Glan Natural Science Academy

The surrounding trees, at least centuries old, got bigger and bigger. Howls from deep inside the Jungle could be heard occasionally but would fade away quickly.

Ryger, who was travelling alone, didn’t feel fear because of the foreign environment and was instead fiddling around with the redbud badge. The metal badge had lifelike, vivid redbud flowers engraved on it. But what was strange about the badge was that there weren’t any cold sensations as would be typical of metal from it. It was unknown what material it was made of.

The Glan Principality’s natural sciences academy was also called the Royal Research Institute of Glan. Generally speaking, it was a place where an extremely low number of nobles would go to for further education. After graduating, these nobles would become what was more commonly known as magicians.

But ‘magicians’ was a term that commoners used out of awe for their mysterious power. Nobles much prefer to refer to themselves as scholars, much like how the great magus who burned to death several hundred years ago in front of the Aurora Cathedral called himself a scholar who studied astronomy.

According to descriptions in Antonio’s Secrets of Evolution, after finishing their initiate phase, scholars in all academies would sit for a graduation test to determine whether they could get an academic certificate of a natural scholar. Beyond natural scholars were arcane scholars followed by mystic scholars and then fellows of the royal sciences academy. Generally, all scholars dreamt of obtaining a fellowship from their respective royal academy as fellows stand at the forefront of humanity’s exploration of knowledge.

As for pioneers, only 3 of them existed in human history. However, each of them had developed and uncovered brand new fields of knowledge and study. These fields acted as a reference for the various academic fields and had brought intellectual inspirations to countless scholars.

In the eyes of scholars, the 3 pioneers occupied a position nearly equal to god. They were the stuff of legends, beings that existed only in legends and were given the utmost respect. The pioneers’ academic studies transcended even borders and was revered by scholars belonging to other academies.

Yet the conditions to become a scholar were extremely harsh.

In that age, the majority of the commoners didn’t even have the opportunity to learn how to read. They didn’t know how to write and could only use their handprint as their signatures. To an ordinary person, the most important to do was to follow the pastor and pray to the Light God. Never did they once think of something noble like studying.

And other than using contributory badges as in the case of Ryger, anybody that wanted to be a student of a natural sciences academy needed to pass a specialized exam.

In this situation, only those nobles with inherited knowledge from their family could afford to study.

As for wealthy merchants? They were more inclined to donate to the Church. This way, they would be able to gain the rank of a noble which they can then use to expand their relations and earn more money. Only rarely would one hear of any merchant that headed to the academies to study. This was because according to tradition, the succession of the throne for all great principalities required the approval of the Pope. Thus, in the eyes of the ordinary person, the status of a fellow was incomparable to that of the bishops of each cathedrals.

And so, to a normal person, magicians were the same as nobles that learned hereditary knowledge  — wealthy, mysterious, powerful, erudite and elegant.

With various thoughts in his head, Ryger put away the redbud badge, then took the Starcore necklace out. After winter, he was already familiar with the necklace’s function. Seeing that there’s nobody around, Ryger messed with the necklace.

“Beep! Detected: variety of the Coniferae subfamily”

Ryger then tried to analyse the soil underneath his feet.

“Beep! No valuable substance detected.”

After messing with the necklace for some time, Ryger still didn’t get the various information his father told him like analysing wild animals that have proteus blood. He got bored of it and put the necklace away.

 

The day got darker.

Dusk in the Jungle came earlier than outside and the temperature fell rapidly. For the inexperienced, the Jungle at night was extremely dangerous. The tree crowns far in the distance all blended together and it was as if the entire Jungle came to life, with wandering devils moving about trying to consume lone travellers.

Ryger stopped, fastened his clothes and set up a simple tent. He searched for kindlings while eating some cured meat.

“Wha-!”

Suddenly, a strange black insect crawled out among wilted leaves and startled Ryger. The insect was palm-sized and had fluorescent antennas that emitted a faint green light at the side of its shell, as if cautioning Ryger. It used the short moment Ryger was startled to disappear in the Jungle.

When he recovered, Ryger let out a breath of relief. He had listened to his father talk about weird happenings in the Accipit Jungle. One of them was that bizarre bugs were sometimes even more dangerous than proteuses. The one that he encountered was of an unknown species but apparently wasn’t aggressive considering how it ran away after Ryger turned over some dead leaves. Sadly, the bug ran away too quickly and left no time for Ryger to use the Starcore necklace on it.

Without delay, Ryger quickly got to work. He collected sufficient kindlings, took some flint out and lit a fire. Only after the temperature rose apparently did Ryger let out a breath of relief. He then took out the animal repellents and scattered some around his tent, and then looked around at his surroundings. Darkness pervaded the sky and the only thing he saw was the afterglow of the sun above the tree crown.

Klop klop klop…

Just then, the clamorous sound of horse hooves came from afar and Ryger thought for a moment that he was hallucinating. He had frequently heard his father say that some man-eating trees lived deep in the Jungle. The trees could imitate the sound of babies and lure people in and hunt them. Just the mere thought of it was enough to creep people out.

“There’s somebody up ahead!”

Ryger was holding up a torch worriedly when he heard the rugged voice of a male. The voice made him relax. Even if the other side were bandits, there wasn’t anything on Ryger that was really worth stealing.

Under Ryger’s gaze, 4 knights who wore metal armour escorted a horse-drawn carriage in his direction. The knights stopped near Ryger.

The head knight revealed a pair of stern eyes under his helmet and sized up Ryger. After confirming that there’s no danger around them, he turned to the carriage and said, “Young master Auen, the day is dark. Let us rest around here.”

A white, delicate hand swept the curtain of the carriage apart to reveal a young nobleman of similar age to Ryger. The former looked at the latter curiously. “Where are you from? Where are you going alone?”

Ryger shifted his curious gaze from the exquisitely outfitted knights to the young nobleman and bowed slightly. “I’m Ryger from Agate Lake and I plan to go to St Glan Castle. Since it’s dark now, I’m resting for now.” He could see the luxurious interior of the carriage from the parted curtains and was envious from the depths of his heart.

“You too? Call me Auen, I’m from Wirsol, Southern part of the Principality. I’m a scholar that researches natural laws and now I’m heading to the Academy in St Glan for the new student enrolment. Hehe, since we’re heading there, I can give you a lift tomorrow.”

The young nobleman was unexpectedly pleasant to interact with and didn’t look down at Ryger because of his commoner status. The nobleman turned towards the head knight and said: “Let’s rest here tonight then.”

“Yes!”

Only then did the knights get off their horses and take off their helmets, revealing their appearance.

One of them was a woman in her twenties. She took off the bow on her back and, together with the other 3 men, set up tents near Ryger’s bonfire.