Chapter 404: Introducing: The Education System

"Not at the moment, my lord," the girl said. "But he does come here every morning and helps out a lot in the kitchen. He says he likes cooking and that it was his passion to be a chef."

Adrian blinked again. He nodded.

"Okay then. Bring me a plate of this dish."

He looked at the others sitting at the table. One by one, Claire, Serena, and Aria all turned to the girl.

"Bring me the same thing too," Claire said.

Serena and Aria nodded in agreement.

Adrian looked back at the waitress.

"Right. What is this dish called?"

"My lord, this dish is called Wang’s fish."

Adrian’s lip twitched as he heard this.

"Wang’s fish?" he repeated.

The girl nodded.

"Okay, fine. Bring us four plates of Wang’s fish," he said. "Was it originally intended to be served alone?"

"Yes. He made this and gave it to one of the chefs and the chef really liked it."

Adrian nodded.

"Okay, fine. Got it."

He watched as the girl bowed and left to place the order. He leaned back against his wooden chair and chuckled softly.

’That bastard.’

Serena, Claire, and Aria looked at him with a mix of confusion and curiosity. Adrian noticed them staring and leaned forward.

"Guys, I have a question for you. Do you think it will be a good idea to set up a place for people to learn?"

Claire frowned a little.

"What do you mean learn? Like a knight’s academy? Do you want to train them in a separate place as knights and then bring them into the army, or are you talking about something else?"

Adrian shook his head.

"No, no, that is not what I am talking about. I mean like, for example, you guys got etiquette lessons while you were kids, right? You had teachers who would come to your house and teach you things."

Both Serena and Claire nodded.

"Well, the plan here is to hire these tutors to teach a bunch of kids at the exact same time. It is like we build a large building with multiple rooms, and in each room we can have around twenty to thirty kids. Then these teachers will teach them all at the same time."

He tapped his fingers on the table.

"This way we can reduce the costs and we can also be efficient with the way we are teaching. It is much more beneficial for the kids to have a one-on-one session with the tutors, but we do not have that many scholars or experienced people amongst us. We need to train them first and we need to hire some of these guys from other territories to get this going."

He looked at the three of them seriously.

"But my dream, my goal, is to see the kids of my... well, I guess it is an empire now, so I want to see the kids from my empire educated. I do not want there to be a difference in knowledge and mannerisms and all sorts of things like that between the higher class and the lower class. I want to give everyone equal opportunities."

Adrian rested his arms on the table.

"Those with higher resources can use it on themselves, but I want to give everyone an equal chance."

Serena frowned a little and leaned forward.

"But is this not going to cost a lot? And I do not think that the people will send their kids to places like these. Even if you are teaching a bigger group at the same time, I do not think that the commoners will be able to afford these fees. They might be able to afford one subject, but multiple subjects is unrealistic."

Adrian shook his head.

"No, no, no. It is going to be free."

He smiled.

"It is going to be completely free, which means that I will be paying the salaries myself. It is not like I am poor. After all, I have a lot of money to throw around. So yeah, I want to do this."

He glanced back in the direction the waitress had gone.

"And maybe if I do this, we might have kids of this age focusing on bettering themselves instead of working in places like these. After all, people absorb a lot of knowledge while they are younger. It’s a good thing for the kids to basically learn and study."

"We can also build up on this once the most basic things are laid out," Adrian said. "But that is the plan. And I feel like the parents of the kids would probably not be willing to send their kids to a place that doesn’t give them money, since they don’t really see the value of learning all of these things."

He paused, resting his chin on his hand.

"So I might have to put in some incentives at the same time. Free food is provided for everyone who works, so the reason why these kids are working is to get free meals and also earn some money at the same time. To actually make them send the kids no matter what, I would have to provide even better incentives when compared to the things that they get from jobs."

He let out another sigh and looked at them.

"Do you guys have any ideas?"

Aria watched as Adrian, Serena, and Claire immediately started bouncing ideas off each other about this new plan. She just looked at him and thought to herself.

’This is something I never expected to happen. Not even once.’

She thought back to the time when she first came to this place. Right on the first day when she was led into the mansion, she had been caught going inside the treasury. She couldn’t help but remember that evening. She pouted a little.

’Well, I wasn’t really having any ideas of stealing anything. The only reason I entered the treasury is because I saw that maid enter the treasury, and then she just pinned it on me instead. Well, even then, I would have gone into the treasury anyways, but yeah... so unfair...’