...

Garden, Leonandra Estate

In a garden next to a grand mansion stood a beautifully crafted pavilion, bursting with life. Seated inside was a youthful woman with bunny ears and a premature boy with wolf ears, who, despite his young age, had already reached the woman's height.

They sat and talked for hours, and even though some servants came close to them to listen, they didn't understand anything. The topic was too convoluted, exceeding their given education.

Sometimes, they argued loudly at each other, but most of the time, they drily laughed when discussing. All the while, particular objects magically floated around them. It would be a wondrous sight for everyone else in the region but ordinary at the estate, so much so that nobody batted an eye at that.

However, the unique get-together between those two ended at some point, "Okay, for today, we are done! Good job, Alex, even though you were much less motivated."

Alexander sighed in exhaustion while his tail waggled joyfully, "I can't... I am already at level 98, and the last levels felt like I was chewing on leather."

Anastasia cocked her head slightly, being confused, "Why, though?"

Alexander leaned casually back and closed his eyes, tilting his head upwards, "Oh, I don't know? Maybe, just maybe, you tried to shove how Moorgrel's judiciary was structured into me for the last week."

Learning law was fun for Alexander, to a certain point. At the same time, it was pretty helpful to understand the structure of legal sovereignty and how it worked, from localities as theirs to the highest Moorgrelian court and then, in some cases, depending on the specific crime, the Imperial court.

However, the details of how the law worked, including all the exceptions and how to interpret it, were not crucial for the random thief who sold stolen fish to a random commoner within said fief. Still, if the thief stole something from one noble and sold it to another in a fief that wasn't administered by either of them, it became convoluted.

Yet, more annoying was that many laws changed every hundred-odd years without removing the older ones, making the whole judiciary an incomprehensible mess. As such, many fiefs had literally hundreds of books full of laws, thousands of years old, which contradicted the newer ones.

However, while Alexander found it ludicrous that they didn't do their work as rulers, he agreed that getting rid of older laws wasn't straightforward. The Guard Households and other nobilities inside Moorgrel needed to write to the Moorgrelian highest advisory court and explain what they got rid of and why. If the highest court found it unacceptable, a long and arduous discussion through letters would start.

For example, there was a book on duels at their estate and a description of the five pillars around them. Challenges, acceptance, time, weapon of choice, and outcome were all regulated heavily.

However, duels were forbidden for hundreds of years in Moorgrel since many Knightages legally killed the ones from central Mal-Gil after challenging them inside Moorgrel. Yet duel laws were still on the books because many didn't know how to get rid of them.

Here comes the imperial court in place. They made a deal with Moorgrel and mandated that such a law must be established between all nobles under the empire.

Now, what to do? Easy: Don't duel. In Moorgrel, all nobility tacitly understood that no duel must be held inside their territory. It was an agreement between them, not written down in law. As such, besides laws, he also needed to learn about those agreements since, even though not binding by law, they were by the word of nobility, which was equally important.

In short, laws were an accumulation of tradition, culture, and noble whims put into a library where they would collect dust. Even though Alexander dismissed most of those, they were actually used by wealthy commoners who could go through the system and fight what they assumed was an injustice.

Little to say, most of the time, it was easier to pay a hefty fine to the Ruler and be let off the hook for non-serious crimes even though they were innocent. Yet, most seemingly accepted it.

There were obviously many more practical implications of how their system was structured, like that commoner without any wealth wouldn't be able to fight unjust rulings or how local laws broke the ones that superseded them, but without bringing them in front of those higher courts, they would never be assessed.

Anastasia chuckled, holding a hand before her mouth, "What were you thinking? Law isn't about remembering all the laws but learning and applying the theories, methodology, and structure behind them. Otherwise, it would be impossible to be a lawyer or judge."

Alexander actually didn't know. He really thought that it was mostly remembering stuff and discussing who was right by looking at the wording. He felt like a moron.

He sounded defeated, "I understand, but at least I need only two more levels and a Tier test. Then I am done."

"Oh, no, no, no..." She sounded joyful, evidently mockingly so, "...you need to learn the correct procedure before you can even begin your two years as a judge. There is a right way how it is done here in the East of Moorgrel, and if you don't follow it, your colleagues will criticize you, and the Lady will put you into the lower courts."

He jerked his head to the front, looking at her, annoyed, "Pardon? I thought I was a damn noble? Where is my right to have whims?"

