Why here? Why to the world of avatar?To be honest, I vaguely remember him. Why, it's vague, literally the general features of a story that I know from somewhere flashed up. Although it's obvious how it came from a past life. These colorful fragments that appeared in my head were enough to understand that I live in the Fire Nation. There are also the People of the Earth and the People of the Water.Where the former are experiencing the Chinese Middle Ages with a small upgrade in the form of magic, and the latter are completely tribal. This is despite the fact that industrialization is already in full swing among my people. It's still unclear why they haven't abandoned monarchy or autocracy here, but! But! Anything is better than living, consider it, a tribe of some kind of water, smearing the fat of some animal on things so that it is not cold and having fun by hunting or fishing. Well, or by hunting. Or fishing. Well, you get the idea.But it's still not the standard of living I'm used to! I can't really remember it, but I clearly understand that perhaps I won't like a lot of things here and will even be disgusted. Or maybe not. Who the hell knows what the rules and culture are here.Why couldn't I get into...Okay, I don't remember the names now either, but there is a clear certainty that there are much more favorable places to exist.Well, in general, it's time to figure out what to do, and, most importantly, what to do? The answer, as always, is quite simple - solve problems as they arise. And first I need to learn to read and speak, fortunately my family has a library. And then solve some global issues. Maybe I'll sit out altogether. In the end, somehow I make it through. I've always done this, although I don't remember it.Therefore, first we learn more about the world around us, and for this we need to listen and read. Although the local language was difficult, I understood it better and better and remembered it. The child's brain absorbs information very quickly, and the nannies around me just need to talk so that I remember the words quite quickly. It's a strange feeling.- Mister Akimaru, I tell you again and again, everything has its time. "Go to school, they will teach you to read," the nanny said in response to my next request to teach reading.Yes, my name is Akimaru. Maybe Aki. Without thinking too much, I was named after the time of year in which I was born, and they took some kind of damn derivative. So they call me Akimaru. Akimaru, son of Jiro. Yeah, that's it, no last name. There is a strange attitude to this, namely the highest aristocracy has neither a middle name nor a surname. They have a certain tendency of sounds in the name, there is not always a direct sequence, but nevertheless they recognize people from certain aristocratic families. For greater authenticity, they call the father's name, well, so that everyone understands that such a lean face in combination with a sounding name is not a coincidence. It's difficult to explain, but locals accept and understand this concept.It is significant that my name does not have the necessary phonetics. This is even a little funny - as a child, my father recognized me as defective, or after this local ritual he decided that I would not have a "family" name?So many questions and so few answers so far.The main thing is that this ritual is not about my magic. Yes, I'm like a fall into Avatar, I hope that I will at least have fire magic. But I have a subtle feeling that these damned candles were clearly placed around me for a reason.But is it a hit or miss? I was born here. And a hit, it seems, is when you quite successfully fly into an adult carcass, writing out the former owners. But there were no such people here, which means it looks like he was reborn.And if I really don't have magic in this world... then it's easier to just jump into the volcano. Well, or huddle somewhere and wait for some kind of global boil to pass.- School isn't coming soon! "But I want to read now," I returned from my thoughts and continued to try to persuade the nanny. I really wanted to read books.
* * *
By the age of five, I had finally fully mastered spoken language and even learned to read slowly. No, the nanny never persuaded her, but apparently she complained to her parents about my persistence. And, apparently, she complained very much. Because, it seems, they had no options left except to invite some person who spent a long time and persistently telling me what and how in the local written language.Well, they actually didn't have much options. Don't blame me for my thirst for knowledge. Despite their more than cold attitude towards me, they are trying to at least somehow look after me. The nannies are the same again.My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on my room. As usual, I sat at the table and wrote. Either he was practicing calligraphy or taking notes on something. Basically, this is all I've been doing for a long time.My room is not that big, but not small either. An ornate bed, a desk littered with homework from my teacher, my own notes that I wrote in a language from the past world, and books. There was also a door to the bathroom - yes, there was a decent toilet and