Out in the hallway, Gawain was walking with the other two commoners from his class.
"Ask your questions."
He could see that they wanted to bring up something. Something was holding them back, though.
After giving each other a look, they turned back towards him. The brown-haired boy asked,
"Your stance on nobles. Are you with them or us?"
"Gosse and Hann, right? Did you learn anything? "
He just knocked out someone to make that point.
"So you are with us."
"Wrong."
They both stopped walking.
"We need a clear answer. With us, or without us?"
"Do you understand the meaning of a tool?"
He stopped in his place and turned around.
They both didn't respond.
"A tool is something that you use to make your life easier while you do a task."
"We aren't interested in the definition. Give us an answer."
"With your intelligence, your peak is to become a tool for your hatred."
Provocation
"My experiences are different than yours. My life is different than yours. To be honest, I trust that idiot Noble more than you two. He hated commoners, but his hate was based on his ego. You both hate nobles for some underlying reason, which makes it difficult to trust your actions."
He was here to become a knight. Not to involve himself in petty politics between factions that would probably fight until one of them ceased to exist, and then fight amongst each other for more validation and credit. A never-ending cycle.
"In this academy, I know no one. My first choice for camaraderie wouldn't be two people that are predisposed to some ulterior motive."
"You stood up to that Noble though. I'd say that you are pretty prone to humiliation."
"Please. What you just said was more of a humiliation than whatever he could say. I wasn't going to spend a year next to a guy that was going to chew my ears out with his prejudice. If I remained silent, all of you would think of me as a weakling that can't stand up for himself, leading to a pile-up of more bullies that want to assert their power."
"Very smart. And why did you explain all of this to us? Surely, you must know that we will rat you out without any hesitation."
"Once again, your education fails you. Article 15, Section 3. Any attempt to present a false accusation will be punishable by expulsion or a higher punishment. Because of your abhorrence towards nobles, you became accomplices to the crime. Just to add some sugar to this situation, everyone saw that you left as soon as I gave you the signal."
The implication of this was,
"They think that we are a group now. And you wouldn't talk to the nobles even if someone kept a sword around your neck. So if you rat me out, no one will stand up for you either. Remember that? You speak, and we all get expelled."
He turned back around. He had to get to the infirmary before sunset.
Because of his words, both of them appeared depressed.
'Your hatred found satisfaction in using your mind. I just gave it some direction to use it to my advantage.'
He had been studying religion for years on end. At first, he too wanted to become a saint like his brother. But unlike his brother, he could see something else in the value of those religious texts.
You give people some hope. In return, they give you their conscience.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Day 54, year 3000.
The Eleyphis Academy is the primary place to train knight recruits for the kingdom. Today, the newcomers were about to take their introductory theory classes.
There were 12 new batches of students from 12 subsidiary regions of the kingdom of Euphemia. A maximum of 12 commoners were allowed from each region, and all of them were picked after a proper examination. There was also a quota for nobles, but they were exempt from examinations. The seats were placed in an auction, where the big families bid to secure their heirs a place in the academy.
Gawain was seated at the front desk, waiting for the first lecturer to arrive. Due to his previous stint, no one else was willing to sit next to him, including Andria.
The first lecture was on history. He had his subject textbook and a notebook neatly placed in front of him, along with an ink pen and an ink bottle.
After a few minutes of waiting, the lecturer walked in. A black-haired man with a thin physique. He was dressed as a red knight and wore square-rimmed glasses, along with that he held a history textbook in his hand.
Everyone stood up to greet him.
"Good morning, everyone."
"Good morning, sir."
"Please, sit down."
His tone was soft, but his voice was audible to everyone. He placed the book on his table and said,
"Let's get the introductions out of the way first. My name is Lars Solargo, and I am a red knight, as you can see. I will be responsible for your history lessons."
He used his index finger to push his glasses upwards.
"You are all from the Noveil region, right?"
The first subsidiary of the kingdom was the closest and largest region to the capital.
"Yes Sir!"
Lars scanned through the group in front of him.
"The region with the lowest turnout of commoners. Can any of you tell me why?"
No noble would want to answer that. Gosse raised his hand.
"Yes?"
The black-haired boy got up.
"Discrimination?"
"Incorrect. Sit down. Anyone else?"
Gawain raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"In comparison to the other regions, Noveil has the largest noble population outside of the capital. Due to an agreement signed between the senate of Euphemia and the 22nd Governor of Noveil, the region is allowed to test additional nobles in the same ways as the commoners and choose a candidate according to their merit."
"Isn't that discrimination in itself?"
His answer was correct, but to test commoners and nobles on equal ground when the latter has a dedicated quota is still not fair.
"The original plan was to permanently allocate 90 percent of the seats to the Nobles. The Governor's plans were met with widespread criticism, along with two assassination attempts that were very close to being successful. Fearing the worst, the council came up with a better plan that would pick the lesser of two evils, and allow some of the nobles to compete with the commoners for seats."
"What is your name?"
"Gawain."
Lars recognized his name.
"The new Perseus house student?"
"Yes sir."
'A good seed.'
"What do you think are the aftereffects of this policy?"
"This year, over 3000 commoners and 23 nobles attempted this exam. In comparison to the nobles, only three commoners were able to pass through. Most nobles would never want to get into a government academy through the commoner process, especially since there are other Knight academies in different regions that are biased towards them."
If it were not for the power and position of the nobles, this system would have been implemented with more revisions in other regions.
"Thank you. You can sit now."
He nodded and sat back down.
"As we know, a hierarchy exists. History is all about the details and events that shape what the future might turn out to be. If the council had not made a decision, there was a greater chance that the governor would be killed. This would give the Nobles a proper reason to exploit the situation and oppress common folk for their gain, adding more weight to their side of the balancing scale."
He opened up the book on the table and said,
"3000 years of history. Countless events like these, and major wars that have involved kingdoms that don't even exist anymore."
The history of Euphemia was filled with highs and lows.
"Politics, War, Inventions, Revolutions, and the overall evolution through various periods. History will be important for aspiring knights, such as yourself. "
Everyone was paying attention. Lars was satisfied.
"Let's begin the first lesson. History of Euphemia."