First Goal Accomplished

I was lucky, so, sooo, lucky. I was the luckiest man alive, and could die happy. Learning to read was blessedly, way way easier than I had expected it to be. It took me a while to realize, but most of the alphabet did have a one to one equivalent with the English alphabet. It's just that there were also some extra characters that replaced the sounds some multi letter combinations would make in the English alphabet. Such as the 'th' in this or the 'ing' at the end of sing.

This didn't mean it was an instant thing learning to read, though. A lot of grammar rules were very different, and sentence structure was often in a different order than I expected. The similar letters did give me a huge boost in actually understanding what each word individually meant, so that was a whole topic that I was able to easily move on from once I understood the equivalents between Common and English. This brought the time I thought it would take for me to learn the language from around 5-8 months, to only three.

That's what the language was called, by the way, Common. I learned why it was called so from Patricia when I asked during one of our rare lessons together. Turns out Common was made so communication could be carried out much easier between varied regions many years ago as travel between all the different regions became common place. Each region still technically had their own language, but, at least in Sinnoh, it had fallen out of use and wasn't even taught in school anymore.

Instead, Common was the primary language used around the world, and also what almost everything was written in. It also had the added benefit of being very 'artificially' created instead of developing as a normal language did over time. Meaning that it was very easy to understand and learn how to read and write it.

That was another thing that happened during these reading sessions, which is that they quickly also turned into teaching me how to write. That was not my original goal, but definitely a useful skill to have, and learning them both at the same time sort of went hand in hand.

One unexpectedly nice thing that came out of these sessions was me getting closer to Patricia and a couple of the other orphanage staff. Although my lessons with Patricia were few and far between, we had managed to endear ourselves to each other. Every once in a while, I would find myself with some extra meat on my plate whenever Patricia was serving food, and I was always extra helpful to her whenever she was feeling tired.

The one other person I really became friendly with was a rather large middle-aged woman named Jenny. She was the one in charge of the gardens around the orphanage and was who I would most often help out before I regained my memories. I assumed that was because I enjoyed gardening in my last life, and that enjoyment bleed through as I regained my memories.

Jenny could be a bit stern at times such as whenever I wasn't doing a task in the gardens correctly, which hadn't endeared the other children to her, but that was just a part of her personality and I took it as her trying to help me. Because I was so helpful and hadn't become fearful of her like the other kids, we naturally became friends.

Although those were the only two I had grown close too, it really was a godsend having somebody that I was able to actually talk to, when most of the kids were fearful of me and the staff just didn't care. Most of the other staff at the orphanage just took teaching me as a part of their job, not to say they did badly, just that they didn't seem to care to much how my progress has been, or getting to know me. Which, to be fair, it's not like they asked to be teachers.

Probably the only other notable person who taught me lessons was Garnet, who seemed to still dislike me, although not as much as a few months ago. Luckily, she didn't seem to let that dislike get in the way of teaching me, as if she did I would have said something to Patricia, and she probably wouldn't have appreciated hearing that one of her staff was trying to sabotage me.

Kindergarten was still an absolute slog. Nothing had improved over the past few months, and it basically just consisted of me sitting in the corner and being bored out of my mind as my teachers and classmates ignored me. The class was progressing at a snails pace, and the only entertainment I had was children's toys. Not the most thrilling of times, but as I had managed to practically scare all of the other kids into submission, I at least got first pick, so I wasn't stuck playing with spare parts from some other toys.

I did have a minor conversation with Patricia about me socializing with others, but it took a while for her to understand that it wasn't that I didn't want to talk to the other kids but rather, that they would run away screaming whenever I tried to. To be fair, it's not like I would always want to talk to them, I did value my peace and quiet, but it would be nice sometimes to have someone to talk to, plus kids could be entertaining as long as you didn't have to take care of them. Sadly, it seemed like I wouldn't be getting that for some time to come.

The only other notable thing that happened in these past few months was my birthday happening. It wasn't like it was a very big event, birthdays weren't really celebrated at the orphanage, but I did receive a total of three presents for my birthday.

From Patricia, I had received a cute little orange scarf that I'm pretty sure she knit herself even if she never said so. It was quite a thoughtful gift as it had come up in passing that my favorite color was orange, and it got quite cold in Oreburgh during the winter. The cold never really bothered me, no matter how cold it was, something I seemed to have inherited from my last life, but I would still wear it, if only to let Patricia know that I cared about it.

From Jenny, I had received a plot of land that she set aside in the garden that she said I was free to cultivate as I wished. Sadly, I couldn't plant anything in there right away as it got quite cold during winter in Oreburgh, but I was looking forward to fresh fruits and veggies all to myself this coming spring. Perhaps with this in mind, Jenny had also given me a book on gardening, something I would be able to use much sooner, and also showing she was supportive of me learning to read.

