The Academy is Doomed

Chapter 134

Kai received the documents from Amon with a haggard face.

“Um…what is this?”

“We’re planning to host and hold a grand festival at our academy. So I want to work out the schedule. Can you help?”

“I can help you, but…specifically, what would you like me to help with?”

Amon rested his chin in thought before speaking.

“The schedule, selecting people to send invitations to, creating invitations, securing personnel, setting up the stage…et cetera?”

Everything.

That’s why if Kai rebelled saying ‘Hey, are you trying to delegate everything to me!’, Amon was prepared to magnanimously offer to handle selecting invitation recipients and stage setup.

However, Kai, with his haggard face lost in thought, asked:

“What’s the scale?”

“Huh? The, the scale…we’re planning to use the entire academy grounds.”

“Then we can use the front yard for the stage, and empty buildings for personnel standby…roughly 300 participants for the grand festival, and for the people accompanying the participants, about five or six times that number, so around 2,000 people…and if we include spectators…”

Muttering calculations, Kai asked:

“Right, what’s the approximate budget?”

“The budget is…”

Amon initially quoted a low figure.

Even though his family was providing support, he wanted to save as much as possible since it was their household’s finances.

Of course, if Kai said it wasn’t enough, he planned to gradually increase the budget.

But the response was unexpected.

“That amount should be possible, though barely.”

“Huh? It’s, it’s possible…?”

“Since the budget is limited, we have to make it work even if it seems impossible. I’ll mobilize all the connections I know.”

Amon swallowed hard.

“Is, is there anything I can help with?”

“What do you mean? This will be done quickly. Senior, you must be busy too, so it’s fine.”

He isn’t.

Until just recently, he was drinking heavily with Marion.

“Then, what if I try to secure a bigger budget…?”

“More would be nice, but there’s no need to forcefully increase the budget. As I said, though it’s tight, this amount should work.”

Though it’s called a grand festival, it’s essentially a ‘competition event’ including students since it’s held at the academy.

Ultimately, the expected requirements are only at a ‘student level’.

The invited nobles are limited to academy officials, influential nobles related to education, and nobles planning to enroll their children in the academy.

Therefore, for Kai, who had been planning luxurious social events under the orders of his mother, Empress Victoria, setting up a student-level grand festival stage was not at all difficult.

Rather, seeing Kai smile warmly as if telling Amon not to overexert himself, Amon’s face darkened.

‘What does this make me? I just dumped everything and ran away.’

It’s an amazing fact unknown to anyone, but since Amon was also a person with conscience, seeing Kai respond so humbly made his heart heavy.

“Ahem! Kai, what’s this about being fine with your senior? If there’s anything this senior can help with, tell me without hesitation.”

“It’s really fine.”

“No, seeing your haggard face, I want to help.”

“Ah…”

Though Amon was only trying to help to ease his guilty conscience, Kai, unaware of this fact, felt nothing but gratitude for his senior’s unconditional kindness.

“Hmm, if you insist…do you know about the social gathering being held in the capital soon?”

“Huh? Social gathering? I didn’t know about that.”

Of course he wouldn’t know.

The invitations haven’t even been distributed yet.

Kai cleared his throat and said:

“I guess the rumors haven’t spread yet. Anyway, a social gathering will be held in the capital soon. I’ve prepared a list of nobles who might attend, and I’d be grateful if you could review it. There are profiles and such listed beside each name, so you just need to check for disqualifying factors and filter them.”

“Hmm…sure, I can help with that much.”

Finally, Amon’s heart felt at ease.

Kai helps with his work, and he helps with Kai’s work!

Isn’t this mutual assistance at its finest!

‘Even though I’m just helping a little while Kai is starting from scratch, isn’t the fact that we’re helping each other what’s important?’

With desperate mental gymnastics to throw off his guilty conscience, Amon scanned through the list.

‘Count Dyspor, refused financial aid during the war with the Gunter Alliance…rejected! Duke Bendo, no disqualifying factors. Passed! And also…’

The list was quite long.

However, for Amon, who had lived practically memorizing history textbooks, it was nothing.

After not too long, having checked the entire list, Amon spoke up.

“By the way, Kai.”

“Yes, senior?”

“Just asking in case…”

Amon said while carefully gauging the situation.

“Would it be possible to invite our family to this social gathering?”

“…Pardon?”

“Ah, don’t misunderstand. I’m not planning to go. I was just wondering if my parents could attend.”

Being invited to a social gathering itself is an honor.

Moreover, since it’s a social gathering hosted by the imperial family, just participating carries enormous significance.

Being invited by the imperial family means they’re paying that much attention to you.

‘How happy would my parents be if they were invited to such an event.’

This was Amon’s way of showing filial piety.

But Kai smiled awkwardly.

“Well…I’m sorry, but I don’t have much choice in the matter.”

That’s a lie.

This list was compiled by Kai himself but Kai had reasons why he had to refuse.

‘Since it’s a social gathering hosted by the imperial family, they only invite nobles with certain standing. They have to consider financial power too.’

