Joining the Guidance School

Fan Ning pushed the report filed with the Special Inspection Office regarding his admission to the very bottom.

Then he cheerfully flipped through the contract terms.

The starting weekly salary for an official member of the Guidance School was eight pounds, the same as that of a clerical worker.

It seemed close to the starting weekly salary of a teaching assistant at Saint Leniya University...

But official members—in other words, Knowers—only had to stand guard for a minimum of seven days each month. According to Dupont, because he practically treated this place as home and shared everyone's guard shifts, the other members had yet to follow this standard to the letter.

Their hourly wages were in a league of their own.

Clerical workers had ten days off each month, while they had to sit on duty day and night for the remaining twenty: logistical support, receiving visitors, human resources and accounting, information collation and analysis, and all sorts of miscellaneous administrative work—though in fact, the cost-effectiveness of this job was already extremely high.

Knower members, aside from standing guard, only needed to follow command dispatches when suspicious mystical incidents arose and handle commissions from visitors. The outer shell of the Guidance School—the Woodpecker Inquiry Office—could also take on jobs, and those wealthy patrons paid quite generously.

Fieldwork meant... flexible hours...

The only soft rule was that, barring special missions, they could not let commissions pile up for too long.

And more importantly! After the six-month probationary period, the weekly salary would jump straight to twelve pounds! Every year, there was also one opportunity for a fixed raise and another based on performance evaluations.

By the time he graduated, he would steadily reach the upper-middle level of the Empire's middle class.

Fan Ning was quite pleased with the arrangement, temporarily forgetting that his money was about to burn away like a flowing stream and that he was already buried in debt.

But then he thought of a question and raised his head to ask Dupont, "Aren't mystical incidents handled by the Special Inspection Office?"

"In Tioleian, they have the authority to intervene in everything..." Dupont's unhurried voice sounded as though he were reading from a scripture. "But the actual tacit understanding is that incidents occurring within traditional noble circles or public schools are handled independently by the Bologna School first; incidents involving believers, especially commoner believers, are handled by the Church of the Sacred Sun; and the Special Inspection Office is responsible for everything else. Naturally, they'll prioritize helping the newly risen industrial nobles solve their troubles."

"Understood. Each side is responsible for the interests of its own represented class." Fan Ning nodded.

Since one of the core aspects of Knowers was Hidden Knowledge, the schools' backing factions were also an important part of this world's dominant forces—schools and teachers were naturally closely connected to the element of "knowledge."

The newly risen industrial nobles, traditional nobles and academic dynasties, church clergy and believers...

It was a situation in which the various official Knower organizations had reached a tacit understanding with one another. Naturally, the strongest force in the game was the Special Inspection Office.

Based on this information, he could make a simple deduction: Lu's Lineage was probably closer to the Special Inspection Office, while Roy's Lineage was probably closer to the Bologna School.

"What about us? What areas' mystical incidents does the Guidance School handle first?" Fan Ning asked again.

"Everything other than traditional public schools: the urban universities the Empire has vigorously funded and built in recent years, elementary public schools, the long-established workers' skills night schools, free schools for the poor, women's domestic schools, and every other school that isn't for nobles." Dupont answered.

"So our main audience is commoners and the middle class?" Fan Ning felt especially close to that. In his previous life, as a modern man from a great food-loving nation, he had never thought Western noble bloodlines were particularly noble, or that business owners and factory owners were especially glorious or righteous.

Dupont gave a slight nod. "As a Knower who has glimpsed the essence of the world, you must obtain official status if you want to live beneath the sunlight. If you join the Bologna School, you have to be born into a long-established noble family or academic dynasty—for example, your father might be a member of the Upper House, or your elders might have served as professors in public schools for generations. If you join the Special Inspection Office, your father has to be a major business owner, factory owner, or financier who rose with the tide of industrialization and holds a seat in the Lower House..."

"But the Guidance School doesn't care about background or bloodline. In fact, many of our members and clerical workers are talented teachers or students recruited from these commoner schools."

Fan Ning nodded thoughtfully.

Then he swiftly signed each document and pressed his fingerprint onto them. "Is there anything else I need to do?"

"That's all. Welcome, new member. Your probationary period and salary will be calculated starting today."

