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In the First Royal Academy of Archester, there were a ton of subjects that were being taught to the elite students. Each student needed to at least register in 4 subjects and to take exams and graduate in them.
Some of these subjects were essential to at least pick one from which are Warfare & Strategies, Magic and Sorcories, Alchemy & Medicine, and Diplomatic Affairs.
Vivian was taking the Diplomacy major along with the History & Geography of Elgard, Economy & Trade, Modern Literature & Linguistics, and she also picked an easy additional fifth subject to compensate for any loss in grades that is called Astronomy & Navigation.
The Diplomacy subject was all about learning basic domestic management and a long introduction to the system of legislation in Elgard as well as Common and Civil Laws.
Vivian started studying this subject first since it was the most important thing to her. Any loss in grades in this subject will affect her overall score and make her look bad. Something that she tried so badly to avoid.
Lucky for her, she transmigrated with the memories of both the previous Vivian and Nadia. Vivian was very smart and diligent in her studies so going through the three books of the Diplomacy major alone took her one day each. At the end of the third day, she was well aware of the inner systems of Elgard and most of the popular laws and important governing acts and theories.
On top of that, the previous Vivian was the type of student who takes a lot of notes, meaning that she left a lot of writing directly in her textbook. While they looked like a mess, they were invaluable to memorize this whole thing with ease.
Still, the current Vivian has found some government acts and laws to be extremely bizarre and hilariously oppressive. Some of the bizarre laws are how illegal it is to shake your dusty rug mat before 8 am, how it is illegal to do any sort of diplomatic work while wearing a suit of armor, how it is prohibited to stay in a graveyard after a funeral, carrying planks of wood along a pavement without the obvious intent of loading them on or off a wagon to an enclosed work area, gambling in libraries, and obviously placing a postage stamp bearing the king's images head upside down, along with other weird things that were probably made into laws for singular cases or to vex someone in someway.
While the bizarre side of the law was somewhat funny, the oppressive side of the law was concerning to a large degree. This was not a National Elgardish Law but one that was legislated by the League of Nations and it is the Criminal Labor Act.
A Criminal Laborer is someone who has committed a crime in Albion or any of its respective nations' colonies across the four continents. Once the criminal is caught and tried for their crimes, they are to be enrolled in a physical labor camp rather than being cramped up in prison.
It is all fine and dandy since this was a popular punishment with all historical factors considered, and even in modern times as the "Penal Labour" punishment, however, the true face of evil was merely rearing its ugly head.
This Criminal Labor Act was enforced in the colonies of the Albionese nations, which were ruled by Martial Laws. Any minor offense in these parts be it from petty thievery to outright revolting was given one of two punishments, Life Imprisonment or Death. The latter was actually mercy compared to the former.
Life Imprisonment under the Criminal Labor Act is just a fancy redressing of plain old Slavery.
And if this was put in laws to make it look just, then one can't be more mistaken. First of all, the Laws prohibit any form of Human Criminal Labor. Humans were the natives in all three Continents but they were a minority in the Southern Sauran and the Eastern Longdi while being a majority in the Northern Albion.
With the exclusion of the Humans, a few edits to the law were made later to exclude the Draconian race of Longdi since it was considered an ally of the Human Race.
This leaves out the Kobolds of Longdi, who are an absolute majority, and some races that look like small humanoid cats and foxes called the Maopis. It also leaves out the Bronze Hulklings of Sauran like Esmeralda, who are very adept at physical labor but very bad at doing anything else including fighting in organized armies, add to them the green demons known as the Toskans and their Impish Toskan relatives. As for the Avalai, Avalon's natives, none of them survived being shipped out of Avalon but the law still applies to them in the colonies of Avalon.
This leaves the last race which heavily suffered from this Criminal Labor Act and experienced it before all and it is the Duergar, a dwarvish humanoid race with gray skin, terrible eyesight, and horns growing on top of their heads. What is unique about this race is that they are natives of all continents with varying appearances and names but just like the humans, they are focused in Albion. However, this common trait with the humans didn't grant them any mercy, especially in the Novark Tsardom that shows them all colors of oppression.
And to make things worse, this was a Criminal Brand that was marked on the skin by hot iron the same as a slave brand. This was why it was normal that the public would just call them Slaves anyway.
Normal Citizens can rent —and in rare cases purchase— Criminal Laborers from the Nation depending on the Laborer's serving time and ability. While it is a crime to kill a Criminal Laborer, the punishment isn't anything big and if proven that the Laborer was trying to revolt, there is no punishment at all.
At least this was the situation within the civil areas of Albion. In other continents, things were loosely managed properly and many innocents were enrolled within the system without even committing a crime. They were then shipped all across the colonies where they eventually met their fate in mining pits and plantations.
That last part wasn't taught directly in the textbook but rumors of it were recalled by Vivian once she read about it.
