"What did he steal?" Danny asked in disbelief.
"Waffles."
"Why did he steal waffles?"
"Gluttony, of course. It's not the first time Zian stole food from the kitchen," the tall and thin scholar shrugged.
He then looked at Danny and asked, "You're Knight Leila, right? I'm Parker, a bachelor in economics. I was just about to look for you at the Feather Wine Bottle. " “
"Hello, Scholar Parker. I'm Leila. What's the rush?"
"It's urgent. After your reminder, Professor Perestan checked the customs trade records for the past twenty years. The trade deficit is far worse than we thought."
"To be honest, I didn't even know that we Westeros had so many gold royals," the tall scholar laughed bitterly at himself.
They stood in front of the stairs and exchanged a few words. The two tall and strong assistant scholars dragged Zian out of the door.
There was a wooden hut the size of a phone booth at the door. The assistant scholars were trying their best to stuff Zian inside.
Zian seemed to be extremely afraid of the hut. He grabbed the door with his fingers and struggled with all his might. He screamed, "I'm hungry. My family is poor. I can't afford to go out to eat. I only stole the professor's biscuits because I was hungry.
"Bang, bang, bang …" The other two Assistant Scholars ignored him completely. They kept on kicking the middle-aged apprentice until he cried out in pain. He had no choice but to let go of his hands. The wooden door was immediately closed with a "puff" sound.
The assistant scholars locked the thick oak door and left cursing. Zian was left alone with his frantic banging and crying.
It was miserable.
"What's going on? Do the apprentices in the City of Knowledge go hungry? "Danny asked.
"Not under normal circumstances. You can get a commission if you work for the Professor. But Zion is too old, and he hasn't been able to get a chainring. The Professor doesn't seem to like him, and he doesn't like the work of a servant, so …" The lanky Parker shrugged and didn't continue.
Danny couldn't help but think of the old apprentices who sold books at the entrance of the City of Knowledge and wrote letters for the people of the old town. It seemed that Pate wasn't an exception. The life of the apprentices in the City of Knowledge wasn't good.
But compared to the people, the apprentices were already above the rest. Then, how difficult was the life of a rural farmer?
Inside the General Manager's Pavilion was a spacious hall of more than 500 square meters. The floor was made of marble, and there were tall arched windows on the four walls. The lighting was excellent.
Danny and Barristan's iron boots made a crisp sound on the floor. Compared to the many gray-robed scholars, their iron armor was too conspicuous.
However, the title of "Leila Martial Arts Champion" had already begun to spread. The scholars who came and went had already guessed her identity, and they all cast curious gazes at her.
Danny ignored the curious eyes of the other students and asked the tall economics student who was leading the way, "How long will Zion be locked up in the dark room?"
"One day, two days, I'm not sure."
At the end of the hall, there was a high platform. On the platform, there was a gray-robed old scholar with a thin face. When he saw Danny coming, he wrote on a book with a quill and asked, "Leila Weishui, right? So, squire, what is your name? "
"Astan, my name is Astan Windstorm," White Knight said.
"Windstorm? Another illegitimate child … "The old man wrote down the name that White Knight said, and handed over two small wooden plates and a bronze key." Both of you are honored guests invited by the City of Knowledge. You can take the wooden plates to the library to borrow books. "
Danny took the wooden plate and the key. After flipping through them, she found that the wooden plate had the words "Leila Weishui" and "VIP guest, same as an ordinary scholar" written on it. The content of White Knight's wooden plate was similar to hers.
"What's the key for?" She raised the bronze key and asked.
"You'll understand when you get to the library." The old man waved his hand and began to ask the next visitor.
While climbing the stairs, Scholar Parker explained, "Other than the books compiled by past scholars, we also buy books from any city, any nationality, and any language brought by anyone.
After thousands of years of accumulation, the City of Knowledge has the richest collection of books in the world.
There are so many books that a room can't fit all of them, so the scholar needs to bring the key to open the door of the library. "
The doctors were waiting for Danny in a spacious meeting room on the second floor. Two small bronze sphinx statues stood by the door. The room was decorated with warm colors, and in the middle of the room was a ten-meter-long, two-meter-wide mahogany table. Other than the table and high-back chairs, there was nothing else.
When she arrived, seventeen or eighteen old doctors were arguing with a stack of parchment papers. The golden sunlight shone on them through the arched glass window, and Danny could see the spittle of the old men as they argued.
"Ah, Miss Leila, you're here." Doctor Perestan quickly stood up to greet her. "You met Scholar Parker, right? He just went down. "
"Yes, I met him at the entrance of the hall."
"Everyone." The red-nosed old man clapped his hands to attract the attention of the doctors. He pointed at Danny and introduced her, "This is Miss Leila Weishui, who is knowledgeable and skilled in martial arts."
"Hello, Miss Leila. My name is Gallardo." The doctor closest to Danny immediately stood up, bowed, and introduced himself.
Perestan also said in a timely manner, "Like me, Gallardo is proficient in history. He once traveled to the Midsummer Islands and translated the poems of the Tree of Words that have been passed down since ancient times. He wrote the famous book, 'The Midsummer Son.'"
"Doctor Gallardo, I've heard a lot about you!" Danny's eyes lit up, and she complimented him with a smile, "I've seen your masterpiece in the Free City!"
