Chapter 7: Citizenship upgrade

In the evening, Lora came back to her house, spent and hungry. She found her son, silently sitting on her bed, eyes beaming with expectation.

'Ugh, fuck,' she sighed inside her head, seeing the familiar glint in the newborn's eyes. Making peace with her fate, she sat down on the bed and prepared herself for the ensuing barrage of questions.

"Mom, I want to learn how to read and write," Evin said suddenly.

Lora did not expect such a proposal. Although she was happy with her son's desire to learn, she learned to stay wary with her child.

"Why?"

"So I can take the citizenship examination and help our family members becomes 2nd grade citizens," Evin declared proudly.

"Where did you learn those things?!" Lora shouted back.

"I asked Elina, but please don't be harsh on her, I was being unreasonable," Evin said cutely.

"I swear to the Empress," Lora sighed in exasperation.

"Mother, please, if we become 2nd grade citizens, we can sell the things you make at our house and father doesn't have to stay with that unreasonable employer of his!"

"And how do you think you're going to take the test? Can you even hold a pen properly?"

"I can do it after a few tries, I know it. Please trust me, mother. And even if I can't, at least teach me how to read," Evin pleaded.

"Fine, I will. Wait here," Lora said and brought out a stack of papers from somewhere. Evin could see a writing that could only be described as a collection of dots and lines. The occasional circle could be seen somewhere in there as well.

On the first page of the stack was a diagram showing what seemed to be the alphabet of the language.

Evin despaired at the idea of learning to read and write in a new language. These things took time and effort, and Evin did not have such luxuries. Even now, his stomach growled in hunger. He was becoming skinnier and skinnier by the days.

Thankfully, the alphabet wasn't hard to grasp. The writing was a system that represented the mix of consonants and vowels with two columns. The first column would represent the consonant, or its lack when a word started with a vowel and the second column represented the vowel. And luckily, the creators of the language did not cuck Evin by creating a bunch of exceptions or special rules for their language.

Evin just had to learn how to distinguish the two, and it took him only a week to fully grasp it. Lora was shocked at her son's speed in learning. Sadly, Theor wasn't staying in his house for the past few days due to his work and could not witness his son's miracles.

Lora explained that the language he was learning is the main form of communication in the kingdom, but Evin would have to someday learn Imperial, which was the universal language of the Empire. Most people were enforced to learn to at least speak in Imperial, as the Empress dictated.

…

With his newfound literacy, Evin now had a chance of actually affecting the situation.

"Mom, can I take a look at the sample of the citizenship test?" he asked her mother. He noticed that under the initial paper that had the alphabet were what seemed to be sample tests that the public could use to prepare for the examination.

Lora was thoroughly impressed with her son's achievements, so she complied without question.

Evin glanced at the test from the beginning, but one thing immediately caught his attention.

'Why are the numbers in Arabic?!' he exclaimed in his mind. Amidst the pile of dots, lines and circles, stood familiar symbols that everyone on Earth would recognize with a glance.

'What in fucking hell are you guys doing here?' Evin panicked inside his head. Trying to calm his raging thoughts, he asked his mother.

"What do these symbols mean, mom?"

"Oh, they're numbers. You know how we sometimes count things, right? Those things are used to express them in writing," Lora explained smilingly.

"Mom, do you know who created these alphabets and words?" Evin decided to ask, just in case.

"Who knows? Perhaps the Empress bestowed them upon us? Or maybe a scholar from somewhere sat down and decided to create a way to express ourselves in writing," Lora answered absentmindedly, but Evin felt like that there was truth to her words.

'It might as well be the Empress,' he thought, and let the matter go for the time being. It was a good thing that he didn't have to learn another set of numbers.

Glancing through the problems on the test, Evin saw that they mostly revolved around math. And the difficulty could be compared to what 4th grade children learn on modern Earth, mostly focusing on counting money and calculating taxes. The essentials of a family who worked a business.

Evin guessed that most commoners would not have a problem with additions and subtractions, but they would find have some trouble with the more difficult multiplications, divisions and calculations of percentages without the methods that kids on Earth were taught to.

But the biggest problem that he noticed was that there was nowhere in the stack of papers a section that showed a way to solve these problems in the first place. It was just a collection of various test questions with a list of answers on the back.

'Perhaps a way that the kingdom devised to keep a proper population control. If the number of 3rd grade citizen would lessen and most became 2nd grades, the superiority that 2nd grades feel would diminish,' Evin guessed.

His suspicions became stronger by the other, non-math related questions in the test. History and proper social conduct. The former was just pure propaganda, and the latter was merely an instruction manual telling 3rd and 2nd grade citizens to obey Mages and Nobles without question. It wasn't mandatory to obey 1st grade citizens, but it wouldn't hurt to make it a practice.

Evin cleared his head of the matter and decided to focus on his main goal.

"Mom, these are so easy, why can't we become 2nd grade citizens already? I can answer all of these questions without fail," Evin declared, cocking his head, and making a confused expression.

"What do you mean?" Lora asked, thinking that the boy misunderstood something.

"I can solve all these questions easily. I checked my answers with the ones in the back and my answers were all correct," Evin said smugly, puffin out his chest.

She would usually brush it off if it was another child, but since it was Evin, she thought, or should one say, hoped that he might actually solve the problems.

"Show me how you did this," Lora asked impatiently, while pointing at a multiplication problem with three digits.

She could do simple multiplications involving two digits in her head, but she just couldn't wrap her head around numbers with three digits.