even a shower, albeit made of metal, not ceramic, and a door to a half-empty dressing room.Without waiting for an answer, a young girl entered the room, who for some reason is called my mother. I call her "the woman who gave birth to me." At least to myself. Throughout my entire adult life, except perhaps for the first months, I have not seen even minimal empathy from her. No, sometimes she spent time with me, but it could rather be called "sat in my room, minding her own business.""Akimaru, do you remember that we are all having dinner together tonight and you should be there?" — this madam said decorously and importantly, casting almost imperceptible glances at what I was doing.And as always, I write different conclusions about my surroundings. No, not about people - it's a lot of honor to translate paper for this swaggering piece of humanity - about technology and what I could remember from the avatar.As an example, now I was adding what I remember about the avatar itself:"Avatar is a bald guy with arrows. He can go into a frenzy and then his eyes and tattoos glow, and his strength increases many times over. Doesn't seem to control this condition.In theory, he is the main peacemaker of all peoples and tribes, but in reality it is not known.The main goal is world peace (ironic), the finale is to overthrow the Fire Lord.Appeared after a hundred years of imprisonment in an iceberg (When?)."Something like this. And then such a decent piece of this... note, they helped me write books, where, as I read about the avatar, I remembered something from a past life.The key question is asked at the end: when will the avatar awaken from sleep? Still, all the events in this world in my head revolve around this monk.Hmmm, dilemma. Maybe if I remembered more, I could somehow compare the dates, but what is not there is not there.Damn, how I want to take everything at once and remember. In any case, I had a normal family, some friends. Maybe even a wife or girlfriend. I loved someone and maybe they loved me. Most likely, there was a job, maybe even some kind of hobby. But I don't remember anything. Nothing at all. It's just incredibly infuriating. And I really want to know at least something. Anything is better than this. The world is, of course, an interesting place, but only if you judge from the outside. I somehow don't want to confront either the magician, who has a lot of experience, or the fire lord with his army. Why not get involved in a conflict? Something still tells me that as the fifth son of the third wife, you mean, the second son of the head's brother, and also something different, they will send me far and for a long time. To fight and defend the honor of the family. And they won't grieve too much if I die.Maybe I'm embellishing, of course, but their behavior suggests some such thoughts. They put a specific bolt on me."Of course, I remember," I nodded, without looking up from what I was doing. At this, the mother simply left the room, not forgetting to close the door behind her. Hmm, maybe such a "family" has its advantages for someone like me. Maybe they even outweigh the disadvantages.In the evening we have some important family dinner. What they want to announce, Agni knows it (Found in books, local analogy to the word "God"). But this "w-w-w" is not casual. Although it's hardly anything terrible. If I pretended to be an idiot who couldn't think at least a little, then I should have thought that they had found my wife. Well, if you think about it a little, it becomes clear that it's unlikely. They won't tell a five-year-old something like that. Even if they picked me up, they will most likely discuss something among themselves, and they will begin to introduce me to my daughter-in-law.Rather, the importance of the meeting will affect everyone except me. Unless the school is announced. Which is, as it were, not a very great secret - I'm almost six already. At this age, local children rush to school. And I'm no exception, except that the school will be more elite. Or maybe, if you're lucky, the most elite.Okay, I figured out the local attempts at steampunk. Well, at least I figured it out: I started looking, examining, remembering. It turned out that the system exists simply because it is ma-agia. Well, more precisely, the fire magician, who, although not all, but a very decent percentage of the inhabitants of the Fire Nation, ignited a special installation in the basement with his flame, maintaining a strong fire for some time and, most importantly, hot. Not so long, ten to fifteen minutes, then it was quite possible to leave it under normal fire. And thereby quickly evaporating a huge amount of water. The steam was delivered through pipes where needed and, in turn, activated certain devices. Starting from flushing the toilet to the kitchen.And they somehow don't give a damn about efficiency. It's like, well, what's the problem, that there are more losses than there's worth? You can just take it and burn it with fire. At the same time, it is generally unclear where this fire comes from. In terms of, no, fire magicians don't eat anymore, don't drink anymore, their life activities are the most ordinary. But at the same time, energy