Aurelian Academy and the Corfu Continent

Aurelian Academy.

Red-brick grounds, corridor-like walkways, graceful and elegant fountains, pure white and noble marble sculptures, and four three-story houses painted milky white.

This was the most renowned academy among the seven kingdoms of the Corfu Continent. Countless nobles from the seven kingdoms, whether wealthy earls, noble dukes, or even supreme kings, would send their second sons to this academy.

It could be said that being able to enter this academy was itself a symbol of high nobility.

For the children of minor and middling nobles to enter this academy, they had to meet strict requirements. They needed to achieve something in horsemanship, swordsmanship, linguistics, history, and philosophy.

The students of this academy were either immensely wealthy and powerful or exceptionally talented.

And at Aurelian Academy, today was the entrance examination for a new season of students.

Quite a few people had already left the academy with regret and immense disappointment.

Either they had failed the examination or failed the identity review and been directly rejected by Aurelian Academy.

Meanwhile, the senior students stood in the academy corridors, watching the dejected expressions of these failures who had failed the academy examination with three parts disdain and seven parts amusement.

A senior student's scion said to the students beside him, "These low-level nobles and commoners actually think they can enter this academy."

"Are they insane? Can they even afford the tuition of over a thousand gold coins every year?"

"They really think Aurelian Academy accepts just any piece of trash."

He had deliberately said this in front of the failures. One by one, the students who had failed the examination showed expressions of inferiority and fear.

They all knew Aurelian Academy's reputation, so not one of them dared to retort.

Locke Augustine, who was also a senior third-year student at Aurelian Academy, frowned.

When Cohen Julian saw Locke frown, he immediately turned around and looked over in displeasure. "Looks like there are some dead rats mixed in among us, too."

"Locke Augustine, you're still at our academy? I heard that the capital of our Frank Empire has already fallen to your Anjou Kingdom, and your Augustine Family's territory has also been lost."

"Can you still afford this year's tuition?"

Cohen Julian and his two grossly fat lackeys wore gleeful expressions.

"Your king died in battle, and your country is gone, too."

Locke had not expected this idiot to suddenly turn his guns on him. He raised his brows.

Cohen Julian and his lackeys were all nobles of the Frank Empire. The Julian Family was an earldom family of the Frank Empire.

As for himself... or rather, the original owner, he was the younger son of an earl of the Anjou Kingdom.

Thus, Julian had always been at odds with the original owner, and they had often clashed in the past.

Now that he had heard the Augustine Family had met with disaster, he naturally seized the chance to mock Locke.

In the past, Locke should have argued with him, then fallen into a disadvantage because his country was in trouble and been ruthlessly ridiculed by Julian.

But Locke had already become a transmigrator. He had no feelings whatsoever for the Anjou Kingdom or the Augustine territory, so he naturally would not be provoked.

Thus, Locke shrugged and looked at Julian and his lackeys. "So what? What does that prove?"

Julian and his lackeys had not seen the expected fury and loss of composure on Locke's face, and they all froze for a moment.

They had suffered a minor setback.

This made Julian's mood gloomy for a while, but he soon looked at Locke maliciously and pointed toward the minor nobles and commoners taking the academy examination. "You'll be just like them soon enough."

"Aurelian Academy's tuition costs over a thousand gold coins for the basic fees alone, and every individual course costs more than a hundred gold coins. If you don't take enough courses or fail to settle your tuition, you'll be expelled."

"Locke, I look forward to the day that you, a stray dog, are driven out of the academy."

"When that happens, don't beg me to take you in while wagging your tail. I've specially saved a job as a guard for you."

"Hahahaha..."

Julian left with his lackeys.

Locke watched him with a baffled expression. He was not emotionally affected at all; instead, he felt that the three people from the Frank Empire were more than a little absurd.

They had inexplicably acted as though making things difficult for him would benefit them somehow. All he could say was that the students of this academy were, to some extent, mentally ill.

