After waking up, Grey went for a bath. The inn assigned a special bath for him, which was normal. He did pay his stay in gold coins. Commoners would pay in bronze or silver coin most of the time. If someone could afford gold coins, he was basically wealthy. Since 100 bronze coins could be exchanged for 1 silver coin and 100 silver coins for 1 gold coins, with the fact that most of the jobs commoners could do were paid in few bronze coins per day, affording a gold coin was quite difficult. Don’t even mention platinum and diamond coins. These were only for nobles or very wealthy merchants as they were mostly used to buy tons of raw material or food and A or S rank array scrolls.

Grey himself possessed some platinum coins which were the leftovers of his father, but it would have been difficult to pay with those, thus he was thankful to the thief for delivering some pocket money for him.

After taking his bath, Grey went to his room but was greeted by a maid in front of his door. She was a whole head smaller than him, her body had voluptuous curves, her posture was straight and refined, and had short brown hair with her green eyes and her lovely face. But something was wrong with her eyes, though they were light in them, Grey couldn’t help but feel that something was off with them.

Though Grey didn’t doubt his charm, he never saw before, let alone talk to her. Thus, when he saw her, his face couldn’t help but frown.

Seeing him with a displease expression, the maid quickly gave him a short bow.

“Hello young master, my name is Alexia Carps, as an apology for the inconvenience our young mistress brought to you for the past two days, my old master dispatched me in order to serve you.”

After hearing her explanation, Grey gave her a wry smile while he was sneering in his heart. He got close to her and put his hand on her head. Surprised by his actions, Alexia’s body shivered and became stiff, but soon enough a warm feeling invaded her. Her body didn’t reject this feeling and loosen up a bit.

Meanwhile, Grey’s suspicion was confirmed. This girl in front of him should be in her early twenties but numerous traces of abuse could be found in her body. Moreover, there was an irregular amount of mana in her brain and heart region. Though he wasn’t sure of it, his intuition told him that this was due to a slave contract.

He laughed bitterly in his heart.

I saved and helped your daughter. And according to what she told you, you sent this girl to spy on me huh? Well, I don’t care.

Retrieving his hand, Grey told the girl that he was planning to go the library for the whole day, after registering for the Academy entrance exam. Thus, he needed her to tell him the way and explain him everything she knew about the city.

If he didn’t rely on her and just sent her away now it would have been suspicious. Though he doesn’t fear the Bethel family, dealing with them would be a hassle. And he wasn’t here to wreak havoc in the city for now.

Alexia gladly followed his orders, though she still didn’t know what he had done, if he relied on her this could only be a good thing. She needed to do her mission nothing else. If she did good, and if he kept her, her life would only be better. If he threw her away…

No… Don’t think about it… I don’t want be those beasts’ thing anymore…

After taking a breakfast prepared by the inn, Alexia led Grey through the town and showed him around while explaining him how this city came to be, and which families were the most dominant here. This city was created in 146 post the New Beginning, it was created to offer a place for northern people of the kingdom to rest during humankind counter attack against the beast to develop the kingdom and guaranty safer frontiers.

Since then, from a military city, it became an important city with both economic and military power. The Hecht family, which was here since 146, is the most powerful family in Archon right now. Their roots here are deeper than everyone else, and to thank them for defending this city since then, the king gave them a 3rd rank nobility. 1st rank being the highest nobility one family could get and 5th rank the lowest.

And, the first daughter the Hecht family is supposed to be betrothed to the eldest son of the Bethel family. In order to enshrine themselves in the nobility, the Bethel family wanted his new generations to marry with nobles, though the highest rank in Archon was 3rd, for them it good enough. And it seemed that the son of a 2nd rank would attend the Academy for next term. Many young ladies who heard the news were already prepared to show him their worth.

Besides these facts, it seemed that the commoners in Archon were being discriminated by certain noble. The Gatch and Limen family were only 5th rank noble, but their disdain for commoners was famous in the city. When a commoner saw them, he would not even dare look at their shoes afraid of being whipped on the spot. Though it was against the law, as long as the commoner didn’t complain, the law couldn’t do anything for him. And complaining was a synonym of forsaking your whole family.

