Chapter 53 : Useful and useless
As the carriage begins to roll forward, so does Edward's mouth.
“So, you're from Riverstead?”
“My family lives in Riverstead,” William replies. “I work in Arindale—well, worked, until the academy recruited me.”
Edward nods. “I've never been to Arindale, but my father says it's just a large town pretending to be a city.”
William smiles sheepishly before asking hesitatingly, “What about you? Are you... a noble?”
An embarrassed look immediately spreads across Edward's face.
“No, no, no!” he says, waving both hands. “My father is a merchant. Well... to be honest, he's the biggest merchant in the entire Western Region, but we're not nobles.” He straightens his coat with a grin. “I'm from Bruges—the biggest city in the western part of the Empire. You must've been to Bruges for the selection, right?”
William nods. “Yeah. I was there about two weeks ago.”
“Two weeks?” Edward exclaims. “Then you barely had any time to spend with your family. I had more than a month.”
William quietly nods before asking, “So... do you know anything about the academy?”
“Not much,” Edward admits. “My father tried everything he could to learn more about it, but nobody outside the academy seems to know very much.” He lets out a quiet sigh, the excitement on his face fading. “This is a huge opportunity for my family. My father already knew magic existed. He's built the largest merchant company in the Western Region, but he's reached the limit of what a commoner can achieve.”
Edward lowers his eyes to his polished shoes. “If he wants to expand into the capital—or even the other regions of the Empire—he needs the backing of a noble or a mage. That's how the biggest merchant houses work. They're either supported by nobles... or run by mages themselves.” He pauses for a moment before looking back at William. “So now that I've been accepted into the academy... the future of my family—and our merchant company—is resting on my shoulders.”
After listening to Edward, William falls silent.
’Everyone has their own burdens, he thinks. If someone seems to have it better than you, it only means they're carrying theirs more gracefully.’
“My father even sold part of his business at a loss to pay for it,” Edward adds.
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A sudden realization flashes through William's mind. So that's why people in Bruges were saying the city's biggest merchant had gone mad and was selling his business at a loss.
Then another thought strikes him.
“Wait...” William blurts out. “There's tuition?”
Edward blinks, startled by the sudden outburst.
“Well... not everyone has to pay,” he explains after a moment. “According to the escort who visited us, the Royal Family offers scholarships to students who can't afford the tuition. But there are conditions. One of them is that you have to serve the Royal Family for five years after graduating from the academy.”
William stares at him. “But... Why didn't Mark tell me?”
“Mark's the one driving our carriage, isn't he?” William nods. Edward rubs the back of his neck. “He probably didn't mention it because... well... there wasn't really anything you could've done about it.”
William lowers his voice. “How much is the tuition?”
“One hundred gold coins.”
William freezes.
One... hundred... gold coins?
His thoughts race frantically. ‘Trojjan paid me one silver coin a month. A hundred silver coins make one gold coin. Even if I saved every single coin I earned, it'd take more than eight years just to save one gold... One hundred gold coins... I'd have to work for centuries’.
For the first time, William understands why Mark never mentioned the tuition. Knowing about it beforehand would have changed nothing.
““Well... it's not exactly a small amount,” Edward says with an awkward smile, trying to reassure William. “My father had to sell nearly a third of his business just to afford it.”He shrugs.
“To be honest, I think only nobles actually pay the tuition. My father insisted on it because he wants me to join the family business as soon as I graduate instead of spending five years working off a scholarship.”
William nods slowly before asking, “Do you know anything else about the academy?”
“Not much,” Edward admits. “I know it's somewhere in the capital, and apparently all of our professors are nobles. Oh, and the course lasts five years.”
He pauses before lowering his voice.
“There is one more thing.”
William leans in slightly.
“When my father tried to learn more about the academy and magic, Viscount Bruges personally warned him to stop asking questions. He said that prying into matters involving magic could be considered an offense. If Father kept pushing, someone might decide to use it against him.”
William blinks in surprise.
“Your father knows the Viscount?”
Edward lets out a small laugh.
“He knows plenty of nobles. Don't get the wrong idea, though—they aren't friends.”
His expression grows more serious.
“My father always says nobles divide people into only two kinds: useful and useless. If you're born a commoner, your best chance of surviving is to make yourself useful.”