Chapter 17: Visit of an Archmage
The day before, 20 more people had enrolled in Father Robert's school, bringing the total number of students to 120 and forcing him to divide the classes into two classes of 60, which was the maximum capacity of the church.
All the students sat in the pews with an Internet textbook open in front of them while Father Robert tried to explain it in the most entertaining way possible!
When he got lost in the explanation, Amber would help him, so the dynamic between the two of them was very good for helping these illiterate commoners.
Although the vast majority of the students were 100% illiterate commoners, there were still a few who could read very poorly who also came to learn, and finally, there was that strange woman who sat in the back row and made all the commoners ignore her.
When I saw the way that woman acted and how no one noticed how strange she was, it caught my attention.
From her purple clothes, I could already guess that she was from some kind of noble lineage, since purple paint was extremely difficult to make, making it expensive enough that no commoner could afford to buy or wear something like that.
Considering the stereotypes I had from my old world, her outfit reminded me a lot of the cloaks of mages from the roleplaying games I played, and from the color of it, it wasn't impossible to deduce that she was a high-ranking mage.
When I analyzed her more closely, I could actually sense a great deal of magical power within her, which made me even more curious about her identity.
But I didn't intend to do anything.
She was just quietly listening to the lecture like the other ordinary people.Although she didn't pray to me to look at the textbook, she did look at the book of the student next to her with interest, which was no reason to chase her away from the class, so I just watched.
Counting Robert and Amber, there were 62 Internet books open at the same time in the church, which gave me a powerful channel to observe what was going on in the church.
Looking at the people around him, Robert explained about the letters. "Let's go to the letter C." He said as he pointed to the letter C in the book in his hand, causing the students' books to also show the large letter C. "This is C. Make the sound with me: 'Ce.'"
Hearing this, the students repeated it with him, just as they had with the previous two letters, A and B. "Ce."
Hearing them repeat the letter, Robert had a big proud smile on his face, for everyone was really dedicated and wanted to learn, even though some had more difficulty than others. "Well done. Now look at this picture." He said as he pointed to the book that showed a picture of a castle. "This is a castle. Castle starts with C. Everyone say 'castle.'"
Seeing that this letter was used to write the word castle, some students were surprised and repeated what he asked.
With the help of the book showing the letter and pictures representing things, it became much easier for them to learn the meaning of the letters.
Unlike the children who went to school in my old world because they were forced to, without much interest in learning things, the adults knew that they were doing it for their own good, so their interest in learning was much greater.
Although their memories weren't as good as children's, their dedication made up for it.
With the exercises in the books for them to practice right after learning a letter, their learning speed was even faster.
The lesson lasted two hours, and at the end Robert asked them to practice with some homework, which no one thought was a bad thing, and soon everyone left satisfied.
Robert was very excited to teach so many people, but his throat was getting very tired from talking for so long.
But when the church was empty, the woman in the purple cloak was no longer hidden among the people, and Amber quickly noticed her.
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Startled by the color of her clothes, Amber quickly nudged Father Robert and pointed at the woman.
Seeing the woman, Father Robert was also shocked and quickly approached the woman humbly.
"Hello Lady Archmage, forgive this old man for not noticing you before, is there anything I can help you with?" Robert asked as he bowed.
Waving her hand, the woman motioned for him to stand as she spoke. "It was of my own volition that you didn't notice me here. We at the Arcantor Magic School recently learned about the Internet, and I came to see for myself."
Hearing this, Robert's heartbeat quickened.
He was afraid that Arcantor Magic School didn't like the Internet and wanted to stop it, which worried him.
"What did Lady Archmage think about the Internet?" He asked worriedly.
"Fascinating, it follows very well the mages' principles that information is extremely important and that people should become more and more knowledgeable." She said with a slight smile on her face. "And your initiative to teach people to read is very much in line with what we need at the Arcantor Magic School, because if the new magical disciples already know how to read, it will advance the basic education of the commoners by several months."