Ultimately, the criteria for invitation was ‘whether or not they would be beneficial to the imperial family’.

In that regard, the impoverished Baron Drake family had some difficulties in receiving an imperial invitation.

Setting aside the historical complications with the imperial family, it was due to practical circumstances.

Amon seemed to catch on and clicked his tongue while nodding.

“Tsk, is that so. Can’t be helped then.”

“Haha…I’m sorry.”

“What do you have to be sorry about? You’re in a difficult position too.”

Flipping through the list unnecessarily, Amon muttered.

“I thought our family had made some money now, but I guess not enough.”

At those words, Kai gave a meaningful smile.

That’s because the money they made was thanks to his full support.

“Ha, hahaha…Did something good happen in your territory?”

“Yeah. They say some wealthy merchant guild invested a huge sum in a city near our territory. So our territory benefited from that too, and we’ve improved our finances enough to support this grand festival. But I guess that’s still not enough for the social gathering.”

“Haha, what did you say?”

“Hm? What?”

Kai asked, stuttering.

“You said Amon senior’s territory is supporting this grand festival?”

“More precisely, it’s the city under our territory’s jurisdiction that’s supporting it.”

Kai tilted his head with a blank expression.

‘How much did I invest? Did I accidentally write an extra zero on the check?’

True, he had invested a large sum.

But the budget allocated for the grand festival was easily double that amount.

‘But they’ve prospered enough in this short time to readily provide this much budget? How?’

Was there additional funding from another source? Or were there additional investors he didn’t know about?

With a serious face deep in thought, Kai spoke.

“Would it be alright if I look into this first and get back to you?”

“Uh…s-sure. Though it’s not something to be so serious about.”

“No. It’s because my investigation was lacking, so I think it’s right to look into it again.”

“O-okay.”

Anyway, since they were done filtering the list, Amon left Kai’s room.

And several hours later.

When Kai, lost in thought, reached his hand out the window, an imperial prince’s direct informant hanging outside handed over a scroll.

Soon after reading it, Kai’s face was filled with shock.

* * *

Aim, the eldest son of the Drake family, was looking around Eden city with a serious face.

This was a golden opportunity that absolutely couldn’t be missed, brought about by some wealthy person’s investment in this city.

Though he was trying his best to revitalize this city based on those assets, he was deeply aware of his own inadequacies.

‘Until now, due to the decay of monster byproducts, we could only consume them within the territory, at most in Eden here.’

The problem was that Eden’s size itself was small, and supply couldn’t keep up with consumption.

As a result, the value of monster byproducts was set ridiculously low.

It wasn’t possible to export either, because although they were monster byproducts, being ‘pieces of corpses’ meant they decayed quickly.

Even bones, which had the longest storage period, would lose their strength significantly when discoloration and corrosion occurred.

‘But with the money invested in the city, we built large-scale refineries and workshops in Eden. Thanks to that, the processing of monster byproducts that was difficult until now has become easier, and we’ve succeeded in commercializing the byproducts.’

Thanks to that, they could now store products for long periods.

‘With the remaining funds, we’ve established our own merchant guild in Eden, creating a foundation for exporting products externally.’

But there was one problem.

Since Eden was located at the edge of the continent, a backwater among backwaters, they had to overcome countless threats to reach cities with proper commerce associations.

Bandits, monsters, animal attacks!

Those numerous dangers were decisive in Eden’s isolation.

‘However, even dozens of bandits can have their limbs separated by just our territory’s eldest Elder Alton alone.’

Eventually, that threat was resolved by having territory residents with nothing to do accompany the merchants as a pastime or tourism.

Thanks to that, Eden was now accumulating massive profits by establishing trade with fairly large-scale commerce associations at considerable distances.

Something that was impossible when they had no foundation.

‘As a result, Eden’s financial liquidity has increased by easily 8 times compared to before the investment…’

Lost in thought, Aim clutched his head in frustration.

“Damn! Just 8 times…!”

Aim beat his chest as if lamenting his own lack of ability.

“Sob…We could have grown 10 times but only grew 8 times! What a disgrace! What despair!”

The building was shaking entirely as Aim jumped around on the spire, so sad he couldn’t contain himself.

“Ah! This is lamentable…I wanted to grow this place to the scale of a decent commercial city by early next year, but at this delayed rate it won’t reach the level of a decent commercial city until mid-next year! Ah! How I rue my inadequacy!!”

Aim’s bitter cries echoed throughout Eden.

* * *

After scanning the report, Kai rubbed his eyes.

The city’s economic growth rate was 8 times.

‘Did I write 3 wrong?’

No, comparing the clearly recorded figures, 8 times was correct.

‘Moreover, they’re bringing orphans who lost parents during merchant travels and displaced people who lost their homes, incorporating them into Drake territory as residents. Thanks to that, the population growth trend is also alarming…’

Pressing his eyelids firmly, Kai muttered blankly.

“At this rate, since it’s a border territory, wouldn’t they be able to aim for promotion to Margrave…?”