, they would swear that it was like looking into the starry sky, unfathomable. As such he was the pride of his family. Due to his unnatural intelligence, he was named after Aron the wise, the current ruler of the empire. His father in particular was extremely proud of him as it was not everyday in the Schneider family that one would give birth to such a promising child. The appearance of an offspring with such intellect hinted at good times for the family in the future. As such, when he was of age, the family scraped together what they had and sent him to one of the prestigious schools scattered across the empire.
Unfortunately for them, Aron despite his intelligence abhorred working. During lessons, he would often sneak off to fool around with the local children. These children were not much different from him, however due to circumstance they could not afford education and were resigned to working in the fields. But during their free time they would often wander around the city, and it was in such a fashion that Aron met his first Friend.
Eight, this was usually the age where a child got sent to study if his or her family could afford it. And it was during this age that Aron was finally sent to his school, or more precisely his teacher. During this time, schools were big and prestigious institutions, only available in large cities whereas in small back water towns suck as theirs, they often had to make do with a teacher. Although the town was small, competition between students were fierce. This was natural due to the imperial examinations being the only way out of such a place. If one could pass the exams, they would be taken as an intern by the magistrate of a city or at the very least a town and despite being only an intern, ordinary people had to show respect to them and apart from position, one would be paid significantly more than what ordinary people earned. An ordinary farmer would at best earn 500 coins per year but the figure of a intern was 800 coins the 200 coin difference may not seem like much but one could purchase a decent meal for 2 coins. As such many had dreams of becoming interns, so as to use the position as a spring board into a bigger role such as a magistrate. Aron however had no such dreams. He only wished to eat and play, living an unfettered life. And it was with such an attitude that he lived his first 10 years of his life. He often skipped classes so as to meet his Friend.
Now what could make such a promising person skip his studies? Well he was just an ordinary boy, Liam was his name. He had a carefree air about him and wherever he walked he would bring smiles upon faces. They were doing something particularly special today, Aron was skipping class just so he could accompany Liam to watch the a theatrical procession.
'Look, that's the hero!' Liam exclaimed
'You were right, skipping the boring class was worth it. All Mr Lin talks about are values and morals. Can those be eaten? ' Aron agreed. His way of thinking was simple if he was presented an unknown object he would simply ask, can this be eaten? If not can I play with this? If the answer to those two questions were a no, he would lose interest and proceed to do his own thing, be it dreaming or doodling. This infuriated both his teacher and parents to no end. Both of them had recognised his potential, his teacher especially so. This was all due to one incident, where Aron was caught sleeping by his teacher, Mr Lin. After being caught sleeping, he was woken up by his neighbouring student.
Mr Lin upon seeing such a lazy student claimed, ' There is an idiot on one end of the ruler.'
To which Aron simply replied 'Which end?'
This simple exchange threw the class into an uproar but what had truly shocked Mr Lin was when Aron followed up this insult by an argument of his own.
'Oh so respected Mr Lin, you are the son of a noble, living a life of entitlement that you have not earned and yet you dare call me an idiot? In my opinion you are my teacher simply because fate made you so. Had you not been birthed by a nobleman, you would be in my place. I admit I am lazy, calling me lazy is a statement of the truth but calling me stupid is nothing more than proof that you are the idiot you know nothing of my origins yet you look down on me as the wise scholar Emerson Chan said ' To look down on a fool makes you an even greater fool.''And with this said he left Mr Lin's house.
Huh, so that punk has been listening to my lessons after all. Not bad he even knows how to use the quotes given by the ten heavenly scholars.
After this incident, Mr Lin did not leave him alone, on the contrary, he tried to change his habits even more. As it was rare to find a ten year old who could quote even ordinary scholars. Therefore Mr Lin tried even harder to hold on to and teach Aron. Due to this he experimented with different ways of teaching.
First he experimented with books, making Aron read one book everyday. That was a mistake he never talks about. The second approach was he tried to make it a more hands on class, with him acting out the various morals from his lessons. This fared no better and only served to irritate Aron, making him dread the lesson. But one day he managed a breakthrough. He only managed so after observing where Aron sneaked. Mr Lin observed that Aron was often seen with a certain poor boy. Therefore he approached the couple.
'This is the Mr Lin I have been always complaining about his lessons are so slow that even snails could teach faster.'
'Slow? I had always thought you found them boring not slow. Have you already grasped the Eredinger's argument regarding morals and ethics?' Mr Lin was curious beyond doubt at this point. The lessons he taught were not easy, despite it being moral and ethics, most students had a hard time comprehending it and often miscomprehended it but this young man on the other hand complained that it was slow? Fine, so be it. 'That is besides the point. I have a deal for you today. I am willing to take another person as a student for free if you are willing to study hard.'
Hearing this, Liam was stunned it was his parent's dream to send him for education however, the fees were just too high. One month worth of lessons could fee his family for that one month. Aron's parents only managed this because Aron was their only child thus they had less mouths to feed and could afford to send him to tuition.
However before Liam could say anything Aron already agreed.
He had agreed because he had seen a like mind in Liam. They often talked about the empire's current ruler and his choices, such as his recent increased tax rate of the citizens and the mobilisation of his armed forces. Aron loved debating this with Liam because they both are of same minds but they have different experiences, resulting in differing view. Therefore he after hearing this offer he instantly accepted it and asked Liam to be the teacher's next student.
After arriving back at Mr Lin's house the next evening, he was happy to see Liam there too. They made their way in and greeted Mr Lin. Today, there was only the two of them. When questioned why, he simply replied the others take too long to catch up. They have a separate class. They began the lesson with a diatribe on morality, emphasised by the empire as one of the crucial requirements to become an intern. As without morals, humans would simply be animals on two legs. This was when Aron started to pay attention. He started debating with Mr Lin on the importance of morals, when one was in the right or when one was in the wrong. This was easily caught on by Liam and soon after breaking out from his shy shell, he started adding to the debate at times he supported the teacher and at other times he supported his friend. This made it clear that he too had a unique view of the world. And without them knowing, the time for lessons had passed.
'That was refreshing. I finally had a chance to exercise my brain.'
Liam's thoughts echoed Aron. As he was a child of a peasant, he would not often have opportunities to debate with others. His parents just constantly told him to work. The two constantly chatted while walking back to their homes, and soon it was night.
'Heh, boss, those two. The ones on the right. Easy targets eh?' A rat like figure said.
'Yea, I've been wanting to test my skills for a long time. Never seemed to find anyone though. Guess they can only count themselves unlucky.' The person who said this looked like a mountain, big and immovable.
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