After Dupont's only smile flashed across his face, he returned to his melancholy.

"But I must remind you that you're not yet an official Knower. Try to avoid using mystical abilities in front of the ignorant. Wait patiently for the Special Inspection Office's filing receipt. Those fellows are the most efficient government department around—it'll take three days at the shortest, a week at the longest."

"By the way, how many members do we have?"

"Here, we're talking about the Guidance School's Ufransel branch. We have twelve clerical workers and five Knowers including you. The president is away, so there are only four of us now. The other two are currently carrying out a mission in the South Wharf District. You'll meet them later."

"Besides that, we have liaison teams in all six major districts. Each is led by a Knower, with another four or five clerical workers handling affairs."

"Seems like quite a small number," Fan Ning said. "There aren't many of us altogether."

"People who can become Knowers are rare to begin with. I estimate that Ufransel has no more than a hundred resident Knowers—and over eighty percent of them are low rank. That figure includes all those operating officially and in secret."

"Of course, that also has to do with the Special Inspection Office's strict methods of control."

After Dupont finished speaking, he stood up. "Come on. I'll take you to the finance office next door. You can register the consumables while we're there."

In the second room along the corridor, Fan Ning saw that blond young man, Vimod, again.

"Caloen, you really advanced to Knower this quickly? Please look after me in the future!" The young man was envious and enthusiastic.

"One Drift Waymarker of the 'Undying Fire,' and a little over ten milliliters of 'Candle'-aspect Luminous Essence Elixir. Is there an internal discount?" Fan Ning, however, had a very clear purpose.

The market price of this reliable waymarker was around four hundred pounds, while the elixir cost one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds.

Vimod gave an awkward smile and cast an inquiring look at Dupont.

Dupont's tone remained unhurried. "Caloen, internal members generally receive a thirty-to-forty-percent discount. I'll charge you three hundred pounds for the lot this time."

Fan Ning first nodded happily, but then immediately realized that at his probationary salary, he would have to work for more than half a year to earn three hundred pounds. His heart finally began to ache.

In the large cities of the Theolan Empire, a man planning to marry and have children could try to pursue a middle-class lifestyle on an annual income of three hundred pounds. Four hundred pounds would make life more comfortable, while five hundred pounds meant an extremely affluent middle-class life.

Unfortunately, in the world of Knowers, this amount of money was nothing more than a light drizzle. It vanished in a second.

Dupont seemed to see straight through Fan Ning's thoughts. "Caloen, once you gradually get on the right track and start accepting commissions or trading within the circle, you'll discover that a Knower's wealth regularly rises and falls like a roller coaster."

He took a form Vimod had filled out and handed over, then waved it. "Come on. I'll take you to collect some good things."

Fan Ning became interested. "What?"

"Guns, and bullets."

"How much will they cost?"

Dupont gave Fan Ning a helpless look. "Nothing. They're public expenses."

After entering through a certain door, Fan Ning discovered that there was even a wooden passage leading upstairs. The stairwell was lit by a somewhat dim gas lamp.

"We have four floors in all. The third floor is the physical training and combat area, while the fourth floor is the armory and shooting range. Of course, the Woodpecker Restaurant on the first floor is also the president's side business. During certain off-seasons when commissions are scarce, its revenue even serves as a ballast stone." Dupont introduced the place as he led the way.

"It makes that much money?" Fan Ning asked. Then he recalled the prices and suddenly understood.

"Of course. Besides dine-in business, the restaurant also offers high-end pastry customization and delivery services, which are favored by quite a few nobles and business owners."

Fan Ning gave him an impressed gesture.

So even a Knower organization could have something this down-to-earth.

The president's methods were truly wild—he had even invented food delivery.

"Come on. We'll go straight to the fourth floor," Dupont said.

As he climbed past the third floor, Fan Ning glanced inside and saw long mechanical paddle-wheel treadmills, various strength-training apparatuses, and black sandbags of all sizes hanging above a sandpit.

It seemed that although the office's signboard was inconspicuous, the interior had plenty of space. With no one there, the place appeared vast and empty.

After reaching the fourth floor, Dupont opened a rotary blast door made of cast iron and heat-resistant concrete.

In the darkness, Fan Ning smelled a mixture of metal, paint, and lubricating oil in the air.