The Warlord of Yeouido, Han Gyeong-su, once said:
Politicians are people who, even when they can do everything, play weak as though they cannot do a thing.
And conversely, even when they cannot do anything, they make demands as though they can do it all.
"I'd like to hear exactly what you mean by that, interviewee number 101."
"Exactly what you heard, ma'am."
At the moment, I was in the position of having come to beg for academy tuition because I did not have fifty gold to my name.
That was why, before the Imperial Patronage Association, I had inflated my value as much as I could and made demands.
"If the Imperial Patronage Association does not sponsor me, then I will be forced to accept an offer from the nobility or another patronage association."
Of course, it was bullshit.
I did not so much as have a connection to another patronage association. They probably did not even know I existed, having only possessed this body yesterday.
But the Imperial Patronage Association interviewers seated before me did not know that either.
'Who I am or where I came from.'
Therefore, I had the advantage.
It was common sense that a member of parliament was stronger than a civil servant.
Chapter 01 - Damn, Possessors Need Money
The place you run to is paradise, and giving up is comfortable.
Illegitimate children, bastards, and so on.
Was that not the first feeling felt by those who came to the academy?
The patriarch who had treated them as a nuisance, the royal family who had looked at them with contempt, even the servants and maids who had quietly mocked them.
Having escaped the prison called their home territory.
Simply seeing the faces of their 'comrades,' who were in much the same position, would surely feel delightful and warm.
Intoxicated by the relief of feeling safe for the first time in their lives, they would fully enjoy four years of fixed-term freedom.
But as Dr. Jirobo's research had found, one out of every five gathered together was bound to be an elite.
Even in a slop bucket like the academy—a trash-tier capital college—there were mutants who came to their senses and prepared for the future as rarely as beans in a drought.
They realized that four years were not long at all, and from the moment they entered, they desperately honed their abilities.
The Imperial Patronage Association was an evil organization that tempted such innocent people with scholarships and corrupted them into civil servants.
And if the Emperor did it, the nobles, churches, mage towers, and merchant guilds did too.
They had to, if they wanted to snatch even one more bite of the cake that was power.
That was how they could scout talent to their own side, naturally weakening imperial authority, if only a little.
On top of that, while one's own bastard was a shame, collecting other people's bastards carried a certain appeal of its own.
The nobles, churches, mage towers, and merchant guilds that were doing well in the Empire.
The so-called NCMG all maintained a patronage association in the capital, using larger scholarships to poach talented people worth having.
That was why Marta Inglebert, an interviewer for the Imperial Patronage Association, could not help doubting her ears.
"Did we hear that correctly just now……?"
"Ho ho. I had heard that young people these days lacked common sense, but this is utterly absurd."
Everyone in the interview room, not just her, wore a similar expression and shared the same thoughts.
He had come to an Imperial Patronage Association interview and openly brought up another patronage association?
He was insane, shameless, or both.
But judging by the confident expression on interviewee number 101, Lloyd Schultz, he did not appear to be insane, at least.
'Then that statement was not a mistake?'
What was the point of fostering academy students gathered from all over the Empire with such trouble?
The moment they showed a little promise, the NCMG lured them away to their territories with higher salaries and better benefits than civil service positions offered.
Yet they could not force graduates of the academy to take civil service jobs.
The NCMG, which paid their enormous tuition fees, would never agree to that.
That was why the Imperial Patronage Association strove to retain talent, even if it meant handing out as many scholarships as possible.
That strategy worked quite well.
Students whose pockets were tight, or who had realized that the support money their families sent could be cut off at any time, came knocking at the Imperial Patronage Association's door.
And if the Emperor did it? Naturally, the NCMG followed suit.
Why wait until academy students had fully matured into graduates? They could just stake a claim on them with scholarships.
Naturally, the scholarships handed out by the various patronage associations were not free money.
They were a promise that, upon graduation, the student would work for that side.
That was why bringing up Association B at Association A was an unspoken taboo.
Openly bringing up another patronage association.
It was no different from a mere student—the weaker party—declaring that he was testing the waters with a patronage association, the party with the upper hand.
In most cases, the party with money held the upper hand, and the sponsor-student relationship was no different.
"If possible, I would like to establish a good relationship with the Imperial Patronage Association."