is taken from somewhere. And if the laws of physics are not different in this world, then, following the first law of thermodynamics, energy only changes state, it does not come from anywhere and does not disappear anywhere.So far, I haven't found any significant differences in basic physics, so it's unlikely that there will be any in advanced physics either, so the question remains, where does the energy come from? And why is the fatigue of magicians most often purely physical and not "mental", "moral" or anything like that?Yes, as you can see, a lot of things popped into my head while reading different books. By the way, the books were surprisingly good and literate. In terms, there is something for entertainment, but if I take a treatise on the philosophical sciences, then, unlike the title, it was a generalization of all the exact sciences. And there are ten sheets of such fabrications: purely dry conclusions, evidence and examples. Although, of course, not without fabrications on the topic of the eternal.There is no separate mathematics, physics or chemistry as such yet. The names, of course, have already appeared. But they are not particularly studied separately, except perhaps somewhere in advanced institutions, which I have no idea about, to be honest. Most likely, there are places somewhere, but no matter how the principle "from Master to Apprentice" goes here, because such a concept is quite common here and is used everywhere.It's a strange combination, to be honest. Somewhere the students sit around the sensei and listen to the wisdom of the elder, and somewhere they write in notebooks, bored in class and looking at what the evil teacher is drawing on the board.But in any case, people en masse are very well trained in literacy. Unlike the same nation of Earth or Water. And if I say the word "multiplication" somewhere in my country, people will not fall into sacred awe. Well, or they won't put you on a pitchfork either. But in other countries everything can be...Before dinner, I actually documented everything I could remember in different areas. It didn't work out very well. When I read something and knowledge popped up in my head, it was simple, but when I need to remember what popped up and write it down... The feeling is similar to being asked to make a joke, and, having previously read a collection of the best jokes in the world, your head will still be empty, and you will blink your eyes at the person asking, trying to give birth to at least something in this emptiness.So here you sit for hours and try to get something out of yourself. So far, only some scraps, which I will most likely sort on some kind of board, like cops in American investigation films... here we go again. Should I write this down or not? Probably not, but...In general, I will scrupulously connect something about the world in which I find myself with red threads, something about natural sciences, like the fact that the earth is round, with green threads, and so on. If I'm not lazy.Because I found myself in this world, I somehow suddenly didn't get a second wind to get up at five in the morning, run, do exercises, and then work until nightfall. Everything is usual: by ten I barely open my eyes, by twelve I'm just sitting down to do something, and already at half past twelve I'm all in thoughts about the meaning of being and life, just not to do something.And here I am again doing this just to delay this damn dinner a little. Brrr, how I hate these family ceremonial eating of various dishes.Well, okay, it's necessary - that means it's necessary. Therefore, getting up and (almost) neatly putting all my efforts for today into one pile, I headed to this very "traditional" hall.The whole family had already gathered there. And when I say everything, it means everything. Not long ago I found out that this house belongs to my entire family, including my uncle and his wife and son. We live in different parts of this huge estate, so I didn't really see them, and they were in no hurry to look at me, so I got the impression that this was the house exclusively of my father and mother.And there was only one traditional room, unlike ordinary dining rooms, of which there is more than one, and where we usually ate separately. But there's some important evening where class news will be announced: "Wow, how interesting" and "Thank you, Cap."Standing in front of the door to the cage, I sighed heavily and opened the gates of hell... opened the door so that the eyes of the whole family immediately focused on me. And it's not that they are satisfied, but rather exactly the opposite."Akimaru, you're late again," the uncle stated dryly. His name, by the way, is simply G. To me, it sounds like an abbreviated part of something, but in fact such a name is held in high esteem. Who knows why. Maybe this is somehow connected, which fully corresponds to the phonetic part of our genus. In any case, he also named his son Ji. Ji, son of Ji. Sounds like some rapper's nickname.Yo, G Jr. is here, are you ready? I can not hear?God, what nonsense is creeping into my head. This is all due to unstable memory, I'm sure."Sorry, uncle, I was just reading too much," I bowed slightly. Yes, there