Five days later, Rody arrived at the capital of the Felik Duchy.
The Felik Duchy was a small country. If Rody's homeland, the Kingdom of Mesnotdania, ranked among the top three of all small nations, then the Felik Duchy was at best a mid-to-lower-tier country among many small nations. Its capital had only twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants, with no other castles except for the one where the royal family resided.
Although the territory of the Felik Duchy was much larger than Mesnotdania, it mostly comprised mountains and forests, and thus had a sparse population.
The entire capital's army, including the Royal Guard and the ceremonial troops, numbered just over three thousand. Centuries ago, Felik had been glorious, but a devastating war against the beast clans, involving hundreds of thousands of troops, had severely weakened it. From being a first-rate power on the continent, it had fallen to a small duchy under the protection and alliance of the neighboring country, Great Frey.
Perhaps due to its small size, it was easier to manage. After governance and recovery by several generations of kings, the Felik Duchy was not too impoverished.
Now, the capital of Felik, famous for its tourism and flowers, was also one of the birthplaces of the world's ten most beautiful women. Perhaps for this reason, the Felik Duchy had not been annexed by other countries and had managed to survive.
Protected by the Great Frey Kingdom, the Felik Duchy didn't need to maintain a large army. However, constant raids by goblins, orcs, and pirates on this beautiful peninsula meant its military remained substantial. The drain on national resources each year meant it could not return to its former glory as a powerful nation. Rody realized as he traveled through Felik that its biggest problem was not money or resources, but population.
Its population was only slightly larger than that of Koror and Doha combined, and there were more women than men.
It seemed that the great war centuries ago had sealed Felik's fate.
Apart from the royal castle, the largest buildings were the grand temple and the magic academy. Like the castle, they were built on three small hills, complementing each other and adding beauty to the flower-filled capital.
When Rody arrived to register at the magic academy, he discovered that it had not yet opened for the term.
"Are you here to study alchemy?" The tutor who received Rody was a middle-aged man in a mage's robe, gentle and elegant in appearance, with a true wizard's demeanor.
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"Only fifteen students enrolled in alchemy?" Rody was surprised looking at the registration list. For such a large magic school, although alchemy was not as popular as knight swordsmanship or elemental magic, it was the first choice for most who couldn't cast magic or had low magical power. Why were there only fifteen students?
"Rody? Is your name Rody? Student Rody, it seems you are mistaken. It's not that there are only fifteen students in your specialty. These are all the new students. This year, the total number of students enrolled is just fifteen," the middle-aged man said with a shake of his head and a smile.
"How many people are in the academy altogether?" Rody was taken aback and looked around the large and beautiful magic academy, realizing it was almost empty.
"All students, including about a dozen tutors, twenty-something servants, plus you fifteen new students, total one hundred ninety-eight people. Just two short to two hundred," the middle-aged man said, extending his hand to Rody with a smile. "Student Rody, welcome to Felik Magic Academy. You can call me Professor Buke. I'm in charge of wind element studies and occasionally teach alchemy, herbology, drawing, calculations, arbitrate competitions, and oversee field trials. Basically, you might see me lecturing in almost any specialty."
"You do so much? How much does the dean pay you?" Rody shook his hand, finding the tutor quite approachable.
"Not much, just five silver coins a month," the middle-aged man said with a smile.
"If I were you, I would strongly protest against the exploitative dean for overworking employees," Rody said while quickly filling out a form.
"I wouldn't do that," the middle-aged man laughed heartily, and when Rody looked up in confusion, he said slowly, "Because I am the dean."
"What?" Rody looked at him in surprise, having always imagined the dean of a magic academy as an old man with white hair and beard, wearing a mage's tall hat, with ridiculous glasses on his nose, leaning on a magic staff, looking old and frail, yet an undying figure who had lived for hundreds of years... This affable reception tutor
was the dean?
"So, I don't set a high salary for myself," the middle-aged man said, raising a finger to his lips with a smile. "I usually just use my position for a bit of corruption."
"You, you're the vice dean, right?" Rody had heard tales that in magic academies, there was always an elusive, doddering old man, perhaps a drunkard or a lecher who liked stealing girls' underwear, the real dean with the prestige of a king, who roamed the school and secretly took talented students as apprentices, even marrying them to his beautiful granddaughters... And in magic academies, there was usually a vice dean who always made life difficult for talented students. Of course, the vice dean was very evil, a bad egg to be wary of.
"Student Rody, do you think it's necessary to have a vice dean among a dozen or so tutors? Besides, three of the tutors are court wizards, two are honorary professors, five are retired, and one was even called to heaven last month," the middle-aged man explained, making Rody realize why he had to teach so many classes - the magic academy was practically empty.
"Dean, is the academy's high tuition fee the reason for so few students?" Rody looked at the registration fee of one gold coin and immediately felt concerned.
"Actually, it's just symbolic. We only charge once, and our scholarship aid is comparable to the world's four most prestigious academies," the middle-aged man laughed. "Student Rody, how about we make a bet? If you win, not only will your tuition fee be waived, but the academy will also grant you at least five gold coins per year as a scholarship."
"Gambling is wrong," Rody advised earnestly. "As the dean, you should set a good example!"
"..." The middle-aged man nearly fell over upon hearing this.
"I won't pay the registration fee for now. Deduct it from my future scholarship!" Rody said seriously. "If there are no beautiful female tutors or students in the academy, I strongly suggest waiving the registration fee and increasing the scholarship tenfold, otherwise a loss of popularity is inevitable."
"What if there are beautiful female tutors and students?" the middle-aged man asked, laughing.
"Then, starting with the next batch of new students, increase the registration fee tenfold," Rody's eyes shone with excitement, but he didn't forget to waive his own tuition fee first.