The sheer size of the Olsyvia Academy was quite something, taking up virtually all of the central regions of the city of Olsyvia, living up to the academy’s nickname of ‘Academy City’. Apart from the Olsyvia Academy, there were two other academies that shared the city; The academy that was located in the city’s west was the Alexander Academy, a school with little connection to the outside world, favoured by those non-human races due to its secluded nature, rumour has it that much of the school’s population was made up of various types of elves.
In the city’s east was the Antoinette Academy, which unlike the Alexander and the Olsyvia academies, were open to the general masses, accepting mainly dancers, musicians and other practitioners of the fine arts, making the Antoinette Academy essentially one of Earth’s renowned ‘art’ schools. The price for attending the Antoinette Academy was rather high, with the average tuition being higher than that of the Olsyvia Academy, but it was unsure if it was higher than that of the Alexander Academy.
After all, there were quite the number of nobles and royalty that attended the Olsyvia Academy, if wealthy commoners didn’t have the talent to enter the Olsyvia Academy’s central branch, they could still attend the nearby Antoinette Academy and hope to be recognized by some noble or even royalty, skyrocketing their own positions in society. Under the direction of the two student council members from the Filomina Academy(Noble Branch), Bella continued towards the Olsyvia Academy.
Mia, Angel, Noesha, and Betia, the four lolis who had came with Bella were under the guise of being the maidservants of Duchess Bellina. During this tour however, the four of them decided not to stay by Bella’s side and had instead decided to wander around by themselves. Noesha’s spatial magic could keep them completely hidden in an alternate space, so not even Bella knew where the four of them had run off to.
The Church of Light’s four holy maidens had already been picked up by a reception girl of the southern branch, the St. Louis Academy. Apart from the eastern branch that was home to various kinds of extraordinarily talented people, the other four branches of the Olsyvia Academy paid close attention to the movements and the whereabouts of their new students. For example, the two student council members from the Filomina Academy had already completed most of the paperwork for Bella before she had even arrived, making the entry process much simpler for Bella.
The Filomina Academy was mainly attended by the children of the five human empires’ nobility, mostly the household’s young masters and young ladies. It was extremely rare for someone holding such high peerage like Bella entering the academy themselves, much of the academy’s top echelons were only the sons and daughters of Dukes at most, paling in comparison to Bella’s own peerage of Duchess. Because of this, Bella had been designated a priority student by the Filomina Academy’s student council before she had even arrived.
“Would you prefer us to call you Duchess Bellina, or Miss Bellina?”
“You don’t have to be so formal, I don’t really care about that kind of stuff, you can just call me by my name. What, is that weird or something?”
“No, it’s just that… you’re a little different from what we imagined.”
The two girls from the Filomina’s student council looked a little strangely at Bella, based on the intel that they had collected, the new lord of Saniyah, Duchess Bellina was a ‘new money’ noble that had purchased her peerage by throwing money at the empire’s royalty. Based on past experiences, this kind of ‘new money’ nobles were almost always those who would flaunt their wealth and position at any chance that they were given, to the point that they would probably have their names engraved on everything around them if they were given the chance.
So it was a surprise to the two that Duchess Bellina was so easy to talk to and even seemed to be rather humble. However, one thing that counteracted that was the blindingly shiny suit of armour that Bella was wearing that was made completely out of platinum and inlaid with many exquisite gems, which on closer inspection turned out to be several of the rare ‘gem of the seas’. ‘Gem of the Seas’ was a type of precious gem that were hidden in the deepest parts of the world’s seas, sought after for its unique shimmering and radiant blue that seemed almost as if the gem had been carved out of a piece of the sea itself.
One such gem could be exchanged for at least 6 other slightly less rare gems of the same quality, being many, many times more valuable than its weight in gold. If it wasn’t for how rare they were, such gems would have long replaced gold bars as the currency used by the underground world. Bella’s full suit of ceremonial armour seemed to have several dozen such gems inlaid in it, if they were representative of Bella’s wealth, she would probably be ranked in the top ten in wealth at the Filomina Academy, a place where all of the students were nobles!
Olsyvia was an ancient city that had over ten thousand years of history, during the invasion of the 12 demon kings it was the city of Olsyvia that had become the last bastion for the human race against the demonic onslaught. Countless human heroes fought to the end here, fending off the demons until the day that the 12 demon kings had mysteriously disappeared. Due to its history, Olsyvia was also called the ‘Eternal City’.