is etiquette built around bows and other things, but, like everything else, this is more a tribute to tradition than something really important and, according to rumors, even in the palace they turn a blind eye to inaccuracies. Although, of course, they can poke you with your muzzle.The only thing that remains an important part is to somehow indicate a bow or at least a nod of the head, and make a gesture with a fist plus an open palm in front of you.In my semblance of manners, my uncle just grimaced and motioned for me to sit at the table. My place is closest to the door at the edge of the table. This is where Agni knows him, it means something or it just happened that way. I have not yet understood so much about local traditions. Yes, and I'm not really going to.Something tells me that in my lifetime they will completely lose their value.They eat here, who would have thought, with chopsticks. Although there are forks and spoons and, as I understand it, they are used everywhere, chopsticks also have not sunk into oblivion and have their place. Well, I don't mind. In the end, not with your hands is already good.Okay, let's hear why we are all gathered here today.
***"So, today I wanted to discuss a couple of things," after a long half hour of dinner, my uncle finally decided to get down to business, "firstly, Gee, Daisy, how are you doing in fire magic?"This "w-w-w" is not without reason. Ji is only one year older than me. And he's been studying magic for about a year and a half now. An obvious question arises. Why the hell...why are they only teaching me how to write and read, and then I had to knock out this opportunity. If I don't have magic in the world of magic, I will become depressed and officially admit that this is my hell. Not only does magic automatically increase the status of its owner, whatever one may say, even if not officially, then it will be better to watch for sure. So, a lot of things simply become inaccessible to me. It's simply impossible to invite anyone to Agni Kai. To be honest, I still don't know how to defend honor in this case."I learned a couple of new techniques, the teacher even praised me," G said in a lazy drawl, shrugging his shoulders. It was deep in his ass, and he wanted to end this meeting as quickly as possible and go have fun with his friends.- Hmm, what about you, Daisy? - Uncle turned his gaze to my brother.By the way, his name sounds a little strange to my ear. The letter "z" is actually not "z", but something in between it and "zh", and it turns out that his name sounds like Deyzhi, only more softly. From there I have associations in my head like Daisy. For some reason, associations jump out with the dog's name, but my brother doesn't seem to be complaining too much. So I won't either."I learned three new kata," Daisy reported quickly and clearly.By the way, what they do can hardly be called fire magic. So far it's just fighting-style charging, and they've barely been taught how to call fire. It's just that all the martial arts of the Fire Nation are in one way or another part of Fire Magic. This is such a tautology."Not bad," Ji Sr. deigned to give his assessment, "and you, Akimaru, as far as I know, have been learning to write and read for a long time." How are you doing?Oops, this is something new. They usually forgot about me exactly when I sat down at the table.— I already know how to read and write. Now I'm learning calligraphy and understanding the subtleties of our language," I answered.Writing, by the way, and calligraphy are two different things. The first is simply the ability to write, the second... to write beautifully. At first I didn't want to do this, after all, what's the point of this activity? But when documenting something in the local language took me an inordinately long time and left an inadmissibly large number of brush blots... I realized that, at least to save my nerves, it was worth learning how to write local hieroglyphs quickly and accurately.My father, by the way, grimaced at my words, as if he had eaten a lemon. Why did it happen? I'm doing, like, useful things... okay, it's time to open the Pandora's chest in my mind and admit that I don't seem to have fire magic. And that ritual was exactly about this.But I still think that everything is shit, and I'm D'Artagnan. In the sense that they overlooked my talent. After all, what would a victim be without magic?The one who will start training from morning to evening and will find a long-lost/invented by a smart progressive guy/passed from hand to hand method on how to be the coolest and without "puff-puff," my voice in my head immediately answered me.Well, I'm not him. As I already said, I'm too lazy to even do exercises. Although, on the other hand, a certain rational part of me throws up good excuses: they say that without a competent person who will monitor my attempts, nothing good will come of it.Unless, of course, it turns out that in a past life I was a master of all types of karate and that's the only way I could put tigers on my shoulder blades and dismantle bears with my bare hands. Then maybe I have a chance. But I seriously doubt it."Hmm, well done," his uncle nodded to something.Something clearly died in the forest. Bo-o-big."This is a pretty good result for your age," Ji decided to develop his thought, apparently looking at something on my face, "usually children can read the books that you take from the library after at least two years of study at the academy."Yeah, and also children who have no experience in a past life.