novelraw Chapter 28 : Chapter 28
Chapter 28 : Chapter 28
Chapter 28.
There was not the slightest ripple in Sylvia’s silver-gray eyes as she was about to speak.
Logaris walked in.
He did not even spare the acolyte a glance and spoke directly to Sylvia. “Sylvia, there is a small problem with the experiment. I came to retrieve some materials.”
He picked up what he needed and turned to leave, as if the priest in the room were nothing but air.
The acolyte’s smile stiffened for a moment, and he took the initiative to speak. “You must be Lord Logaris. I have long heard of your great name. Regarding the matter of the school—”
Logaris stopped in his tracks and finally turned his head, looking the man up and down once.
“Who are you?”
“I am an acolyte from the Cathedral of the Sacred Mother’s Hymn—”
“Oh, a charlatan.”
Logaris cut him off, his tone so flat that it sounded like he was merely stating a fact. “The two kinds of people I hate speaking with the most are idiots, and people like you who pretend to speak for gods and spirits.”
The acolyte’s face flushed red instantly. “You! This is an insult to the clergy!”
“An insult?”
Logaris let out a mocking laugh. “A few years ago, I published a paper only within the academy, and your Holy Church’s tribunal came at me like wild dogs that had caught the scent of blood, trying to drag me to the stake. Why did none of you speak of respect back then?”
Sylvia knew about this matter.
That paper, however, could be said to have shaken the legitimacy of divine rule at its very foundation.
Logaris took a step forward and stared directly into the acolyte’s eyes.
“Go back and tell your bishop that in the Northern Territory, I will do whatever I want.”
“If you dare send people to chatter in front of me again, I would not mind letting your cathedral experience what an Arcane Blast feels like.”
After saying that, he left without looking back.
The acolyte trembled all over, too furious to speak.
In the end, he could only give Sylvia a stiff bow and leave in disgrace.
However, Logaris' forceful attitude did not solve the real problem.
Several days passed, and the registration office for the Enlightenment School remained nearly deserted.
Inside a private room in an upscale tavern in Winter City, the cousin of Chief Justice Herman was gathering with several old nobles and officials.
“Hahahaha! I said it long ago, that princess is just a naive little girl!”
The fat man gulped down a large mouthful of wine, his face full of mockery. “She thought that if she gave those mud-footed peasants a chance to learn to read, they would be grateful to her? What a joke!”
“Exactly!”
Another person chimed in. “My grandfather used to say that when the lowborn learn to read, chaos follows under heaven! If they all become literate, who will serve us? Who will go dig in the mines?”
“I have already sent people to spread the word in the countryside,” a sharp-faced country squire said smugly.
“I told them the princess opened the school to seize children and use them as sacrifices for evil magic. Those idiots believed it the moment they heard it!”
The room immediately erupted in roaring laughter.
The ignorance of the masses made them even more unwilling to send their children to the school.
The matter only grew worse.
Three days later, the Holy Church’s representative came again.
This time it was the same man, but the gentle smile was gone from his face.
All that remained was cold arrogance.
“Princess Sylvia, His Excellency the bishop is deeply troubled by your actions.”
His voice was stiff and hard.
“If Your Highness insists on carrying out this blasphemous act against divine authority, the Holy Church will have no choice but to consider withdrawing.”
“At that time, the entire Northern Territory may lose the protection of divine grace.”
“Divine grace” included treatment from church hospitals, blessings against plagues, and spiritual comfort for the faithful.
Up to this point, the Holy Church still held an indispensable position within the Northern Territory’s medical system.
Sylvia felt that this was becoming troublesome.
That night, even General Victor tactfully tried to persuade her after delivering a report.
“Your Highness, we already have too many enemies right now.”
“The influence of the Holy Church cannot be underestimated. Should we… perhaps postpone the school for now and focus our efforts on military development first?”
Only Sylvia remained in the study.
As she looked at the pitch-black night outside the window, she felt a trace of weariness for the first time.
At that moment, Logaris walked in.
“Ran into trouble?”
“They will not come.”
Sylvia’s voice was somewhat low. “The commoners do not believe us, the nobles are obstructing us, and the Holy Church is threatening us. They think knowledge is worthless.”
Logaris walked to her side and looked out into the same night.
“Since they think knowledge has no value, then we will put a price on knowledge.”
Sylvia turned her head, confusion reflected in her eyes.
The corner of Logaris' mouth twitched into a smile that ordinary people would have found difficult to understand.
“Not only will it be free, we will also pay them.”
“We will establish an ‘Enlightenment Scholarship.’ As long as they come to school, they will receive a monthly sum of money, enough to compensate for the loss of labor in their household.”
“I would like to see, in the face of real and tangible benefits, which is more useful—gods and fear, or money.”
The next day, a brand-new notice was posted all over Winter City.
The contents of the notice were simple, blunt, and enough to shake the entire city.
“By order of Her Highness Sylvia, Duke of the Northern Territory: Any child enrolled in the ‘Northern Territory Enlightenment School’ shall receive a subsidy upon enrollment and may collect ten Silver Stag Coins every month!”
“At the end of each term, those whose grades rank among the best shall receive the ‘Excellence Scholarship,’ a one-time reward of five Golden Lion Coins!”
The news swept through the whole of Winter City like a storm.
In the lower district, in the “pigeon cages,” the place completely exploded with excitement.
“What? Going to school earns ten Silver Stag Coins a month? Is that real?”
“That is more than my boy makes picking up coal chunks at the docks!”
“Five Golden Lion Coins! My God, that is enough for my family to live on for more than half a year!”
“What are you waiting for? Hurry! Drag your little brother out of bed! Go register him!”
The commoners who had avoided the school only a few days ago, and had even been full of fear, underwent a complete reversal in attitude.
Money was the most real thing of all.
They pushed, dragged, and even carried their children as they surged madly toward the registration office.
The line stretched from one end of the street to the other, a sea of people, all terrified that if they arrived too late there would be no places left.
The country squire who had previously spread the rumors was dragged out of the crowd and nearly beaten to death.
In the face of real gold and silver, any vague threats appeared pale and powerless.
A sharp crash of shattering porcelain came from Chief Justice Herman’s residence.
In his fury, he smashed his favorite vase, his face twisted with rage.
“Why! Why!”
“These wretched lowborn! For a little bit of money, they are even willing to abandon their proper place and duty!”
He could not understand it, nor could he make sense of it.
When the Holy Church’s representative came to the door once more, righteous anger was written across his face, and he had fully prepared himself to denounce this shameless act of defiling the sanctity of knowledge with money.
This time, it was Logaris who received him in person.
“Acolyte, do not be angry.”
Logaris made a gesture of invitation. “Let me take you to visit our school.”
The acolyte was forcibly brought to the school.
And then he saw it.
He saw the simple but clean classrooms packed full of children, and in those children’s eyes shone a thirst for knowledge that he had never seen in any church school.
He saw, outside the school, a mother receive this month’s subsidy of ten Silver Stag Coins, then clutch an official’s leg and burst into tears of gratitude.
He saw a father use that money to buy his child a thick new set of clothes, something the child had never had before.
The acolyte had prepared a stomach full of condemnation, but in the end, he could not speak a single word.
Logaris' voice sounded faintly by his ear.
“God loves all people, does He not?”
“Should He not be glad to see His people living better lives and opening their eyes to the world?”
He paused, and his voice turned cold.
“Or is it that the Holy Church only hopes its believers will remain blind fools forever, so that your rule will remain convenient?”
Those words struck the acolyte’s heart like a heavy hammer.
His face turned deathly pale, and his lips trembled.
In the end, he almost fled in panic.