Family Business 27 (Patreon)

Family Business
Chapter 27: Education is a form of Diplomacy

-VB-

“How do you plan to win over the nobles of the city?”

I looked up from my breakfast - baked brown beans, roasted mushrooms, boiled and salted spriggens lettuce salad, lamb chops, and a glass of watered down red wine - and saw father with his already finished breakfast staring at me with his elbows planted on the table and his chin resting on his combined hands.

Oh. Wow. He must be serious. He rarely finished his breakfast early.

I finished chewing the assortment of umami foods in my mouth, swallowed, took a sip of the wine, and then gave him a short answer before leading him into a longer one.

“I intend to buy their approval.”

His eyes narrowed.

“I hope it’s my bribes, young man,” he told me with a stern warning. “I know how politics is played over there in the capital, but here in High Silvermere, I hold everyone up to a higher standard.”

I smiled. “I have no idea what you mean, father,” I replied. “I don’t bribe people with money, if that’s what you are concerned about.”

“No, you merely did so with service and smiles,” he harrumphed. “If I remember, you went against my advice to march directly into the capital at the height of its tension and unveiled medical workers. Magical medical workers.”

Mother, Lux, and Sona watched from the sidelines while the nannies subtly carried Emma and Darren out of the room just in case the tension here got too high for the sleeping babies filled to the brim with their mother’s milk.

“I certainly did, and it worked out.”

“You mean your act gave the king just the right amount of leverage to force you into a precarious position where you had to sink or swim.”

Father may be loyal to Demacia and its crown, but he didn’t like the current king. He also didn’t hate the king.

“And I am now a duke in charge of our fair kingdom’s development of all things magical.”

“You are.”

“And that’s how I intend to buy out the nobles of this city and our family’s traditional demesne. I am sure that many of their children are capable of magic, and even if they are not, I am currently in charge of the most educated institutions in the entire kingdom. Though I try not to, I can brag that the kingdom’s foremost educational institute is not within the Great City of Demacia but my City of Jorasmang.”

“... You intend to offer noble magical children education and non-magical noble children the same.”

“Of course. My institution does not accept random people; it’s invite only.”

He looked down at his plate and hummed deeply in thought.

“Of course, I will not be directly telling them that I am buying their support,” I added. “I will merely state that I am paying back to the city of my birth. That this is not an opportunity that I will give so readily to others. Just imagine how well their children could do with education heads and heels above their peers in similar situations. Imagine how noble children from High Silvermere will grow up to become leading figures of Demacia, butting heads directly with the great nobles of the Great City itself…”

“Greed.”

“All parents are greedy,” I replied. “They are greedy for their children’s success.”

“Some would call that parental duty.”

“Semantics at the end of the day, father, and you know it,” I gestured with a smile before stabbing and taking a bite of another sliced mushroom.

He hummed.

“At the very least, they will be able to make connections,” I also added. “My institute is invite only, and I certainly have already invited some of the Great City’s children. Merchants, nobles, and more. More than that, in the event of an unprecedented war that causes some havoc within our kingdom, the children within the institute will be safe behind the magical barrier erected over my entire city. I also intend to start underground farms so that the city is not as dependent on its surrounding farms-” I didn’t mention that many rural farming communities were less than friendly to the city folks. “- which will make any siege last years, if not forever.”

“Safety, education, connection. The only thing you aren’t giving them is power.”

I snorted.

“I am greedy, father. You know this. Everyone here knows this. I’m not so stupid as to share my power.”

He snorted.

Mother giggled from the side.

“What is it?” father asked.

“Both of you snort the same way.”

Lux giggled as well.

I rolled my eyes before looking back to father. “Anything else?”

“What about the commoners of the city?”

While the commoners weren’t exactly involved in the political scene of the city and the greater Demacia, ignoring them would lead to any noble’s downfall.

“Oh, I have a device for that.”

“...Device?”

-VB-

Calan stared at the device.

“... What is it?” he asked the city guard standing dutifully next to it.

Calan had come here to get today’s water from the well, but this thing was in the way.

“It is a water pump.”

“Water… pump.”

“Uh huh. Really great thing,” the guard nodded. “Wish it was here when I was young.”

“What does it do…?”

“Place the bucket underneath the nozzle there.”

Calan saw the nozzle in question and placed his bucket.

There was a whirr and -.

He squawked when water just flowed out of the nozzle like … like … magic.

“Wait, is this…?”

“Yes,” the guard hummed. “The young master, well, Duke Jorasmang, hasn’t completely forgotten about the people of his birth city. He gifted us a dozen of these devices to help the children and women with their water runs.”

Calan gawked as the nozzle stopped “pumping” water the moment his bucket was filled just enough so that he wouldn’t spill it.

“I… guess magic’s not bad if it does this?”

“Yeah, tell me about it. I thought magic was all flashy and booms. Apparently, magic also … pulls water.”

“It’s mighty convenient, that’s what,” Calan chuckled as he lifted the bucket and headed home.

But he thought about it.

Sure, he was a Demacian through and through. He grew up thinking magic was bad. It was only recently that things changed. After all, the youn- the duke, raised here in this city, had gone out and took down a magical traitor with his own magic and magic soldiers. Magicians wouldn’t betray each other, or so people thought.

Maybe magic wasn’t bad. Just … misunderstood.

Calan, for one, was happy about how his arms didn’t have to be strained this early in the morning.