20: Prince

A few months later, the adventurer academy was finally finished.

There was a main hall in the front, where students would eat their meals and chat with each other before classes began, a west room, an east room, a north room, and beyond the north room was the ‘playground’ where kids could do just that… play.

It was the first day of opening, after Eliza had taught well educated citizens who applied to be teachers.

Now, there were three in total.

Hope, the ‘first grade’ teacher, who was a kind and sweet woman with dark orange hair and blue eyes. She was in charge of teaching the alphabet and common sense to the younger students.

Trent, the ‘second grade’ teacher, who was a mature old man who seemed responsible enough. He knew enough about history and math to teach kids who were actually seeking knowledge. The union was quite insistent about him being a teacher, since they believe math is an important skill for merchants, which they greatly rely on.

Then, lastly, teaching the general aid class was a retired adventurer named Beth. Eliza could tell the woman was strong, even if she hadn’t reached the sword expert stage, she had clearly understood how to use sword intent for quite some time. She also knew how to cook, clean, wash dishes, do laundry… Skills that were extraordinarily helpful to know, anywhere you go.

Beth was a bit old, nearly twice Eliza’s age, but she still appeared to be quite young. Eliza wondered if the stronger you were, the slower you age, but it seemed that was nothing more than fantasy. Beth just simply looked youthful for how old she was. Only an archmage was capable of making people younger in this world, and Eliza had yet to even learn the name of one of those.

Even Eliza had trouble with laundry when she first came to this world, but that issue was resolved when she met Olivia, who taught her almost everything she knew about being a mother.

Currently, though, Eliza was standing in front of over 60 students who were attending the opening ceremony, wearing a stifling silky black dress and boots.

The outfit looked great on her, in her own opinion, but it was incredibly awkward to wear, due to it being her new uniform.

She almost wanted to sigh at the absurdity of now needing to wear a uniform when she’s working, but luckily, she only needed to wear her uniform when she was showing up in an official capacity.

‘That won’t be happening too often, right…?’ she thought to herself.

It wasn’t just parents and teenagers, though, there were even parents watching. Though, Eliza and Lucas weren’t here today, due to their busy schedules. Theodore had attended, though. Eliza felt comfortable, seeing him pay extremely close attention. 

After all, he’ll probably be the one relaying what happens to Olivia and Lucas.

“Ahem. It’s my pleasure to make these announcements for you all today. Each of you will likely be students attending this school in the future, with either you or those close to you having sent you here. I hope that each one of you learning here are able to grow, both in your knowledge and as people.”

Looking around, Eliza could see that the prince was not in the crowd at all. She felt like she could thank her lucky stars for that. Lily and Mary though, were looking around excitedly at the new building from the crowd, not paying any attention to Eliza’s speech at all.

In a way, Eliza felt like she needed to teach Lily the patience to sit through boring speeches, simply because it was a skill she learned back when she had to attend orientation during her first bit of college. Though, she didn’t want to be the type of asshole leader to give a ridiculously long speech that puts even the teachers themselves to sleep. Quite a conundrum, but she could figure out an answer for Lily’s attention span later.

“As you have been informed, there are three classes, and today, you will meet your teachers, explore the grounds, and then you may simply leave if you so desire. First up is…”

Eliza quickly ran through an explanation of each of the three teachers, who showed themselves to the students that were at the academy today.

It wasn’t that there were only 60 students attending the academy total, but that there were 60 students who wanted to attend the optional orientation.

The three teachers came by one by one, giving a quick introduction about what they would be teaching, who they were, and cut it off then.

Eliza came to the front again, clearing her throat with an ‘Ahem.’

“Before we begin showing you the layout of the school, I would like to explain some simple rules. The first is simple. Don’t fight your fellow students. No fighting is allowed on school premises. If you do so, you will be immediately expelled. Only the aggressor will be expelled, and magic may be used to determine the truth in such a situation.”

Of course, she didn’t actually know how to do that yet. So she’d just get someone from the magic tower to do it for her. After all, they were desparate for money, so it would be easy to convince them to do so.

Eliza, despite not wanting to do so, explained several rules, such as no lighting fires, no destruction of school property, no digging holes in the playground, et cetera.

Looking around, Eliza could see many of the children were already asleep, with only the parents and teenagers in the crowd actually paying attention. It was clearly time to wrap it up.

