Not every farmer was lucky enough to go to school.
Free City had thirty thousand farmers, but the Living Academy could hold at most a thousand students, and some places had to be reserved for others.
Hunter was one of the lucky ones chosen. Jack, on the other hand, had been screened out.
To save face, Jack insisted he hadn't been chosen because he didn't want to go.
"That's right," said the official who had come to fetch Hunter.
That startled Jack more than being told Hunter was better than him.
"You mean dumb Hunter actually wants to learn!?"
"I don't know. Why don't you ask him?" The easygoing official shrugged.
Jack shot Hunter, who was grinning foolishly beside him, a sidelong look. "You? Learn to read?"
"Lord Annan wouldn't do anything to hurt me!"
Hunter held the simple belief shared by most people in Free City: if Annan asked them to do something, it had to be for their own good.
"You're still an idiot!" Jack shrieked.
But when Hunter left with the official, Jack stared after them, looking lost, as though something had been taken from him...
Their little hut had always been dull, but at least Hunter had listened to him ramble. No matter how long Jack went on, Hunter never talked back. Once he was gone, the hut fell utterly silent.
Worse than being alone was the loneliness Jack felt inside.
He worried that the dull-as-an-ox Hunter would be bullied at the academy, but he feared even more that Hunter might seize this chance to make something of himself... If Hunter really got somewhere in life, Jack would find it harder to bear than death!
Evening finally came. Jack had spent the whole day leaning by the door, watching the road toward Free City, and at