— What was the last book you read? — For some reason my uncle continued to pester me."Fire magic for dummies is the first manual," I thought, but out loud I said something else."Basics of breathing for Fire magic," I decided to try my luck. Suddenly it turns out that I completely misunderstood everything and they will give me a teacher.In general, I read this book two weeks ago, but don't tell me that I'm mastering the local exact sciences. They will still think something wrong. It is better to be able to count to ten, say that you can count to three, and show the count to two. Thoughts from a local book. I'm not sure of the exact quote, but that's the meaning.At the table, at my words, the older generation lowered their gaze slightly. Apparently all is not lost emotionally, since they are embarrassed to break off the child."Akimaru..." my father began, briefly exchanging glances with his brother, and even deigned to make his tone simpler, "I'm afraid you don't have fire magic." We performed the ritual, although this is an extreme case, usually magic manifests itself in one way or another, and I'm afraid that you do not have the opportunity to become a magician.Judging by the wary faces of the family around me, they were expecting either an aggressive hysteria or a tearful one from me. In general, a violent reaction. Apparently, that's why my uncle sweetened the pill beforehand. Ha, they expect their opinion to mean something to me.Yes, sometimes I act and think like a teenager. Only unlike them, I am fully aware of what my thoughts are."I... expected this," he shrugged, staring slightly gloomily at the food. Still, you shouldn't take this news completely neutrally; they'll think of something else—my brothers started training at my age, but I still don't. So the conclusion suggested itself.Fine? I hope I didn't sum up the theses too maturely."Okay," nodded my uncle, "I think you realize that next year you will go to the academy?" And considering what you already know, you can go straight to the second year of study. But then you need to learn a little philosophy. The rest, it seems to me, you will pick up along the way."I can add, subtract, multiply and divide," he responded immediately. And what? I really don't want to sit and learn this all over again. Maybe they will push you into a higher class, it will be at least a little interesting.- Where? - Uncle raised his eyebrows.- Well... - I was even a little confused - books. We have a lot of philosophical books in our library.- Count how many of us are at the table and tell me how many... let's say swords we can hold? - Ji asked a question.Why did he supposedly decide to test me? It sounds crazy. Well, okay, Agni is with him, let him do what he wants, it's not difficult for me. While both brothers were a little busy, turning their heads and, apparently, trying to solve this problem, I answered without hesitation. In the end, the number of people here does not change. Statically, so to speak: Me, two brothers, Father and uncle and their wives."We are seven people, and the swords... well, if everyone has one in their hand, then there are fourteen. Of course, you can also hold one in your teeth and hold one with your foot, but we won't overdo it.""Hmm," the uncle just said, something flashing in his gaze. Something strange. Even my father had a glimpse of it.Somehow I don't like this anymore."Then there shouldn't be any problems," the uncle summed up, without developing this dialogue.Well, okay. The quieter you go, the further you'll get. Well, at least they talked about magic. Although I'm still sure they screwed up somewhere, there's no way I don't have magic.Further dialogues flowed in a more multipolar format. Not questions, but rather discussions of various news. The latest news is the siege of Basingse led by Prince Iroh. When I mentioned this name, memories immediately surfaced about a funny, pot-bellied old man who loved tea. This is what you need to remember. It won't be redundant.Surprisingly, my mother joined in, expressing doubt that we would be able to take the huge walls of the city, given that if we weaken the pressure a little, they would immediately be sealed by earth mages.Her father tried to shush her, purely out of principle, but her uncle unexpectedly supported her, saying that the occupation was really dubious, not to mention how much money was being pumped into this siege. The Fire Nation, with all its industrialization and wealth, is unlikely to be able to withstand it for more than two years. Read, after a year they will give the go-ahead for cancellation if there is no concrete progress. No one wants to risk everything when this is far from the last stronghold of earth magic. This operation was most likely implemented only due to pressure from Iroh. Because either we don't know something, or this operation even sounds impractical.It