Cornflower Witch

Chapter 12 The Past of the Mountain Country

a new day.

After breakfast, Hilti and Talil went to Winnie's house. Little Randy was playing in the living room, holding a large ball of yarn.

"You're here." Winnie came out of the kitchen, bringing out freshly baked cookies and handing them to the two of them.

"Eat something."

She then picked Randy up, put him back in the room, let him play by himself, and then began their first formal lesson together.

"First, I need to ascertain Miss Tiya's level of proficiency with words." She placed a very thick book on the table.

"This is a graduation gift from Maester Hyde, 'The Rings of the Fir Tree ~ The Story of the Mountain Kingdom,' written by the famous scholar Akanash from 300 years ago. The book tells the early history of the Kingdom of Regas, how King Regard Bouvier conquered the mountains, and how he established laws to appease the various tribes in the mountains and win their loyalty."

"Now, Miss Tia, you can try reciting the chapter 'Battle of Snowfall Mountain' on page 235."

“I understand.” Hiltiya took the thick book with great interest.

She quickly turned to the designated page and tried to decipher the characters. She recognized most of them, but a few words and phrases were somewhat obscure, likely words that the original owner of the body had not learned before.

"The heavy snow fell for five days and four nights, breaking the branches of the pine trees. We had to dismount and trek through the piled-up snow, where all we could see was a vast expanse of white..."

Sid, the wind hunter who accompanied me, told me that there was still a lingering "hibernation" atmosphere in the wind, and that this heavy snow might have been man-made, which made me worried.

Marang and Pris said they would try to help me solve the blizzard problem, but I thought to myself, what could these Candlekeep maesters possibly do? They were only good at sorting out knowledge from books and copying traces from ancient artifacts. The only thing that could be considered pleasing was that they were good at mathematics and skilled at building catapults, which helped me solve many problems.

……

For two months, we have been unable to find the enemy's main force and have been wandering aimlessly in the mountains. Many of our men have frozen to death in the cold night. Today, Sir Hollin reported to me that 13 soldiers did not wake up last night.

I think we're probably lost.

……

Facing the corpse of Knight Reed, anger filled my body, making me want to burn and explode like the blazing sun. Unfortunately, I am not the 'blazing sun', and I can only plunge my sword into the rock beneath my feet.

I couldn't wait any longer, I couldn't let things continue like this. I asked Scholar Marang to leave my tent for the time being, and then I walked towards the birdcage covered by the black cloth, where a strange bird stood. It would convey my determination...

……

The black-crowned magpie cried, and the 432nd annual ring of the blood-red cedar scarred. I executed Keshale beneath the black pines of Snowfall Mountain. He fell with a curse, and the greatsword in my hand was also full of nicks.

In any case, we won, defeated the last and most powerful tribe in the mountains, beheaded its leader, and nailed the snow mountain witches who assisted Keshale to wooden stakes, their blood draining away.

Twenty-one years ago, I led my family's servants south to settle in a small town on the shore of Erhu Lake. Through pioneering, alliances, and conquests, and finally overcoming all obstacles, this long journey has finally come to an end.

It's time to go back. My family is waiting for me, and so are the soldiers.

We will build our city where these mountains meet, and with our foundation stone, establish our nation. May it be as evergreen as the fir tree, and may our knights' armor be forever strong, and their swords forever sharp.

After reciting the poem with a touch of lament, Hirutiya put down her book.

Winnie clapped her hands in approval: "Not only is her pronunciation exceptionally standard, but Miss Tia's voice is also so beautiful, rhythmic, and captivating."

"If the full score is 10, I would give Miss Tia 9.6 points."

"Sigh, isn't this enough for a perfect score?" Taliel said, puzzled.

“Well, Miss Tia probably wasn’t born in Legas, so she doesn’t know some of the local words and slang and skipped a few words, which is why points have to be deducted,” Winnie explained.

"Like This."

"However, it's gratifying that Miss Tia accurately pronounced some of the uncommon and obscure words in the book. You know, the author, Scholar Akanash, had a habit of showing off his literary skills and liked to use some obscure words to demonstrate his erudition and taste." Winnie shook her head slightly as she spoke, as if she had suffered a lot when studying this book before.

“In that case, we don’t need to continue to assess Miss Tia’s writing skills. Next, let’s look at her arithmetic skills.” She took out a sheet of paper with various arithmetic problems written on it and handed it to Hilti.

The girl was a little nervous before receiving the paper, after all, she had forgotten most of her math knowledge after graduating from university, especially advanced calculus.

However, once she saw the questions on the paper, she instantly relaxed. These were just elementary school level questions, with maybe a little bit of junior high school knowledge added.

He wrote down the answers almost without thinking, and the entire sheet of questions took less than a minute to complete.

Winnie had just been planning to test Thaliel while Sylvia was answering her questions, but before she knew it, Sylvia had already handed in her paper, so she had to look at Sylvia's answer sheet first.

"All correct." There was a hint of hesitation and disbelief in her voice.

Taliel also came over at this moment, looking at the various numbers and questions on the paper, and suddenly felt dizzy and turned her face away.

"Now we don't need to worry about Miss Tia's foundation." Winnie was relieved and asked the girl to wait a while while she checked on Talia's situation.

During this free time, Hiltiya continued to browse through the book she had just read, "The Annual Rings of the Cedar Tree ~ Past Events of the Mountain Country," with great interest.

This book was written by the Akanash maesters 300 years ago. It quotes parts of the autobiography of 'Knight King' Regard Bouvier, as well as records from the early maesters who accompanied him in the army, and some local accounts. Finally, it is pieced together to form a long epic describing the founding of the kingdom of Regard.

Regard Bouvier was born in the Gurenga Mountains in the central part of the continent. He was the second son of a local minor nobleman. Although he could not inherit the title, he was exceptionally talented from a young age. At the age of 24, he became a knight of the 'Third Tier - Castle' attribute. After that, he gathered a group of like-minded companions and followers and came to the mountain lake in the south. Starting from there, he gradually expanded his territory until he cleared all obstacles and established the Kingdom of Regard at the age of 56. Those knights and companions who followed him in his campaigns became the earliest nobles of the Kingdom of Regard.

The establishment of the Kingdom of Regas was not without its challenges. It took the 'Knight King' Regard twenty-one years to conquer the mountains and establish the kingdom. After that, it took him nearly twenty more years to stabilize the country. During this process, various security, economic, and construction problems caused the Knight King a great deal of trouble. Fortunately, the 'Candlecastle School' that supported him sent scholars to this harsh mountain land for decades to serve as advisors, mentors, and guides to the local nobles. They gradually educated them, taught them skills, and built castles and towers, finally stabilizing the country.

Akanash Maester is also from the 'Candlehold School', right? By the end, Hiltiya was guessing the author's stance and background. Although there were some complaints and jokes about the 'Candlehold School' at the beginning, the various praises and compliments at the end made the previous flaws seem more like a plot device of building up to a climax.

Perhaps there was some personal bias involved, but without the records kept by these scholars of the 'Candleburg School,' later generations would have no way to understand the past. Overall, Hiltiah had a good impression of the 'Candleburg School,' as they were indeed expanding the boundaries of civilization and improving the living environment of the local residents.

(End of this chapter)