Above the mage

Chapter 308 Preparation

"This is your accommodation. Children share a room of four, and adults share a room of two. The conditions are limited."

Caitlin led the group of teachers and children from the branch to a newly built complex on a corner of the main street and introduced the row of brand-new houses.

The buildings in Phoenix are all made of stone, which, against the backdrop of the snowy landscape, exude a cold yet rustic atmosphere.

The row of houses in front of us is visibly much simpler than other residences.

The exterior walls of the house are made entirely of stones of varying sizes, with irregular frost patterns running through the gaps.

The roof was covered with flat stone slabs, on which a thin layer of snow had accumulated, like a white hat on the house.

Each window is a simple square hole, without an elaborate frame, roughly secured with a few animal bones. Icicles of varying lengths hang from the edges of the window openings, resembling natural crystal curtains.

The door was also hastily made; it was just a large stone slab with rough chisel marks on it, but to keep out the cold, the gaps in the door were stuffed with furry animal hides.

Caitlin stopped and her voice clearly reached everyone's ears: "However, this was built by His Highness's urgent orders. In Phoenix right now, almost everyone is engaged in land reclamation and farming. It was only because His Highness personally ordered it that the Zhenbing Tribe sent people to build these houses for you."

While introducing the character, Caitlin didn't forget to give Godela a boost in popularity.

"Having a decent house to live in, sheltering us from the wind and snow, is already far beyond our expectations. Why would we complain about the poor conditions?" Damon, the guardian who was in charge of the branch, said with a wry smile, with a hint of self-deprecation.

This is the truth.

Although Caitlin didn't say it explicitly, Damon's guardians and instructors all knew what it meant.

As remnants of the Snowfield Guardians wiped out by the Zhenbing Tribe, their current status is, to put it nicely, surrendered; to put it bluntly, they are prisoners.

Generally speaking, prisoners of war are mostly used as laborers, and their living quarters are basically simple tents.

A bunch of people used to huddle together without any privacy, sleeping on the ground. It's nothing like now, where people can actually be allocated free and proper housing.

Thinking about this, Damon's guardian was even a little moved.

Caitlin smiled slightly, then looked up at the instructors and said, "Please put your things down and prepare to come with me to see His Highness."

"To meet His Highness?!" Upon hearing Caitlin's words, the instructors and even the Damon Guardians were all stunned, exchanging bewildered glances several times, still unable to believe it.

Among the Snowfield Guardians, the most powerful are the "Guardians" and the "Hunters".

To be honest, these instructors were forced into the role because they lacked the necessary skills and talent; they were all just first-ring Iceborn mages.

While a first-ring mage isn't exactly worthless in the Zhenbing tribe, they certainly aren't considered particularly rare or precious either.

Even among the Snowfield Guardians, they rarely have the opportunity to meet the sect's higher-ups.

And Gao De, as the king of the Zhenbing tribe, actually wanted to meet them in person?

How could this not leave everyone full of doubts?

"Lady Caitlin, are you sure you want to take us to see the King of True Ice?" Damon composed himself but couldn't help asking, needing to confirm again in case he had misheard.

Caitlin smiled gently at everyone's reaction. She knew all too well what they were thinking, so she softly explained, "Given your status, you really don't have much right to meet His Highness."

She spoke very bluntly, without any euphemisms.

"But the situation is a little different. According to His Highness's plan, you will be incorporated into the Phoenix Ministry of Education."

Caitlin paused briefly, giving everyone some time to process what she was saying, before continuing, "And the Ministry of Education is no ordinary department; it's a department personally overseen by His Highness."

After a pause, Caitlin emphasized, "In Phoenix, even the Ministry of Agriculture, which was responsible for cultivating the Northwest Barley No. 1, was handed over to Lady Flora and the War Mother, rather than being personally in charge."

After hurriedly putting down his meager luggage, Damon and the instructors, led by Caitlin, arrived at City Hall, outside Gaode's office.

Gaode did not meet with everyone at once, but instead had them enter the office in turns.

Damon was the first to go in.

"Lady Caitlin, are you really alright?" While waiting outside the door, Ona twisted the hem of her dress with her fingers, feeling somewhat uneasy and uncertain.

Although she had mentally prepared herself more than once on the way, once she arrived here, all that preparation turned into a shoddy construction project and collapsed at once.

After all, if Gaode Maps really wanted to hold a grudge, they would have directly offended Gaode Maps.

Caitlin reassured her, "Don't worry, His Highness is a reasonable person, and you didn't do anything wrong."

