Release That Succubus

"Nah…I think that he wants to take out his anger on us." This one was a young one with a loose mouth who ended up scaring the soul out of the poor servants.

"I agree…we all saw how angry he was yesterday." The servants found this to be the most probable option and soon all of them were following the same line of thought.

"Or maybe he is angry because of us."

"Quiet down and listen to what I have to say instead of whispering among yourselves." Bruce yelled in a loud tone as he scolded these people a bit for showing such an attitude in front of Zach.

A hush spread over the crowd as everyone became attentive towards Bruce and not a single one of them dared to look elsewhere afterwards.

Satisfied, Bruce continued with the announcement.

"Out of all of the servants under my Luther family, you all who have gathered here will get a once in a lifetime offer to become the apprentice of our benefactor, Zach. Don't be afraid. No one will force you to do it. If you don't want to then you can continue doing what you have been doing for the Luther family. But those amongst you, who want to change your lives by receiving the tutelage of Master Zach, get towards my right side. But be sure of your decision because once you decide on this matter, you won't be allowed to change your mind."

Bruce finished with the announcement and let the servants decide for themselves. He looked at Zach while wondering if this was the right move. Bruce was the master of the family after all. It would have been quite easy for Bruce to give some of these servants to Zach but Zach had insisted on this method instead.

What Zach needed was people who were able to think for themselves instead of having their path plotted out by someone else. He needed people with imagination and the daring to question the world as he wanted to teach them the principles of science and its magic.

Even after the announcement, there was no movement amongst the people and Bruce felt that whatever it was that Zach had been planning to do had failed spectacularly. He looked at Zach as if asking about what to do next.

Thankfully Zach didn't hang him out to dry and took over for him.

"All of you can become my apprentices if you want but you have to choose it for yourselves. I want you all to choose whether to live a life without any progress and die without achieving anything at the end of it. Or you can offer your loyalty to me and learn principles of this world that not even the greatest of all the mages can ever hope to discover. What I need from you isn't your capability; I can make all of you capable on my own. What I do require is your complete and unreserved loyalty and your utmost discretion. So don't be afraid and make a decision for your future."

Unlike Bruce's words, Zach's monologue aroused a deep desire in all the people; a desire to do something greater and a desire to follow after the man who had created miracle after miracle in front of them.

Some of the servants were moved by Zach's words and moved towards Bruce's right side. They had decided to put their trust in Zach who was promising them a better life for themselves and their families.

Usually slaves of humble origins like them never received a chance to improve their standing amongst the society no matter how much they toiled in their lives. But Zach was not only trying to help them escape the chains but was also going to teach them himself. They couldn't think of a greater honor than this. Therefore, they chose to change their lives with their own hands by following after Zach with all their loyalty and sincerity.

Most of those who decided to follow Zach were those who had witnessed his greatness with their own eyes as he saved the Luther family from their doom. The rest had either heard of his deeds or admired him for some other reason.

Still there wasn't as big a change as Zach had expected. Even though there were hundreds of servants in the ground, there were only a few dozen that agreed to learn from Zach. The rest were either indecisively whispering amongst themselves or were completely indifferent to the offer. For such individuals, servility had seeped deep into their bones and had made them incapable of independent thought. They had long since accepted their fates. Therefore, Zach felt that it was no use trying to motivate them.

Bruce made the rest of the servants take their leave as he felt pity for these people who had failed to avail the opportunity of their lifetimes.

"I assure you that you won't forget this day for the rest of your lives." Zach said in a loud tone to those who had stayed behind and would become his loyal followers and apprentices in the future. These people would become the pioneers of science and technology in this world and Zach would be their teacher.

The people who chose to stay behind and follow Zach were all swept by emotions as Zach took them all under his wing. They couldn't get their heads around the fact that all of them had become Zach's apprentices and would only have to answer to him in the future. They felt that slaves like them did not deserve so much respect and attention from the master. Had it been anyone else, he might have just ordered them as he wished but Zach had given them a choice and freedom of thought. Just that was enough for the servants to swear their eternal allegiance to the benefactor who literally saved their lives in the past and was still trying to save them now.

Before long, it was time to proceed towards the next step of Zach's plan.

He ushered in his new students towards a room that had been established near the ground where Zach had called all the servants previously. There were desks and chairs lined in an orderly fashion from the front to the back. Of course, this was going to be the classroom where Zach intended to teach the fundamentals to these students.

Zach stood at the podium with his hands resting on the surface as he fiddled with his lecture notes. He waited for the students to fill in until the queue in front of him thinned out and eventually drizzled to a stop.

Zach could feel genuine excitement from his first students. Although they were illiterate their passion to learn something new, especially from someone of a high caliber like Zach was practically bursting. Their eyes looked like those of a hungry beast that wanted to devour everything in its path.

After the servants had all chosen a seat for themselves and settled down on to it, Zach finally began to deliver the lecture that he had planned for them. Since the servants were all illiterate and hardly anyone out of them was a learned person, Zach could only teach them through pictures that he had already arranged with the help of a talented artist who drew the whole process of fractional distillation of crude oil on paper.

With the help of such diagrams, Zach had created a lacking version of a PowerPoint presentation in a printed format that even the people of Stone Age could have understood if they wanted to. Zach used a big board with a tripod as a support below it to display these slides one by one to the servants so that they could understand the distillation process of the crude oil and each of the products that they could get from it in a sequential manner just like the modern world presentations that he remembered. Of course, this presentation required him to turn over pages like a book instead of clicking to change the slide.

The servants couldn't help but be shocked to learn about the advantages of each product that they were extracting from the fire water which they now learned was called crude oil.

The more they learned, the more they began to understand the power of the divine knowledge they were receiving through Zach.

And Zach made sure that they learned everything about each of the products distilled from crude oil so that they could easily identify it and could make use of it when required.

The women seemed especially excited to learn of a product called petroleum jelly that could be used as a skincare product that could moisturize the skin and turn it softer just through its application.

They could not wait to actually experience it for themselves, these divine miracles that Zach taught them about.

Of course, Zach didn't plan on starting a new religion here. Therefore, he constantly reiterated to them that what he was teaching them was neither magic nor a divine revelation but the product of human mind and it was capable of through its application known as science.

But Zach couldn't actually control their thoughts that were limited by their lack of knowledge and illiteracy.

For example, when an illiterate individual suddenly comes to learn the secrets of the world that even the most learned person couldn't begin to understand, he would only interpret this secret as a part of some divine knowledge. The reason is that it is easier for him to comprehend it that way because he has never been taught the power of knowledge before. He only understands that extremes of all the powers are in fact divinity.