She shook her head and sighed, "Alex, if you wanted to judge over simple things like thievery, you could've done so with level 50, but..." She looked thoughtfully at him, "...you wanted to judge more serious cases where a conviction could punish the guilty party to a hundred or more years of forceful work in the camps, and such procedures need to be followed seriously since someone innocently put to work is nothing else than slavery and the Count's reviewer will judge your decisions..." Her glare intensified, "...did you decide otherwise?"

Alexander waved his hand in dismissal, sighing, "I am fine, and this is just me blowing off steam because I am a little frustrated."

Massive localities like Wolfsteeth were taken seriously by the higher revisionary courts, who reviewed their judgments occasionally, especially when the punishment was sending someone to the work camps in the East for a long time.

If he were to make a similar judgment in the future, he must submit an analysis to the Count's revisionary court. The court would review his analysis to check whether he made a mistake. If any mistake were found, he would be penalized and relegated to the lower courts. However, there were ways to appeal their decision.

Alexander thought at first it was somewhat whimsical in a way how he could decide and be creative. Still, after learning the structures, he regretted that he agreed to Anastasia's proposal to do his Noblesse Oblige inside the higher Wolfsteeth courts.

This whole structure came from the beast-kin's past sentiments when they were enslaved and unjustly slaughtered, so parts of them could be used for alchemical recipes. As such, specific punishments were taken very seriously, at least in Moorgrel. How central Mal-Gil ran their stuff, he had yet to learn.

Anastasia suddenly lifted him from his thoughts and became joyful again, as if a switch had been turned on, clapping, "Hm, I understand, but don't worry. You will take the smaller cases for the first couple of months to familiarize yourself."

"Well..." Alexander sighed, tired from the lesson, "...let's end the talk about the law here. I need a break. The last three hours were Outer Circle for me."

"Fine, so tell me, how are you? I heard that your charity..." She chuckled, "...The Helping Paw bought some buildings and wants to open up schools in every district. Is that true?"

He suddenly smiled at her as amiably as possible, "About that, I wanted to ask you something."

She raised her eyebrow and leaned back, "Oh? Let me guess. You want your disciple to attend my lessons, too? I am fine with it, but she will have a lot to catch up on."

Alexander shook his head, "Please, something entirely different..." He looked into her eyes, almost staring, "...I want you."

She looked baffled at him and then started to laugh, "Haha, I feel flattered, but you are too young for me, Alex. I like my men more like..."

He immediately frowned, interrupting her, "No, I don't mean I wanna have you as your body. I mean, with you as your skills, you horny bunny."

She gasped, obviously overplaying, "I never..." Alexander interrupted her, "...just shut up and listen."

Alexander leaned forward, putting his hands together into a Merkel-Raute, and became more serious, "I want you to teach me part-time, and the other part will be building up a school with a very competent assistant who will do everything you asked her to do."

Anastasia smiled at him cheekily, putting one leg over the other, "Hm, tell me more."

Alexander was surprised. He thought it would be a challenging negotiation and with something along the lines where he would need to pay her an insane amount of money just to move her ass to the table, but she was, for some reason, very interested.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I need you to help me better my concepts, implement them, and teach the teachers how to..." He smirked, "...well, teach in the right way."

She touched her chin slightly with her index finger, thinking aloud, "You want to give me so much responsibility..." He interrupted her, "...I will triple your..." She, though, interrupted him, too, "...gold? Sure, I need a lot."

"Fine, how much? I obviously need your expertise."

Alexander needed her knowledge about creating a school system in this world since it was too vastly different from Earth, while all the fundamental questions remained.

On Earth, one of those philosophical questions about education was, for example, whether to create a system where one would learn fundamental things, like philosophy, mathematics, history, and science, or go full industrialization and try to get as many workers as fast as possible.

It was an elemental question that also applied to this world and whose answer would shape the future of his fief for the next hundred years. He couldn't let his subjects become mindless drones or only concentrate on the fundamental aspects, which would ignore the realities of society after finishing their education. He needed to find the golden mean.

For this, he found Earth's educational system actually okay and wanted to copy-paste it. It would save him time, and if it worked out poorly, he could model it into something in line with his needs, but this would be hard. Everything became much more complex because of skills, attributes, [Divinity Line], and mana skills.

So, how would he implement a public school where one learned about philosophy, science, their specific [Divinity Line], which would represent their practical aspect, magic, and much more, 'It is a fucking shit show.'

He already had some ideas and a highly complex plan written down, taking Earth's educational system as its foundation. This plan involved the first six years of education, starting from the age of four, so he could ignore the [Divinity Line] problem for now.

