Chapter 510 — The Spread of Knowledge
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
In the administrative heart of Xuanyao City—inside the government hall—Norris arrived at the office of the Department of News and Publicity with several of his assistants.
There was a time when this honest farmer, who had spent most of his life working the land and tending crops, could never have imagined that one day he would stand in a room like this—a spacious, brightly lit building, a place where important people conducted their business, with sturdy and handsome desks and chairs, bookshelves crammed with books and dossiers, and mana crystal lamps on the ceiling. In the past, not even the great house of a plantation owner could have boasted a room like this—and yet here he was, standing in it, real as could be.
And what was more, his position was that of head of the agricultural department, the man who managed farming affairs for the lord—in the parlance of the old days, an "upper-class person."
Now dressed in clean, respectable clothes and more or less accustomed to dealing with the other government officials in the hall, Norris let out a breath so faint it was imperceptible. Standing in a place like this no longer made him nervous, but only a year ago he would still have stammered in the presence of the knight-lords of the domain.
His assistants stood quietly to one side—all young people Norris had personally chosen. They could read and write, and they understood farming too. People who met both requirements were exceedingly hard to find, so for the better part of a year Norris had brought them along whenever he could, hoping to help these young people mature as quickly as possible.
He knew he was getting old—though by the standards of extraordinaries such a age still counted as the prime of life, he was no extraordinary, and in his youth he had endured too much hardship and too much hunger. The ailments that riddled his body could not be made up for simply by eating and dressing well for two years and drinking a couple of bottles of alchemical potion. Perhaps in a few years he would have to leave this post.
He did not regret this overmuch, for in these past few years he had already lived a good life beyond anything he had dared to imagine in all his former days. But he always felt that to leave it at that would be a betrayal of the lord's trust—he wanted, while his vigor still held, to at least train the callow young people of the agricultural department to the point where they could stand on their own; to at least pass on to those who came after him all the pitfalls he had encountered and the mistakes he had made since becoming head of the department; and to hand down the knowledge and experience he had accumulated over half a lifetime...
As these thoughts turned in the agriculture minister's mind, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from beyond the door, and the office door was pushed open. In came Godwin Orlando, his beard streaked with gray, clad in a scholar's robe, his bearing refined and steady: "Ah, Mr. Norris—my sincere apologies for keeping you waiting. I have been rather busy of late..."
"Please, say no such thing," Norris hurried forward to greet him—in this land his status was equal to Godwin Orlando's, yet the habits of his first half-century of life had made him instinctively regard "scholars" as thoroughbred gentry, and now, even though they could meet as equals, he still approached the man with a certain reverence. "We arrived a good ten minutes early—the timing is perfect now."
"Please, sit—gentlemen, all of you, please sit," Godwin urged everyone to take their seats, then went straight to the point. "Then let us not waste time—the lord and Lady Hetty have a new plan. It is important—truly, very, very important—which is why I have called you here. This afternoon I will also summon Mr. Hammel and Miss Jenny. It will require the cooperation of many people."
Norris was momentarily puzzled: "Agriculture, smelting, and the Rune Research Institute?"