Vol 6 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chapter 4: We are the Newspaper Club

Part 1: You Head to the Capital District

Your shock is understandable

“Me? A Capital District secondary school?”

After all, you attend a secondary school in the Republic of Raputoa, thousands of kilometers from the Special Capital District

Your parents are farmers, neither particularly rich nor poor Si in an ordinary countryside

And yet you are being sent to a bustling metropolis to attend a secondary school that you are certain is full of heirs and heiresses You suspect that the teachera particularly cruel joke on you

There are all kinds of rued teacher Some say he swore at a waiter at a restaurant, or that he sexually harassed a young female teacher at the faculty conference He is infaain, trying not to sound too accusatory

“Maybe there was a mistake, sir?”

“You’re accusingaHe see diabetes

‘With your diet, yeah,’ you think to yourself, but you are not so clueless as to say so out loud at a time like this And now that you think about it, this teacher also has a history ofmistakes in class

You stay silent The teacher continues

“You will leave for the 4th Capital Secondary School next ram You will be housed in the cae from the Ministry of Education”

The Ministry of Education Suddenly the joke stops sounding like one Still hesitant, you ask what you must

“Could I ask why?”

“No need, I’ you now Have you ever heard of Ra Ze-Ohm?”

It is an unfamiliar acronym You shake your head

“It stands for ‘Republic of Raputoa Broader Horizons Student Exchange Program’, which was started last year You wouldn’t know the details”

It bothers you to have to nod at such a condescending comment, but you have little choice in the matter

“The program’s aim is to allow the future pillars of Raputoan society to experience the advanced ways of the Capital District and broaden their horizons Pah It’s like the Ministry of Education isn’t even trying to hide that we’re an underdeveloped little country”

“R-right…” You reply for response’s sake, but a part of you is outraged

‘Who cares if Raputoa is in the countryside?’

The Republic of Raputoa, situated on the eastern bank of the Lutoni River between Roxche and Sou Be-Il, is a beautiful country with rolling plains, fields, and forests Mother nature is mostly intact in Raputoa, unlike in other member states

‘I like Raputoa, you old pig! Have sout!’ You think, but say nothing

The teacher continues to explain the program

“The Ministry of Education sends one student every ter and autumn—to the Capital District to try out their advanced facilities and curriculuet a taste of life in the city They want you to broaden your horizons, make new friends, and use the experience to make Raputoa a better place someday”

The explanation continues

“The progra as you do not make any trouble there All expenses are paid for by the state—in other words, your tuition and dormitory expenses are all covered by the Republic By your parents’ taxyou an allowance”

“I see…”

Setting your anger aside, you muse to yourself about how lucky you are to be chosen for an all-expenses paid program

“This term, the Ministry of Education chose this school And this school chose you Do you understand why?”

“What? No, sir”

You shake your head again You cannot think of a reason

“How humble of you,” the teacher rerades in the entire school”

Now that you think about it, he is right

You never really think about it, but you have never not been at the top of your class since starting here

“Of course Er…it’s an honor, sir,” you replywith excitement

You do not dislike Raputoa, but in all your 14 years you have never once visited the Capital District

The Republic of Raputoa is situated at the western tip of the Roxcheanuk Confederation Geographically, it is closer to the land west of the river—the Allied Kingdoms of Bezel-Iltoa—than it is to the Capital

You have, in fact, visited Sou Be-Il on a trip across the river in primary school

You ree they spoke at the Western primary school—Bezelese—was completely incomprehensible

When Roxche was first formed, the Confederation strictly enforced the use of the standardized Roxchean language That decision had its advantages, as anyone from anywhere in Roxche can now comn languages from the eastern half of the continent

During the trip, you were fascinated by the first foreign language to reach your ears And once you started attending secondary school, you always made sure to take Bezelese class every term

Because Raputoa is so close to the border, e And at ti teacher comes across the river to teach classes

The Capital District is very far removed from that life you live

The Special Capital District is an area independent from all other member states It is the center of Roxchean politics, econoh there is no class or caste system in Roxche anymore, it is where the president, politicians, and the richest of the rich—in other words, the upper classes—reside

Black-and-white photographs of the Capital District co into your mind

What kind of people will yousecondary school in such a city?

Your stay will be a short one, but you begin to i fun with students in the Capital District

The teacher catches you grinning

“Never had stupid prograet to spare, they could have fixed up our building…” He gruet bullied by the rich Capital District students And try not to let your Raputoan show, if that’s even possible”

Why is this teacher taking out his anger on you?