And yet, even though Marta had subtly given him an opportunity to correct his words, Lloyd Schultz maintained his confident attitude to the very end.
'……What is he plotting?'
At this point, she was beginning to feel curious rather than angry.
Exactly what talent did he possess to say something like that so confidently?
Until now, most students Marta had assessed had fallen into one of two categories.
Either they were so servile that it pained the observer to watch them, or they were so arrogant that there was no helping them.
'Neither type is likely to receive a good evaluation.'
The students in the first group were desperate, but lacked the ability to walk a tightrope.
Those in the latter group knew how to be brazen, but could not look at themselves objectively.
But Lloyd, astonishingly, was maintaining an exquisite balance between the two.
'Saying that he will go to the Nobles' Patronage Association if we do not sponsor him means that he understands the competitive dynamic between patronage associations perfectly.'
He had only mentioned another patronage association because he had no choice, but he wanted the Imperial Patronage Association to keep him.
Brazen but not arrogant, testing the waters yet leaving open room for acceptance.
He had even managed to pack all those nuances tightly into just two remarks.
For a student who had not even entered the academy yet, it was an extraordinarily polished way of speaking.
'No. There is still no evidence to support his words.'
Marta stopped herself from nodding without realizing it.
Lloyd's way of speaking was certainly admirable, but that alone was not enough to select him as a scholarship recipient.
Interviewee No. 101: Lloyd Schultz's Personal Information
Keeping her expression in check, she rapidly flipped through the documents with her fingers.
'His parents were retired civil servants and honorary court nobles, but died of old age. He is expected to enter the academy through the special admissions track for long-serving civil servants' children……. Is that all?'
Unfortunately, the documents did not answer her questions.
No, they only deepened them.
He was neither an illegitimate child nor a bastard of a hereditary noble with formidable power, nor did he have a vast fortune to inherit.
Much less did he have an influential anonymous sponsor attached to him in a suspicious manner.
The documents he had submitted were no more than those of an utterly ordinary 'Prospective Academy Student No. 1.'
"Interviewee number 101. No, Lloyd Schultz."
Marta raised her cold gaze from the documents toward him.
Like the edge of a sharp blade.
"Do you know that you are attempting a very dangerous tightrope walk?"
At Lloyd Schultz, who had dared come to the Imperial Patronage Association and try such outrageous testing of the waters.
***
'Perfect.'
When people had nothing to say, they got angry or threatened the other person.
And right now, Marta Inglebert, the interviewer for the Imperial Patronage Association, had anger brimming in her voice.
The other interviewers were also wearing vicious expressions, as though I had been plotting a rebellion.
That was practically proof that my bluff had worked.
I had often had similar experiences when I was Representative Han Gyeong-su's secretary.
During the National Assembly audit season, when I requested materials related to a budget proposal, or when I dealt with civic groups receiving government support.
Whenever I said anything, they would shoot back sharp answers like Dobermans.
When I was a rookie, I was often flustered.
'Is this really right? I am a lawmaker's secretary. A slave of the highest-tier lord among all lords.'
Whenever that happened, a senior aide would smile like an immortal and reply with ease.
- Ah, I see.
- Really?
- And the name of the person speaking now is……?
Then every one of the people who had been snapping at me like Dobermans would turn as gentle as a lamb.
After lightly twisting the wrists of those civil servants and civic group executives, the senior aide pushed up his glasses and told me:
- Do not raise your voice with those people.
- Pardon?
- Barking dogs do not bite.
That day, I realized that it was possible to get drunk not only on a lawmaker's power, but on an aide's power as well.
'Thinking back, maybe that was the day I began dreaming of becoming a member of parliament?'
Anyway.
The sharp reactions from Marta and the other interviewers were a green light for the scholarship.
If my bluff that I would join another patronage association unless they gave me a scholarship had not worked, they would not be dragging things out like this. They would have thrown me out immediately.
'They must be worried that I might be a genuine talent who has already been promised a scholarship by another patronage association.'
Whether in reality or in <Jjam Academy>, civil servants fundamentally did not want to create responsibilities for themselves.
'How do I know? I have been through it.'
This was big data based on memories of Yeouido and my experience playing the Chancellor seed in <Jjam Academy>.
