Chapter 228: Mist Bodhisattva Royal Academy of Sciences [Part 1]
“Holy shit, that brat actually twisted that KJ350 multifunctional compound gun in half!” Bel commented occasionally while watching with keen interest from the sidelines.
Cillin didn’t say anything, but he wasn’t just paying attention to the battle but also to the surrounding comments. In most cases, the onlookers were able to supply far more information than the people at the center of things.
It didn’t take long before Cillin learnt why the two parties had fought each other again, and as he had expected earlier it was because of the arrival of the great noble house Blazing Eagle. After members of the Blazing Eagle Vogel had arrived on this planet, every person at every corner of the planet had learned about this through a well developed communications network.
All kinds of people began to move be it the small nobles who wished to curry favor with the Blazing Eagle royal family or the people who wished to win their acknowledgement. They had all began making preparations.
Naturally, Baelenbaatar Middle School paid a lot of attention to news like this. It was why the students were starting to interact and sound out the situation already. The conflict between the two sides had grown more and more intense since Blazing Eagle’s arrival. The nobles said that the commoners were delusional, the commoners quickly retaliated against such claims. Because more than 60% of last semester’s overall ranking were made up of commoners, the students of noble birth thought of it as their shame until today. That was how the argument gradually escalated into a brawl. That being said, anyone who paid close attention would realize that neither sides had gone all out against each other. It was also why the school’s security guards could watch the fight without a care from the sidelines.
As long as no major accidents were to happen during a brawl, the school normally turned a blind eye against such matters. As the saying goes, this was a form of stimulus competition.
Something was puzzling Cillin, however: Why do the commoners here dare fight against the nobles? Aren’t they afraid that the nobles will take revenge against them?
It wasn’t that Cillin had a very low opinion of nobles, but people like Bel seriously were few and far between. At Old Chang’s planet, the small nobles there often looked at people with their nostrils and put on airs that basically meant, “don’t provoke me or I’ll kill you!” That was why he found it very difficult to reconcile that scene with the one happening before him right now.
Because he didn’t understand what was going on, Cillin asked Bel directly for an answer. Bel was a real great noble after all.
“Bel, is the difference between commoners and nobles very small in schools?”
Bel rubbed his chin. “That depends on the school. The better a school is, the smaller it is the gap of treatment between nobles or commoners. I’ve never heard of Baelenbaatar before, but since it is ranked among the top 10 schools of this star region, this means that it has the power to narrow the gap between commoners and nobles. Baelenbaatar did manage to produce an honorary scholar for the Royal Academy of Sciences in the past after all. Who knows, maybe that honorary scholar may even grow into a scholar in the Royal Academy of Sciences in the future.”
Bel smacked his lips for a bit before tossing the empty bottle into a dustbin. Then, he continued, “That honorary scholar is a member of the Empire’s 24rd star region. When he was younger, he once received his middle level education at Baelenbaatar. Later on, he was deemed too outstanding and was plucked away by a school at the imperial capital’s star region directly. When he was finished with his higher education, he was accepted immediately by the Royal Academy of Sciences as an honorary scholar. Didn’t you see a video about their honorary scholar returning to school for a speech in Baelenbaatar Middle School’s introductory page, the one that took up a large amount of space?”
Of course Cillin knew that Baelenbaatar once produced a Royal Academy of Sciences honorary scholar, but he didn’t realize that that was all it took for Baelenbaatar to surrender so much equality. In fact, he was surprised that commoners were allowed to brawl against nobles in Baelenbaatar Middle School because he had seen the gap that existed between a noble and a commoner. Even more surprising was the fact that the school authorities seemed so used to this occurrence that they couldn’t even muster the energy to bother!
Noticing Cillin’s surprise, Bel let out a chuckle and said, “It’s the Royal Academy of Sciences, man! We’re talking about some ordinary institution here. Back then my father tried to encourage me to join them, but unfortunately I failed to live up to his expectations. I just wasn’t born with this kind of talent.”
Bel said while pointing at his own head, but he didn’t look dejected or anything. It was as if he was saying something that was perfectly ordinary.