It was a 200-page document Alexander had created. He wrote down ideas, lesson plans, and more, but since he only lived at the estate and never saw a school from the inside, he had no idea how things were run here and if his plan was even realistic. He couldn't even take the estate's internal education of servants as an example since it was too casual, only with some seniors teaching juniors in their free time.

However, Alexander needed an expert to review it and work with him. He also wanted someone who could work mostly alone, with him sometimes reviewing the work since he had too many other things to work on. Because of that, he must get Anastasia on board while Ariana assists her.

She smiled at him, "Do you only want to build a school?"

Alexander raised an eyebrow, confused at the strange question, "What do you mean? Obviously, not only one."

She shook her head, "I don't mean it like this, dummy..." She straightened up and smiled at him greedily, "...if you can fund my research and build a university, which we can discuss beforehand, I will gladly accept your position as your aide for the education system you envision."

He squinted at her and saw that money had become a problem for the first time. While he had an unimaginable amount of gold coins, like a particular duck who swam in them, he also knew that universities were not cheap. He envisioned those, but only twenty years down the line after educating most younger people.

However, after some thought, he had a realistic compromise, "Not a university, but how about an institute? You will take the most exceptional students from the schools and train them. Then, if the population got much more educated, we will open not only one university."

An institute, even though also expensive, would be much cheaper. On Earth, they were often integrated into universities, but there were also the ones who only worked closely with them but were primarily independent. They mainly did research and conducted experiments while having, in some cases, a minor educational role.

Regardless, with this, she could have a couple of research facilities and some competent workers. He could also support her a little more, depending on the research she wanted to do. This would cost a lot, but if Alexander bugged his Mother enough, she could maybe provide some property tax breaks on education and research facilities, 'The next days will be stressful.'

She nodded almost immediately, "I like the idea, but do you have 10.000 large gold coins? It is not pocket coins, and don't forget all the maintenance costs."

Alexander leaned back and looked at her seriously, crossing his arms, "I have, and we will have a long and thorough talk later about what kind of institute it should be and what research you will be doing..." He sighed, "...don't worry, I will not dictate anything to you, but we need some ground rules, like no experimentation on sapient beings."

She looked at him and laughed loudly, "Haha! Of course! I never even considered something this crazy, but I like your imagination."

Alexander wasn't so sure about that. She often talked about her olden days in the Free Cities, which were apparently filled to the brim with crazy fuckers, and he wanted to avoid something like this at least. Having hundreds of loose Frankenstein's Monsters running around Wolfsteeth wasn't a fantasy of his.

However, before he agreed to give her a truckload of gold, he wanted to know her beliefs. Was she on the same page as him or someone who needed a leash? If he wanted her to manage the education system generally, there were a lot of questions to be answered.

Alexander glared at her, becoming serious, "Are you ready to answer my questions? I have some which may be quite personal."

Anastasia nodded at him, becoming intrigued, "An interview, huh? Didn't have one of those in a very long time, but ask away..." She shrugged, "...if you are ready to finance me an institute and my research, I will obviously make a lot of concessions as long as it does not cross my ethical lines too much."

"Why do you suddenly agree to my deal? I thought you were highly opposed to educating commoners. So you know, my schools will be open for everyone."

Anastasia chuckled, "What lesson was this? A month after we started? Of course, I wouldn't play into the little delusions of a kit when you had no power, but now..." She opened her arms wide, "...you can make your dream come true, and I find it quite fun."

"Fun?"

She smiled at him, "Yes, fun. I choose projects and students because I find them interesting, and you want to create, what I assume, a school for everyone is making me curious."

Alexander didn't like what he heard but also understood her. She was probably bored out of her mind and looked for excitement. He himself would probably only do the charity and education system half-assedly if it was as annoying as the law lessons.

So, an important question emerged, "What if it becomes boring after five to ten years?"

"If you could actually cobble whatever you imagine together in ten years, why would you need my expertise at that point? Don't you need me to help you to start it? Also, as long as my institute stays, I will obviously attend to my administrative duties to the best of my abilities."

Alexander actually agreed with Anastasia. There was no reason for her to put everything into it and have a similar ideological slant, which brought him to his next question, "Are truly you fine with nobles, the higher commoner class and basically the lowest of the low, studying together? I heard from a retainer of mine that she was heavily discriminated against in school, and I will not have my students be subjected to such a treatment."

