Chapter 159 The Whereabouts of the Divine Weapon
One hundred thousand gold?
Commotion broke out in the conference room.
How much was a hundred thousand gold? Even Fang Xingjian's monthly allowance was a mere fifty gold, and the academy's monthly expenditure was also around ten thousand gold. A hundred thousand gold was almost one year's worth of expenditures for the academy!
This was equivalent to increasing Kirst Academy's budget by twofold. How many more cultivation resources could they purchase? How much more could the instructors’ salaries and bonuses be increased? How much more training equipment and how many more facilities could they upgrade?
This was simply a tremendous sum of money. And faced with this, how many of them could be nonchalant?
Especially when it meant that they were using capital from the commoners for the academy's facilities, and were not asking the country for resources. This was something the Commissioner of Education had always been advocating. Moreover, a hundred thousand gold was a large sum to be included in his political achievements.
And with the hundred thousand gold coming in, it was as if Edger had reign over half the academy's budget. With this, his words had gained more weight.
At this moment, Edger was feeling extremely complacent, as if he had gotten back all the reputation he had previously lost. He appeared to be in high spirits, as if he had been reborn.
The expressions of everyone present changed, even Jackson's. He looked at Edger with a grim face and slowly said, "Yellowstone Trade Association? Why have I not heard of this trade association before?"
Edger smiled and said, "This is a newly set up trade association, created by a few aristocrats from the Imperial Capital. I've had an enjoyable discussion with them. They've just came to Kirst and would like to make a contribution towards Kirst's development."
Of course, no one believed in this gibberish. In fact, although the ones behind the Yellowstone Trade Association were but a few aristocrats from the Imperial Capital, they were all down and out. The true source of their capital was from Green Jade’s Aroron Clan, where Cynthia hailed from.
As Cynthia and her husband Zakov had both died by Fang Xingjian's hands, obviously, the Aroron Clan held a grudge against Fang Xingjian.
Especially their clan head Frank, Cynthia's younger brother. He had been practically brought up by Cynthia, and her existence had not only been a sister to him, but a mother as well. He regarded Cynthia as his most respected elder.
If not for this, in no way would Cynthia have grown to be a character of such arrogance.
'He killed my elder sister, my closest kin! This beast, this a*shole... How could he be so cold-blooded? How could he have done something so terrible?
'What's going to happen to my sister's children? Her youngest daughter is only twelve years old. How am I going to tell her that her mother has been killed by a commoner, a gangster, a beast?'
Fang Xingjian had killed Cynthia. For him, it was equivalent of having killed his mother. How could he not be angry? How could he not wish for revenge?
However, Tresia's problem had been placed before him, and the association was also monitoring it. As the clan head, Frank could not be as rash and ignorant like Cynthia and Rebecca. Therefore, the method he chose was one related to money.
For the first step, he took out one hundred thousand gold, sold out part of his assets and got two aristocratic clans which were down and out to set up a trade association. He then donated the money to Kirst Royal Academy.
Of course, there was no way that the one hundred thousand gold would be offered in one go. Rather, all forms of sponsorships and investments were given in installments.
And through each of these installments, he planned to gradually get the rights to speak up in matters concerning Kirst Royal Academy.
He wanted to slowly ostracize Fang Xingjian, to turn him from a talented student into a normal student, and eventually a student who was lagging behind all the others. He even hoped that Fang Xingjian would eventually become an assistant instructor, or be driven out of the academy. He wanted to push Fang Xingjian into a corner, slowly ostracizing him, and eventually have him killed in the shadows, without anyone knowing anything.
For example, it could be a smelly ditch in the commoner district, the back alley of some small restaurant, or a corner in a small forest.
Of course, throughout this whole process, he would have to invest a lot of time and money. But if he could avenge his sister, he did not care about these.
Of course, he would not simply give them the money. In view of a stronger say in the Prefectural Academy, he could of course use this to get some profits.