would be nice if this was the last city, as in the case of the water tribe, but no, there is active resistance throughout the continent. Even if they have almost no chance of somehow regaining the territory, they are quite successful in holding the defense.Everything will, of course, change when the avatar comes. Even without knowledge from a past life, this is obvious. The Fire Nation will immediately be blamed, and with such a monster, who can easily be brainwashed due to his age, recapture cities and even win does not sound like such a wild fantasy.This is where the respected adults ended the topic. Then something less understandable began to flow, discussions of various plans for raising the family... This at the moment means being near the throne of Azulon. By and large, I understand them, reading books that Sozin and Azulon began industrialization and a large-scale improvement in the quality of life. Moreover, in many moments it is extremely fast. Hence such atavisms as those of aristocracy or apprenticeship. They simply did not have time to sink into oblivion. The progress was simply gigantic: reforms were contained in one decade that cause cold sweat on the back from thinking how difficult it was. Universal education, military service, construction of factories, and so on.And all this under the almost direct control of the Fire Lords. Of course, I am not a political scientist, but the iron hand of the ruler in some moments can be seen even through books. This allows my extremely meager experience of filtering propaganda from the true grains in a past life. Although, of course, all this, in principle, may be fairy tales, but let's not multiply entities unless absolutely necessary.Now we will see who will become the next leader of the country. So far, Iroh is a clear contender. Even if he fails his operation, everyone will be for him, because he has hundreds of successful missions behind him. People paint his image very heroically. But in the end it will be Ozai. I already remembered this. Even a pity, perhaps? We'll see how it goes though. Brave warriors have rarely been good rulers, so maybe everything will not be as bad as in the canon.Wait and see. In the meantime, dinner is over and it's time to go to your room. I have a fascinating world of literature ahead of me.
* * *
What can I say. A year later, I finally figured out this steampunk system built into my house. And I realized that my plans and dreams for modernization were covered with a copper basin. The people who did this were not stupid, obviously, and given that they had neglected efficiency, this gave a lot of opportunities in different branches, which in my previous world, maybe someone had considered, but not that much. The world went a different way and the steam engine was smoothly left behind.But not here. And in the end, all I can do with my crazy hands is break everything, and this is in the best case, and in the worst case, I will be left without these very hands. No, if I were a mechanical engineer, I would obviously do something here. Even now I seem to be developing some ideas. But everything is lost due to the lack of a theoretical basis. And this is clearly not a memory problem. It's just that, let's say, I know that if I replace this part with, say, nickel, it might turn out better. But, damn, where do you get this nickel from? What is this anyway? That's how it is with everything. There is superficial knowledge, but if you directly give the go-ahead, they say, do it, then you immediately end up in a puddle.So I scored safely. It works - don't touch it, and I won't touch it. Everyone is satisfied with the efficiency, the functionality too, because in fact, in principle, no one needs anything else. Perhaps in technology somewhere, but here in this direction, there seems to be no progress at all yet. There's not even cannon artillery here, they use catapults. In general, the mistake is clear even to me - everything is based on the fact that fire magic is power. And they categorically refuse to deviate from this thesis.Yes, I myself don't know whether it's worth giving gunpowder to this world. For now I'm inclined to think not. Because then anything can happen. And somehow let this world remain fantasy, with a touch of steampunk, rather than everyone starting to invent a bigger gun. At most, they themselves will come up with some kind of wunderwaffle for a couple, well, God bless her. One fire mage will be more effective than ten such shooters. But if you give these same shooters at least World War II-level rifles...So, World War II, we need to write it down. Maybe something else will come up later.Somehow the firebenders are already screwed. And everyone else too. I seriously doubt that a wall of earth can be formed faster than the flight of a bullet. Maybe an arrow can still be deflected this way, but a bullet is definitely not.So let's do without chaos in this world. If I'm a magician.And if not, then it's not my fault, I need to equalize the chances. Somehow I'll mix gunpowder and start making cannons, it's their own fault. We'll see who wins there.Okay, these are all purely philosophical questions, but I should go to school. As my uncle promised, I