Chapter 73 Academic City

Many carriages and caravans were waiting in front of the academic city's fort. At this time of the year, it would take a few hours just to enter the city.

The academy had started admitting students into it so this was normal. Just graduating from the academy can give you many benefits. It is even possible to get granted a noble peerage.

There hasn't been a case where a person has been promoted to the duke or Viscount but there were still many cases where a person was bestowed a count's peerage.

They just don't give them titles. Land and authority worthy of the noble peerage given to them is bestowed to them. It is even possible to recruit other graduates from the academy to take care of the land and military matters.

The academy would support them for the first five years of their ruling by providing them with adequate money but, after that it is entirely up to the person's capability to maintain his title.

Zick looked out of the window, past the fort where there was a huge palace. He knew that the academy was located in the middle of this city. Which means the palace was also a part of the academy.

Zick was aware of all the possible peerage he could get from the academy but he didn't want it, both because of his personal reasons and that it wouldn't matter in the future.

Zick believed there were three mandatory requirements to become a ruler.

Strength, money, and manpower.

Strength is the physical embodiment of authority; essentially, authority that has lost its strength has already met its end. All powerful dictators have strength firmly in their grasp. There are plenty of examples that shows the quick and miserable fall from power once they've lost their strength.

If strength is a tool to protect power, money is the force that maintains it. If there is no money, one cannot maintain strength. Without strength, power crumbles. Power becomes stronger the more you collect and role out money.

Manpower is the limb that acts for power. One cannot do everything alone. The reason why dictators place inept but loyal subjects instead of capable ones is because that at least makes their lives easier. That is why nations ruled by dictatorships are always corrupt and cannot escape from their deplorable conditions.

When Zick thought of this, his eyes squinted on its own.

'There is no way I am becoming a ruler..... rather then trusting someone else's strength, I will believe on my own strength instead . Well it's great that I will only be staying in this continent for another year....'

Zick considered himself lucky thinking this. he wouldn't have to care about being a heir of the Melvix family in the second continent. He didn't even want to think about what will happen if he became the next family head.

Just the subject of loyal subordinates made Zick never want to even try becoming a ruler. Though he would get a lot of authority, his every action would be closely watched by the others and restricted.

Becoming a dictator, Zick could just forcefully do everything but still he didn't have any interest in becoming one.

Zick's carriage moved past the other carriages and caravan stationed in front of the fort. Many people gasped seeing the Melvin family's crest etched in the carriage. There was a caravan following behind the carriage, it was the caravan in which the two servants stayed in.

Both the carriage and caravan were surrounded by many demihumans, mages and priests. The knights were few in number when compared to them. Moving in such a large group at once gathered a lot of attention upon them.

Arriving in front of the fort, the carriage came to a stop. Vertel moved in front and passed on a crest as an identity proof to the guard.

The letter Zick received back from the academy could also be used to enter the academic city but there was no need for that right now.

The carriage entered through the fort easily after showing the crest.

Passing through the gate, a vibrant Street appeared in front of them. The whole street was filled with many caravans and carriages moving busily.

'ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ No(ve) l Bi n',

Many people walked in the sidewalks of the street merrily. Their expressions were bright as the festival was still going on. This whole month until when the festival goes on the staff of the academy get a lot of free time, it's like a vacation to them at this time.

The carriage reached a plaza with a huge fountain in the middle of it. There were many couples sitting on the benches near the fountains.

There were many stalls on the streets. The festival atmosphere could be seen from everyone's expressions.

The academic city was totally different from the other cities that Zick had been in. The streets were maintained well and most of the buildings were two to three stories high.

The carriage slowly came to a stop and its door opened. Both Anelete and Anastasia stepped out of the carriage.

"Thank you for letting us ride the carriage along with you." Anelete smiled and bowed towards Zick.

"Thank you." Anastasia simply said, bowing her head a little.

Zick nodded his head at them and closed the door. The carriage started moving again with the few knights and Vertel surrounding it.

"Thank you."

Anastasia bowed to Anelete and started walking off to somewhere, she had asked her for escorting and nothing else so she was on her own now.

Anelete didn't say anything and just stared Anastasia as she vanished in the crowd.

Anelete turned towards her mercenaries and smiled "Let's go then everyone."

"Yes, lady Anelete!" Serlece said happily recovered from the shock of seeing her comrades killed by now.

"That was a long journey, but we were able to reach our destination somehow." Jerg also smiled, though it just looked like he was exposing his fangs to others.

But the mercenaries around him were used to it so they smiled along with him.

There were a demihuman living in the academic city, but they wouldn't even amount to one percent of the total population of this city.

The mendert Merchant group started moving, marking their new beginning in the academic city.

....

'Now that I have made a connection with the Mendert merchant group, I will not need to worry about getting any material to use for enchantment. ' Zick knew that though anelete tries to trick people, she still keeps her words so he wasn't worried of her going against it in the future.

Zick's carriage continued moving towards the middle of the city. The mansion he will be staying in was near the centre of Academic city so that there wouldn't be any inconvenience in going to the academy.

Zick looked out of the window with back on the cushion. He found the academic city to be a lot more colourful than the cities. He didn't know how it compared to the other capitals as he hasn't been in any of them till now.

The carriage came to a stop in front of the mansion.

CLICK~

Opening the door of the carriage, Zick stepped out of it. There were two knights who stood in front of the gate like a guard, Vertel was talking to them currently.

Zick looked at the mansion with still a blank look. It was a three stories high mansion which was made of expensive marble and followed the aesthetic sense of the houses in the academic city.

'

Most of the houses in this city were close to each other but Zick's mansion was fairly spacious from the other houses.

The two servants got out of the caravan and walked near Zick.

"Young master Zick, my task ends here. I will be returning back to the Melvix dukedom now." Vertel said this and rode the horse.

Neighhh!

Following Suit, The other knight rode their horses too. They started heading off along with the carriage without any delay. The dragon eggs bag was already in Butler Von's hand.

Walking near Zick, the guard knight spoke to him "Please this way."

His voice was very polite and respectful. There have been many incidents while the second son of the Melvix family stayed here. Even for the smallest mistake he would punish the servants heavily. Many were even killed brutally.

This made almost no people accept the job of becoming a servant in this mansion.

Zick followed the knight as he showed the way. Butler Von and the two servants followed behind him.

Entering the mansion, Zick could see a clean Hall with sofas kept orderly. There were many flower vases and tables near the windows.

"We have already hired people and cleaned the whole mansion after getting the message of you coming here sir, but there is still need of a chef and-"

"I have already brought servants with me, you can go now." Zick said, still looking at Hall.

"Y-yes!"

Zick didn't need to know something like where his room was as the whole mansion was his now.

"Get to your work and Von follow me.

""" Yes"""

Three 'yes' rang out at the same time.

Zick started looking around the mansion, there were many rooms in the whole mansion. They were all well maintained too.

After looking around for a while, Zick chose the room on the third floor, there was only a single room in there. Although it was only one room, it encompassed the entire third floor, including a study, a bedroom, and an office, which were all connected without any walls between them.

"Put the bag in this room."

Butler Von moved forwards hearing Zick speak and put the leather bag above a sofa.

Sending away Butler Von, Zick laid upon one of the couches in that huge room.

'This is my room from now on, Though I will only be staying here for a year.....I should go to the academy administration tomorrow. I can go around seeing the festival for tonight.'

It was still the middle of the day so Zick continued looking around his new room after laying upon the couch for a while.