And this time, naturally, the hundred thousand gold investment came with the attached condition that Edger would be the one to call the shots.
Edger looked towards the Headmaster and said confidently, "As long as I'm the one supervising the academy's finances, they would be willing to donate this sum of money to us, in installments. Headmaster, I hope that you can, for the academy's future, temporarily stop interfering with the academy's finances and let us be fair to the other students."
Edger was very confident, not because he had ganged up together with Frank, nor because he had one hundred thousand gold worth of bargaining chips. Neither because of Fang Xingjian's failure, nor because of Jackson's mistake.
All these were just superficial setbacks. His true trump card was Jackson himself.
'Jackson, you are truly an outstanding Headmaster, one who would give up on your own future for the students, sacrifice your own cultivation time, and even dig out money from your own pocket.
'But it's also because of this that your weakness is too obvious.
'For the sake of this one hundred thousand gold, you'll definitely agree to this arrangement.
'It's because the whole academy is much more important to you than Fang Xingjian is.'
Jackson thought about it for very long before he slowly sighed and said, "Can I have a talk with the chairperson of the Yellowstone Trade Association?"
Edger smiled, "Of course." 'That fellow is merely a puppet. No matter how touching your story is, he definitely won’t agree to your request.'
"Headmaster, after the conference, I'll make arrangements for you to meet up with Yellowstone Trade Association's chairperson. There's another thing I want to bring up. The Superior Remains Divine Weapons forged by Governor Devitt for our academy is already on its way here. But with regards to whom this Remains Divine Weapon is to be assigned to..."
Jackson frowned and said, "How do you know about this?"
Edger smiled and did not reply. He merely said, "Although in name this Superior Remains Divine Weapons belongs to Fang Xingjian, we all know of Fang Xingjian's current situation. It's not suitable for him to own such a Divine Weapon. To a person who's blind, owning such a Divine Weapon does not only pose a danger to himself, but to the people around him as well."
"The materials for this Superior Remains Divine Weapon all came from Huang Lin and Kirst's City Lord." Jackson glared at Edger and said, "We have no rights over it."
"I know. I just want to say that giving this Divine Weapon to Fang Xingjian is a waste both to him and to us." He smiled and continued, "Therefore, I hope to borrow this Divine Weapon from him. Erm... How about paying him ten gold per day? What do you think? Of course, we'll pay everything after the Regional Selection is over. Before that, there're too many things that we need to spend for, so I hope that Fang Xingjian can understand this.
"After all, the Regional Selection is just four months away. We need to find all the means to increase our students' battle prowess. If this Superior Remains Divine Weapon is loaned to Hamil or Ralph, it can increase their chances in getting through the Regional Selection."
This price was not considered expensive, but it was not cheap either. Seeing that the other instructors had no objections and were nodding in agreement, Jackson closed his eyes. However, he could not find any reason to reject this proposal.
Edger smiled, thinking to himself, 'This sum of money... Hmph hmph... Do you really think that I'll pay? We'll push it back for a few months until the Regional Selection is over. With me in control, who will still remember the blind lad then?
'Jackson, the reputation that you've made me lose in the past... I'll get it back slowly but surely.'
...
On the other hand, Kirst's City Lord had also arrived at the academy. Looking at Lilia who was busy running around like a maid, pain flashed in his eyes.
He pulled her aside in a corner and asked coldly, "Why are you still staying here?"
"I want to take care of teacher," Lilia said stubbornly. "Teacher is now blind. I can't leave him alone like this."
"He needs you to take care of him?" Kirst's City Lord spoke in exasperation. "There are only four months left before the Prefectural Selection. Look at what you've been up to!"
Lilia lowered her head, and weakly replied, "I've decided not to participate in the upcoming Prefectural Selection."
"What did you say?!" Kirst's City Lord glared with eyes as big as a cow's and asked, "You won't be participating in the Prefectural Selection? Just for this blind man? He's already crippled! Do you understand that? Are you going to let him hold you back for life?"