went straight to the second year. The children there, of course, are older, and even more so, I will be studying with my cousin, and, frankly, this promises to be a problem.My brothers did not like the fact that they started paying attention to me. My uncle and father began, supposedly by chance, to test the level of my knowledge at almost every family gathering; boasts became not uncommon and everything would be fine. If only according to their plans I was worth something. To my slightly chilling horror, I had already heard discussions about my engagement. They say the elders will choose themselves, and the younger one will marry someone who will bring more influence. Why? Smart, but without magic.That's when I realized that this thing smelled like kerosene. Of course, I don't believe that everything here is like in evil books from the category: "and marry me to an old woman," but I don't intend to marry! Maybe out of very great love, and then we'll see.Although, these are more philosophical debates over a cup of something hot, and this is clearly not tea. But again, there are thoughts about this, but somehow I don't see anyone introducing me to a beautiful, shy girl they want to set up with early. Perhaps this is the only option when I won't mind. And so fuck it, we need it.In general, I took this matter into account, I still have time - it's customary to get engaged at the age of fourteen. I'm six. So I'll think of something.My father took me to school. It was strange - honestly, she was literally a hundred meters from the house, and I thought they would just show me the direction and go on my way. But no, they took me, it's good that it wasn't by the hand, and took me out into the street.Oh my God, this is my first time going outside outside the house!Hmm, for some reason my gaze automatically went up to the sky. It is, of course, no different, but the air seems to smell of freedom. It's difficult to describe: a step beyond the domain and the wind seemed to become cheerful and approving; If it weren't for my father, I would most likely have forgotten myself and continued to follow this alluring feeling and run straight down the wind, like a sailboat...Shaking my head and throwing off the momentary delusion, I began to examine my surroundings.What can I say, it's quite nice.The style is almost like home - the birth of steampunk along with the dying out of Asian traditions. Different houses, no less than ours, were in one way or another simply teeming with different pipes, like a freshly dug piece of earth.It turned out to be high-flying. Well, what can you do? The surroundings are truly impressive.Here and there uniformed soldiers or simple merchants rode along the paved road.But there were few people. This is still the most elite sector, located right on the street that leads to the gates of the Fire Lord Palace. Therefore, no spontaneous markets or random passers-by for you.So everything was licked accordingly here. Every tile, every fence is simply pristinely clean.The only thing that irritates me the most is the color red. The tiles are burgundy, the walls are most often made of brick with its characteristic color, and the clothes of the people around are... well, red with different shades. Of course, how could it be otherwise?With such an abundance of red flowers, sooner or later I will swim like a cuckoo.We walked to school as usual and, to be honest, it caused some embarrassment. For some reason it seemed to me that aristocrats should show off as best they can and move these hundred meters in some kind of limousine.Ah, no. Everyone walks quietly.The school was... an ordinary three-story building, of course, with the banners of the Fire Nation. Well, these symbols are just everywhere here.It's stupid to even mention this."Oh, this is the bathroom, there are three banners. And this is a toilet, there are only two. This is my room, four."And so on. So you just need to understand that there are so many of them.Well, my father took me straight to my class. Everything looked quite civilized: the teacher, looking in the style of "Professor McGonagall", the children sitting quietly and evenly at single desks, dressed exactly the same, like me, in fact, and the chalk board.Decorative, minimalistic and without grace. Clearly visible: a school for firebenders who are known for their temper. Fuit. Ha.But what else would you expect from kids holding real guns and surrounded by solid shades of red? And add that they are golden youth. If teachers manage to keep them in their hands, then that's who should receive the "teacher of the year" award. And at the same time, early retirement with benefits "for harmfulness".No, seriously, for me it's easier... yes, anything is easier, God. Well, at least, apparently, parents for the most part understand what their children are like and what needs to be done to get at least a crumb of information into their heads.I sat down under the very interesting looks of all my classmates.Oh, I forgot to mention, right? This is a boys' school. I stood out because I immediately went to second grade. And I don't have magic, and I haven't been trained in any martial arts.What the fuck could possibly go wrong?