Kingdom’s Bloodline

“Very well, I will remember that. We can try to have more flexible etiquette lessons. We will still have a class every Wednesday. You should be able to apply the knowledge at any moment in every practical sense.”

Gilbert’s words traveled into Thales’ ear, and Thales was pulled back to reality.

Thales tried his best not to look at the timetable above Gilbert’s knees or calculate the free time he had remained in a week. He took in a deep breath.

The prince nodded.

“As for what you mentioned about ancient languages and foreign languages… the Northlanders despise the national language of the Empire.

“But Old Crow insisted on putting it back into my curriculum.” Thales looked excited. “‘Don’t waste the ancient books in the library.’ That is what he said.”

Gilbert moved slightly.

He was slightly nostalgic and touched. “Is that so, Mister Hicks?”

Thales snorted and laughed. He tried to reduce the burden of his curriculum.

“Of course, with the basics that you taught me and all the reading I did over the years, the national language of the Ancient Empire is still quite easy for me.

“But as for my friend, I am afraid that she did not think of it that way.” Thales shrugged.

Thales felt incredibly happy when he thought of Saroma being stunned when she read an old book written in the national language of the Ancient Empire—The Poems of the Political Allegory between the Era of Feudal Kings and City States. She bit her nails while she looked at him occasionally in shock and fear as Thales quickly flipped through the pages.

He also decided not to tell her the secret behind why he could read so quickly.

‘If you don’t understand it, just skip it!’

At this moment, Gilbert suddenly spoke, “So, did Mister Hicks teach you the national language of the Ancient Empire or the modern national language of the Empire?”

Thales was stunned. He said hesitantly, “Um, let me think about it…”

But Gilbert did not hesitate before he nodded in understanding and started to write something. “I understand. You will need extra tutoring in both the national languages of the Empire.”

‘Both.’

Thales suddenly felt sorrow, as if he had just smacked himself in the head.

The Foreign Affairs Minister looked up. “How about foreign languages?”

The prince looked at the decreasing amount of blank space on the timetable and said with a long face, “Can the language of the orcs be counted?”

Gilbert frowned. He had a face as if he had come to understanding something as he lowered his head and wrote to fill up what little remained of the blank space on the timetable.

“So, you still need to be tutored for three languages, including the language of the Ancient Cia elves, the language of the Ancient Rehan elves, and the common language of elves.”

‘Huh?’

Thales raised his head in fear.

“It is just a joke, Your Highness.” Gilbert raised his head and laughed loudly. “Except for the elves themselves and linguists, no one else is able to speak the first two mentioned languages.

“Do not worry too much, all you need to learn is just the common language of elves.”

When Thales saw Gilbert cross out a few grids, he wisely held back from asking whether Aida could speak them.

“Very good. Then, that will be the end for your basic classes such as grammar, history, etiquette, and language in your course,” Gilbert said in satisfaction. “Next would be the second type.”

‘What?

‘There’s more?’

Thales felt sad again.

The first type was already enough for him to suffer!

But Gilbert’s next sentence drew his attention.

“Philosophy.”

At that instant, Thales was stunned again.

After a few seconds, he could no longer care about his academic pressure. Thales spoke in pure surprise, “Phi… Phi what again?”

Gilbert raised his head and enunciated clearly, “Philosophy. This is its ancient name, and it is a very broad academic discipline.

“As of today, if it is included in your course, it includes mathematics, natural science, arts, and theology lessons.”

‘What?

‘Mathematics, natural science, arts, and theology classes?’

Thales was surprised and said, “All these are included in philosophy?”

Gilbert smiled gently and asked in the same sentence structure, “Which of these should not be included in philosophy?”

Thales waved his hands.

“I know what you mean.” The duke was a little skeptical. “But I think that philosophy is a narrow and specific discipline, and there are not that many details in it. Is it not supposed to be used to answer some broad and deep ultimate questions?”

The Foreign Affairs Minister seemed as though he wanted to joke with him, so he repeated, “Then, what kind of questions do not belong to these ‘broad and deep ultimate questions’ you speak of?”

Thales was stunned, and he continued to scratch his head. ‘Ah, this must be an influence from Kohen.’

“Urk… such as, ‘What should I eat today’?” he asked dumbly.

Gilbert put down his spectacles, took a deep breath, and sat up straight.

“First of all, the question of ‘What to eat’ can be very deep as well…” He gazed at the prince earnestly. “Secondly, Your Highness, for a transcriber or a civil officer who graduated from an academy, as long as they are hardworking enough and read the classics thoroughly, they will be able to understand grammar, be familiar with history, have decent etiquette, and master languages.

“For a recruit or a commoner knight who comes from the city defense team, as long as they put in more effort and train well, their martial arts can be better than others. If they can remain calm while they give commands and win in battles, they can give perform meritorious deeds.

“All of them will have a chance to be appointed as nobles.”

Gilbert’s gaze suddenly became sharp,

“But how do you differentiate between yourself, who is a real noble that came from a long history of aristocrats and are outstanding, and they are not?”

Thales gave him an awkward smile.

‘I can’t say, after all, it’s my first time being a noble.’