"On the contrary, it is I who have truly offended His Highness, but you have seen the situation now." With that, Caitlin patted Ona on the shoulder.

Hearing Caitlin say this, Ona's tension eased a little.

Before entering Gaode's office, Damon underwent an extremely thorough body search.

Then, filled with trepidation, he finally met the person he had foretold, the new king of the Zhenbing tribe, Gaode.

At this point, Damon finally understood why Caitlin addressed God as His Highness.

Under normal circumstances, it would be more appropriate for these outsiders to address Gaode as "Your Majesty".

While the title "Your Highness" still conveys respect, it is somewhat more intimate.

—It wasn't out of intimacy, but because this new king was so young, definitely no more than twenty years old. His fingers, holding the quill pen, were long and slender, and his eyes shone with a luminous light, a manifestation of abundant life energy.

He could hardly imagine that the person who made the prophecy would be such a young outsider.

"Damon's Guardians?" God sat at the long table, flipping through the list that Caitlyn had handed him.

"Yes, Your Highness," Damon's guardian replied respectfully, bowing his head.

"I was asked by the Guardian of Baruch to visit you, but unfortunately you were out at the time and I didn't get to meet you."

Gao De casually mentioned it, but it made Damon's heart tighten, and he subconsciously thought that Gao De was preparing to settle scores later.

Fortunately, Gaode only mentioned it casually, and before he could reply, he already received the next sentence.

"Are you literate? By literate, I mean 'reading and writing,' and it must be genuine mastery, not just 'fluent language.'"

However, Gaode's first question was still completely unexpected for Damon, so much so that he was stunned and couldn't answer it immediately.

"Of course, this is the most basic requirement for instructors in the branch."

After realizing what was happening, Damon hurriedly replied, then, remembering his role, added, "Although I am not a teacher, I often do teaching duties, so I do have literacy skills."

In the Zhenbing tribe, the Iceborn mages are basically illiterate.

After all, there are very few times in daily life when one needs to recognize characters. If a situation does arise where one needs to decipher written words, casting a [Language Proficiency] spell can easily solve the problem, so there is no need to spend special effort learning to read and write.

However, the instructors of the Snowfield Guardians are different. Their task is to teach the orphans. If they themselves cannot read, how can they impart knowledge?

Therefore, literacy is an essential skill for teachers.

"No, Your Highness, do you mean Common Language or Ace Language?" After answering, Damon seemed to suddenly realize something crucial and quickly asked again.

"Ace language," Gaud put down the list and looked at Damon with interest, "Do you also speak Common language?"

Damon hesitated for a moment before speaking, "I have indeed learned some. Years ago, I saved a stranger on the snowy plains. He was seriously injured and stayed with us for half a year to recover. When I had nothing to do, I learned some common language from him."

Gao De laughed, "That's great, we've finally found someone who understands Common Tongue."

"Your Highness?" Damon didn't understand why God was smiling, but he vaguely sensed that this should be a good thing.

"You have two choices: one is to be assigned to work under Deputy Minister Grant in the Department of Agriculture to reclaim wasteland and cultivate the land, and the other is to become a teacher under the Department of Education, responsible for teaching reading and writing the Common Language."

Neither is slavery, but the former is more arduous, while the latter is more respected.

Is this still a choice?

Leaving aside the fact that teaching is his original profession and his comfort zone, this land reclamation and farming sounds like hard labor.

Damon looked up at Goddard and cautiously replied, "Your Highness, I choose to become a teacher."

"I just don't know which elders' children I'll be teaching?"

Gao De looked too young and didn't seem like someone who had children. So, in Damon's opinion, Gao De should be the one to teach the children of the Zhenbing tribe elders.

“Not the elders’ children,” Gao De shook his head and said calmly, “but all the school-aged children of the Zhenbing tribe.”

"We have limited manpower right now. In the future, we may extend this to teaching adult members of the tribe to read, but that's something for later."

"All of them?" Damon was stunned. First, he didn't understand the significance of doing this, and second, he couldn't imagine such a grand scale of teaching.

This work was compiled and uploaded by [author's name].

"Yes, all of them," Gao De affirmed.

Despite not understanding, Damon still nodded silently, quite tactfully.

"From now on, you are a Level 2 teacher at Phoenix First High School."

"Level 2 teacher." Damon couldn't help but ask, "Are there higher levels above that?"

"Yes, there are first-level teachers, senior teachers, and special-level teachers above them. Those who are only responsible for teaching literacy are second-level teachers. From the first-level teachers onwards, they are responsible for teaching more advanced content, including but not limited to the introduction of magic cultivation and the teaching of magic." Gao De did not mind revealing some of his future plans to Damon.

