Listening to the Quantium-ranked Hunters in the carriage lower their opinion about her, Athena tilted her head a little shocked and spoke.
"Huh. Why does it feels like you've decided to lower your opinion of me all of a sudden... Well you're not wrong though. I do think about a lot of things, you know? For instance, we've already begun to conduct aptitude tests on the orphans in the shelters and once we get enough talents, the family would be able to secure our future even without allying with any large families and without the resources of the Great Five Magic Academies. Of course, relying on the kids that have been affected by our war for our survival is not exactly something to be proud of."
As only the Great Five possess the right and resources to create Magic Academies, it was safe to say that the other families could not properly nurture every one of their young talents as they only had the opportunity to send a handful of their very best talents to study at the magic Academies every year.
The various Magic Academies were also a place for the Great Five to secure the top talents for themselves, hence one had to be cautious of the talents they send to the academies and this usually means, only the most talented purebloods were selected each year.
The magic Academies were also a place where the young talents of lower-ranked nobles could even be poached by other large families making it an incredibly risky endeavor. Especially when those talents were from branch families that didn't bear the last name of the noble family to hold on to.
Safe to say it was incredibly difficult to nurture talents that weren't absolute geniuses without an abundance of time, resources, and tools that most families did not possess especially when those talents were mere commoners, yet this was what Athena was currently suggesting.
Perhaps in her own way, she was trying to create a new magic academy for the Jaxith family. For that, she not only needed an abundance of resources, but to get that, she would not to have already secured a number of talented children whose potential would he Worth the risk.
"No, that's actually a line of reasoning I can understand, for demons, especially demon nobles, this is actually pretty admirable if you ask me. And if you can produce results, it would be worthy of praise. That must be why you've been so interested in us Hunters for a while huh? Given as most of us did not possess the abundance of resources you nobles do, isn't that right."
Hearing Black Moon's theory, Athena's pretty face was adorned by a bitter smile as her expression soured greatly in her reply.
"I suppose I can't hide it from someone like you. Pretty cruel huh? You Hunters go through hell in order to survive out here and that's the kind of life I'm planning for those children, I must look like a monster to you right?"
"Princess..."
Bam's face immediately sank as he heard those words from his mistress. He wanted to cut in and hold her close to his chest as he tells her 'that's not true.'
He had been the one accompanying Athena over the last few months now so he knew just how hard she was working to save those survivors, especially the kids when none of the other nobles cared for them.
Her actions had even caused a stir in the castle pushing for her to be immediately married off if it wasn't for the masses rallying behind her against the corrupt nobles.
However, as her attendant, he could not overstep his bounds and say such a thing to her face. Using all of his mental fortitudes to hold himself back when suddenly.
"I don't believe that. In fact, it's the opposite, no one buys you act this naive so naturally, people are going to be suspicious if you do something without expecting anything in return."
Black Moon was a half-dark elf. His mother was a dark elf that had been a slave to one of the ranked noble families under the Jaxith authority back when other families were allowed to possess dark elves as slaves. So he was a half-demon Baron as well.
However, driven by the disgrace of tainting their so-called noble bloodline with a vile lesser being, he had been cast aside and experienced firsthand just how cruel and unfair the demon society could be which led to his now dark outlook.
However--
"Nah, Black Moon's just twisted because his heart was crushed by our devil leader."
"Yeah... It was absolutely smashed to pieces, no one besides him doubted the princess's intentions."
"Hey! Don't go bringing needless information into this. Besides, you guys are just as bad as me aren't you?"
"Certainly not. We're very pure. It's only you who has been corrupted."
"Yes, we're adorable super pure maidens."
The sisters once again made an exaggerated pose even though their expressions remained the same.
"Tsk!" That sound came out of Black Moon's mouth as he turned his head to glance out the carriage window for a moment. Causing Athena to laugh softly as she replied.
Yup, yup. To be honest, Mr. Blane was really the one who gave me the idea of building the Shelters."
"Blane? huh. Oh, you mean your new attendant, the one seated upfront. If I remember correctly he's also from Sun City, right?"
Hearing that surprising revelation, Black Moon's attention returned to Athena as he asked that question.
"You're correct. Mr. Blane is originally a part of the Brimstone family's specialized division. But he's been let go and has now chosen to work for me instead. How fortunate."
"From the Brimstone family!"
"The Brimstone family, oh my!"
The girls, Sigrid and Sigrun exclaimed in uniformed surprise as they turned to look Athena in the face with strange eyes.
"Something wrong?"
Black Moon narrowed his eyes, as though to conceal his feelings.