Bel told Cillin a little about the Royal Academy of Sciences. It was only now Cillin realized that the nobles weren’t the only power who stood at the top of Mist Bodhisattva Empire.
The Mist Bodhisattva Royal Academy of Sciences was the greatest academic institution and research center in Mist Bodhisattva Empire. It was also the greatest Hall of Honor an academic researcher could reach. It was an independent institution that wasn’t directly subordinated to the Mist Bodhisattva royal family.
What was interesting was that 70% of the people who entered the Mist Bodhisattva Royal Academy of Sciences weren’t nobles, but commoners. Even more interesting was that the fact that the current dean of the Mist Bodhisattva Royal Academy of Sciences was born a commoner. This fact alone was enough to force some nobles to tread carefully while they were dealing with some issues.
Anyone who could enter the Mist Bodhisattva Royal Academy of Sciences was at least the equal of some middle level nobles, and some veteran researchers even earned the courtesy of the royal family. After all, they held great power over the development of Mist Bodhisattva Empire. The Royal Academy of Sciences was the authority of academics just like the GAL Research Institute was to GAL. The Royal Academy of Sciences also had academicians, although the title of an academician was completely honorary in the sense that it was an acknowledgement of an academician’s academic level. Although it wasn’t split into several levels like GAL, honorary scholars and academicians were the two levels that made up the majority of people inside the Royal Academy of Sciences.
In Mist Bodhisattva Empire, the academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences shouldered many responsibilities. Not only did they have their own research topics to work on, they also had to participate in the regular meetings held by each academic department within the Royal Academy of Sciences, discuss recent scientific progress and dynamics of the latest scientific developments, participate in all sorts of academic discussion forums held by various interdisciplinary committee organizations under the academy of sciences and many more. Sometimes, they also accepted commissions from noble corporations to perform knowledge work or research jobs, give speeches or teach at reputable schools, participate in the evaluation of all sorts of science awards, rate the overall strength of higher schools and so on.
Mist Bodhisattva Empire is an empire that advocated knowledge and science. Therefore, the academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences were given full respect and enjoyed an extremely high amount of social status. They were people who had escaped their old identities as commoners or nobles and formed a special identity of their own. This identity enabled them to enjoy special privileges at certain places that were even better than some nobles’ special privileges.
It was very common for the family corporation of a great noble to hire a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences to better develop themselves or keep from straying off their goals. Therefore, the consequences of offending a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences completely was easily imaginable. This was an institution where even the one emperor and three kings normally paid respect to; these nobles’ face couldn’t possibly be more important than the royal family’s, could it?
No matter the type of social system these people were in, they who advocated academics and put all their efforts into researching it were more or less the same. They had their own world outlooks, and they wouldn’t move for anyone in certain things.
The biggest reason Baelenbaatar was able to become the top 10 school of their local star region was because it managed to produce an honorary scholar in the Royal Academy of Sciences. It gave them the capital to boast their own worth. It was why Baelenbaatar Middle School had been looking forward to the appearance of the next honorary scholar every year. Unfortunately, a person like this hadn’t been seen yet even though a small number of students were given priority admission into several reputable schools of higher education of the empire every year.
In truth, Baelenbaatar Middle School invested more mental and physical effort into nurturing the students of commoner background over the students of noble background every year. After all, the nobles had never managed to come on up top in terms of academic results when competing against the commoners. After all, do you seriously think that a bunch of decadent noble students who only know how to dress up and chase skirts can focus their minds obediently on research? It was practically impossible.
Of course, it wasn’t right to judge everyone in the same light just because the majority of people were rotten apples. There were plenty of capable people even among nobles, and some of the members of the Royal Academy of Sciences were definitely noble born. Moreover, the Royal Academy of Sciences wasn’t a place that one could enter based on connections alone.
Intelligence wasn’t absolutely related to a person’s character just as it wasn’t absolutely related to one’s background.
The better a school was, the gentler it treated a commoner. If a person was truly capable, they would be able to enjoy equal or even better treatment compared to a noble in school.
“Yo, the battle’s about to end!” Bel said.