He immediately sidled over, patted the men on their shoulders, and cleared his throat before saying somewhat sheepishly:
"Guys, could you give me a hand when we head up the stairs?"
"Of course, I won't ask you to help for nothing. Once we're up there, I'll have my bratty little- ahem! My older sister give you fifty gold pounds each."
The gold pound was a currency used in this world. Below it were silver shillings, copper pennies, and halfpennies.
The exchange rate was 1 gold pound = 10 shillings = 1,000 pennies = 2,000 halfpennies.
His daily food expenses, meanwhile, came to just five pennies (note: five yuan).
For children from ordinary families like them, a reward of fifty gold pounds was simply astronomical, especially for merely helping someone up the stairs. (For reference, the school was built atop Mount Tai.)
But once they saw that the person before them was clearly a noble from his clothes, they felt uneasy despite being tempted.
Who knew whether these noble young masters were playing some new prank on them?
Seeing the four guys hesitate, Eros pressed on:
"Don't worry, I'll definitely pay you. It's just that I haven't recovered yet, so getting around is a little difficult, which is why..."
To Eros, fifty pounds each was a trifling sum, less than the daily interest on his private stash. There was no reason to pinch pennies in a situation like this.
If he offered less and those nobles who wouldn't wear the same expensive suit to two formal balls found out, they might think his family was in financial trouble and had run out of money.
The four exchanged glances, then took another look at Eros's still somewhat pale face.
Judging by his appearance, he didn't seem to be lying. They steeled themselves and agreed.
Eros breathed a sigh of relief when they agreed and took the first step up the stairs.
Still, he had overestimated himself. Forget making it halfway-he was completely spent after just a quarter of the climb. There were way too many stairs.
So the four guys gathered some wood from the nearby woods, built him a crude mountain sedan chair by hand, and carried him up.
As children from poor families, they knew how to do some simple carpentry.
Along the way, the four discovered that this fellow who looked like a young noble actually put on no airs and was quite easy to talk to, so their initial unease and nervousness faded.
Eros also learned their names. The burliest one was called Bru.
The square-faced one was Newt, the brown-haired one was Seth, and the last, who was thinner than the other three, was Mojie.
All four came from the outskirts of the Imperial Capital. Since it had been the autumn harvest recently, they had taken leave to help with the farmwork back home and only returned to the academy once it was done.
They said Eros was lucky to have run into them, since people at the academy rarely went down the mountain.
At last, with the help of the four kindhearted guys, Eros finally caught sight of the academy gates ahead and above them. Only a few dozen steps remained.
Meanwhile, at the academy gates, a tall, pretty girl nudged Wendy. As she walked beside Wendy toward the steps outside the gates, she asked quietly:
"Hey, your little brother's coming today, right?"
Wendy nodded, her exquisite face wreathed in smiles. She looked delighted.
After all, she had never been apart from Eros for so long in her entire life.
But now Eros was finally coming, and they would be able to see each other every day again.
On her other side, a handsomely dressed man with good looks and a distinguished air also said with a light chuckle:
"I heard of this genius quite some time ago. Now I'll finally get to meet him in person."
Wendy proudly lifted her delicate chin. Hearing someone praise her little brother clearly made her happy too.
Before you continue