“And now, thankfully, we can now take a look around the building. I hope you all enjoy it.” She said, clapping her hands as loud as she could. It luckily woke most of the children up, and she began to the rooms, and she got the children to follow her.
 

The west room, where kids would be learning to read and learn basic math, already had an alphabet banner hung up on the walls, two bookshelves with five or six children’s books, and a painting of basic numeric additions that Eliza painted herself.

The east room was a little more professional, with a painting of a multiplication table on the wall, a couple books the union had provided on the history of the continent of Tiola, and more. 

The north room was a bit more in between, with sewing kits, a functional oven, and several other tools for daily life in the union. It felt cozy, despite it being a room for a woman who could defeat several armed men with ease.

Of course, each classroom had between 20-30 tables and chairs in them, and she had made sure the life lessons classroom had slightly taller tables, to ensure that the teenagers could comfortably sit down too.

After wrapping it up, Eliza walked back to her office, intending to go inside and finish the last bit of her paperwork for the day, but then Eliza was approached by two strange women right as she was heading to her own personal office.

They looked nearly identical in appearance, which set off alarm bells in Eliza’s mind. Two identical women approaching her at once? Something felt odd.

“Hello.” One of the women spoke. “We’d like to talk to you… about the prince.”

Eliza was stunned they’d come out and outright say it. Her sense of danger was right.

“We just… We thought that he wouldn’t have to attend classes with commoners.” The caretaker of the prince stated, as if it was common sense to believe that.

Eliza looked at her, examining her face to try to see if this was some sort of practical joke.

“Then why did you send him to a school specifically built so commoners can get an affordable education?”

“Well…”

Eliza sighed.

“The mage tower has teachers, you know. I’ve been there myself to learn magic. Why not pay for a teacher there?”

The two women’s eyes seemed to light up. Not at the idea of going to the magic tower…

“You know magic? That’s excellent! You can teach the prince, then!” one of the women responded with bright and cheery eyes.

“No.” Eliza said plainly.

“What?” They both asked at the same time, giving Eliza shivers.

“No, you don’t understand, the prince can’t just attend classes with the rest of the commoners here! He needs to be in a class, with fewer people in it, so we can make sure he doesn’t-”

“Stop.” Eliza interrupted. “This is a school for commoners. No matter what the prince does here, he will inevitably interact with them. This is a matter of fact.” She explained her stance clearly, hoping it would stop whatever concessions the two women were trying to get out of her.

“We just… If word gets out that the prince is here, then people would be coming to see him everyday!”

Eliza didn’t agree with that idea. The people of the union were quite busy, and a random child who once was a prince wasn’t exactly a necessary sight to see.

“Then… why did you sign him up for classes here? He doesn’t need to attend classes here, right? There’s no need to make him do something he doesn’t want to do, right? I don’t have the time to personally teach classes like you asked, and the other teachers will have packed classes. He doesn’t need to attend.”

“It’s his duty as the fourth prince to lead the people! He needs to continue his education to do so!” The woman shouted.

Eliza looked at her with disdain.

“He’s no longer the prince. He no longer has a noble title. It’s perfectly okay for him to attend the school with the rest of the students if he wants to continue his education.”

The woman almost gasped with outrage.

“People like you will never understand!”

“What people like me? Commoners? The ‘prince’ is now a commoner too. He’s just an ordinary person now, like me and you, and every other student here.”

“You…! The prince is hundreds of times better than someone like you! He’s well educated, and trained countless times!”

Eliza now looked at the woman as if she was a dog. Trained? So what? So has Lily, and she isn’t royalty… Though, Astram Erast technically isn’t royalty either.

“So? Are the circumstances of the prince's birth all that he has? Is his only crowning achievement being born into a good family? He came here for an education, just like any of my students. He should learn, just the same as they will.”

“How dare you! He’s just a child!” she shouted.

Eliza’s head began pounding. How is it that women like this existed not just on Earth, but on Atlan too?

“A child… Yes, he is a child. A child just like any other here. I assure you, the people of the union are far too busy to come gawking at a child receiving an education, every day, madams.”

The two women in front of Eliza seemed to once again get angry at her words, making her feel like the situation would never end.

But in that moment, sensing the hostility in the room, a woman entered, with a young, blonde haired well dressed child behind her.