It was a sad truth about the world and Vivian reminded herself again that the inside of her isn't as native to this place as it once was. Those odd feelings of anger towards slavery and colonization may have not existed in the previous Vivian but there was at least a healthy amount of disgust.
Putting the world she is yet to change aside, Vivian started moving towards other subjects on the fourth day.
The subject titled "The History and Geography of Elgard" was deeply rooted within her brain as the previous Vivian was a diehard patriot.
Elgard is a huge island nation linked with an archipelago of small islands in the Northern Sea. Its landmass isn't that big or diverse but the country itself is very fertile and houses a large population with 70% of them working in either farming or fishing or both at the same time.
Yet with the weather being inhospitable in the northern part of Elgard, some seasons yield bad harvests thus the nation was focusing on military expansion and colonial imports to shift its economy to be more industrial.
As for its History, Elgard was always a big player in Albion as it was home to an ancient kingdom called Logres from which the great Saint Arthur was born, the Guardian Saint of Albion.
Elgard was founded after the destruction of Logres during the Era of Chaos when the Seven Saints fought against a mythological devil figure called Blackthorn and its army of metal-like people. According to both history and mythology, the Duergar race was the one responsible for releasing this evil on Albion since their greed for metals led them to mine the Earth deep enough to the darkest pits of hell itself.
It was intriguing how History and Mythology complemented each other with the battles of Good and Evil in the figure of the Heroic Saints and the Devil and his army.
If Vivian's study of relics and mythology from her past life as Nadia taught her anything, it would be how to interpret these parts of mythology into a pattern of conflict and diplomacy.
A war happened long ago and the invaders were allied with the Duergar who lived underground. The invaders used the tunnels of the Duergar to attack Albion and the Ancient Kings stood up for them. After their victory, the Kings became Heroes and the Heroes became Saints who are now revered as God's Chosen.
The figure of an actual God wasn't that absent in the mythology as one could see his mention mostly ambiguous, only referred to as "God" who grants occasional boons and raises the heroes to the ranks of Saints.
Definitely Suspicious! Vivian thought.
Aside from the whole debate about God's role in the world, people always tend to search for traces of divinity in their environment. Heroes who leave a mark in History tend to be exaggerated with time and distance. This allows those with a suspicious agenda to raise the names of those heroes to create a cause and appoint themselves as its leader. Over time, this cause turns into teachings and those teachings become faith, hence The Faith of the Seven Saints.
Whatever origin this Seven Saints Faith originated from, it has long since perished leaving behind the desires of a man wishing to be God's proxy, hence a god himself.
Saint veneration in this way is no different from paganism. It seemed that many religious wars had erupted in Albion as well until the Saints were all but Seven. Even a small country was formed around that definitive form of the faith called The City of Saint Athena attributed to the greatest saint that ever lived.
The current saints in order are Athena the Wise, Arthur the Guardian, Joan the Keeper, Heimdall the Warden, Florence the Healer, Hermes the Wanderer, and finally Amadeus the Bard.
While Vivian wasn't taking Religion as a subject in her final year, she had to know that much for the sake of History.
The remaining subjects were Linguistics & Literature, Economy & Trade, and finally Astronomy & Navigation for the sake of gaining extra points and compensating for any loss in the final grades.
Vivian's torturous studying lasted until there were only four days left for the Final Exams.
The Spring was pushing away the Winter and the city was starting to get more vibrant. In one week, the gloom of Archester will turn into sunshine as the fairest season of the year approaches.
In four days, the exams will start and keep going for four more days.
The First day will be the major subjects. Warfare & Strategy, Arcane Arts, Medical Alchemy, and Diplomatic Affairs. Vivian is associated with the last major.
The Second day will be the anthropology subjects. Elgard's History & Geography, Linguistics & Literature, Religion: the Dawn of the Saints, and finally the Economy & Trade. Vivian is associated with the History, Economy, and Literature subjects so it is a busy day for her.
The Third day will be the natural science subjects. Nature & Environment, Advanced Mathematics, Engineering & Technology, and finally Astronomy & Navigation. Vivian is only associated with the last subject so it is a light day.
The Fourth day is the day of the Grades Reveal, the Spring Festival Day. The day when the Prince and the Heroine display their affection to the public and start taking measures to make it official.
However, this fourth day is the one where the big celebration kicks off with the Three Major Performances that revolve around Elgard's Power, Might, and Civilization. In order, these are the Martial Arts performance, the Magic performance, and the Music performance. Only the best of the best will perform in front of the Noble Houses and Foreign Ambassadors. Thankfully, Vivian has nothing to do with that last day.
While the days of studying were relatively quiet, it was unknown to her what scheme she was slowly walking into this time around.
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Please show some Love ❤️, Comment 💬, and Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
You can also read the early chapters on P🅰️treon & Join Discord! 🔗 https://linktr.ee/donovel