39. Bonus: At cram school, one month before dying

Sitting beside me, Woon was drawing on his notebook with his upper hands while his two lower hands were browsing on his cellphone. Sometimes I wondered if he had a double mind along with his double pair of hands. As for me, I was too distracted watching him messing around to even know what the teacher was talking about.

Wasn’t Woon the one who told me in September, “Hey, Armen, let’s go to cram school and see if we can learn something!”? The more frustrating thing was, Woon wasn’t that bad of a student. If he were to study and listen to the lessons, there’s no telling how much his rank would improve.

“Well, now that we revised Chemistry, let’s pass to the interrogation about history and geography,” Mr. Yaog said.

Mr. Yaog was a good teacher, patient, considerate, polite, and was good at figuring out which subject his students were struggling with.

“Armen Moon,” he suddenly called out. “Are you up to the task?”

I froze. Mr. Yaog wouldn’t put his students in a pinch without warning them beforehand. That meant I was already aware I would be interrogated soon. Under the eyes of the other fifteen students, I stood up and walked to the front of the classroom, then bowed.

“I-I’ll be in your care.”

Mr. Yaog smiled.

“Relax. It’s just a little interrogation to see if you’ve memorized things well.”

“Yes, sir.”

My eyes focused on the windows. Outside, the sun had already set.

“Then, let’s start. How many continents exist in Farskyer?”

I swallowed hard. I tried to picture the world map in my mind.

“About… fifteen?”

Mr. Yaog gave me a polite smile.

“You meant fifteen minus five, right?”

“R-Right. So… ten continents.”

“Correct. What are their names?”

“Y-Yes: Farskyer, Amazonia, Hydra, Portopeace, Kaizleaf, New York, Europe er… and Starland! Ah, that doesn’t add up, right? North-Wing and South-Wing?”

“Yes, North-Wing and South-Wing are continents indeed. But New York is not: it’s a city in the South-Wing continent. Also, our Farskyer Peninsula is part of North Amazonia. It’s said that in the far future our peninsula will become a continent, but we’re not yet at this stage. Can someone help Armen find the other two continents?”

A lot of pupils raised their hands. It was always like that when I was interrogated: the questions were so easy that everyone was eager to lend me a hand. I was well loved.

“It’s Botoshima and Purple Country, Armen!”

“That’s correct. They are two islands to the south of Amazonia, way smaller than our continent, but they are listed as continents.”

“Who decides that?” I asked.

“Who?” Mr. Yaog rubbed his neck and let out a short laugh. “I must say I don’t know! But that’s the official truth you’ll have to learn for your exams. Anyway, let’s proceed to the next question. History. In the Big Blend calendar, in which century did the Great Blackout occur?”

The Great Blackout was a period when every electronic device on Earth broke down. For a century or so, humankind ceased to use electronics. A lot of technology had been lost with it. I knew as much. As for the exact century…

“It was… one thousand years after the Big Blend… No, thousand two hundred!”

“You should have more confidence in your first try, Armen. The Great Blackout happened a thousand years ago, that is, one thousand years after the Big Blend. You were right. What was the cause of that Blackout?”

“The Crystals?”

“Yes, but Crystals have different energies depending on their color. Was it a white Crystal? a purple one? a black one?”

“… A black one?” Since it was a blackout…

“Wrong.”

“The red ones!” a pupil whispered.

“The red ones?”

“Er… Half correct. Since it seems that other people don’t know either, I’ll explain: the Great Blackout was caused by the energy from the red Crystals getting in sync with the blue Crystal energy. As a consequence, the whole Earth was covered in an energy that short-circuited all the electronic devices. It is said that something like that could happen again any time, that’s why there are many groups of researchers and Explorers trying to figure out a way to understand what really happened and potentially counter its effect.” He paused. “As a matter of fact, that Great Blackout was a major trigger for the World Wars that broke out afterwards. Armen, what happened in 1154?”

“…”

I was increasingly embarrassed by my silence. We smiled painfully at each other.

Yeah, Mr. Yaog was a good teacher, patient, considerate, polite, and was good at figuring out which subject his students were struggling with…

The only problem was, it was hard to find a subject I wasn’t struggling with.

Soon, my smile died on my lips.

“Armen Moon. I don’t want to get you down, but that date is really common knowledge. Year 1154, the Alliance of Heroes was founded, five hundred years before the World Heroes Organization we know nowadays. You should memorize it.”

“… Yes, sir.”

Mr. Yaog cleared his throat.

“Well then, to end this on a positive note, how about you write a poem on the board with what you just learned?”

Mr. Yaog said we had to find a way to memorize things our own way, and writing poems was one of his methods. I quite liked the idea. I took a chalk and wrote in upper case:

TEN CONTINENTAL GIRLS WENT TO BUY PHONES.

A RED ONE FELL ON A BLUE ONE, AND CLASHED!

THEY BLACKED OUT, REVIVED, SKIN AND BONE,

THEN MADE A PACT. THE HEROES OF BEEN BORN.