The heritage and history of such an ancient city wasn’t something that could be seen and understood in such a short tour. The past months had been quite stressful and Bella intended to take advantage of the current time to relax herself, she slowed her pace down as she walked through the streets that carried a medieval European air and design.
The other students who were also heading towards the Filomina Academy had already noticed Bella, in fact, most of the empire’s nobility had turned their eyes towards Bellina before she had even entered the school. Many of them knew that Bellina’s peerage was given as part of a deal between the royal family and Bellina’s adoptive father, the wealthy merchant Clement, who only held the honorary peerage of Knight.
Initially, the other nobles looked down on the new lord of Saniyah for several reasons, the first being that there had been no other female in recorded history to have obtained the peerage of Duke, as well as the fact that Bellina’s peerage was bought, made it natural for the other nobles of esteemed and accomplished families to look down on her.
When Bellina had just received the title and peerage of the Duchess of Saniyah, several neighbouring duchies of various sizes under the lead of Duke Brandon, lord of the Grande Duchy, had assembled a coalition of over 60,000 soldiers and invaded Bellina’s fiefdom. The result of the ensuing battle was that the decorated commander of countless engagements against the beastmen, Duke Brandon, had his forces almost completely obliterated by this new Duchess. Of the 60,000 strong coalition, only 10,000 had managed to escape, with over 40,000 being taken prisoner.
The results sent shockwaves through the empire’s nobility. After the battle Duke Brandon had to pay countless remunerations as well as a full ransom for the 40,000 soldiers that had been captured. Regardless of everything else, many of the empire’s nobles swiftly sent gifts to Duchess Bellina as a show of good intent.
Even the Emperor of the Gabriel Empire(Swordsmen) had sent an envoy to negotiate peace between the two sides. Amongst the human nobles within the 5 great empires, it wasn’t uncommon for fights to break out between lords of the same empire over land, resources, or other interests, such fights were acknowledged in silent acquiesce by the emperors as long as it didn’t conflict with the empire’s interests nor threatened the authority of the emperor. Afterwards, the empire which the nobles belong to would usually send an envoy to negotiate a peace between the two conflicting sides if it seemed like the battle was too one-sided or had been causing too much damage. After all, it wouldn’t exactly be ideal for two of their nobles to completely destroy each other.
The Emperor of Gabriel Empire sending an envoy himself was an indirect recognition of Duchess Bellina’s position, and after this, the rest of the empire’s nobles could no longer view her as simply an ornament who had bought her peerage. The nobility of the Gabriel Empire had already begun to slowly accept this new duchess.
Even though some of the nobles suspected that this battle was something that Duke Brandon had collaborated with Duchess Bellina on to improve the latter’s merit and solidify her position, but lacked any evidence to prove it. Because of this, there weren’t any nobles currently willing to find trouble for themselves by making enemies with Duchess Bellina, making Bella’s life that much simpler.
Duchess Bellina was rumoured to be a thickly built and masculine female, one that was ugly but could also cut down several fully grown men with a swing of her sword. Now that they finally saw her in person, quite a few young noble males were painfully regretting their decisions, expressing that they wanted to rip the pieces the one who had spread the false rumours. How was this beauty with golden hair and blue eyes ugly? Was the one who had spread the rumours blind???? Or were they trying to make the situation this much awkwarder for the Filomina Academy’s males.
Before Bella had even arrived at the school, the academy’s males hadn’t written Bellina’s name on their invitations that they had given out, due to them believing the rumours. It was one of the Filomina Academy’s traditions that near the beginning of the school year, those students with a stronger background would host a friendship banquet, inviting other students who were attending the academy, in order to improve the relations between them and the host.
Reasonably speaking, Duchess Bellina should have been someone that appeared on every invitation list, as it was noble etiquette to send an invitation to those of higher peerage, even if they did not show up at the actual banquet. However, every single one of the noble young masters had been misled by the rumours and seemed to have made some unspoken agreement, with none of them inviting Duchess Bellina, which ended with all of them getting bamboozled. Noble etiquette dictated that such invitations should be sent out 10 days in advance, now that there were only 9 days until the banquets, an invitation now would no longer be sincere.
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