That was right. Locke had transmigrated to this world only two weeks ago, yet he had already figured out the true nature of Aurelian Academy.

Put nicely, this academy was a place for the second sons of high nobles and outstanding youths from the seven countries across the continent. But in essence, it was a gilding academy for high nobles.

Every year, the nobles spent exorbitant tuition fees to throw their useless non-heirs into this academy, merely to give them a layer of prestige and find them somewhere to stay, keeping them from causing trouble all day long out of sheer idleness.

Because of this, the academy's curriculum was rather bizarre. On one hand, there was a language course costing a hundred gold coins per semester; on the other, the course requirements were extremely lax.

Accepting outstanding students from among minor nobles and commoners merely added a layer of glory to the academy's credentials.

In truth, most of the students in this academy were mediocre second-generation nobles, so none of the teachers taught particularly seriously.

But in contrast to the lax teaching standards, the tuition and course fees here were truly damn expensive.

Absurdly expensive!

Locke himself—or rather, the original owner—had also once been one of the many mediocre second-generation nobles at this academy.

But Locke took a deep breath. He really was unlucky.

He had originally thought that transmigrating as the younger son of an earl would mean a life of comfort and security. As long as he muddled through his days, he could enjoy life. Who would have thought that his country would be destroyed?

His family had gone bankrupt.

"The family still hasn't sent anyone to contact me." Locke pondered. "But it seems that no one will be paying my tuition this semester. Without tuition, I'll definitely be driven out of the academy."

"Once I leave the academy, it will be dangerous outside."

"The Frank people are arresting Anjou people everywhere."

"Although I'm safe in the academy, leaving will probably bring all sorts of danger."

"With tuition this expensive, I can't possibly earn it through some work-study program."

Locke rubbed his head in frustration while looking at the Synthesis Panel floating in the empty space before him, visible only to himself.

This Horadric Cube was the cheat ability he had brought with him when he transmigrated.

In his previous life, he had been struck by lightning while playing Gods and Magic because he had won too many times. As a result, he had transmigrated here together with the super-artifact from that game.

This Magic Cube could synthesize different materials according to his character level, upgrading low-level materials into high-level ones.

In the game, it had originally been a supreme artifact of Alchemy, herbalism, and Potions. But who could have imagined that he would actually bring it with him?

At this moment, the virtual cube radiated luxurious light. Beside it was a virtual hourglass. Judging by the speed at which the sand fell inside, the three sapphire fragments he had placed into the cube would be successfully synthesized in another hour!

Locke looked at the Synthesis Cube and said, "Let's see what the three sapphire fragments become after they're synthesized. Only then will I know what to do next."

"Besides, according to the original owner's memories, this academy has another peculiar aspect."

Because Aurelian Academy was essentially a gilding ground for second-generation nobles, its graduation and course-completion standards were exceptionally simple, and the teachers barely supervised them.

They let the students do whatever they wanted. But there was one thing in this academy whose standards were extremely high, and no teacher would brush it off: the Outstanding Graduate quota!

This Outstanding Graduate quota seemed to involve some extremely important benefits. Even the children of the great nobles at the academy could not obtain it, no matter how much money they offered or how much power they used to exert pressure.

Moreover, the number of Outstanding Graduate quotas the academy could award each year was basically in the single digits.

It was said that only after being reviewed and approved by specific teachers and the dean could one obtain this quota.

But no one could clearly explain the precise conditions and standards for obtaining it.

However, as a Blue Star transmigrator who had possessed a spoiled young noble, Locke had discovered from an outside perspective that Aurelian Academy might not merely be an academy for gilding second-generation nobles. The academy itself might exist because of these Outstanding Graduate quotas.

He searched his memories with great effort and discovered that, for some unknown reason, no information about Aurelian Academy's Outstanding Graduates ever leaked out each year. Thus, no one knew exactly who had obtained the quotas.