Hearing this, Robert and Amber were relieved.
"But I still have some doubts about the Internet, and I'd like to know if it's possible to contact the God of the Internet directly." She said in a firm tone.
Hearing this, Robert was startled and realized that maybe things weren't as easy as he had imagined.
"I can't contact the God of the Internet directly, but I can contact the emissary of the God of the Internet." He said humbly.
"That would be nice." She said calmly.
Hearing this, Robert quickly opened the [Carrier Pigeon] and sent a message to 'Athenos'.
When I saw his messages come in, he explained the whole situation to me.
I waited for him to explain everything until I finally went down to the marble statue.
As my consciousness entered the statue, the Archmage stared at me with great curiosity, but when my consciousness was fully in this avatar, her eyebrows furrowed.
I could imagine why, because now that I was in a physical body, it was easier for me to compare our powers.
Although I was only a Rank 1 Embryonic Divinity, my current power was slightly greater than hers, a true Archmage, the pinnacle of magical power in this world.
"Your Excellency Athenos, this humble old man is bothering you again..." Robert said humbly as he bowed to me.
Smiling reassuringly at him, I simply waved my hand and made him stand up.
"Don't worry Robert, I believe this conversation is very important to the Internet God, you did a great job calling me." I said.
Robert put a small smile on his face when he heard that.
"Is there somewhere more private we can talk?" I asked him as he waved at me and the Archmage.
"Yes sir, please come with me." He said as he quickly led us into a simple living room of the house he lived in within the church.
After the Archmage and I entered the room, Robert bowed and left the room, leaving the two of us alone to talk.
"Okay, now that we have some privacy, I'm curious, what are your questions?" I asked curiously.
Nodding her head, she gently removed the hood from her head, revealing her face.
Jaina had the appearance of a 28 year old woman, with long braided blonde hair, deep blue eyes and smooth skin like someone who had taken care of it with various expensive products.
Considering that there were no skin care products in this world, I deduced that this could be the result of magic.
"First of all, I am Archmage Jaina Prodstone, one of the three Archmages of Arcantor. I think I'm talking to the God of the Internet himself right now, right?" she asked suspiciously, looking at me with a slight mistrust.
Smiling, I nodded. Plebeians might actually believe that I'm just an envoy of the Internet God, but for people who might know more about gods, apart from someone like her who can sense my power, it's understandable that she would already deduce that I'm the Internet God himself.
"Yes, I am the real God of the Internet, Adrian Innovashine, but in this world I would appreciate it if you would just call me Athenos." I explained honestly.
Realizing that I was being honest and easy to talk to, I noticed that Jaina was becoming more relaxed with me as well.
"Why are you acting like a messenger of God instead of acting like the God of the Internet himself?" She asked confused.
I nodded my head, imagining that this might be one of her doubts. "As a god, the most important thing is to keep my form divine and mysterious, which will allow believers to imagine me as they wish, making their faith more intense. If they see me as someone who looks like them, the mystery will disappear and so will their faith.
Hearing this, Jaina was surprised that I had actually said this to her. "Aren't you afraid to tell me this?"
I just shook my head with a confident smile. "What I told you was to show you my sincerity, but I'm still a god, even if some people know about me or about a possible 'weakness' of mine and try to spread something bad about me to defame me, I have my means to deal with it, and more importantly, to fight back."
Hearing what I said, Jaina felt my power and thought about the influence I was getting in such a short time and realized that dealing with me would be much more difficult than just spreading the word that Athenos was the God of the Internet.
Not to mention that it would be completely counterproductive to use information that I had willingly given as a form of trust to try to attack me.
Especially considering the possible retaliation I could take and the lack of knowledge she had about gods, she realized that it would be stupid to try to antagonize me completely for no reason.
So, after hearing what I said, she nodded again and finally started talking about her purpose as a representative of the Arcantor Magic School.
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