You think for a moment and find an answer

‘You’re jealous of e to s the thought before it leaves your mouth

“Hey, is it true?”

You have just accepted the offer for the prograned and sent in the forms, and received the official acceptance letter—

“How’d you know?”

—When the entire school suddenly seems to be informed

You do not knoho leaked the information, or if the school itself was responsible for the leak (no doubt for promotion, if true)

“Wow! Lucky!”

“Bring back some souvenirs, eh?”

“Takein your suitcase!”

“Don’t turn delinquent on us in the Capital District!”

“Don’t suffocate on the exhaust!”

Your classs

“An entirein the Capital District? That’s ridiculous! What gives?”

And some jealousy as well

Meanwhile, your parents pause in shock when you break the news—

“That’s wonderful, honey Have fun”

But they give you more support than anyone else And—

“Isn’t it wonderful that the govern all the expenses?”

You expected nothing less from your parents

The tenth oes by in a flash as you prepare to leave

You receive a thorough health examination at a nearby hospital

It is your first ti an examination that lasts an entire half-day The results could potentially break your chances of going, but thankfully the doctor gives you the green light

You receive the ram

You almost wonder if the Ministry of Education made a mistake when you look at the amount on the money order

You are tes account, but when you hear that the cost of living is ht aside

You will have to buy your own school supplies And since you are getting the chance to live in the Capital District, you will need spending money—and quite a bit of it

You go back into town and buy a suitcase

The store hasone You buy the biggest you can carry

The prograe arrives

The package includes brief warnings and things of note, but also an informational pamphlet on the 4th Capital Secondary School, which you will attend for a month

“What the heck…?”

You are overwhelmed

The pamphlet itself is cause for shock It is printed in full color—a luxury unheard of for schools in Raputoa You wonder if all prilimpses at their options from pamphlets like this

There are no other secondary schools in your area, so you never had a choice to begin with It is al a choice of schools at all

Another cause for shock is the area around the cas stand like a forest around it You have never seen so ether in one area

It is completely different from your secondary school, which stands in a field where the horizon is visible, is an hour away froht All they seem to have in common is the label ‘secondary school’

The school itself is, of course, no less spectacular

A paved intersection sits before the gates, with expensive cars parked by the curb

The intersection is about three ti at the local station, where old buses spout black smoke as they idle

This must be fro body, reminiscent of a dachshund So the photo, you assume

The buildings are nificent If the pauess that it is a school at all

The student cafeteria by the central gardens are almost too splendid for your sensibilities It looks like what you picture to be a five-star restaurant at a luxury hotel

The foods featured look expensive andEven the plates are clearly not cheap It alame that you would have to eat here every day

The dorh to rival the entire school building in Raputoa, and better-equipped to boot

The photos of the rooms, and the description which states that each room is fully furnished and houses one student, leads you to think that the dorinally a hotel that has been refurbished by the school That is the only reasonable answer you can think of

Phone booths are lined up in the lobby of the dor, about 30 in all In Raputoa, your area has a grand total of three public phones, none of them equipped with a booth You often line up before the phones waiting endlessly for your turn, which makes the photo seem even more otherworldly

You close the thick pamphlet

Your oes blank

“Aha hah hah!”

And laughter escapes your lips

You will live in this strange, foreign world for an entire ht excites you

“Gods bless Raputoa!” You cry, ju and crash to the floor

It hurts

You leave for the Capital District on the 29th of the tenth month

You begin the day by heading to school as you usually do You greet the teachers and listen to their advice and warnings The school even holds a s-away party for you

“Remember the pride of Raputoa and represent our school to your best efforts!” The headrown up when conscription was still in effect Even though it’s not as though you are going into battle

Soon, the car from the Ministry of Education arrives

You finally take the first step outside, to the Capital District

“Come back alive, yeah?”

“Don’t forget! Be proud of your homeland!”

“Don’t pick fights even if they call you a hick!”

“Souvenirs! Souvenirs!”

“Don’t come back a Cappie, you hear me?”

“Yeah! We don’t need any Cappies around here!”

