Chapter 102 – General Aurora Arc
Year 5009 after the system day 30 of the sun season.
With the news of Aurora's newest victory against forty thousand goblins with half the amount and only with two hundred losses from lord Zylph's force.
Rumors had started reaching in the entire Lumen capital, and the fanatics started seeing blonde people as pretty fine too, since the goddess and the Saintess had blessed one of them.
Pope Klaus after a lot of meetings with the higher-ups of each church had decided to lift the restraints on the disgraceful classes and non-black-haired people upon apologizing to the believers, the fanatics, and the normal citizens who had been mistreated in the process, however, the hate for demons continued as an anti-race doctrine, leaving the dark element on the side portraying it as a simple type of magic which Ryan the magic institute leader had referred many times before, so this time around the pope took his side being able to once again stabilize the church with the human race.
These changes had been suggested by the Saintess upon conversations with Aurora as well as with the favor of princess Liliana, who had planned on using the church to create schools for peasants which would give both sides great support from the people, in fact, as she had announced such plans, not only did the pope accepted it, the prince Julius also went and signed the petition, who was completely approved by the queen as it was a 2 against 1 vote, since Marty had denied it.
With the planning proceeding flawlessly by the princess Liliana, she had obtained another piece of her puzzle, whereas those who felt unjustified all their lives for being forced to never get the chance to learn, and progress in their jobs, and education, be it combat, magic, or other types, were leaning on her side boosting her army force which would increase a lot more once the peasants saw their kids going to such schools.
Another suggestion made by Aurora, in one of the letters she traded with the princess was the release of the information the church had stocked on disgrace classes and for those citizens who would like to try one of them should be properly educated on the use of the dark arts as Balthazar had called it, only with the mastery of both types of classes that Aurora truly believed humans would be able to ascend in this world, the Saintess also agreed with them and wrote a personal letter to the pope requesting it.
The Saintess had also told Aurora all about the past crimes the church had made from torture, killing to experimenting with the human bodies of both classes to which Aurora said they could only use such information in the future if there would ever be something they required from the current pope to do, but even then they'd hardly achieve anything from such blackmail attempt, and they needed the support and influence the church had in the kingdom for the army and the war against the goblins.
Apparently, the church did have a unique book of their own like the red one used by the Balthazar group, but it was secured with the highest level of defense, deep in the church, as such, it was impossible for the current Aurora to be able to see what kind of information it would be given to her.
She tried to ask the Saintess about it, but she has never seen it herself as such couldn't disclose what she didn't know, so it had been left as a side quest for the girl's future, not that Aurora would be willing to risk her life for it.
Due to all the propaganda the church had been doing for Aurora, who had absolutely no disgrace as the pope himself had checked, she was starting to be considered by the peasants be they believers or not, as the candidate for one of the Lumen capital titles.
Some titles were only achieved through great honorable acts, like being called a hero despite not having such a unique class, this one was given to those who sacrificed themselves for others with great deeds independent if there was a reward or not, other titles also existed like the strategist who currently belonged to lord Ryu.
A different one also very famous was the one Alfred, Sylvia, and Ray, who had the title of swordmaster, sought by all who wielded such weapons, improving themselves daily be it in the army, adventuring, the battle academia, or even through other methods like learning in nobility dojos.
With the reduction of prejudice against peasants by part of the nobles, princess Liliana had requested from higher status humans to be teachers themselves as they couldn't defy or deny a request from a member of the royalty, at least, not without great consequences, even though she made sure to give them enough benefits for them to not do a bad job either.
Highly educated peasants, merchants, and priests were also procured and hired to start once the first set of schools would finish being built, each would take up to 300 peasants as students, and as a demand from the queen due to war, only a set of ten was initially allowed, however with three thousand citizens being tutored the princess firmly believed that it would be a matter of time for this trend to spread through the entire territory as those who have nothing, are more willing to study and work harder than the people who have everything, in long term, this would allow the princess to recruit many tools packed of talent who would only accept working for her as she was the benefactor.
Most of the children would be removed from the slums and the poorest of places to further manipulate and enhance Liliana's image with the peasants which as a secondary effect would reduce the criminality against children, and some families would even start working harder to support their kids.
Slowly but surely the kingdom was being reformed as the royalty kept on excluding prince Marty's ideas who would most of the time end up in a loss in the majority votation between the three siblings, as the princess contrary to what he initially thought of being neutral was behaving like a true successor using prince Julius as a support pillar to reduce the gap between peasants and nobles which he hated, though in his head he figured it was the elder brother who was manipulating the younger sister hating him even more, unknowingly to both, the princess would accept some of the proposals of Marty, in other to, induce him to such thoughts thus both siblings being deceived by her.