And, the Krell family was the only 4th rank in Archon. Their power was unknown as they do not fight in public and they always valued books and culture more than anything else. However, no one dare to belittle them. There was once another 4th rank noble family in Archon, The Cassus. One of their young master dared to rape the youngest daughter because she didn’t even spare him a glance. When her tattered and trembling was found in their family underground cell, it less than one day, every and each one of them were killed and their mansion and corpses burned for a whole day.

When she was done telling him this, they had already arrived in front of the Academy entrance.

Archon was a big city. In a circular shape with twenty kilometers radius, it was the biggest city in the North in the area. And the Academy was at its core, and itself was gigantic. Since there was an arena, multiple amphitheater, and an exclusive library and multiple dorms, the Academy surface represented 30% of Archon. One could enter the Academy at any moment as long as one passed the exam. Though noble or rich family could afford tutors for their children until they could enroll, for commoners they had to use the bit of money they had to borrow books and learn by themselves. This led to huge disparity inside the Academy. Each term, the number of commoners who could enroll never went above one digit.

There was a small building next to the entrance where one could come to ask for information. Since, Grey didn’t have any idea as to when it opened, seeing that nobody was coming in, he just went in to check. And as he thought, there were few people in here and they were all commoners per their clothes. Noble or rich family must have already been done with all the formalities, thus, those who would still come to register at that time would be commoners who wanted to try their luck.

The registration went without any problem since he just needed to fill his name, race, gender and which group he wished to join.

They were five groups in the academy divided in four years. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. Each group was specialised. Alpha were combat oriented classes, Beta economic and management classes, Gamma magic arrays and mana manipulation classes, Delta crafting classes, and Epsilon for those interest strategy, history and scientific classes.

For Grey, Alpha and Gamma group were useless, Beta wasn’t for him, however, Delta and Epsilon were quite interesting. In the end, he chose Delta, as he thought that he could just go to the library in his free time to learn by himself.

When he handed over his registration paper, he was told that he would be evaluated on his crafting basics for his entrance exam. He just nodded his head before thanking the employee for his explanations and left for the library.

On the way, he bought something to eat for Alexia and him with the change he got yesterday for his gold coins. Since, when he showed his gold coins to the seller, he nearly fainted.

You little brat! You buy sandwiches with gold?! Did you buy your clothes with diamond?! How am I supposed to give you your change?

“Excuse my master. Those things are new to him. It is his first time in a city.”

Alexia gave the seller a quick bow apologising in Grey’s place. And what she said didn’t surprise Grey. His act yesterday gave Sylvia the feeling that he was a man of the forest and never went to a city before. So, it was normal. Meanwhile, the complexion of the seller turned even more awkward.

His first city?! And he is already filthy rich??! Fuck you! Where is fairness in this world! *crying internally*

After Grey and Alexia left, the seller’s mood was so down that he closed his shop and went home to cry in a corner while his wife was scolding him to go back to work.

At last, they arrived at the library. There, Grey dismissed Alexia asking her to wait for him in his room at the inn. Alexia didn’t inquire about his motives and left after giving him a quick bow.

The reason he dismissed her was to let her an opportunity to report what she had seen today to Sylvia’s old man. Letting them get carried away by showing them that their plan worked somehow can only give him advantages.

After registering in the library and paying a little fee, Grey headed toward the first floor where books about general knowledge could be found. He took out about twenty books from the bookshelf which were about history and magic technology and found a quiet place to start reading.

Not far from him, a childhood friend couple were sitting in a corner reading their own book, and when they saw him holding his pile like it was nothing and reading at a speed which defied common sense, they got curious about him.

What in the holy mother of potatoes! He just finished 200 worth of pages in less than thirty minutes! Is he even reading?!

The man got curious and approached the table where Grey sat.

“Hey! Hello, is that seat next to you taken?”

Grey gave him a glance before shaking his head, telling him that it was fine to sit there.