Eliza instantly knew he was the prince. And in front of him…

The woman, who had long blonde hair and a teal dress with a yellow front seemed to walk forward with either absolute confidence in her step, or just pure peace with herself. Either way, she seemed a lot more peaceful to deal with than the two attendants from before.

“Hello there.” Eliza said calmly. “Are you here to continue with the arguments, miss…”

“Erast.” The woman calmly responded. “I’m… very sorry for the trouble, miss Eliza.”

Trying not to stir up drama, Eliza nodded. “It’s fine. I don’t believe they meant… any harm.”

She almost felt like she was lying there, but she managed to say it anyways.

Miss Erast smiled gently.

“I’m grateful for your thoughtfulness, miss Eliza. I… while I would appreciate it if you could teach him, he will still be attending, even if you are unable to do so.”

Eliza looked at the prince, feeling a bit more calm… and a bit more willing to speak.

“So, he never finished learning, then? How much does he know?”

The mature woman, who had her bright blonde hair in an updo, slowly responded.

“Yes… We brought him here in the hopes he could learn. The reason he never was able to finish his education was due to how early he was forced out of the kingdom. We would… like to finish it here, even if it is not as comprehensive as his education would have been in the kingdom. He has learned all of the proper noble ettiquite of the kingdom, the fundamentals of the sword, he knows how to read, as well as most of the history of the continent. There are… things he still needs to learn, however, such as math.”

Eliza somehow instinctively felt that she would have known that this woman was the prince’s mother, even if she wouldn’t have known they shared last names. She felt relaxing to be around, compared to the other two women who were like banshees shrieking the souls out of anyone who argued with them.

In some ways, she felt like she could actually speak to this woman.

“It’s… fine if he is forced to attend classes with other students, but… could they be kept to a minimum? I think it would be best for you to teach him, miss Eliza. And… you being a mage would be quite helpful for him, too.”

Eliza sighed.

“We don’t have anywhere to learn magic in. Magic is dangerous. It would just be better to attend the normal classes if you want an education like that. They’ll teach basics, like addition, subtraction, multiplication… Don’t expect them to get too into detail, it’s not like they’ll teach things like calculus.”

The woman opened and closed her mouth. Eliza wondered for a moment if she had said something wrong, but…

“If you don’t mind me asking… what exactly is calculus?”

Eliza paused, having forgotten about the fact that she came from another world.

“Oh, uh, it’s just advanced mathematics. It’s… Something I probably don’t remember anything about.” she said, knowing it had been around two years since she arrived in this world.

The woman’s eyes gleamed. It was clear that what Eliza had just said didn’t dissuade her, but encouraged her all the more.

“Miss Eliza, I’ve never heard of ‘calculus,’ even helping attend to my son’s education for years now. Even with dozens of royal educators, I have never heard them mention that. I truly believe you could teach my son the best out of all of the people here. And… with your knowledge in magic, you would be an excellent teacher for my son. Please… At least consider teaching him.”

Eliza paused. She somehow had never expected that calculus would not exist in this world. But when she thought about it, it made sense. This world hadn’t even developed the steam engine yet, would they be able to develop calculus?

Eliza’s mind almost was sidetracked, but it was brought back to normal when she saw the blue eyes of the prince looking up at her. 

“Okay, fine.” Eliza acquiesed. She felt like this would never happen, but…

“If you can somehow petition the senate and get them to agree, as well as get them to fund the construction of a new room specifically for the teaching of magic and higher level education, I will teach classes there…” 

And then, she felt like she needed to add a clause in. If that really happened… it would be far too much work for her.

“But only for three days a week.”

The woman smiled, and nodded.

“Thank you, miss Eliza. I will. Say thank you to miss Eliza, Astram.”

The young boy, clearly nervous, spoke up.

“T-Thank you, miss Eliza.” He said in a quiet, but gentle voice.

Seeing the prince speak, and then leave with the group, Eliza felt a strange feeling in her heart. She didn’t even dislike the prince himself, but his attendants… Were awful.

She quietly returned back to work, learning how to properly account for the pay her three teachers required.

And the very next day, Eliza got a slip of paper, signed by a name she had never heard of.

Looking at it, it was official letterhead from the senate of the union. She had only ever received this once before, after the defeat of the drake.

The construction of the new room was approved, and they were putting a rush order on it.

Eliza would be teaching the fourth prince, Astram Erast, magic.