An introduction to Buddhist practice?!

But the mages in the North are mostly Iceborn mages, and all their knowledge and power come from their bloodline. Damon was even more confused.

"So, if you want to improve, you can first take some time to learn some spells. The library of Phoenix First High School now contains 44 spell recipes for magic tricks, and at the moment, [Clay Shaping] is particularly important."

Gao De kindly reminded Damon, hoping that Damon could better integrate into the education system he had created.

"I understand, Your Highness," Damon replied, but in reality, he was completely bewildered and retreated in a daze.

Gao De picked up a quill pen and gently circled Damon's name on the list.

This is the first person to master a common language.

—The language of Aes, spoken by the people of the North, is too ancient and niche.

Throughout the entire plane, apart from the Northerners, all other human beings use a common language.

While Aesar, as the native language, certainly holds special significance for the people of the North, it has also inadvertently created a silo, limiting their communication with the outside world.

If the North wants to rise to power, the learning and popularization of the Common Tongue is essential.

The simplest example is that a great deal of advanced and profound knowledge from the outside world, regardless of the field, is written in a common language.

Without mastering it, even learning a magic trick is difficult.

After Damon's arrangements were finalized, the next person was brought in.

Gao De looked up and, lo and behold, it was someone he knew!

Ona was the one Flora initially saw as not being a good person.

Although she was trying her best to restrain herself, it was still noticeable that Ona's legs were trembling slightly.

Gao De smiled slightly and said softly, "Don't be nervous. Can you read? Do you speak Common Language?"

That afternoon, Gaode was busy inquiring about and arranging for these instructors from the snowfield guardians.

This is something that must be done in order to ensure the smooth progress of education.

However, at present, others cannot understand his educational philosophy and the ideas behind the construction of the education system.

Therefore, even for these trivial matters, he had no choice but to do them himself.

After seeing off the last instructor, Gao De put down his quill pen, stretched, and then buried himself in his work again, without a moment's rest.

Education is not that simple. It is not just about bringing a group of children together and finding a few teachers to give lessons. There is a lot more to it than that.

Besides the selection and construction of teaching venues, the selection and appointment of teachers, the construction of the education system, and the organization of students, the more crucial and challenging task is to develop a set of interconnected teaching content, meticulous and rigorous teaching standards, flexible and effective teaching methods, and even to compile a systematic and practical set of teaching materials that align with his educational philosophy.

In this northern region, where talent is scarce and ideas are obscure, these numerous and complex responsibilities naturally fall entirely on his shoulders.

Some time ago, Gaode Maps had already roughly finalized the teaching content and standards.

What he's been doing these past few days is developing units of measurement.

Yes, in addition to the most basic reading and writing, Gaode is also preparing to standardize weights and measures in the upcoming compulsory education.

He wanted to start with the most basic unit of length, referencing the measurement systems of his previous life, to standardize a clear and practical unit of measurement for all kinds of measurements, and then popularize it in Phoenix through compulsory education.

In fact, Gaode has already been consciously carrying out this work.

For example, the "mu" used as a unit of measurement for land area and the "kilogram" used as a unit of measurement for barley weight in Jinhui Farm are both new units of measurement that he proposed.

Gao De hadn't finished his work when the knocking on the door broke the silence inside.

"Come in," Gao De said casually without even looking up.

The door hinges creaked slightly, and an elder of the Zhenbing tribe, dressed in a heavy snow bear fur robe, slowly walked in.

He bowed slightly to Gao De and said, "My king, these are the scabbard and sheath made according to your request."

The scabbard is long and narrow, perfectly matching the blade of the [North Wind] sword. The scabbard is made of snow rhinoceros hide, which is rough but not hard, tough and cold-resistant.

This was specially commissioned by God to be made by the tribe for the upcoming astral teleportation.

The scabbard and sheath together can completely envelop [North Wind] from head to toe.

It provides some insulation against the chill emanating from the north wind, though the extent is extremely limited.

Their most important function is to conceal the overly conspicuous, peculiar, and gorgeous appearance of the North Wind.

[North Wind] is so conspicuous that anyone who glances at it can immediately tell it's a high-level extraordinary sword.

With a mage level of only one level, carrying such an eye-catching item would easily attract unnecessary trouble.

Now, with its perfectly fitting scabbard and thick sheath, at first glance, [North Wind] looks like just an ordinary sword.

(End of this chapter)