Red brick ground, cloister-style corridors, elegant fountains, noble white marble sculptures, and four three-story buildings painted off-white.
This was the most renowned academy among the seven nations on the Corfu Continent. Countless nobles from the seven nations, whether wealthy earls, noble dukes, or supreme kings, would send their second sons to this academy.
It could be said that being able to enter this academy was, in itself, a mark of a high-ranking noble's child.
Children of minor and middle-class nobles needed strict requirements to enter this academy; they had to achieve good results in horsemanship, swordsmanship, linguistics, history, and philosophy.
The students in this academy were either extremely wealthy and noble, or exceptionally outstanding.
And within Aoleiliang Academy, today was the day for the entrance assessment of the new season's students.
Many people had already left the academy, filled with regret and immense disappointment.
Either they failed the assessment, or their identity verification did not pass, and they were directly rejected by Aoleiliang Academy.
Meanwhile, the older students stood in the academy's corridors, watching the dejected expressions on the faces of those who had failed the academy's assessment, with a mixture of three parts disdain and seven parts schadenfreude.
One of the older students said to his companions, "These low-level nobles and country bumpkins actually want to enter this academy."
"They must be crazy. Can they even afford the annual tuition of thousands of gold coins?"
"Do they really think Aoleiliang Academy accepts just any trash?"
This person deliberately spoke in front of the failures, and those who had not passed the assessment all showed expressions of inferiority and fear.
They all knew the reputation of Aoleiliang Academy, so no one dared to retort.
Locke Augustine, also a third-year student at Aoleiliang Academy, frowned.
When Kohen Julian saw Locke frown, he immediately turned around and looked at him unhappily. "But, there are some dead rats mixed in among us too."
"Locke Augustine, you're still in our academy. I heard that our country, the Frank Empire, has already captured the capital of your Anjou Kingdom, and your Augustine Family's territory has also fallen."
"Can you still afford this year's academy tuition?"
Kohen Julian and his two fat lackeys had expressions of schadenfreude on their faces.
"Your king has died in battle, and your country is gone."
Locke didn't expect this idiot to suddenly turn his guns on him and raised an eyebrow.
Kohen Julian and his lackeys were all nobles from the Frank Empire; the Julian Family was an Earl family of the Frank Empire.
And he… or rather, the original owner, was the youngest son of an Earl from the Anjou Kingdom.
Therefore, Julian usually did not get along with the original owner and often went head-to-head with him.
At this moment, hearing that the Augustine Family had met with misfortune, he naturally would mock him.
As usual, he should have argued with him, and then, because his country was in a predicament, he would have fallen into a disadvantage and been severely mocked by Julian.
But at this moment, Locke was a transmigrator; he had no feelings for the Anjou Kingdom or the Augustine territory, so he naturally wouldn't be provoked.
So, Locke shrugged his shoulders and looked at Julian and his lackeys. "So what does that prove?"
Julian and his lackeys, not seeing the expected rage and loss of composure from Locke, were all stunned for a moment.
They had been slightly deflated.
This made Julian's mood gloomy for a while, but soon he looked at Locke with malice, pointing at the minor nobles and commoner children participating in the academy's assessment. "You'll soon be just like them."
"The tuition for Aoleiliang Academy, just the basic fees, is over a thousand gold coins, and taking even one course costs hundreds of gold coins. If you don't take enough courses, or if you don't pay your tuition, you will be expelled."
"Locke, I'm really looking forward to the day you, this stray dog, are kicked out of the academy."
"By then, I hope you don't beg me with your tail between your legs to take you in. I've specially reserved a guard job for you."
"Hahahaha…"
Julian left with his lackeys.
Locke, on the other hand, looked at him with a puzzled expression, without much emotional fluctuation, but rather felt that those three Franks were somewhat incredibly brainless.
This inexplicable behavior, as if making things difficult for him had some benefit, could only mean that the students in this academy were somewhat mentally ill.
