From this day on, a newcomer came to Sling's Bakery.

This girl with an exotic appearance always welcomes each guest with great enthusiasm, piles up smiling faces and gives them change accurately. After Esther became familiar with the bread baking process, she dutifully took on a lot of work for Fiona, who was in charge of baking and cleaning in the kitchen, and Esther pinched out a lot of animal-shaped bread when she was groping, and even if the taste did not change much, it was quite popular with customers.

Because of her arrival, business at Sling's Bakery has been quite good for the past two weeks, much to Wendy's delight.

"Esther, go and see if there's any tea left in the warehouse, and we'll have to make another pot of hot tea. When it's cold, many guests like to warm up with something hot. ”

"Okay Grandma Wendy! I'll look for it! ”

Li Xing, who had changed her name to Esther, walked behind the oven and untied her apron over her long light brown linen skirt and hung it by the back door. It's Sunday, and Fiona has a day off every week on this day, taking her family to the church of the night and preparing a big meal for the kids with her sister. Sometimes Fiona would bring a few dishes back to the bakery for Wendy and Esther to try.

Pulling out an unopened can of tea from the warehouse, Esther quickly returned to the bakery, where she saw Wendy greeting several customers, and could recognize the three of them as a family, the youngest of whom looked two years younger than Esther.

"Let's make a lemon cake roll, okay?"

The girl shook the hand of one of the young men, and the bookish young man looked at her dotingly: "Of course, then it will be decided to be a lemon cake roll, and it will cost half a pound." It's rare that Benson has raised his salary, and we should celebrate it. ”

The taller young man nodded at Wendy and pulled out his wallet to count the amount to be paid, and Esther re-tied her apron and cut off a large piece of the freshly baked lemon-flavored cake roll, just over half a pound.

"Is there anything else you need?" Esther smiled and winked at the girl who was curious about her.

The tall young man rubbed the girl's head: "Melissa, what else do you want to eat?" ”

The girl hesitated for a moment, and finally just shook her head: "No! I'm glad to have lemon cake rolls, we have to save a little bit, and there will be a lot of money to spend in the future. ”

The bookish young man nodded to the animal bread next to him: "That black cat bread looks cute, I haven't seen it before." ”

Wendy squeezed her eyes at Esther next to her, making Esther smile embarrassedly at everyone: "This is thanks to our skillful newcomers, because it is a trial sale, and now the price is the same as ordinary rye bread, do you want to come to a piece?" ”

The tall young man nodded, and paid for half a pound of black cat bread, which made the bookish young man embarrassed: "Bensen, that's what I said." ”

"It's okay, it's time to replenish the staple food tomorrow anyway."

After sending off the guests, Wendy boiled the new hot tea: "There are a lot of guests today, and everyone likes to go to the church of the night as a family on Sundays, which is good." ”

"I remember that the Church of the Night is a belief in the Goddess of the Night?"

"yes. By the way, didn't you say you wanted to learn to write? Then you can go to the Sunday school in the Church of the Night, which costs only one penny a week, and it won't affect your usual work in the store. ”

Esther thought back to the purse she had kept in the attic, and in addition to the expenses of some of the daily necessities, and the expenses she had made up for the boss by going to the fruit stand, there were now more than ten soles left in it. The penny a week was affordable for Esther, and if she was proficient in the words, she would be able to go to the library to see more details about the world, instead of constantly figuring out or making up for it in the conversations of the patrons.

Wendy thought that Esther was worried about the situation in the church, and comforted her: "Go boldly, there are some very kind people over there, even if you don't believe in the goddess of the night." ”

Esther smiled embarrassedly: "Then I'll take a leave of absence to take a look next week, I'm really interested." ”

The next Sunday came fairly quickly in the midst of the busy routine, and after saying hello to Wendy in advance, Esther was out early in the morning.

Esther walked smoothly in the direction she had last time, and she found that her memory was surprisingly good, and she had an impression of every store and every intersection, and she didn't get lost at all.

Strange, was I like this before?

Esther quickly put this doubt behind her, and she always felt a little nervous in the face of the solemn Gothic church. Standing outside the church to cheer herself up for several rounds, Esther didn't make up her mind until the man dressed as a priest looked at her and Esther mustered up the courage to walk over.

But when Esther walked to the door, the draft that had just been typed in her stomach was gone: "Y-Hello, may I ask if this is here, is there a class?" I mean, what does that enlightenment teach—"

"Yes, this is the church of the goddess of the night, and there are classes on Sundays that offer enlightenment, but for a fee. Are you a believer in the goddess? ”

Esther shook her head: "If not, can't it be ......?"

Before she could finish her words, she lost her voice and looked at the pastor in front of her embarrassedly.

The priest laughed very gently: "It doesn't matter, the goddess is kind and forgiving, of course you can come and learn." ”

Esther nodded repeatedly, and after pulling a penny from the inside pocket of her coat, she followed the priest into the church. Because it was Sunday, there were not many people who came to the church in the night, some were closing their eyes and praying quietly, and some were whispering hello to acquaintances. Even in the early morning, the church was quite dim, and there was an extremely quiet atmosphere, which made people involuntarily relax, and Esther felt a lot calmer.

The priest led Esther to the side door, and as they walked back down the hallway, they passed by two men.

Esther didn't pay much attention, she kept keeping an eye on the priest's footsteps for fear that she hadn't followed, but the rather handsome black-haired young man turned his head, his green eyes glanced at Esther's back suspiciously, and then tilted his head slightly as if listening to something.

But soon the young man shook his head and hurried to follow the other man in front of him.

