The following day was markedly different from ones previous. The Baker seemed to be in a bad mood for little to no reason. This in turn affected his wife who tried to ‘vent’ on my mother.

I held myself back because I needed to make sure things kept moving smoothly, for my sake and hers.

However, the Baker didn’t. He chastised his wife, something I’ve rarely, if ever seen him do………..this could become a problem.

There seems to be a very real possibility that things going my way so easily may have consequences.

Very well, I’ll just have to make the necessary corrections from here on out.

…………………………..

I feel like today has been longer than usual, it’s most likely because of the tense atmosphere created by the Baker and his wife.

Both of which are now in ‘bad’ moods.

Ugh, I can feel the anxiety rolling off of both my mother and Claura…..grow a spine you two!

………..It seems I may be in an irritable mood as well……..

“Alright! It’s now time for our nightly lessons! First off, thank you master for agreeing to go searching for slate and chalk in the market. This’ll make everything easier!”

“You better put it to good use!”

“Now, now don’t be like that…….alright! Let’s get started!”

We were sitting in the back room at the small table. I was on one side with the Baker across from me, his wife on his right and Claura on his left.

In the middle of the table was a thin slab of slate that I had asked the Baker to get. It seems he had to get it at a roofer’s workshop but whatever.

Actually I find it a bit humorous, they use slate to roof houses, something not done till well after even the renaissance period. Yet they haven’t even thought of using it as a medium for writing.

Or maybe it’s just not popular. After all it’d be a bulky and heavy affair.

Anyways I begin by writing out the basic alphabet for them.

I go through each letter and give its phonetic pronunciation and have them repeat it back.

Claura responds with enthusiasm, even though she seems uncertain as to what she is doing. Geez! Know what your doing before getting excited! Actually isn’t this a little out of character?

……….Anyways…

The Baker responds questioningly but still seriously. Good, that’s right it’s best if he’s trying to figure out what I’m doing, it shows he’s actually using his brain, thank whatever is up there that he’s not an idiot just uneducated.

If only I could say the same for his wife, she responds without much enthusiasm and even directs an ignored look at me. I wish she wouldn’t, I mean if it’s that much of a chore she can leave. After all, no one is forcing her to stay….or at least I’m not.

Maybe it’s FOMO?

Meh I’ll just ignore it and continue, I’m not a teacher that needs to make sure every student passes their standardized test

after all.

After we went through the whole alphabet, I went back through and drew a picture with its name written below it. The first letter of the name would correspond to the letter we happened to be on.

In this way I went through and had them memorize the letters with an associated image. After all this is how I was taught when I was five back on earth. It should work the same way.

At the end of the lesson, Claura was falling asleep in her seat. Well she was a kid after all……in fact my body needs sleep as well! One of the problems with this young body is it requires a lot of sleep.

“Well that’s the end of the lesson today. To summarize…tonight was spent learning each specific letter in the alphabet. Furthermore we have also associated a picture with it to help remember it better. Any questions?”

The wife rolled her eyes at this one and left……it seems she doesn’t appreciate these lessons….hmph.

“Well, this is all well and good but how is this teaching us how to read or write?”

Ah, good. The Baker really isn’t an idiot, he’s trying to understand what he’s learned so far fits in with the ultimate goal.

……If only he wasn’t okay with slavery and didn’t ‘own’ myself and mother….I might actually begin to like him.

“Simple, this is the basics. I’m giving you and understanding of the little pieces so you’ll understand the bigger piece when we get to it…..think of it like this; bread has five separate letters in it, each one of those letters are necessary to form the word. If any others were used or the letters weren’t put in order, the word wouldn’t be bread anymore. The same goes for the object itself right? You need yeast, water, flour, salt, and heat to make it. If those are used in the wrong order you won’t have bread now will you. I am teaching you first about the ingredients and then I’ll teach you how to make the bread or biscuit or brownies, whatever! You see?”

He had a befuddled expression on his face. It seems his bad mood had dissipated somewhere along the line in the lesson.

Ah! His expression just brightened! I think he gets it!

