33 - Chapter 31

The girls spent the rest of lunch break making small talk and getting to know each other. Sa Bina even invited Jia Yun to visit in a few days. Soon it was time for the third lesson of the day and Sa Bina followed Jia Yun to their advanced management class.

Sa Bina was still thinking about the impact of the increasing beast attacks and what impact it would have on this kingdom in particular and all the kingdoms as a whole. She wondered if with enough escalation it would lead entire kingdoms to fall and be wiped out. It was a definite possibility. She needed a lot more information about this topic and hoped her upcoming history classes would provide her with enough details to allow her to start to extrapolate what was coming, but somehow she doubted that it would. Still she was very young and the leaders of this and all the other kingdoms had to have been working on finding out the root cause and addressing it right? Hopefully the problem would be addressed in some shape or form before she was old enough to have to shoulder the burden.

They made it to their advanced management class with a little time to spare. Jia Yun took the opportunity to introduce Sa Bina to their professor for the class Cao Ju.

“So you have been directly sent to the advanced class?” asked Professor Cao Ju. “Is this for all your classes or only some of them?”

“I have tested out of both economics and mathematics, Professor.” replied Sa Bina. “I have been asked to act as a teaching assistant in those classes. Apart from those two and this class, I am starting from the beginning in all the other subjects.”

“Interesting.” replied Cao Ju. “So a complete split. Either good enough to pass the exam or not having even started. I am guessing you were allowed to spend all your time on your favourite subjects to the detriment of the rest. I do hope you will put in the effort and catch up. You will not be able to graduate if your results remain so lopsided.”

“Something like that professor.” replied Sa Bina. She was behaving herself as Cao Ju was only doing what any good teacher would do when faced with an academic record like hers. Even though Cao Ju was mistaken as to the reason for the issue, she was still showing concern for her new student, and not trying to make a spectacle of it. “I will do my best to catch up as quickly as possible.”

“See that you do.” replied Cao Ju. “Now, do take a seat. We will begin shortly.”

With that Sa Bina and Jia Yun took their seats and chatted while waiting for the class to begin. The class began with a review and quickly progressed to more advanced topics. Sa Bina spent time comparing what she was being taught as the standard in this world, and could not help but contrast it to what was the standard back on earth.

Management theory and practices using medieval approaches were rooted in feudal and hierarchical structures. Feudal systems dominated, with strict hierarchies and rigid class divisions. Authority was centralized; lords or monarchs had absolute control, and vassals or serfs worked under them without autonomy. Management was largely hereditary and tied to land ownership or titles.

Decisions were made unilaterally by the ruling elite or clergy, with little input from lower levels of society. Communication was slow, and information flow was limited, leading to delayed or poorly informed decisions.

Goals revolved around maintaining power, protecting territories, and ensuring loyalty through vassalage. Productivity was focused on agriculture and resource extraction for survival and wealth accumulation. Motivation was often driven by fear, obligation, or religious duty. Division of labor was simplistic, often based on subsistence needs. Specialisation was limited, and roles were often inherited rather than chosen based on skill or interest. Efficiency was not a primary concern; survival and maintaining control were more important. Innovation was slow, and resistance to change was common due to traditional mindsets.

Governance was autocratic, with minimal accountability to the populace or workforce. Corruption and misuse of power were common due to a lack of checks and balances. Management roles required no formal training; skills were learned through tradition or apprenticeship. In summary, management was rigid, hierarchical, and survival-focused. The more flexible, participative, and innovation-driven approaches of modern times were considered strange.

It gave Sa Bina a good understanding of the challenges she would face if she wanted to work using more modern methodologies, as well as ways in which her views could expose her lack of knowledge about this world. It was the first lesson where she felt like a student again. Although she did not like the way things were managed, she could not deny that learning about the standards adopted here would help her in her own endeavours. Of course most of these generalisations were for the mortal world and cultivator society functioned very differently. This last point was reiterated several times by the professor. Sa Bina would reserve judgement for when she was in a position to assess the structure for herself.

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At the end of the class, Sa Bina was directed to her basic geography classroom, as Jia Yun went off to her own class. Sa Bina followed the directions and made it to her last class on time. She was beginning to realise why the extra time had been allocated, without it she would be struggling to make it to the start of classes.

As there was no one to introduce her, she introduced herself to the professor. Thankfully her schedule provided her with the names for all teachers.