Evin asked her mother to go outside, so he can better explain the things. Alongside a stack of papers held by a rock, Evin sat and instructed Lora to write as he asked. Lora was holding a stick in her hands and using it to draw on the ground. They did not have something so lucrative like ink, so they could only use the dirt ridden ground as their canvas.

A few hours later, Lora was thoroughly amazed at the marvels of her child. The problems that she had so much trouble with could be solved so easily with the right methods. For the ensuing few days, she spent all her time outside training her newfound skills to her limits. Evin sat next to her, making up problems for her to solve. She stopped making trinkets and accessories for Theor's inn, since the owner did not wish to help her sell them in the first place.

Lora wasn't dull in the head, she simply lacked the proper knowledge to solve problems and she did not have the time to develop her own foolproof method to solve mathematical problems. Evin gave her that knowledge, so she was very confident in passing the examinations now.

…

A few days later, Lora came home from the citizenship bureau, her face beaming with happiness. She held a beautifully decorated piece of paper in her hands, a proper documentation that showed their family's new standing in society.

She hugged Evin, who was waiting in the house alone, while Elina was gone, went to fetch Theor.

Suddenly, the door burst open, with Theor shouting in a panicked voice. The man had become haggard and weak due to the intense work he was forced to do. The fat on his cheeks had all but disappeared, leaving behind two sagging lumps of skin.

"Evin, where are you?! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, dad," Evin answered with a smile. He held out his hands, so his father could pick him up. He usually did not like being picked up like this, but today was an exception. Clinging to his pride would only serve to ruin such a happy occasion.

"Elina told me that you suddenly got sick, and since Lora went to the bureau for something, she could only come to me, since I was closer," Theor said, while panting. He then glared at Elina, since the latter had apparently lied to him.

"Don't get mad at Elina, we asked her to lie, so you wouldn't hesitate to come over for nothing," Lora explained.

"What? Why? You know Norna's going to give me hell for this," Theor asked, confused this time.

"You don't have to worry about those things anymore, love. You don't have to stay at that inn, working for nothing every day. Look here. What do you think this is?" Lora said and handed the citizenship documents to Theor.

"What's this?" Theor asked, but after reading through the document with some difficulty, his faced turned from confusion to disbelief.

"I went to the citizenship bureau and took the test. We can sell our own things at our own house and you won't have to work at that dreaded place anymore," Lora said as she hugged her tired husband.

The family had a big feast for dinner, as Lora and Elina talked about Evin's genius. Evin felt like a cheat during most of it, but swore that he would someday tell them the truth.

He then wondered if he decided to expose himself for his own needs, or if he wanted to help out his new family, when they were in a pinch. On one hand, he was about to starve to death and on the other hand, his family was in a pinch as well.

Evin decided that the question had no correct answer and threw the matter out of his head. Instead of pondering about difficult matters, he should focus on enjoying this rare atmosphere.

…

The next morning, Theor left for the inn, not to continue his work and grovel for his paycheck, but to take back his belongings and leave.

When he entered the building, a familiar voice resounded from inside the hall.

"Hey, Theo! How's your kid? Seemed like real trouble yesterday," Norna asked smilingly, unable to hide the glee at the possibility of the young mage's death.

Norna was a huge man. His thighs used to be as big as Theor's waist, but now it was bigger, since Theor had thinned considerably. If he wore black fur and wandered around a forest, there would definitely be some people would mistake him for a bear and instinctively try to shoot him down, or so Theor hoped.

A dangerous and gritty feeling surrounded the man. A large scar ran across his left hand, and every time he moved it, it seemed to pulse out signals of pain through his brain, as one could see the random flinches that would take hold of the man's eyes.

"I'm sorry for yesterday, Norna, Evin got a bit sick in his lungs, so I had to hurry back home," Theor said apologetically.

"Is he fine, though?" Norna was only interested in one thing.

"He is, thank the Empress… But I'm afraid I will have to leave this job for a while, you must understand. Lora and Elina aren't doing so well either," Theor lied as Evin told him to. There was no need to brag about the fact that he became a 2nd grade citizen. Staying low was preferable for the family's current situation.

Hearing Elina's name, Norna's face seemed to contort slightly. He subconsciously caressed the scar on his left arm.

'His family's starving, but he would rather stay with them instead of working? Perhaps it's some sort of complicated suicide ritual,' Norna thought before answering.

"Is that so? Then I won't hold you here"

"About that, Norna, you still haven't paid my wage for last week. Please, you must understand that I desperately need them for the following few months," Theor asked.

Norna heard the plea, and a smirk appeared on his face.

'Perhaps watching him struggle with that tiny amount of money would be amusing as well,' he thought gleefully.

"Sure, anything for our best cook. You will be missed here," Norna said and pulled out a bag filled with coins from under the counter. He held the bag in his hand and beckoned Theor to come closer.

Theor grabbed the bag and counted the coins inside.

'15 silvers… Fucking cheapskate,' he thought with hatred.

"You don't mind if I take Lora's stuff, would you? They don't seem to sell that well, in the first place"

"Sure," Norna said reluctantly. In truth, they sold well, and he wanted to keep them in his shop… but he decided to be a bit more generous today. He thought that it might be the last day Theor would feel some generosity from others.

Theor silently collected his wife's creations from the inn and walked towards the door with a huge sack over his shoulders.

"You're always welcome here!" Norna's jeering voice sounded from behind him.

'We'll see how you and your little mage will survive this winter,' Norna thought as he idly caressed his scar.

…