Chapter 21 - Troubles at the Village (1)

"Welcome to Darug Village. How is your trip?" the elderly woman greeted with a smile. "Class, this is Elder Fa. She is the Darug Village chief," Stephanie introduced. "Everyone, salute!" Dorothy shouted. Everyone, including me, straightened up our posture and put our right hand on the left chest, "Salute!" we said at the same time. "Haha, you guys sure are passionate," Elder Fa lightly laughed. "Come. Let this old woman show you to your rooms," Elder Fa said. After that, Elder Fa led us toward the village. I saw that although this place was called a village, it was more like a small city. What I expected a village to look like and what this place is was completely different.

The road inside the village, although small and could barely fit a modern car here, was neatly paved and even. The plants were planted beautifully along the road, and the village center was breathtakingly pretty. "A fairly large fountain with a flower garden around the fountain," I mumbled. Around the fountain, four benches were placed facing each direction of a compass, north, south, east, and west. It was also matching the large road of the village. We came in from the west side of the village, as that was where the entrance was located. "Wow…. This is beautiful," Eliza commented. "It really is," Dorothy chimed in. "Thank you for the praise, young ladies. We work very hard to make our home beautiful," Elder Fa said with a gentle smile. "Oh, and don't mind the staring. It's not every day the village got a visitor from the military," Elder Fa added.

"Hmm? Did we count as the military?" Wortel asked. "Of course. We're called a military academy for a reason," Rie smugly retorted. Wortel rolled his eyes, "Whatever." Eliza furrowed her eyebrows, "Although there's only one class at the moment," she muttered. As we were talking, Elder Fa stopped at a house at the edge of the village. "This is it," Elder Fa said. Stephanie bowed and shook Elder Fa's hand, "Thank you for the hospitality, Elder Fa." Elder Fa shook Stephanie's hand with a smile, "No, thank you for coming to our village." After that, Elder Fa left us after opening the door to the house and then giving the keys to Stephanie and Renata. "Alright, let's get all of us set up," Stephanie cheered while opening the door.

Inside, I saw that the house had been properly cleaned. As soon as Stephanie opened the door, we were greeted with a large dining table. The seats matched our number. Six for the students, one for Stephanie, one for Renata, and one for the bus driver. Behind the large dining table, there was an open door that led to the kitchen. To the right, there were three bedrooms. There were stairs to the left of us, leading to more room upstairs. "Okay, listen up. The boys will be on the third floor, while the girls will be on the second floor. Meanwhile, me, Miss Renata, and the bus driver will be on the first floor," Stephanie informed.

I ascended the stairs to the third floor with Gilbert and Wortel, finding that there were five rooms. "So, we just picked our room? There are five rooms here," Wortel asked. "I think so," I replied. "One must be the bathroom, right?" Gilbert wondered while opening every single room. "Yeah, this one is the bathroom," Gilbert said after opening the last door. "Four bedrooms, then. Got one near the stairs," Wortel smiled as he quickly entered the room right near the stairs. "I'll have the one by the bathroom, them," Gilbert swiftly moved. I shook my head and looked at the two empty bedrooms. "I'll just take the furthest one," I sighed. However, just as I put down my luggage, I could hear a bell resounding from the village.

"Class 1-A gather up!"