A kettle sat over the fire, steam rising from it.
"The water's boiling."
Theus pointed at the kettle's spout. "This white stuff is steam—well, that's not entirely accurate. Steam itself is colorless, but when the high-temperature steam rapidly cools in the air, it condenses into tiny droplets of water, which appear white in the air."
"Any thoughts?"
The students gathered around froze for a moment and looked at one another.
Their ages varied greatly. Theus did not care much about age or background; he had simply asked Zoe to select those who ranked near the top in literacy class to join the advanced class.
As a result, there were even several middle-aged people among these students, such as Old Ivan.
Watching the lord speak so eloquently before him, Old Ivan still found it somewhat unreal.
Back then, he had hurriedly tried to refuse, but Zoe had insisted that he enroll in the advanced class, saying that the lord greatly needed this group of students.
Old Ivan had not had much of an impression of the lord, but the school Theus had established allowed his children to learn to read for free. Once he thought of that, he simply could not bring himself to refuse.
He truly had not expected that he, too, could attend the advanced class—he really was interested in literacy, not because he loved knowledge itself, but because he had suffered too much from being illiterate.
That was why, even after joining the low-paying patrol, he still went to night school to sit in on a few lessons. There was nothing wrong with learning a few more words. Though his daytime work was exhausting, as long as he could see his two children before his eyes, he muddled through and kept at it.
He was not particularly clever,