Your friends lean out the classroo It is supposed to be class time now And what in the world is a Cappie, you wonder as you tilt your head

“Thanks, everyone!” You reply, waving vigorously Then you step into the car marked with the emblem of the Republic of Raputoa’s Ministry of Education It is driven by a civil servant and not even close to being a recent model

The seats are flat with use, clearly uncomfortable to sit on

The car takes you horab your suitcase and winter coat

The coat is for the chilly weather to come over the next month Inside the suitcase are extra uniforms and textbooks

You wanted to take soricultural products cannot be transported freely, you instead opted for several books about the country

During your stay in the Capital District, you are to wear your Raputoan school uniform

On the left sleeve of your navy jacket is a large Raputoan flag, and your school emblem is embroidered over the left breast The emblem of the Republic of Raputoa’s Ministry of Education is embroidered on the collar Your tie is patterned with red and black checkers

It is not as impressive as the uniforms you saw in the pamphlet for the 4th Capital Secondary School, but it is filled with your pride for your homeland You are not cowed in the least

All the es does seem a bit much, however

The uniforms at the Capital District school are all from luxury brands, each one tailor-made and astronomically expensive It costs many times as much as one of your uniforms Not even the Ministry of Education could fit one reasonably into the budget, so you area set of school-issue sweats from the 4th Capital Secondary School

As you set out, you say goodbye to your parents

“Take care with the water, honey I hear some of the taps are actually for liquor”

“Have fun Don’t get too homesick”

Your parents worry over the s

“Don’t worry! I’ll be fine,” you reply with a s back in the car

The car starts The village where you were born and raised disappears into the distance

You have never left your ho in your entire life

But you are neither nervous nor sad

You are not nervous, but the trip is long

First is the shaky eight-hour car ride

Other than during the brief lunch break, you are traveling continuously across the Republic of Raputoa The familiar fields and the horizon continue as far as the eye can see

You shi+ft aroundthe ride The bumpy dirt roads and the flat seats hurt your buttocks

The driver advises you to roll up your coat to use as a cushi+on You follow his advice and immediately feel the difference

Around evening, you arrive at Raputoa City—the national capital

Raputoa City is the largest city in the republic It is your first tis past the dusky horizon sends your heart aflutter

You see an airport for the first time in your life

Raputoa International Airport, situated on the outskirts of the city It is the largest airport in the area, and because of its proximity to the border it is also often used by Sou Be-Il airlines

Two long runways run side-by-side on the wide-open space Large cake-shaped fuel tanks lie on the pavement

In spite of the word ‘port’ in the word ‘airport’, there is no shi+p in sight You are awestruck

And you finally get a gli you have only seen in books—an aeroplane, or specifically, several of them

How does so shaped like that fly, you wonder to yourself You still do not understand when one of the aeroplanes rumbles loudly as it takes off into the air

You spend the night at a lodging in the airport

You are forced to share a roouests, but you cannot afford to use precious tax money on luxuries But because everyone has a bed to theht’s sleep

You even get the chance to speak with soo to bed They are scheduled to board the saht, and are surprised first by your youth and then by the fact that you are a government-funded scholarshi+p student

Frouess that aeroplane tickets must cost a fortune, and then some

The next day The 30th

The weather is great again It is a perfect day for flying

The aeroplane takes off on ti

The aeroplane sparkles, sunlight glinting off the engine on each wing

Someone says that this is the latest model, but you do not knohat about the aeroplane exactly is better than the rest All you know is that the fishlike body of the plane is very impressive

You climb the stairs as instructed and enter the round cabin It is coular interior of the local buses

When the engines start, the aeroplane ruet, but this goes beyond anything you have ever expected You begin to understand why earplugs are provided

And, for the first time in your life, you fly

The aeroplane glides gracefully into the air and gives you a glile

The large city grows smaller in the distance and disappears

The plains are agloith the orange light of dawn It is beautiful And when the sun rises fully, the sky and the ground change colors, never giving you tiet bored of the scenery

You cling to theand watch the world pass by until landing

The aeroplane lands once to refuel and give passengers tiet tired of watching the ground draw near and then grow distant again

You want to keep staring out the , but soon the world below is obscured by cloud cover

You sit in your seat with nothing to do, and eventually sleep takes over You open your eyes to the vibrations of the aeroplane landing

Your second landing You are just outside the Capital District

“Ah, we’re here Welcoer next to you says, to your disbelief

But when you dise you were in the Republic of Raputoa, surrounded by its green horizons But now, in the evening, you are staring at countless high-rises and apartments in the distance

“Aeroplanes are terrifying…” Youon the airstrip

“You say that now?” Another passenger quips

Twofor you at the airport

Both are in their thirties, but one looks friendly and the other decidedly less so The friendly one introduces himself as a teacher and flashes his ID When you internally wonder who the other man is, the teacher explains

“This is our bodyguard The school hired him for our safety”

You are floored

“I’m just a secondary school student from Raputoa, sir I’m no one important”

“Yes, we understand But sometimes kidnappers strike arbitrarily, so we can never be too careful”