With the pastor's understanding introduction, Esther also learned about what the church's general education curriculum consists of: the morning class will focus on simple math, geography and some history, and then there will be an hour-long break when students can bring their own food or go to a café on the street outside. In the afternoon, based on the canon of the goddess of the night, the teaching of writing and writing exercises are carried out, and those who have a basic knowledge can read the books on the classroom shelves on their own, and of course they cannot be taken out of the church. Students can ask the church staff in charge of teaching in their free time, the church can provide some paper and pencils, but only the first class, the following classes will only provide some paper, if there is additional needs, you can bring your own or buy it from the church.

"You're here pretty early, three quarters of an hour before class. You can do your own activities in the classroom, and you can ask Ms. Langsa if you have any questions. If there are no accidents, she will be in charge of teaching here, she is a very easy-going person. ”

"Thank you, Pastor Loss." In the previous conversation, Esther had learned the name of the kind priest, and of course she introduced herself, but did not say the false surname.

The little bug had been nesting in Esther's breast pocket all these days, and if it hadn't come out at night, Esther would have thought it was hibernating. As for the last name that was hinted at by the little bug and used to deceive Wendy and Fiona, Asther felt that it was not innocent, so she didn't mention it much.

Ms. Langsa looked quite old, her brown hair was meticulously combed and tied into a low bun with red roses, and although wrinkles could be seen on her face, it made her beauty look more dignified, which matched the black Gothic over-the-knee dress.

"Good day, Philun." Lady Langsa made a simple dress salute, which made Esther's curiosity doubly increased, could this lady be from a noble family? Since coming into this world, Esther hasn't traveled much outside of Iron Cross, but she has a sporadic understanding of the background of the Kingdom of Rune.

"Lady Langsa, this is a new student who has just signed up, Esther."

Lady Langsa then smiled at Esther, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Esther, you can call me Lady Langsa like everyone else." Have you been exposed to initiation courses before? ”

Esther quickly shook her head: "No, not at all, I can't even read." ”

"Don't be nervous, a lot of people here are starting from scratch like you." Ms. Ronza pulled out a blank notebook and two pencils from under the bookcase and handed them to Esther.

Pastor Lossster nodded at the two: "Then I'll go back to the church door first." ”

"Go get busy, there's always more people coming on Sundays."

Pastor Lossster laughed helplessly, "But I think it's a good thing, and I'm glad that everyone is willing to come and hear the Gospel of the Goddess." ”

After Pastor Lossard left, Lady Langsa spoke to Esther about her situation, and Esther admitted her ignorance very freely, but Lady Langsa did not show anything unusual, such uneducated students are quite common here.

Since the popularization of public primary schools, people with certain financial means prefer to have their children attend classes six days a week, which is more cost-effective in terms of tuition fees. In church Sunday schools, it's more common for older and opportunity-hungry people to take a day out of their busy schedules to fill themselves up for better jobs in the future.

Since there was no one in the classroom yet, Ms. Langsa didn't mind giving Esther some basic lessons, and to her surprise, Esther's mastery of numerical calculations was almost perfect. After memorizing the basic numbers and operation symbols, Esther quickly filled the entire scratch paper in the face of the problems that Langsa had brought out, and all the calculations were accurate, far from being like someone who had never been exposed to mathematics.

And Esther was also a little helpless, Li Xing before the "crossing" was half a social animal who had just graduated for a year, so he couldn't even count this kind of math problem from kindergarten to the second grade of primary school.

Her physical education teacher in her previous life must be able to figure it out!

After reading Esther's answer, Lady Langsa immediately realized the girl's intelligence, and changed the content of the education according to her aptitude, giving Esther a vocabulary book with illustrations. Langsa asked Esther to memorize the words before the class, and practice writing on the paper, how many were as many as she could, and when the morning class was over, she would simply check the number of words Esther had memorized.

Of course, Esther had no opinion, but it was more than what she wanted, and what she longed for most was to understand the words of the world.

However, there was not much time left, and Esther managed to memorize most of the word book, and combined with her usual oral language, she was able to cope with the approximate spelling of many words. The roots and affixes of Rune's common phrases, including some grammars, have many analogies to Esther's memory of English, which allows her to quickly comprehend what she is exposed to after parsing it.

Much faster than the average person.

As more than 30 people walked in one after another, and most of the classroom was full, Ms. Langsa glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and officially started today's formal class.

For Esther, the education in mathematics only allowed her to further consolidate her memory and deepen her impression of basic words, while the courses of geography and history gave Esther a systematic and comprehensive understanding of the "world" in which she lived for the first time.

The map shown by Ms. Langsa is divided into two continents, north and south, and the outer perimeter is a shadowed sea, and the shape of half of the continent makes Esther feel strangely familiar, and she even has a vague guess about what the other side of the ocean will look like.

Maybe it's a parallel world? It's pretty much the same as my original world.

The historical content introduced today mainly focuses on the rise of a hero in the Kingdom of Rune around the year 650, leading the army against the Kingdom of Intis. The hero finally succeeded in defeating Intis in the White Rose War, reasserting the stability of the Rune Empire after the defeat of the Twenty Years' War with the Vorsac Empire.

Esther listened casually, but the pen in her hand quickly jotted down the content that had nothing to do with the lesson, mainly the spelling of the names of each country and the geographical location, although Esther wanted to reproduce the map in its entirety, but she was not so good at drawing, so she could only circle a rough outline.

But soon, Esther discovers that she has more additional impressions of these countries, and as she touches on the "perception" of these countries, no source comes to her mind, such as the strong connection between religion and the true God behind it, or the Russell the Great who ushered in the industrial age.

Even if he is not Russell Gustaf, then what should he be called?

Esther's pen suddenly paused, and her mind went blank for a moment, and then she realized that she was in a daze, and quickly returned to class.