“Yes, I think I understand.”

“Good, I’ll leave the alphabet with the associated picture by each of the letters on the slate. I recommend looking at it occasionally tomorrow. I’ll tell the same to Claura as well.”

“Very well.”

The Baker then stood up, after gently picking up Claura he headed upstairs. After finishing the alphabet on the slate I headed towards my room.

It seems a crisis has been averted though tension still seems to be in the air. If it’s just at this level it should be fine though.

……………………………………

Several weeks have passed. According to ‘Grand Archive’ It’s been nearly two months since its activation which is around the same time my consciousness merged with the me that was previously in control of this body.

The days progress relatively peacefully and they’ve been getting longer as spring begins to melt away the cold from winter.

During this time there has been only a little progress with the Baker’s family and learning how to read. It’s difficult since they didn’t learn from a young age….well except Claura. At the same time it’s easier with the Baker himself since he can reason through things more so than Claura can. His wife, on the other hand………….well she’s stopped coming. She said something like.

“We shouldn’t be putting on airs as a common family. Besides, why should I be learn’in from a creature like that? The thing goes against the rules of the world.”

I see, I am regarded as a ‘thing’ am I? Furthermore she went on to call upon the name of a ‘holy’ existence who her husband supposedly sinned against by letting me teach him to read.

Great religion once again rearing its ugly head….damn thing is present everywhere. It caused a lot of problems for a friend of mine who was a geneticist back on earth.

Religion should stick to helping the poor and the sick. As well as giving something for people to believe in. As soon as it sticks its nose into politics it doesn’t end well………….the crusades are more than enough of an example of how shitty things can get.

Anyways, the father and daughter have made some progress. It isn’t much but it’s a start.

I pause in my sweeping of the storefront and look around. It’s become a new routine for me to sweep the storefront before reading lessons. My mother now spends her nights getting brownie gunk out of the tins we use to make them. The profit made from them is already starting to show in the shop.

The shelves and countertops that held bread during open hours; while well taken care of were beginning to show their age. Now new shelves and countertops had replaced them, these ones had even been varnished! This was nice on me since I could now actually wipe them down rather than sweeping them off.

A less apparent but almost more important addition to the shop front was the addition of little placards on them listing the names of different kinds of bakery items. It was another way for the Baker and Claura to practice. Naturally I only suggested that the Baker do this after both of them had gotten better handwriting. Interestingly enough Claura had better handwriting over all……or maybe that’s not very surprising, the bulk of girls I’ve none had better handwriting than guys after all.

The use of the placards was two-fold. First it let the two practice their writing with something they were interested in. The second was that it subconsciously advertised to the customers that this was a shop with someone who had intelligence. To the more affluent it said,

“Look! I’m ‘smart’ and can write! I obviously have better bread than those ‘dumb’ merchants down the street!”

Or at least, that’s what I hoped it would tell them. The main point is that I want more affluent people coming to the shop. With people like that, more money will be brought in. More money means a happier Baker and a happier Baker……well it’ll be one step closer to my goal.

I want to slip out of slavery with minimum problems. Plus I still need to figure out what the other countries surrounding Snaga are like.

Rich people solve this need for information since they’ll have a higher chance of having traveled to those places. All I need to do now is find a spot inside the house where the Baker’s wife won’t find me so I can listen in on conversations going on in the shop. Hopefully I’ll pick up some useful information from them.

Ahwell, that’s for later. For now I need to get the Baker and Claura up to a respectable level of education so that they can handle the higher class clientele I’m sending their way. Maybe we’ll eventually even have nobles or some such buying from us!

With positive thoughts I head off to the back to continue the father and daughter’s nightly lessons.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Next

Howdy Y'all! The chapter is a little earlier and a shorter. Why? Because it seemed like a good stopping point. That's the tricky thing with growth periods, ya wanna show a bit of it instead of just saying something like 'two years later' but at the same time ya don't want to bore people with all the annoying details. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter. I also hope it helped give a clearer idea of how the Nameless hero is going to get his freedom. I noticed some people in the comments were confused about that.