That's right, Locke, who had just transmigrated to this world two weeks ago, had already figured out the essence of Aoleiliang Academy.
To put it nicely, this academy was an institution that gathered the second sons of high-ranking nobles and outstanding youths from all seven countries on the entire continent, but its essence was merely a finishing school for high-ranking nobles.
Those nobles spent exorbitant tuition fees each year, throwing some unpromising non-heirs into this academy, just to give them a veneer of prestige and find a place to house them, preventing these individuals from causing trouble all day long.
Consequently, the curriculum of this academy was quite bizarre; on one hand, there were language courses costing one hundred gold coins per semester, and on the other hand, extremely lenient course requirements.
Recruiting outstanding individuals from minor nobles and commoners was merely to add a layer of brilliance to the academy's resume.
In fact, most of the students in this academy were second-generation nobles with mediocre aptitudes, so no teacher would teach very seriously.
But contrary to the mediocre teaching quality, the tuition and course fees here were incredibly expensive.
Ridiculously expensive!
And Locke himself, who was the original owner, was once one of the many mediocre second-generation nobles in this academy.
But Locke took a deep breath; he was truly unlucky.
He originally thought that transmigrating to become the youngest son of an Earl would mean a life of comfort and ease, where he could just drift along and enjoy life. Who knew that his country would fall?
His family had gone bankrupt.
"The family hasn't sent anyone to contact me yet," Locke mused. "But I imagine no one will pay my tuition for this semester. Without tuition, I'll definitely be kicked out of the academy."
"Leaving the academy will be very dangerous outside."
"The Franks are capturing Anjou people everywhere."
"Even though I'm safe in the academy, as soon as I leave, I'll likely encounter many dangers."
"Such expensive tuition cannot possibly be earned through part-time work or frugality."
Locke rubbed his head in distress, while simultaneously looking at the heradic synthesis cube, a synthesis panel that only he could see, floating in the void before him.
This heradic synthesis cube was his golden finger for transmigrating here.
In his previous life, while playing [Gods and Magic], he was struck by lightning for winning too much, and as a result, he transmigrated with the super artifact from that game.
This cube could synthesize different materials based on his character level, upgrading low-level materials to high-level ones.
In the game, it was originally a super artifact for alchemy, herbalism, and Magical Potionist, but who would have thought he would bring it over?
At this moment, this virtual cube was emitting a luxurious stream of light, and next to it was a virtual hourglass. According to the speed of the sand falling in the hourglass, in one hour, the three sapphire fragments he placed in the cube would be successfully synthesized!
Locke looked at the synthesis cube and said, "Now I'll see what happens when these three sapphire fragments are synthesized. Only then will I know my next step."
"Moreover, according to the original owner's memory, there's another strange thing about this academy."
Because Aoleiliang Academy was essentially a place for second-generation nobles to gain prestige, the standards for graduation and course completion were extremely simple, and the teachers generally didn't bother them much.
They let these students do whatever they wanted, but there was one standard in this academy that was extremely high, and no teacher would fudge it—the quota for outstanding graduates!
This quota for outstanding graduates seemed to involve some very important interests; even the children of powerful nobles in the academy, no matter how much money they used or how much power they exerted, could not obtain this quota.
Furthermore, the number of outstanding graduate quotas the academy could grant each year was generally only in the single digits.
It was said that only by obtaining the review and certification of specific teachers and the dean of the academy could one acquire this quota.
But no one could clearly explain the specific conditions and standards for obtaining this quota.
However, Locke, as a transmigrator from Blue Star who had taken over the body of a second-generation good-for-nothing, discovered from an overarching perspective that Aoleiliang Academy might not just be an academy for second-generation nobles to gain prestige; the academy itself might exist because of these outstanding graduate quotas.
He tried hard to search his memory and found that, for some unknown reason, no information about the outstanding graduates of Aoleiliang Academy was released each year, so no one knew exactly who had obtained this quota.