"No, it's nothing. We're just a little shocked that someone from one of the Great Five would choose to work under the 5th princess of a rather small noble family. Despite it being of the ruling class. I can finally see why our moronic leader has taken a sudden interest in you. "
" You flatter me, but don't you think you've been rather mean to poor Aurora?"
"Don't bother yourself about that. The boss isn't as delicate as she may appear to be. Let's just get back on topic. Can you please tell us what was Blane's reasoning behind the shelters? I can't imagine him thinking about the political side of things you mentioned earlier."
The interior of the carriage was magically soundproofed, so even with Blane being only a few meters ahead, in front of the carriage, it would be impossible for their words to reach his ears unless one decided to use magic, which can easily be sensed by almost everyone in this carriage.
"His reasoning was simple and I expanded on his idea. Basically, the reason families like mine are unable to grow and contend with the likes of the Great Five is that we cling to the ideals and tradition of ancient times, especially families like mine."
"Oh, you mean..."
"Precisely. The nobles in this world from the demon, elven, or even the human continent consider themselves superior to the mass and as such, are unable to seek their salvation from the common folks. No matter how pure our genes are, like me, the chances of producing any true protege on the level of the Greats is minuscule, practically almost impossible."
"I see. So that means because the demon nobilities shun lower-ranked races and condemn their strength even when great, they are forever doomed to remain under the shadow of the Five Greats. Is that right?"
"That's correct and may also be the intention of the Five Greats in order to maintain the status quo for the time being."
"Really? Isn't this the same with the Great Five? After all, they are even stricter with the traditions of purebloods."
" Well, you're not wrong there, but the fact is, the Great Five have found a way to bypass this by use of the magic institutes and Magic Academies. Not only are they now able to nurture a vast array of their nobilities, rather than leave their education to each branch of the family and household. They are now also selecting talented commoners to bolster up their forces from the outside."
" So that's it. I never went to the magic academy but they did try recruiting me once. Makes sense. However, how is this related to the shelters?"
"That's simple, the shelter offers an orphanage home to kids that have lost their parents and adults that lost their homes and families can also work there. Naturally, as long as we can gather a vast number of them and nurture them even crudely, there should be quite a few truly gifted ones amongst them that would be welcomed into the outer family."
Hearing Athena's words made Black Moon's eyes widen. He already guessed what her plan was earlier but not even he could imagine the scale at which she was intended. In other for this plan to make any significant progress for the Jaxith family, a large number of children had to be brutally trained at once so as to flush out their hidden potential before any resources could be wasted on them.
"Holy shit. To think everyone thinks you're just another pretty face for the Jaxith family."
"Really, I'm flattered."
" That was not my intention."
" I'm aware.".
'This girl.'
A cold chill ran across the entirety of Black Moon's body as he stared at Athena, confusing Bam at the sudden shift in the atmosphere.
" Say, the next time I'm headed to the shelter, I would appreciate it if any of you would accompany me."
"Oh no, no, no, I'm hardly that perceptive,"
"Oh no, no, no, I'm hardly that perceptive,"
Sigrun and Sigrid said simultaneously and continued as they turned to their friend. "How about you, Moon?"
"You can't discern magical potential at a glance. At the very least, they'll need to use the guild's Magic orb to be able to estimate their magic potential but that won't tell you if they can actually use magic or are more suited towards melee combat."
"Hence, they'll still have to go through a lot of hellish training before I can roughly understand what aspect of magic they're attuned to or if they'll be better off as magic swordsmen, warriors, or rogues. Of course, this only applies to a few as there are aspects of magic I am unfamiliar with especially if they're atunned with Bizarre Magic."
For Athena, without the aid of a magic academy as they were unable to finance such a venture. What families like theirs needed desperately was a sudden influence of talent and willing teachers to nurture them to have value in negotiating a favorable alliance with any of the Five Greats.
For her, even just locating a handful of kids with high-tiered magic potential was enough to turn the tide of negotiation even without sending the kids on any dangerous missions.
The problem lies in the rather high possibility of only finding kids with average magic potential at best. As the talents of skilled warriors were not as easy to learn as magic potential, the kids would be forced to undergo rather harsh training before being sent to the wild to attain first-rate experience and skills to help increase their value to the family as their potential alone would not be enough.
Currently, they would be lucky if becoming a vassal family was the worst thing that would happen to them at the end of this war. As a matter of fact, becoming a vassal to a larger family wasn't even a bad thing for them. The true terror lies in the conditions of such an outcome. Controlling that condition in her favor was what Athena was truly after despite that being only a part of her plans.
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