Luckily, he tried hard to keep himself from saying the words that had been used multiple times to mock him—Shining, gold blood.

Gilbert smiled mysteriously.

“Your Highness, if you are not used to it, just treat it as a nicer address: philosophy.”

Gilbert looked outside the window, and there was a longing look in his eyes.

“You must know that during the age of the Empire, philosophy covered everything, and it had once been known as the knowledge of all laws. It was even a compulsory lesson for nobles. During that time, knights would lead the army when they were on horses, and when they were not on horseback, they would discuss to each other about philosophy. As nobles, there was no option to them as to whether they could learn philosophy, but only the option of the depth of their learning of philosophy.”

‘The knowledge of all laws?

‘This is rather similar to the Convention of All Magic mentioned by Asda…’

Thales quietly paid attention to this.

“But it includes mathematics, natural science, arts, theology, and it seems to be a bit…”

The prince tried hard to think of an adjective, but he failed in the end.

Gilbert only looked at him from the distance. He quirked up the corners of his mouth without replying.

Since Thales could not find any suitable adjective, he sighed.

“Do you know that you just made me think of the Old Crow again?”

The Duke of Star Lake recalled the past. “Mathematics, geometry, astronomy, and geography… Although the nobility at Northland included them in their military lessons without analyzing the knowledge, Old Crow separated them. He provided explanations for all four lessons, he also provided a separated list of books for them.

“And the Old Crow did not just teach us simple mathematics, but…”

Gilbert suddenly took over the conversation. “Algebra?”

Thales was excited. “Did he teach you this way as well?”

Gilbert chuckled.

“This is a compulsory lesson in Dragon Kiss Academy. It is already an old tradition in the past. Mister Hicks incorporated some of those lessons into his home-based classes.”

The Foreign Affairs Minister said airily, “At least, all students of Dragon Kiss Academy will need to under the principles and formulas of normal algebra such as quadratic equation.”

‘What?’

“Quadratic equation?”

‘And it was a compulsory lesson?’

Thales laughed dryly. “Why? Why do we not just learn quintic, sextic, and polynomial equations?”

Against his expectations, Gilbert began recalling seriously.

“Mister Hicks has said that up until today, no one has really found a way to solve quintic equations. According to some methods during the age of the Empire… Some people did manage to find it, but it was lost after the Battle of Eradication…

“It was also said that some scholars who had been poor for their entire lives had delved even deeper into this subject. Their algebra was not limited to the scope of simple numbers, but beyond reality, and they were things that were beyond our expectations. They even found ways to point to directions, space, motion, and change accurately. So, their mathematics draft papers could be a few floors tall if they were spread out…”

“Urk, Gilbert, you can stop here.” Thales started to feel a headache again. He gestured at Gilbert to stop.

“You should know that I personally prefer astronomy and geography in the Northlanders’ military class, even though my classmate was had opposing preferences…”

‘Sorry about that, my interest in Mathematics cannot even be compared to a Northland girl. I am a true embarrassment of the traditions of our Empire.’ Thales thought in a mocking and resigned manner.

Gilbert lowered his head and continued the game of filling in the blanks.

“Besides mathematics, they naturally included astronomy and geography to increase their knowledge and widen their perspectives.

“Meanwhile, arts include music, painting, sculpting, dancing, poetry, and theater that can cultivate your mind and body, and train your character.

“As for theology… Yes, it is more abstruse, and you will know soon.

“When they are added together in your weekly timetable… Hmm… let me take a look…”

Thales became more mentally exhausted when he heard this.

Gilbert frowned and picked up the draft of the timetable. “Oh, we cannot quite fit in everything in the timetable…

“But all is well. I will go back and rearrange the proportion of your basic lessons and philosophy lessons so that they can be mixed together…”

Thales could only acknowledge that he was unlucky, and he closed his eyes.

But he thought of something and immediately opened his eyes. Then he asked, “Wait, Gilbert, I thought you just said that there will be a total of three main types of lessons?”

Gilbert looked at him and showed him an expression that he thought that Thales was worth teaching. “Yes, there are three main types. The practical lesson is something that was decided by His Majesty…”

‘There’s still more?’

Thales said mournfully, “Practical?”

Gilbert cleared his throat and continued to make some remarks on the paper that would decide Thales’ future.

“For example, practical lessons in ruling. This is especially necessary for families with titles of count and above.

“Military commands, logistics, administrative reports and how to handle them, agriculture, business, finance, taxation, politics, diplomacy, religion, the relationship with nobles, legislation, and jurisprudence…

“These are not some subjects that can be taught by teachers from a normal academy. They usually need to be combined with real-life examples so that you can have personal experience with them…”

Gilbert remembered something, raised his head, narrowed his head, and said, “You need not worry about this first. Let us first finish with the previous content first.”