Year 5009 after the system day 22 of the sun season.
After the events that happened with Aurora in her outpost, the rich man left for the capital, realizing his mistake as he had learned about the existence of a ruthless authority figure even worse than the royal siblings he had the pleasure to meet in the past.
The merchant association leader Ricardo Colapzo having spoken with his wife a resolved and hardworking noble, who participated in all the deals of his husband supporting each other on equal terms since the day they met 30 years ago.
A love story of a poor merchant who ended up on the graces of a rich noble lady, who as time went by started believing in the man potential towards business eventually becoming one of the richest in the Lumen capital becoming part of the merchant association raising all the way to the leader position and marrying lady Selena, in terms of money alone they had more comparing to the 8 great rose families, but lacking in everything else as money alone couldn't possibly close the gap as the kingdom was.
Once the wife learned about what had happened with the general of the army she had thrown an expensive glass cup to the wall, shattering it mercilessly as she couldn't accept the fact that Aurora had been so unjust to her husband.
"Dear calm down, I'm alive, that's what matters, a bit of humiliation never hurt anyone before," as soon as she heard those words the fury inside her increased ceaselessly.
"No, no, no! Who does that woman think she is making you kneel just because she has authority that belongs to the prince!?"
"Ah... I forgot to tell her love, she's a kid, 9 years old from what one of the soldiers told me."
"A what?" Her expression was so excessively filled with confusion that her anger had vanished temporarily.
"Yes, it was because of underestimating her child-like appearance that I ended up letting my ego overwhelm the common sense as if it was Ryu or Mark I would've been more refined about my ways."
Still greatly confused, she muttered once more," a what? a... kid?"
"Yes, dear, I know how you feel, it is without precedent a little kid being the general of the biggest army in history composed of 700 thousand men, a role awarded only to either the royal family or one of the general of the great rose families like lord Ryu who seems to be an advisor to her."
"But... how is that possible our youngest daughter who is seven with the tutors we hired for her can do a lot of nice things such as math, which I've invested most of the money on finding a good merchant to teach her, can easily speak the language and write to some extent, is starting to learn what's a bad and a good item, but even if I had invested on a war tutor instead with all the money we had and gathered all the generals to teach her..."
"I know Selena, the odds she'd reach where that girl Aurora is... is unthinkable, people call her a prodigy born to wage war, blessed by the goddess, and with an intellectual ability to beat the greatest chess player the prince Julius."
"Then wouldn't that mean that... the talent she has is the definition of her capabilities?"
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it, if I were to accept that she's truly outstanding in what comes to war, in the end, she's 9 years old, if somehow she was born to wage war, the girl was certainly not born for any other thing like handling trading."
"So you want to exploit that possibility?"
"Yes, of course, handling such an army even with most likely the amazing and extraordinary help of her advisors, it wouldn't allow her to extend her knowledge to every area which would allow us to take advantage of her lack of capabilities."
Upon hearing his wife's words he started explaining everything that happened since their encounter to the words used by the girl so that his wife would better understand that while it was not a bad move it was still a bold one and if she was wrong it could certainly lead to the end of their lives.
At the end of the disclosure of that event, Selena threw another glass angrily at the wall and then smashing the table with a closed fist, shaking the leftover things on top of it to some degree.
"How? You make it sound like she's beyond a prodigy, where did she attain all that knowledge!?" She shouted, having an idea.
"You said she was blessed by the goddess right Ricardo?"
"Yes, ah... you're thinking the same as me?"
"If that the knowledge may have come from her, yes I am."
"Yes, exactly, but that would mean we're stuck on getting her a fair deal, which we should be able to make lots of profit nonetheless, I doubt she'd want to put is in a bad spot, and we can refuse the deal if it's not to our liking."
"Yet, it would be good to get her in good terms for the future of the merchant association dear husband, so we have to show her that we're not a group she can just use either."
As he picked the bottle with alcohol in it and lifted it in the air, he placed it back on the table and poured water instead as he had to keep his mind sharp since this deal could very well ascend his business or collapse it.
"We'll have to come with a few proposals to negotiate with her and I'd assume her advisors, so I guess she wouldn't be alone."
Selena hearing this opened the door and called for a maid, shortly after an old woman in her sixties dropped by and asked," yes milady?"
"Tell the higher-ups of the association to gather up tonight for an emergency meeting, and call someone to clean those glasses before anyone steps on them."
"Yes, right away ma'am."
"Let's go, Ricardo, it'll be best to think about it with everyone."
"Sure, you're right love, it'll make things easier with more brains as they're all capable people."