CH 300

“Ma’am, what do you mean by compulsory education?”

It seemed like Alexcent wasn’t the only one surprised. Baron Piamon carefully asked.

“Like I said. It’s an agenda about building public education facilities for compulsory education.”

“By public education facility…. Don’t we already have the Academy which is the world’s best?”

“What I’m talking about is a facility that is for the entire empire, not just the nobles.”

People started to buzz at her words.

“That’s nonsense.”

“He’s right.”

“How so?”

“That’s because the Academy is an obvious right for the nobles. That right has its rightful responsibility and duty. To fulfill that responsibility and duty is the mission for nobles like us. You’re asking us to share that with everyone in the empire? Which nobles would like being held responsible while having the same education as everyone else just because they are nobles? Intelligence is power. It could be used as weapon depending on the situation and you’re saying we should hand out weapons?”

“It’s not specialty education like the Academy. It’s a facility for nursing and education combined to be precise. There’s a clear difference with the Academy.”

“That’s right, it’s not like the Academy where the noble children who has nannies and are able to attend at 10 years old, but for the commoners to be able to have their children taken care of since their toddlers.”

Viscountess Renove added onto Amethyst’s statement. “Out of everything, there’s no way it’ll pass the congress.”

“Why?”

“More than half of the congress are nobles. You need over half of their votes for it to pass.”

“But all the agendas regarding businesses were passed.”

Countess Citri rebutted his statement for Amethyst.

“That’s because most businesses don’t have monopoly. No matter when they start, it’s the last who survive that will profit. But establishment of educational facility is a different story. They won’t agree to anything that won’t benefit them.”

“He’s right. There probably will be no nobles that agree to this.”

“That’s why I’m telling you this.”

Amethyst stared at Alexcent, who hasn’t said a word. Are you also thinking the same thing as them, Alec? Are you also disagreeing with my opinion?

Amethyst stared at him asking for his support, for him to say that they are wrong that he supports her. But instead, he was dryly scanning the document that she gave him.

She took a deep breath and spoke to the master of the relative families. “Just submit it to the congress for us. I’ll do my best to persuade them.”

“You can’t even persuade us but you’re going to persuade them?”

“Not everyone.” Count Glacia spoke while not taking her eyes off from the document.

“I didn’t say I disagree.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I don’t think it’s a bad idea.”

“Isn’t it because you’re a commoner from the start?’

Count Glacia glared viciously at Viscount Houres at his words. Seeing the pressure building up, Count Citri tried to mediate. “Now now, calm down both of you. We don’t have to be like this amongst each other.”

“I don’t know why the commoners need to be educated to begin with.”

“He’s right. It’s our problems if the attendees become too smart. There will be no nobles that want that.”

Amethyst started to shrink as the opposition was much tougher than expected. She didn’t think they would be so against it.

“It’s just for the most basic education.”

“That’s right. The employees that have basic education and some common sense will work better since they will learn faster.”

“All the people in the empire that aren’t nobles are dependent on the temples right now. But the temples aren’t educational facility. Especially not a nursing facility. We’ll be able to take load off the temples so it’ll be good.”

“Please consider.” Everyone spoke in unison, but the clash on the opinion was quite obvious. Count Onslow, who was the oldest, tried to mediate. “Even if we consider, the chance of it passing is low. Also, the number of agenda each family can put it is limited.” That meant that it’s more favorable to submit an agenda that will pass than the one that wouldn’t pass.

Amethyst stared at her husband who kept his silence. It seemed like the chance of it being submitted as an agenda was unlikely. She glared at him and spoke reluctantly. “Fine.”

Amethyst did her best to calmly leave the convention room. The noble ladies followed her.

“Such nonsense! They’re just saying it wouldn’t be possible without even trying.”

“I know. I feel awful that it was so thoroughly rejected after prepping it so hard.”

“We knew it wouldn’t be easy.”

“That’s right. The information we gathered might have not been enough. Let’s think about it more.”

Everyone was consoling each other. Amethyst added on.

“You guys have done well. Let’s go back today for now. Our head need some rest. Let’s discuss tomorrow.”

Unlike the noble ladies who went back to their place, Amethyst went to the library instead of her room. She wasn’t planning on giving up like they said. She didn’t think that she’d be able to change the old tradition and rules in the empire but she also didn’t want to sit there and do nothing about it.

Amethyst examined the bookshelf.

“If there’s no precedent, we’ll make one.” She decided to look for more information to persuade them. She couldn’t give up like this and she wanted at least the nursery to pass.

She was disappointed with Alexcent who didn’t say a single word, but she understood. He was the one of the ones with born rights. A top tier one. This would be a big change to the commoner and elites alike.

She was the one who took a step back, and even though she completely understood him, she didn’t know why she kept feeling disappointed at his silence. Amethyst shook her head to get that disappointment out.

What she needed right now was objective information, not her feeling. She needed information on why compulsory education and nursery is an absolute necessity.

She started searching biography of the predecessor empresses and later on took hold of a book at the top of the bookshelf.

<<The Prince by the Great empire Ekebania>>

Amethyst got on her tiptoes and reached out. She was trying her hardest to take out the book she was barely able to reach.Finally, she put her hands down as she couldn’t reach for it and looked for something to step on.

But at that moment, a large hand went over her hand and grabbed the book easily. The book Amethyst wanted was opened in front of her.