“Greetings Professor Chen Jie,” said Sa Bina. “I am Lady Sa Bina. I am joining your class starting today.”

“Welcome to the class.” replied Chen Jie, “Take a seat. We will start shortly.”

Sa Bina took a seat at the back of the class. She nodded to a few people, whose faces she remembered from lunch. The students in this class were all around 13, and did not share any of the other classes with her. She supposed that made sense with it being a basic class.

The professor started the lecture right on time. The lecture was delivered in a monotone. Sa Bina guessed not all lecturers had the ability to hold the class’s attention. She did notice several of the student’s eyes glazing over. Sa Bina, however, was not one of them. She forced herself to pay attention. She needed to learn to better manage her cover.

Each kingdom in this world was massive. With each covering an area the size of China. The main map that was shown to the students showcased a part of a massive supercontinent. The map depicted several kingdoms bordering the one she was in, with a range of different biomes and microclimates.

The kingdoms had specialised and restricted themselves to one or two biomes to better prepare for the beast waves. Each area was favoured by a different variety of beasts, each group with their own strengths and weaknesses. If any one kingdom tried to prepare for and take on multiple desperate groups, they tended not to survive long. It was effectively self sufficiency and specialisation on a kingdom scale. Due to the distance between kingdoms, travel was almost unheard of. That meant trade was limited to inside a kingdom, and still that was difficult with most goods produced and consumed locally. The cost of travel even within kingdom borders made the cost of goods rise substantially, and therefore only affordable by the nobles and the wealthy merchant class.

It also gave Sa Bina a better understanding into how the existing guilds had managed to monopolise trade so effectively. They provided the transport services for the raw materials making it easy to inflate the costs.

There did not seem to be a global map available. Even the view of the continent was only detailed in the immediate area of the kingdom, with details becoming more and more vague the further out from their location the map went. If this was the extent of the knowledge that was available, it would raise more questions than she would want to answer about her origins. It also explained why the cost of sending couriers to all the kingdoms to find her family was so ludicrously expensive. It also meant that the sect elders had to doubt her story, and yet they had let her go off on her own without obvious supervision. She would need to be more wary in light of this knowledge.

It also meant that the changes she had pushed for, with her kingdom backed guild, would leave her wide open to challenge. Not legally, but since she could not return anywhere, she was effectively stuck here and so would be forced to deal with any harassment that ensued. She would need to keep her head down going forward. Until she could cultivate and gain personal power she would be extremely limited in her options.

That also made her reassess her management paradigms. On earth, there were powerful people who controlled a lot of wealth. They could do what they wanted, but still their time was limited. She was one of the oldest to survive in terms of age. The time anyone could spend ruling was limited by life spans to several decades at the outside. The power that could be wielded by such individuals was more political. Even military power was political in nature as it required consent of others to be brought to bear.

In this world, the one that she had not learned a name for yet, those paradigms would only apply on a very local scale. The cultivators at the higher end of the power scale would be akin to armies by themselves. That alongside the extended lifespans would lead to the situation of 1000 year kings who would have the ability to crush armies by themselves. Sa Bina had never experienced such a world, and would need to learn how to adapt to its idiosyncrasies.

Her first day of schooling finally came to an end. She had certainly learned a lot and had even more things that she would need to spend time thinking over if she was not land herself in serious trouble.

Sa Bina made her way to the front, where she found Lou Sie and her guards waiting for her with her carriage.

“How was your first day, my lady. “ asked Lou Sie as she opened the carriage door for her.

“Informative, and a little fun.” replied Sa Bina. “Though I am glad we are done for the day. Now let us go shopping. We also need to stop by the bank.”

Lou Sie instructed the driver to head for the bank first, and the carriage moved off. Sa Bina was too lost in her thoughts to notice that she had been the center of attention for a lot of her fellow students.

“So did you let everyone know to meet me for dinner,” asked Sa Bina. “It would be good to get an update on any progress made today, not that I expect there to be much in just one day.”

“Yes, my lady.” replied Lou Sie. “Also the cook was asking what you wanted her to do with the sample you had her make.”

“I had almost forgotten about that.” replied Sa Bina. “Let me make plans for tomorrow. Today we need to ensure that I am not left in the same position tomorrow morning.”

Yes, today she would go shopping to ensure she could be properly made up for tomorrow. Tomorrow, she would try and see if she could make some good sourdough bread.