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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Bobto
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“Ciel, you know well… The academy is a place that other noble children want to attend but can’t.
It’s a place you also wanted to go to and prepared a lot for it.
So why are you suddenly saying you won’t go?”
According to the settings in the novel, the academy held a high status equivalent to that of Seoul National University’s medical or law school in Korea.
So even if you were a peasant, no, even the lowliest slave, if you graduated safely, you could enter the privileged class of society and receive treatment on par with nobles.
Considering that among nobles of the same rank, those who graduated from the academy were given preferential treatment, from the Marquis’ perspective, the decision I made was equivalent to a crazy one.
“If I go to the academy, I will only learn etiquette, dignity, and swordsmanship that a knight needs to know, right?
I think that as the lord of a marquis territory, I should learn how to govern the territory well rather than those things.”
“Certainly, the abilities of a knight and the knowledge and skills a lord of a marquis territory needs to learn are different.
However, you’re only 15 years old, aren’t you?
First, learn the necessary abilities of a knight at the academy for 4 years.
After that, it won’t be too late to learn the knowledge and skills of a lord from me.”
In a normal case, upon hearing these words from his father, a son would change his mind.
“I was short-sighted. So for now, I will go to the academy, study hard, and later learn from you how to govern the territory.”
But if you knew that yielding like this would lead to a 100% chance of death?
Yielding like that would make you a foolish idiot.
Separately from this, the academy was essentially a graduate school combined with a notoriously strict social club unique to nobles.
Rather than going there, suffering, and meeting my death, it would be 100 times better to prove my abilities and not go.
“I already think I have all the necessary abilities to live as a knight.
So I think it would be a waste of time to enter the academy and relearn a knight’s dignity and etiquette. Therefore, from now on, I want to learn how to govern the territory to be of help to you.”
Upon hearing those words, the Marquis suppressed his anger, let out a deep breath, and said,
“I understand now what you’re thinking by saying these things.
However, I’m only in my mid-40s and am healthy.
And I already have capable administrators under me, so you don’t need to worry.
So Ciel, right now, just think about going to the academy in the Elaine Empire, studying hard, and making good connections.”
Good connections my ass.
Although it’s a novel with only the beginning developed so I don’t know the story until the end…
But I do know one thing, and it’s what will happen to me when I enter the academy, I will be treated coldly for being from a rural marquis family.
And then I would be asked by the lower nobles of the academy who are angry at the injustice of the Elaine Empire to join them in starting a rebellion and then I will be sacrificed in the rebellion.
Even if I enter the academy, I will refuse all such proposals, but the lower noble students of the academy will start a rebellion even if I don’t participate.
If the emperor sees this and decides to eliminate all the lower noble students attending the academy to root out the seeds of rebellion?
Students like us from a marquis family, mere small fry, are highly likely to all have our rights to inherit the title stripped away.
Ah, even before that, our marquis territory could disappear thanks to the incompetence of His Grace the Duke of Nantes, our liege lord.
Just as the development was set up in the novel.
So I spoke to my father with desperation.
“Please think about it objectively.
Our Kreutel family is just a marquis.
Within this Duchy of Nantes, we are respected by everyone as His Excellency the Marquis and his family, but if I go to the academy where all sorts of nobles gather, I will be nothing more than the successor of a rural marquis family.
So what good connections can I make there?”
Upon hearing those words, the Marquis spoke angrily.
“That’s why you, Ciel von Kreutel, need to go to the academy!
If your abilities are recognized at the academy, our family will no longer be evaluated as a marquis family stuck in the countryside but as a family with a talented successor!
After that, you’ll need to return to the territory and serve Your Grace Schwein as my successor”
According to the settings in the novel, Schwein, the future Duke of Nantes, was mentioned to be trash worse than human.
There’s no way I can fix such a person by serving him after graduating from the academy.
It would be much more realistic to teach a monkey and send it to college.
Objectively analyzing my situation so far… It’s difficult to persuade the Marquis in front of me with words any further.
Now that it’s come to this, I’ll have to show clear results as the Marquis’ successor to demonstrate my qualifications and governing abilities, and in return, get a promise not to be sent to the academy.
Steeling my resolve, I took a deep breath, then looked straight at the Marquis with a calm voice and spoke.
“I can already stake everything to prove to you.”
“Ciel… von… Kreutel…”
Saying that, the Marquis picked up the baton on his desk and strode toward me.
Seeing that, I knelt on one knee and bowed my head.
Then the Marquis stopped trying to hit me with the baton and said,
“Do you know what it means for a knight to kneel on one knee and bow his head…?”
In this novel, no, anywhere in Europe, for a knight or a noble to kneel on one knee and bow his head is a posture of pledging loyalty to his lord.
Therefore, what I’m saying now is not a private request from a son to his father, but a request to his lord while putting his life on the line.
Also, what this action means is…
“Yes, if I can’t take responsibility for my words, please do as you wish. I will stake my life and honor.”
Although I said this, I’m the only legitimate son in this marquis family, so he won’t be able to kill me.
However, if I can’t prove what I said as a noble, I will lose my honor.
And for a noble to lose honor is equivalent to getting a felony criminal record in our country.
The Marquis was so surprised by my action that he couldn’t finish his words and stuttered, saying uh…
“Father, I am sincere. Please give me a chance.”
Even as I said those words, numerous pieces of knowledge I had researched for my thesis and books were already coming to mind.
Technology, social systems, education, culture that historically proved to dramatically advance world history…
Also, military system reforms, training, and the basics of many historically proven war theories that cannot be done without power. If I utilize all of these, I’m sure I can make this territory prosperous.
The Marquis pondered for a long time, then finally struck my shoulder with the baton and said,
“Alright, Ciel. Then I will give you a chance, so show your abilities as the successor of the marquis territory. And convince me.”
“Yes, Father.”
Now that it’s come to this, no matter what method I use, I will definitely show results that will make the Marquis astonished.
By showing my abilities like that, I will survive well in this world.
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Translation has issues: parts of it seem to have been cut and pasted again in the middle.
Fixed.
what abilities ?
His past life’s knowledge. He was a history graduate on medieval history
Not sure but from the raws and context, it seems his family is a baron family, not a marquis
It could be that they govern land far away from the capital region, and perhaps their land is not not very productive compared to other regions of the country. And then they get mocked because they basically govern almost useless land.
Or perhaps it’s the disconnect between regional lords and the nobles of the robe, which are basically civil servants/bureaucrats with a nobility title.
Calculating how old the MC is. Usually, Korean age is different from international age, so him saying he’s 15 means that he’s 14 in international age (babies born in Korea are counted as 1 year old, as opposed to 0 years old everywhere else). Also, given that the academy is 4 years, this would be the equivalent of the entire 4 years in an American high school or the last year of Korean junior high + the entire 3 years of a Korean high school.