This was the truth. Just like how the City of Knowledge crazily collected books from all over the world, Danny also wanted to build a super library in Slave Bay. Sea merchants often came to Astapor with all kinds of books, and then took away large amounts of gold, sugar, liquor, and other goods.
'The Midsummer Son' was also very famous in the Midsummer Islands. It was similar to how the ancient people of the Celestial Dynasty recorded words on bronze cauldrons. The Midsummer Islands had a long-lived and huge tree called the Tree of Words.
The canopy of a single tree could cover the entire town.
Every year, the local priestess would use songs and legends to carve the local events that happened or heard of in the past on the white skin of the tree trunk. The Tree of Words had a special characteristic. As long as the tree was still alive, the carvings on its skin would remain forever.
Thousands of years had passed, and their history had been preserved through the huge Tree of Words.
In addition, because of this special characteristic of the Tree of Words, the craftsmen in Slave Bay had once proposed to use the bark of the Tree of Words to make "Queen Danny's Paper" …
Just as Perestan introduced the doctors one by one, the others were also whispering and discussing this strange female knight in front of them.
"She's so young."
"She's indeed young, not more than 18 years old. However, she was the first to propose the concept of trade deficit. Just based on this point, she can at least create a link in economics."
"I just don't know if she has a way to solve the deficit. In the 14 years that King Robert was in power, the seven countries lost 16 million gold royals. That's terrifying!"
"Actually, the 'Nobles Collective Debt Reneging Law' that she proposed last night could be tried."
"That would make all Westeros be nailed to the pillar of shame and be cursed by foreigners for 10,000 years."
.....
The eighteen doctors, except for the Head Steward himself, almost all of them had two or more copper (history) links and gold (economics) links. They also had copper or gold alloy canes and rings.
Yes, the City of Knowledge's apprentices had smooth necks. Apprentices who had forged metal links were qualified to become Bachelor's assistants. When they had accumulated enough links (10 links) and formed a chain, they would be promoted to Bachelor. When they had a deep understanding of a certain subject, or when they had more than three metal links, they would be qualified to become Doctor. The doctors would wear masks, canes and rings that corresponded to the metal according to their research project.
For example, Doctor Perestan had links made of silver, gold, lead, iron, black iron, platinum and many other metals. However, his main research project was history, so he had five copper links.
Therefore, his ring, scepter and mask were all made of copper.
If you met a person in a gray robe in the City of Knowledge, as long as you saw his appearance clearly, you would not be mistaken about his identity and profession.
After meeting all the doctors, Doctor Perestan then led Danny to the old man in the lead. "Head Steward, this is Miss Leila."
"Snore … Snore …" The old man tilted his neck and let out a light snore.
The warm afternoon sun shone on the old man. He was sleeping soundly in this quarrelsome room. His face was extremely old. Almost all of his hair had fallen out, revealing a baby-like pink scalp. The muscles on his cheeks were shriveled, and his pale skin was covered with soybean and broad bean sized age spots.
"Doctor Wargrave." Doctor Perestan could not wake the old man up. He could only step forward and push him lightly. "Doctor, Head Steward, Miss Leila is here. The meeting can officially begin!"
"Oh, oh, the meeting has begun?" The old man rubbed his nose and sat up slowly. He only glanced at Danny and was suddenly stunned. He immediately struggled to stand up and shouted, "Your Highness, please forgive me. I didn't know you were here. Clarson, Clarson, help me up to greet Your Highness."
Danny did not understand the situation at all and was stunned. Doctor Perestan looked embarrassed and shouted with a red face, "Doctor, you've got the wrong person. This is Miss Leila, and Clarson went to Storm's End Castle half a century ago."
"Tap, tap, tap …" Just then, a small door on the left wall opened. A young apprentice ran in from the next room and supported Doctor Wargrave. "Doctor, what are you doing?"
"Pater?" Danny was surprised to find that the apprentice was Pater, whom she had not seen for a long time. His face was not as red as before and was as pale as a patient who had lost a lot of blood. However, his cross-eyed eyes were more lively than before.
"Hello, Miss Leila." Pater smiled awkwardly and explained in a low voice, "I'm Doctor Wargrave's assistant. I'm responsible for helping him complete his work. However, the doctor often can't remember my name and thinks I was his assistant when he was young, Scholar Clarson."
Gradually, Danny frowned. She realized something. Pater's temperament that once made her sympathize with him was gone. Instead, he had an aura that made people … disgusted. It would be an exaggeration to say it was disgusting, but that kind of aura always made people unhappy.
However, there were too many people here and she did not have time to study the little apprentice's changes. The old doctor was still causing a ruckus!
"What are you all talking about? Hurry up and greet …" Doctor Wargrave said and was stunned again. He muttered, "Sigh, is this Princess Lei Lei or Princess Leila? I didn't hear clearly."
"Doctor Seabord should be the one to preside over the meeting." A doctor covered his face and sighed.
"Sigh, it's not his fault. Doctor Wargrave is 94 years old this year. He was fine during the election last year, but he got Alzheimer's in just a month." The doctor next to him shook his head and sighed.
Everyone was talking. Danny was embarrassed and shocked. She did not notice that two old doctors in their fifties with bronze rings were looking at her strangely …
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