Perhaps the most unlikely of presents, though, came from the system. It had occurred the morning that I had woken up on my birthday as I saw the notification symbol once again in my vision. I hadn't heard anything from the system in the past month since I've been reborn, so it was quite a suprise. I had tried to interact with it more, but no matter what I did, it hadn't offered up any new information. So, for the past few weeks, I had almost forgotten about its existence.

Opening up the notflification gave me this message: [Congratulations! For surviving yet another year in the world of pokemon, you have been awarded with 1 gacha ticket! Good Luck!]

That was definitely a nice suprise. It seemed little in comparison to the ten I initially got for being reborn and unlocking the system, but if I got a gatcha ticket every year I was alive, I'm sure that it would eventually add up to quite a lot.

And so that how the past few months had gone, to be honest it was not very eventful and very repetitive, but that was being a child for you. I had been reborn mid October, my birthday was mid November, and it was now late January.

I sat in my bed, trying my best to make my way through the book on gardening Jenny had given me, and I was succeeding! Albeit slowly, but I could definitely say that I knew how to read now. Almost as soon as I had that thought, I noticed an exclamation point appear in the corner of my vision and once again knew I had a notification from the system.

Opening up the system and viewing the notification presents me with this screen: [Congratulations! For learning how to read, you have been awarded 1 gacha ticket. Good Luck!]

Great! That was a very welcome suprise and gave me a lot of ideas on how gacha tickets could be earned. Although I may not have much use for them right now, it wouldn't hurt to stock up on them until I can use them. It seemed the system gave him rewards based on accomplishing certain achievements. He would have to do some farther testing, but it seemed he now had at least a somewhat reliable means of getting gacha tickets.

For now, he was pretty sure he had one more achievement that would be easy to accomplish. He would just have to wait till tomorrow to do it.

-----------------------------------------------------------

It was a little after school, and I was having yet another reading and writing lesson with Patricia. We both sat at a little table in an out of the way room in the orphanage, and I had a book and a piece of paper in front of me.

Patricia went to start the lesson with reading, but I quickly interrupted her. "Um, actually, I think I already have reading down. If we just focus on writing this session, I think I'll have it done to, by the end of it."

My words seem to bring a scowl to her face, but whether that's due to her thinking I'm getting ahead of myself or me cutting her off before she was about to start talking I'm not sure. Nonetheless, she goes to respond. "Oh, really now? Well, if that's the case, why don't you read this passage from the book for me, and if you succeed, we'll focus only on writing for this session. "

After saying so, she goes and flips to one of the last pages in the book before holding it out to me. Giving it a quick look over and seeing that it is manageable, I read out the passage to her, "The short girl named Mary sat next to the tall kid called Tom and after that she took a large bite of her brown sandwhich."

Upon seeing that I've succeeded in reading the passage, the matron lets out a little humph. I know she isn't actually grumpy, but I'm pretty sure she just gets her jolly's from acting like a crotchety old bitch. However, soon after, we continue on with the lesson, but this time, we only work on writing. I once again feel like I have gotten a handle on writing and have the matron give me a test which I quickly pass. As soon as I do, I see yet another notification appear in my vision, although I don't open it right away.

As our session comes to a close, Patricia starts to speak up, "I suppose that's it then. I think some congratulations are in order, I am truly impressed by how quickly you managed to catch onto reading and writing, but I suppose that does draw our little study sessions to a close."

The matron quickly got up to leave without even waiting to hear my response. I just think she was feeling a little emotional. She loved all of the children in the orphanage, but she rarely got to spend quality time with them as she is such a busy woman. After spending a few months of time together, it was probably nice for her to get closer to one of the children and after this they probably wouldn't be spending too much time together. Or well, that was just my guess, I wasn't a psychologist.

I did, however, have something else to say before she left the room. "One more thing matron, now that I know how to read, I would like to go to the library to actually read some books. However, I don't know how to get there, and it probably wouldn't be too safe to go by myself."

The matron quickly turns around, and although I can see a smile on her face, she quickly hides it. "Ah, I suppose that does make sense. Why else would you learn to read in the first place right? I should be able to take you to the library every Friday and while you're there you should be able to pick out a couple of books to take back with you. How does that sound?"

I respond with a smile, "That sounds great, matron, thanks so much, and thanks so, so, much for taking your time to teach me how to read, I greatly appreciate it."

"Oh, don't worry yourself about it dear, now why don't you head up to bed? It is getting a little late after all." The matron replies.

"Will do matron." I respond back and quickly make my way up to my room. Checking that notification I got earlier confirms my thoughts on the system, as it really did award me a gacha ticket for learning how to write.

Lying down in bed, I think to myself how I have finally accomplished my first goal in this world. It's going to be a long week before I get to go to the library, but at least for now, I have one book to distract myself with it. I grab the gardening book from under my bed and crack it open. That night, I dream of an ever vast library and my grandmother from my previous life.