You want to go back

This is the first and last tiht crosses your mind

The teacher takes you to a shi+ny, sturdy-looking car

There isn’t a speck of dust on the car, and the tires do not sh for your suitcase, and then three of you on top of that

But there is no school e on the car When you point that out, the teacher explains

“Yes, the car is not et for kidnappers or attackers”

You take hesitant steps into the car

The back seat is made of luxurious leather Soft, but not too soft Your buttocks would never get sore on this seat, you think to yourself

“We’re heading off now Please put on your seatbelt”

You do as you are told and notice so

That you have never heard a teacher say ‘please’ to a student before

The car seelide its way out of the airport Soon, you enter the Special Capital District

And everything comes into view

Six-lane streets paved to perfection And sidewalks lining the streets

The countless cars that estion in spite of the quality of the streets

The endless strea

The ja down thedown the bus-only lanes

The high-rises you cannot see the tops of without tilting back your head

The fine infrastructure that overnment’s vaults

The military base-sized train station, which is the last station in the line, and the depart balloons floating over the rooftops make them seem even more like military bases

You are stunned into silence by the sights that fill your eyes

For the first time in your life, you realize that there are some places in the world where the horizon simply is not visible

By the tilides all the way to the school, the sun has already set

But the streetlights dotting the cahter one than you have ever seen in your hoular intervals

“You must be exhausted Here, let me carry your suitcase”

You step through the gates, leaving your suitcase to the teacher

To your surprise, stationed at the gates is a security guard arun You must show him your student ID to enter The teacher had handed you yours in the car—without the ID, you cannot enter the premises You resolve to put a lanyard on your ID

The intersection and the luxurious school facilities are all exactly as you reeration, or manipulation in the photos

The streetlights on cas

“We’ll give you a briefing to will be your home for the next month”

The building the teacher brings you to, as with the rest of the school, looks exactly as it did in the photos

Two boys are chatting by the entrance They are the first students you have seen at the 4th Capital Secondary School They are around your age, or a little older

They are wearing identical school-issue sweats The sweats are green like the unifors and the school eht breast You are excited to try on such an elegantly-designed outfit

When the students spot the teacher, they greet him They seem completely calm

“Good evening, boys Is the dor out about now?” The teacher asks

“Perfect ti, sir There isn’t even a line at this point,” one of the students replies

And as expected, their eyes then fall on you

“G-good evening,” you say

The teacher introduces you to the boys

“This is ———, an exchange student fro with us for the next month Could you believe ——— was just in Raputoa, all the way by the Lutoni, until thisthe world a better place”

“Wow, cool,” one of the boys says They seeram

You brace yourself for what they will say next But the first thing out of the boy’s mouth is—

“I recoood!”

Your eyes turn to dinner plates The boys burst out laughing

“Welcome to the 4th Capital Secondary School!”

“Thank you!” You reply

The next day The 1st day of the eleventh month

You open your eyes in your dor at the 4th Capital Secondary School

Last evening, you were floored by the sheer size and scale, and the incredible quality of the dor kindly led all the way to your room by the matron You soon fell asleep in the room, which was heated 24 hours a day

The first thing you see in the rounds, and the veritable forest of aparts beyond You al

You wish you had a camera with you You want to share this incredible vieith your classmates and your family

But you cannot possibly afford such a thing Your family does not have one, and even your school only has a few

Excited and disappointed at the same time, you have breakfast at the dormitory cafeteria The selection and the quality of the food seeh you have never been to one before

Though there are other students around you, you are alone Which is natural, as this is your first day here But there are surprisinglyalone

Thankfully for you, eating alone does not seem to be uncommon here

The teacher froives you a detailed tour of the cauides you through thea map

For a moment you wonder where you could buy school supplies, but when the teacher explains that most school supplies are available at the cah of relief

You have lunch at the dor teacher at the faculty office

First, the advisor asks you how far your studies have coress for all your subjects

But immediately, you feel anxious

“Do I have to take a test, by any chance?”

“This is the test,” the advisor chuckles, “and you’ve passed with flying colors”

The advisor suggests what courses you should take, pointing out classes that would let you continue your studies fro Some of the classes are for third-years, you point out nervously, but—

“I’e just fine,” the advisor assures you Before you know it, you are holding your completed timetable

That evening, you return to your room and write to your parents and your classmates

‘I’ve arrived safely at the Capital District I will study hard and make many friends whom I can keep in touch with even after I return hoain next week’

Eight days later, on a weekend afternoon

You sit at your desk, staring at the blank piece of paper meant to be a letter to your parents

“I…haven’t onize, head in your hands

Your ent by in a flash