Chapter 1420 (2/2)
Then the Ghosthound lowered his arms and the image disappeared. He grinned around at the surrounding children. “Light is indeed powerful… but anything can be powerful if you work at it for long enough. That’s the beauty of images; you can share whatever truth in your heart that you possess, so long as you focus.”
His eyes flashed again. “So make sure you don’t give up on your convictions.”
All at once, the Ghosthound’s charismatic gravity vanished. The heaviness that he released was abruptly gone. The change was so sudden that it was slightly alarming to Gertrude. The children around him began to stir as the Ghosthound straightened. Then he put his hands on his hips and announced. “Now, if that’s all, I’d like the chance to talk with Miss Collins. Alone, please.”
The children began furiously whispering to each other. Gertrude cursed her own pale face as she felt herself begin to blush furiously. “...ah? Is there a problem? I believe I didn’t break any rules in coming here…”
Randidly Ghosthound chuckled. “I’m not here because of rules, just to ask you a few questions. I need your help.”
****
Randidly quickly opened a portal and brought himself and Gertrude Collins away from the whispering children. Once they were safely on his island, he turned to face the teacher. “I just wanted to ask you your opinions on Kharon’s current education situation. And I think to start… I’d like to know why you didn’t volunteer when the Order Ducis called for teacher volunteers.”
“That’s why you wanted to talk to me?” Gertrude Collins seemed shocked. Her hands came up and toyed with her silver necklace. After a few twists, she sighed. “It’s not that… I don’t know... I just didn’t think it would be a good fit for me. Working with… all this.”
Randidly raised his eyebrow. “It’s hard to totally believe you when I just watched you use your free time to interact with children. Please, don’t feel like you can’t-” Randidly abruptly realized that he had quickly brought Gertrude Collins to a floating private island covered in silver mist. Honestly, she was behaving rather calmly considering the fact that she didn’t know where she currently was. If he wanted honest answers from her, perhaps he should adjust the context a bit.
“Ahem,” Randidly cleared his throat. “Follow me.”
This time, Randidly used the Philosopher’s Key to open a portal to the outskirts of the Orchard below. Due to the rapid slew of construction for the duos competition, a constant night fair had emerged on the Southern edge of the Orchard. Bright lights flashed from lightbulbs around various carnival games mixed with food stands. Scents of oil, salt, and sugar-filled the air. Due to the general increase in proficiency for humanity, the difficulty of the games had increased sharply. Shouts and good-natured cursing was a constant companion in that area.
Randidly casually walked with Gertrude for a bit. She trailed after him, casting strange glances his way as they wove their way through the crowd. It had started as a way to make the talk more informal, but Randidly quite enjoyed this break from work. Plus, no one here seemed to recognize him, despite his bare feet.
As his mood improved, he allowed himself to grin around and sniff the air. Still with Gertrude taking surreptitious looks at him when she thought he wasn’t looking, Randidly followed his nose to purchase a funnel cake covered with powdered sugar and chocolate syrup. Then he sat down at one of the many wooden tables in the area and gave Gertrude a long look. He held a piece of the funnel cake poised in front of his mouth. “Let me ask again: why didn’t you volunteer? I’d like an honest answer. I’m asking precisely because I want to improve Kharon’s education system.”
“Really?” Gertrude seemed stunned. Then she smiled bitterly. “Then… I feel somewhat stupid. I... I didn’t volunteer because I had seen Kharon’s ‘schooling’ and thought it meant that the city didn’t value its youth. I didn’t just want to be another body that was thrown at the problem… the whole system needs to be redesigned. I’m tired of being part of administrations that don’t care about their students.”
You really refused just because of a misunderstanding…? More than bodies, what we wanted was people with ideas… Randidly thought to himself. But he didn’t vocalize those thoughts. Instead, he carefully chewed on another piece of warm and sugary fried dough before saying, “Well, in our defense, I don’t think any of us expected to have such a large population of children. Considering the… survival rate of that age group through the System’s arrival, having one-fourth of our population needing an education took us by surprise.”
“That makes sense…” Gertrude took another peek at Randidly and then blushed. “I… I’m sorry. I was just… I don’t know, disappointed. Kharon… Kharon is doing so many things well. I don’t like how much violence is emphasized… but its clear you aren’t trying to turn people into an army. You are just trying to give them the tools to defend themselves. I was just disappointed to see that education had become the equivalent of independent study.”
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you. We only have about ten people with actual teaching experience employed by Kharon’s government… considering the number of students…” Randidly shook his head. “We DO need bodies. But we need more than that. I would love your help to refine our teaching philosophy. But I want you to know that we aren’t just going to let students engage in independent study forever. Actually, I’ve recently been working on a very special project… Kharon Academy.”
Then, while Gertrude Collins listened closely, Randidly explained the details of Kharon Academy. He went through the design and then the purpose, before turning to the details. Then Gertrude began asking questions, questions that were very pointed and relevant. Questions that made Randidly realize exactly how far out of his league he was by designing an educational institution.
During this process, Randidly watched Gertrude’s image. And that pure dedication to education caused a small smile to form at the corner of his mouth. The pure joy and commitment to helping others grow was exactly what he needed.
At the end of her slew of questions, Gertrude stared down at the table in front of her. The previous shyness she had was shed as the focus on education came to the fore of her being. Randidly waited silently, feeling rather satisfied that he had listened to Derek Moss and come out to talk with this teacher. He could already tell she could help shape the spirit of Kharon Academy.
Chewing on her lip, Gertrude finally spoke. “...some of these things are too big for me to know any decent methods. I’ll need to contact some people I knew back in Zone 1. They… they have more experience than me. Even if they aren’t as talented at images… they know how to handle children. But I do have one suggestion, even though I’m not sure how realistic it is.”
“What is it?” Randidly asked.
“Well… obviously not the whole thing, but…” Gertrude gestured toward the still scaffolding being assembled for the duos tournament. It sat next to them in the dark, opposite the bright lights of the carnival. “If you really want Kharon Academy to be an institution that epitomizes Kharon’s spirit of forging its own path… what would capture the image of trailblazing better than having a portion of the Academy built by the very children who will spend their time there?”
Randidly froze. His thoughts began to race. Obviously, there needed to be a base structure in place, but other than that… a portion of the students would likely choose to address weaknesses related to building or craftsmanship anyway… “It could be an on-going process. We don’t need to build it all at once. As they graduate, the students can shape the Academy… or they act as support to throw their vote behind which professor should shape the Academy-”
Very quickly, Randidly shook his head and brought himself back. The details could wait until later. But for now, he needed to make sure he had Gertrude’s support, going forward. What better way than a Kharon municipal team-building retreat? “Do you have some spare time tomorrow? If you do, I’d like you to come into a Dungeon with me to work on these ideas.”