277 Chapter 277: Historical Discourse (1/2)
”I think your grandpa is calling you, Lilith,” Uncle Glen told her before she could protest vehemently at his previous statement. She sulked and gave him a deadly glare before she stomped off in the direction of the study.
As it turned out, Uncle Glen was right. The moment Lilith hurried into Henry Porter's study room, the old principal casually directed her to help him brew some tea. He even instructed her on which tea leaves to use.
”…seriously?”
Lilith was fuming as she struggled with the teapot, and then began pouring hot liquid into a couple of small cups. By the way, she didn't bother to use any electricity – using her own fire magic, she boiled the tea manually herself. She frowned as she stared at the two cups of steaming tea, perplexed as a bead of perspiration ran down her face.
”Grandpa treasures this tea so much that he can't bear to share them with his friends, and actually conceals them at my private estate. To think that he would actually pull them out to entertain Richard…”
Well…for one thing, I wasn't a big tea drinker, and I doubted Principal Porter would have to worry about me liking the tea so much that I began requesting for it or drinking it excessively. I normally preferred chilled honey-flavored tea because I had a sweet tooth, so these sorts of refined tea leaves weren't to my taste.
Placing the cups on a tray, Lilith strode over to the huge mahogany coffee table that Principal Porter invited me to sit on. Already I had pulled out a few holographic screens from my smartphone and was displaying several digital archives.
”Fascinating!” Principal Porter exclaimed when I showed him one of Harry Harootunian's essays regarding the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. ”I never would have thought that such academic discourse existed in the twenty-first century!”
And late twentieth century, but I didn't bother to correct him. Instead, I merely nodded. Even though I loved the subject, I couldn't claim to be an expert, having almost failed my preliminary exams and nearly getting kicked out of graduate school in my past life. So I decided to let the digital archives and long-lost scholars do the talking.
”I didn't think that so much academic material would be lost to the ravages of time! I'm so glad they still have digital archives of these ancient records stored in the cloud server! I would hate to think what would happen if they were lost to us forever!”
”Uh, right.” I could only laugh hollowly as Principal Porter continued to gush over the books I had dredged up.
”Hmm…Marilyn Ivy…Ben Figal…John Dower…Tessa Morris-Suzuki…even Donald Keene! Why have we not heard of these amazing scholars' work in the field before?”
Because a thousand years had passed since their texts had been published? It would be weirder if people were still talking about them a thousand years into the future…I guess? Then again, people still talked about Socrates and Plato during my time, but admittedly they were no longer as renowned as they once were.
”Um…I brought the tea.”
Lilith was hesitant to break into her grandfather's enthusiastic ranting, and she stood off to the side, the tray in her hands.
”Thanks,” I told her, but Principal Porter continued rambling even as his beloved granddaughter passed him his cup. At least he was conscious enough to accept the cup without dropping it.
”Young man, how did you come across these works?! Surely you didn't randomly decide to search the ancient archives for scholarly articles and books from the twenty-first century? How did you pinpoint that period?”
”Uh, the truth is…yeah. It was a lucky coincidence.” Okay, that wasn't the truth, but surely you couldn't expect me to tell the old guy I somehow reincarnated from the past after sacrificing my life to save someone from a falling crane. He would probably think I was mad or something. Or dismissed me as joking. ”I was just browsing through the archives when I caught sight of these articles, and decided to arbitrarily read them. I was so drawn to their fresh viewpoints and perspectives that I couldn't stop reading and thinking about them, and so…that's how I recalled them when I saw your post in the library's bulletin board yesterday.”
”It's rare to see a combat mage take such a keen interest in history!”
Principal Porter fell silent for a moment as he reminisced, and then he smiled, a nostalgic expression on his face.
”I remember when your father was here. He never had an interest in anything outside fighting. I never would have thought his adopted son would show such keen interest in the academic field. Not just history, but literature too…”
”Well, I like reading…”
Partly because I was trying to learn more about this new world that I was thrown in. However, something in his words caught my attention.
”You still remember my dad?”
”How could I forget?” Principal Porter chuckled. ”He was one of the brightest and most talented students in my academy. He was always getting into trouble with my son.” He threw a sidelong glance at Lilith, who was hovering in the background. ”I'm glad my granddaughter didn't take after my son. The two of them were always up to mischief, showing no interest in research unless it benefited their combat skills.”
I remembered the spirit summoning research program that Principal Porter approved and helped established. However, it was supposed to be top secret, and technically Dad wasn't allowed to share the details of that with me, so I continued to feign ignorance.
”Uncle Glen seems like a responsible person to me,” I said instead. Principal Porter almost spat out his tea. Even Lilith snorted in disbelief, but she remained silent as Principal Porter wiped his mouth with a napkin and gaped at me.
”Surely you jest!”
I shrugged noncommittedly. ”I can only say what I've observed of Uncle Glen so far.”
”Fair enough.” Though Principal Porter conceded that, I had no doubt he was wondering what sort of trickery Uncle Glen employed to pull the wool over my eyes. Coughing, he cleared his throat and beamed.