Forty-seven - History lesson

After the mini competition performances were over, everyone else's groups were set for the week. While the other trainees were moving rooms and beds, Stacey was having a confusing legal studies lesson that flew over her head. More because of all the formal and difficult Tadpole in it than anything else. The tutor stopped part way through upon realising she had no understanding of what was just said. He rubbed his forehead and switched the focus of the lesson to become more history and vocabulary oriented Tadpole language lesson.

Cartoons and clips of movie or television dramas were played for Stacey to watch and help her understand. It was still in Tadpole and Stacey could only grasp bits and pieces of it.

As far as she could figure out, the fight for humanity's freedom had been a long and very bloody process where thousands of men and women had sacrificed their bodies and lives in order for organised human freedom groups to be able to infiltrate beastman camps and Ancient cities over the course of several centuries. Some of the beastmen had joined humanity's fight in a bid for their own freedom from the oppression of the Ancients and gods as well, hence why the beastmen were not completely rejected as enemies of humanity today. The number of beastmen who fought alongside humanity was comparedly fewer than those fighting for the Ancients and the gods. Broadly speaking, both the humans and the beastmen had almost wiped each other out, dying half the planet red with blood.

Many of the stronger Ancients and gods had been either killed or badly injured during the desperate battles. Most of them had gone into hiding or hibernation to lick their wounds and recover their strength at the end of the war. How many of the Ancients and gods perished or survived was unknown, although the human governments estimated that more than half of them had been badly injured, if not killed.

Through the stories, Stacey caught glimpses of technology that sounded much like magic and snapshots of what sounded like eastern immortal cultivation or martial arts practices. Apparently almost all of these ancient practices and advanced technology died out in the war, having been used up. Everyone who had known how to fight and to use or make the war machines had gone out to fight, leaving behind a generation who had not been highly educated. Given that children aged eight and above had been involved in the wars, it wasn't a surprise that the average age of the humans after the wars were teenagers and so much knowledge had been lost.

The survivors of the Great Freedom Wars were the ancestors of the current inhabitants of the planet. Ancients, beastmen and humans had made an agreement that weighed heavily in humanity's favour due to the simple fact that the humans had the advantage at the time. Ancestor Bai, who wrote the 'Pear Blossoms' anthem, had been one of the human leaders in the Great Freedom Wars.

There had been many prominent leaders and fighters during the wars who later established the Great or Noble Families of the current day. The world had been split amongst them to establish their own nations or territories with whoever wanted to follow them. Ancestor Bai had been a close friend of the Wesley brothers who had taken over this continent dividing it into the East and West Wesley continent. However, Ancestor Bai had gone on to found the Yayi continent with Ancestors Na, Huo, and several others of Asian descent. People from all the continents were multiracial and of mixed ethnicities, but did have a tendency to group themselves according to their ethnicity - more so in certain continents than others. The founding families were huge and had spread out branches all across the world. Hence there were branches of the Huo and Na families here in the Wesley continent and not only in the Yayi continent.

The Wesley continent itself had been slow to develop compared to the science and technology focussed Yayi continent. The Wesley continent was considered one of the breadbaskets of the entire world, if a bit backwater and behind on the times. West Wesley more so than East Wesley due to the better climate and farmland available. As such, West Wesley had a greater agricultural focus, while East Wesley had more timber and mines. Now though, with the advances in science and technology, and especially the spreading of the interweb, the Wesley continent was quickly catching up, developing in arts, culture and the sciences.

The history was full of names and years. Then there were the laws. It was more than enough to make Stacey's head spin. Stacey wasn't even sure if what she had learnt and understood was correct. The tutor had kept dropping back into Tadpole in the middle of his sentences and forgetting to talk to her in English.

Thank goodness when it was time for lunch. While attempting to walk forwards toward the door, in her preoccupation, Stacey had somehow gone sideways toward the camera crew instead.

"Whoa, Stacey. Careful. What's wrong? Are you not feeling well?"

"I'm fine. My head is just spinning full of historical dates and names and new words," Stacey said. "It feels like a textbook got slammed on my head."

"We'll consolidate all this information and knowledge another time then," the tutor shook his head with a laugh, helping Stacey straighten herself and point her in the direction of the doors again.

"I hope I can remember at least half of everything next lesson then," Stacey rubbed her head. "I can feel most of the information escaping from me."