“Thanks… Hum… You just finished ‘Dynamic patterns of mana’, quite fast… Do you have a technique or something?”

“Not really, I just learn a little bit faster than others.”

Grey didn’t even lift his head while reading when he answered him. The man frowned a little bit. But amazement was visible in his eyes. He was quite sceptical of Grey’s claims but if it was true, it would be incredible.

“It’s not that I doubt you but… You know it’s quite hard to believe it… I always thought that I was a fast learner, otherwise, I wouldn’t even attempt the exam for the Epsilon group for the next term, but you just shattered my confidence with your reading speed.”

“Oh? You’ll attend the Academy?”

“Yes! Though I am a commoner, I think I have a chance. My name is Bahus Ophtel. 16 years old. I’ll take the exam for Epsilon.”

“Grey Cromwell, commoner as well. 15 years old. I aim for Delta.”

Bahus was stunned. He thought that Grey was older than him but he was wrong. He, who still had some baby fat in his cheeks but had a well-built body along with short black hair and brown eyes which fit is handsome face, was often mistaken for someone younger, but he was considered as a genius among commoners. Now he met someone REALLY younger than him and seemingly smarter too. His childhood friend, got up from her seat and went next to them. At first, she wasn’t interested in their conversation, but when she heard Grey say that he was aiming for the Delta group her interest in him grew.

“Oh… Maya, you came. Grey, I present you Maya Precus, like you, she is aiming for the Delta group. Although her personality is a little off she is NUGHFF”

Before he could end his sentence, he was elbowed by Maya.

“Please don’t listen to his nonsense. I’m Maya Precus, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Grey. Are you a commoner as well?”

“The pleasure is mine. Yes, why do you ask?”

“Because I saw you coming with a maid and with your reading capabilities… If it’s true, you should have been from a wealthy family I thought.”

“Hum, no. I lived in the forest since my birth. It’s my first time in a city. And if you want to check, just pick up a book I’ve already read and tell ask me something about it.”

Hearing him, they became flabbergasted. It took them a while to recover but when he offered them a chance to test his capabilities, Bahus’ hand reacted on the spot and opened one of the books he already read.

“Can you tell me about the need of a mana derivation channel in a light producing array and the mana patterns required to produce it?”

“For a lighting array, you can use a mana derivation channel in order to create a specific path for the user’s mana while he aliment it. You can use the sygmus pattern to amplify the effect, the celenius pattern to add a mana absorbing effect in the array making it somewhat self-sufficient, though the power would be low. That’s pretty much it in this book, which is why I find it severely lacking because it doesn’t mention pattern fusion and the effect of the elegius pattern which can prevent the user mana from leaking, thus making it less mana demanding.”

When Grey finished his explanation while keeping a straight, the complexion of Maya and Bahus went from amazement to horror.

This guy is a monster.

“You… Do you even human?”

Bahus was completely out of it. His head was still processing in order to digest everything he heard. The worst part was that Grey’s words were the same as those used in the book. Like he was reading him to it. And what he added from his own knowledge just blew his mind.

Is this book lacking? You’re the one who knows too much!

After that, the three of them spend the afternoon chatting in the library while reading. From times to times, an employee would come to ask them to shut up if they couldn’t whisper.

By the end of the day, Grey read something like fifty books. Bahus wanted to commit suicide, and Maya encouraged him to do so, thus he wouldn’t waste their time. He nearly cried after that. Grey learned that Maya’s father was a blacksmith which is why she wanted to attempt to enroll in the Delta group with her skills. When she asked what type of crafting Grey specialized, he just answered that he was fine with anything related to metal. Maya nearly fainted on the spot and Bahus nearly got expelled from the library because he was laughing too much. When the time to part came, Grey told them that he was planning on visiting the library every day for two weeks, until the exam. Bahus and Maya left together and Grey went on his own since their lodging were not in the same part of the city.

When Grey arrived at the inn, he was greeted by Alexia who seemed to have been waiting for him. He greeted her back and went to the dining hall to eat before returning to his room to sleep.