Anastasia rolled her eyes, sounding annoyed, "Alex, I know of your inclinations. Don't worry. They will be studying together and will be fairly assessed throughout. The last thing I want to do is put talented commoners down for stupid reasons..."

However, she suddenly became much more interested, as if something clicked inside her mind, "...I understand you, and let's ignore the unimportant parts for a moment as you shouldn't care how I view commoners or whatever as long as I do my job..."

She put one leg over the other, "...then tell me, Alex. What do you want to teach in the first place?..." She looked prideful and arrogantly at him like she was holding the world in her hands, "...I can make everything happen, but I need a clear goal. Should it be just two to three years of simple reading, writing, and math? Do you want to create a school for future warriors or mages? Do you want to teach philosophy, languages, and different cultures, or should it be more practical, like woodworking, blacksmithing, and tailoring?"

Alexander smirked at her, "I want all of them..." He let a book with at least 200 pages float out of his ordinary pouch, throwing it on the table in the middle, "...I want to build a school that will even make the ones for nobles look like trash..."

image [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiruschka/kiruschka.github.io/ba6ccfa5f7276f1103d4b31de6a44acc768434af/Chapter_113_to_117/Chapter_113/diagramm_113.svg]

Author's note: This is a rough outline of Alexander's first six-year lesson plan so you can better imagine it :)

He conjured multiple contraptions, showing all the lessons he wanted the students to learn, "I want my future subjects to become educated and strong. I want to... no, I will make this city the new capital for research and education and this..." He pointed at the booklet he made, "...will be the first six years."

Anastasia looked at him much more intensely, "Interesting..."

...

Later that day, Anastasia's room

Anastasia sat on her bed, leaning against the bed end. The magical lamp lit up the whole room, but on her nightstand were some candles as the light was not bright enough for her.

She went through every page, looking at them for, at most, a few seconds and only occasionally stopping when she saw a diagram or some concept she had never heard about before.

After an hour or so, she was done, sighing after laying down her student's proposal for a new school, rubbing her eyes, "What a mess."

It was incredible that her student somehow managed to cobble together a decent plan, but it was over the top. Alexander's school would have various classes, and he planned to pay for everything from start to finish, 'He really didn't joke around when talking about it being free.'

However, Alexander wasn't delusional. He made a basic cost analysis on a per-student basis, and it was possible to do it. A student would cost around two to five small gold coins per year—meals, decent uniforms, maintenance, books, teaching personnel, etc., all included.

However, the plan she saw for what they should learn was pure luxury, even for some lower nobility. Many would kill if they could decide, for example, what kind of fine arts they wanted to study every year, but again, Alexander didn't want to get the best professionals one could like most schools did. He instead focused on individuals who could teach the best, even though their skills in the particular subjects were subpar.

It was a new and exciting concept that she needed to comprehend slowly. Even though her student's analysis was sloppy, it made sense. Someone who would teach a kit how to draw didn't need to be a renowned artist, and even if it was one, it was questionable if said artist could even teach well, 'Being good at something doesn't mean that one is also a good teacher, huh?'

While everything sounded great, though unrefined, she found herself in a weird position, 'Shouldn't have bragged, damn it.'

Anastasia promised him basically to make his wish come true, but she didn't expect him to have something like this ready to go. Yet, for some reason, her smile never ceased when she read and internalized his concept.

After being kicked out of the Free Cities, Anastasia only wanted to live a joyful life. Yet, this little furball made her rethink her life choices. It was fun thinking about how such a school, free for everyone and with explicit rules that forbade discrimination, could develop.

Her smile became broader and more ferocious, as if she planned for revenge, 'If Alex's conviction stays, we could develop a base for knowledge never seen before.'

She knew that commoners could be taught who would then become as intelligent and talented as nobles, but there were many problems with this. One, who would finance it? This question became obsolete with the golden pup. Two, where? It needed to be a giant city with enough talent which they could recruit. Wolfsteeth was perfect for this.

The more she thought about this, the more motivated she became. After a moment, she stood up and went to her desk, trying to improve some things in Alexander's concept, 'Good job, little pup, but we need to change quite a bit.'

She sat for hours, writing notes and comments on her student's proposal. She had long forgotten how working on something that could significantly change the world felt. An ecstasy filled her, which she only felt when working in the Free Cities.

Anastasia thought it was over, and she would just live leisurely, putting her ambitions away, but who knew her student would have an even crazier drive than she? Motivations flared, her mind worked tirelessly, and her smile never ceased.