He felt excited and looked at the timetable in his hands,

“Then, grammar, logic, rhetoric…

“Next is history lessons and etiquette lessons. We need to make more slight adjustments to the cores of the lessons…

“There are two kinds of the national language of the Empire, and there is the common language of elves, I think you have forgotten the basics of the common language of elves…

“There is also mathematics, natural science, arts, and theology. So, the subjects under these lessons must be allocated based on your interest and the teachers that we can find. For example, for the arts, I would recommend…

“As for the details of the teacher candidates… I will further look into this. It will be better if each lesson has a different teacher, so that you will find it novel, and you will find a liking to attend lessons…

“We will need to make other notes regarding your practical lessons…”

Thales had changed his expression from the terrified look in the beginning to suffering, sorrowful, and gradually, it turned to numbness.

“Very well. These will be the three main lesson types for you.”

Gilbert smiled so widely that his teeth could be seen. “I hope that you will enjoy your studies.”

Thales glanced at that timetable. The entire thing had practically been filled up. His face instantly turned pale.

“Do you think that I can handle it?”

Gilbert wagged his finger and looked confident. “No, no, no. The others might not know, but six years ago, I have seen your learning progress with my own eyes. Your Highness, you are what people called genius.”

‘Hold on a sec.’ Thales felt his lips twitch.

“I believe that these lessons will be simple for you.

“Furthermore, six years ago, did you not tell me that when you were young six years ago that you loved going to lessons the most?” Gilbert blinked, and he was pleased with obtaining a good student.

Thales felt his vision black out for a moment.

‘Gilbert, did you misunderstand anything?’

If he said that his brain was damaged after being hit by the Northlanders, would it be useful?

But the Foreign Affairs Minister obviously did not understand his emotions.

“Then, I will take my leave first and come again tomorrow. You must get ready for the grammar lesson!”

Thales did not remember how he sent away Gilbert.

He only remembered that he nodded and smiled numbly, and he smiled faintly and nodded again.

When Thales snapped out of his daze, he was already standing outside the reception room.

At this moment, a familiar voice was heard behind him.

“Has it ended?”

Thales turned around numbly.

“Very good. The police station has just sent some people over here to chase away the unwelcome guests who wanted to visit you.”

The captain of his personal guards, Watchmen Mallos continued to smile calmly. “Then, you should have time now, right?”

Thales looked at him numbly and did not quite understand what he meant.

Mallos was seen grinning. The people who saw it felt refreshed.

“Your Highness, please get ready. Our training will start tomorrow.”

‘Okay.’ Thales snapped out of his daze again, but it was with the same numb look. ‘Wait.’

“Train…”

Thales snapped out of his numbness. He turned around swiftly, and he widened his eyes quickly. “Train what?”

Mallos frowned slightly. “Count Caso did not tell you?”

Thales shook his head subconsciously.

The watchman walked up, narrowed his eyes, and sized up the duke.

“Except for those complicated basic lessons, philosophy lessons, and practical lessons, there is one most important lesson for Constellation nobles.”

‘Most important lesson?’

Mallos nodded, smiled, and said, “This is the key that proves the difference between nobles and commoners since the era of the Feudal Kings.”

‘Again?’

Thales felt a bad hunch.

He heard Mallos speak with a smile. “Military skills.”

Thales did not respond to that. He was speechless.

After three seconds, the prince breathed in deeply. “No, what does me learning martial arts have anything to do with you…”

Mallos used a proper bow to interrupt him. “Unfortunately, I, Tormond Mallos have just been appointed by His Majesty as your martial arts trainer.”

Thales was stunned.

Mallos raised his head and looked proud.

“So, I need to have you give me all seven mornings and evenings of your time in a week. Let us start from tomorrow! Please come to the training field in the backyard at six o’clock in the morning and five o’clock in the afternoon.

“Follow me and train well.”

The last few words were said joyfully by the watchman.

Thales looked at him numbly and found that he could not even say anything.

And Mallos patted his shoulder before he showed a friendly smile. “Do not be hasty, Your Highness.

“We have a long way ahead of us!”

Thales breathed in deeply and walked forward numbly. He did not bother about the interested looks from the people behind him.

But Mallos called him.

“Your Esteemed Highness, while we may train moderation, weapons are blind.”

His smile was gentle and magnanimous, but in Thales’ eyes, they were totally evil. “If I accidentally hit you, please kindly bear with me.”

Mallos bowed appropriately, smiled gently, turned around, and left.

The left behind the prince while his thoughts were in a mess as he basked in the morning sunlight.

At this moment, Thales felt that his emotions were very complicated.

His mind became gloomy.

After a while, he walked out of the guest room with a pale look and got ready to enjoy his life as a degenerate for the last time.

The prince suddenly realized that while he was in Northland, he only received what was equivalent to nine years of compulsory education in this world.

Thales sighed in sorrow.

‘Now, I’m finally fourteen…

‘I should… go to high school now.’

Thales thought in despair.

Doyle shook his head from the distance when he saw the duke walk over with a numb face.

Unfortunately, this child was right there at the moment Mallos was threatened by a certain fat noble, and he was currently in a bad mood.

But…

Doyle looked at the Thales who was battered out of his senses.

‘Urk, is our second prince, the Duke of Star Lake, defeated already?’

D.D. got an idea and scratched his chin.

‘After all, the specialized female officials in the palace are waiting to give him his lessons on female and male relationships!’