Chapter 51
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"Oh, before your departure, This is a letter for Sinctail Academy. Please attend the academy next week." Edelweiss replied. "Regarding your tuition and allowances, I have asked the government to give you some lenience. You may visit them on your way out.
"Another debt?" Lily gave a harsh glare to her.
"It can't be helped that you need to know many things, and it is not free. The academy was infamous as the place where all of your money is wasted." Edelweiss turned her head. "Nobody would foot the bill. Even I could not spend money so freely. I hope you understand."
"I see." Lily sighed while she left the building.
"Do I need to attend that school?" Lily moaned in disappointment.
"It was mandatory for all elves. Especially Lords. All elves have graduated from the academy. There is no precedent whatsoever that a lord hasn't graduated from the academy." Lhorne talked as we went back to our inn.
"But…"
"Tailfolks are an exception. Due to many influxes of refugees and the tuition price, we tolerate them being uneducated. But being a lord without a diploma from school is unacceptable."
"What? You don't want to attend school?♪" Nora asked while hugging her from behind.
" Do you want to attend?" Lily returned her question back at her
"Of course not!" Nora giggled. "Schools were extremely unpopular back in the human country. Edelweiss also stated that school costs a lot of money. I won't go even if you pay me."
"Well, though I admit you might not be interested in the idea, is school really that horrifying?" Lhorne asked.
"Yes! Mattheus said nobles kicked the commoners around, and even nobles were kicked around by higher-ranking nobles. It is a total slave system!"
"Wait! Are we even using the same language? Schools are places for learning, aren't they? Why do you sound like it was a place for kicking others?"
"I only speak what I heard from Lhorne. I have never attended schools before!" Nora crossed her arms and puffed her chest proudly.
"Not attending schools is not something to be proud about, you know…." Lhorne sighed.
"What are we going to do now? Return to Edenthal?" Lily asked after we arrived at our inn.
"Not yet. We still need to go to the government loan office, right?" Nora answered.
"Oh yeah. What should we say to them anyway?"
"I will handle the speaking. Just like before."
We then walked toward the Offical Government branches for credit loans and banks. This building has a mouthful name. Everyone called it the government loan building. Like banks on earth, this building had the most luxurious decorations on par with the Lord's castle. Just as we entered the bank, we were greeted with a gold statue and several expensive-looking paintings with golden borders.
"Lord Lily, I assume?" The tailfolk receptionist called for us as soon as we entered the building. This country's population is primarily tailfolk though the ruling class is elves. Is this country alright?
"Yes."
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"I have received a directive from central. You are eligible for another 10 million gold loans at maximum. Would you like to borrow money, or would you like to discuss your repayment plan? We could go as low as ten percent of your and your region's total income. Though we would advise going higher as to preserve your honor." The receptionist spoke fluently. He must have been trained very hard to do this. His tail betrayed his solemn and calm demeanor as it swished and swung around in excitement.
"Ah, no. I do not want to take on another debt. I want to ask about that repayment plan. I will take that lowest ten percent amount."
"Very well. Please sign here. And please note that you have further taken another million gold for your tuition into sinctail academy."
1 MILLION GOLD?!!?!?
We could only stare at the receptionist wide-eyed. I looked at Lhorne, but even he was shocked at the amount we needed to pay for tuition.
"Wait! That is too much, right? Isn't the standard tuition only around two hundred thousand?"
"Certainly. However, Sinctail required some kind of guarantee that you still have the resources to continue to learn. Especially since you are applying for Lord's curricula."
"I see."
"The usual five-year plan would be around 300 thousand gold. But just in case Lord Lily needed more time to learn, Sinctail academy reserved this one million gold coin of debt."
"If I graduate quickly, we would pay less, right?" Lily asked. Her eye blazed with passion.
"Certainly! If you do well on that academy, it could go as low as 100 thousand." The tailfolk smiled.
"I see."
"If that's all. Then our business is done. Thank you, lord Lily. May the sun bless you as you travel." He replied.
"Alright then, Let us return to Edenthal! We still needed to pick some staff members for your country." Lily shouted. While her face smiled and her hands pumped in excitement, the slight tremble on her hand signified her fear and anxiety. It must be maddening to know that you had an enormous debt on your shoulder.
With nothing else to do, We rode back to Edenthal Region, and the following day, Lily met the two elves we had saved. Anny and Lisey. The two elves still wore a downcasted and depressed expression as they laid down their belonging.
"My name is Anny, and here I am to repay y debt to you."
"My name is Lisey. I am also here to repay my debt to you."
"Thank you for coming to my… no… our village! Please work in the city hall. Most tailfolk has been slaves their entire life and thus can't do administrative work. For your rooms, we have some empty rooms here." Lily smiled to welcome them. They nodded, and without any reaction, they chose their own rooms and put their belongings there.
The city hall was a sizeable three-story building of over 500 square meters. This building was enough to house several administrative people. In fact, the second floor was dedicated to bedrooms.
"Let's sleep here, should we mover everyone from the new frontier here?" Lily asked Lhorne.
"Hm… there are over thirty tailfolk there. Even though this building was large, I think it would be too cramped."
"But there is the third floor."
"Third floor is for office and meeting room while the first floor is for administration. We can't bring everyone to sleep on the floor, and there is work to do."
"What's our job anyway."
"Hm… apparently, the first floor is mostly for tax and business permits. While the third floor is for census, security, Maps, orders, or requests between cities. That is basically your job, Lily." Lhorne answered.
Honestly, I was amazed that they could handle all the third-floor jobs with only five elves before. Even back on earth, with all the fancy tech, we would need about ten people there. Census and requests between cities are a big deal. Though if the levels were about as big as this village, we would not even need an office this big. How many people were in this village anyway?
"Jack, any advice?" Lily asked the only experienced people in this room.
"Well, yes. First, we need to establish some workers. We would need about 5 to seven more administrative jobs. Mattheus could handle the military department. We could hire anyone to man the first floor as long as they could read and write. This should establish the basic minimum."
"Alright!"
"Hold on! While I am fine with it, Taking humans as government official is bad for your reputation."
"Well, Mattheus will only be an advisor. The real person in charge is you, Lhorne, and put Nora in there too. Security is important, after all!" Lily answered gleefully. Nobody complained about her decision, so we moved on to the administrative section. Like before, Lily elected Jack together with Anny and Lisey, but they vehemently refused.
"I shall look into some other Tailfolk then. I wonder if the slave merchant we have visited before could introduce us to some other tailfolk that could do administrative work?"
"Hm… Good idea!"
"Okay, security and administrative done! what next?" Lily shouted. Her despair and crying were long gone as she braved the new day.
"I think that's it for the bare minimum. The rest are just menial workers, such as cleaning and guards. We could hire anyone for this kind of job." Lhorne replied.
We ended the day after cleaning the tables and opening the town hall. Many citizens were questioning our abrupt and sudden holiday, but they just brushed it off as a transition of power to Lily's administration.