Their passive skill was to protect themselves as much as possible, following the manual to the letter so that, even if a problem emerged later, they could claim, 'It does not seem to be my fault?'
Otherwise, they would be rocket-delivered to a dungeon cell or the block before the guillotine.
To people like that, my bringing up another patronage association at an Imperial Patronage Association interview made me an obvious irregularity.
I could say with certainty that no Imperial Patronage Association manual had a method for dealing with a situation like this.
They were in a position where they could not openly throw me out, but neither could they simply believe me.
'Why? Because they might have to take sole responsibility for it later.'
If I broke down the academy's front gate, enrolled, proved my talent, then immediately got a job in another territory upon graduation.
They could end up facing an outcome like, 'Who the hell interviewed Lloyd Schultz back then?! Is sitting at a desk and working as an interviewer that easy? You bastards are slacking off……. Starting tomorrow, you are miners.'
But I could not relax just yet.
After all, I was the one who still had to win the scholarship.
It was true that they could not do anything to me right away, but it was also an undeniable fact that they were wary of me.
That was why I had to break down their wariness.
"Interviewer Marta Inglebert."
"I am listening."
The first step was raising the stakes of my bluff.
"Through some means, I plan to secure not only the academy tuition, but a full scholarship for all four years."
That was not a lie.
I could not attend an academy that cost fifty gold a term—fifty million won—for four years with my own money.
I was in a position where I had to draw in 'other people's money' by any means necessary.
But 'through some means' did not necessarily mean I would receive sponsorship from another patronage association.
It was neither a lie nor a fact, the essence of a lawmaker's way of speaking.
That was why I could keep an utterly innocent and confident expression.
"This truly is absurd."
Marta Inglebert let out a laugh as though she could not believe it.
"I agree with Interviewer Inglebert."
"I think Interviewee Lloyd Schultz needs to learn some basic manners before receiving a scholarship."
Like sparrows directed by a pointing finger, the other interviewers began pecking at me.
It was an exceedingly satisfying reaction.
The moment someone got angry at me was incredibly thrilling. It meant they could not refute what I said.
'I think my senior aide passed on a strange taste to me, though…….'
At the same time, I could be certain.
'Ah, they do not know.'
That they had no real information about me.
"Interviewers, I like money very much."
So I continued speaking, preparing to bring things to a climax.
Wind-Release Mouth Jutsu could be countered if you gave your opponent time to collect himself.
You had to press forward without giving him time to collect himself.
"You may condemn me as truly vulgar, but I cannot deny it. In this harsh world, with even my parents gone, how am I supposed to stand on my own? I have no choice but to borrow the power of gold."
Just as the NCMG poached talent raised by the Emperor, the Emperor struggled to poach the NCMG's talent whenever he had the chance.
That was because the Solarian Empire was not a powerful centralized state.
Outside the capital and the directly ruled territories, it was a collection of territories with such strong autonomy that one could practically consider them separate countries.
To put it in real-world terms, it was something like the Seoul Emperor, Gyeonggi Direct Rule, Gangwon Border Marquisate, and Busan Duchy.
Thus, poaching another side's talent.
"Fortunately enough."
Did not simply mean gaining one talented person.
"Someone thought highly of my insignificant talent. They even said they would willingly invest in me for the future."
It also naturally came with the effect of weakening another faction.
That was why Marta and the interviewers before me could not dare refuse.
"Therefore, I intend to sell my future."
Perhaps, really, just maybe.
'The NCMG might have promised to sponsor me.'
They could not ignore my proposal.
"Nevertheless, I am a patriotic young man whose love for the Empire boils over."
"Patrio……what did you say?"
"This patriotic young man, Lloyd Schultz!!!"
"You startled me!"
"As a native of the capital, born and raised here! I grew up watching both my parents devote their entire lives to His Majesty the Emperor and the Empire as civil servants!"
Not a single civil servant in the world could turn a blind eye to the 'achievement' of poaching a scholarship student from another patronage association.
"Then how could I possibly sell my future to another patronage association rather than the Imperial Patronage Association over a few measly gold coins?!"
"I-Is that so?"
"Now that I hear it, it does seem to make some sense……?"
In speeches to voters, facts did not matter in the least.
What mattered was sheer force.
'I am stronger than you.'
You had to prove that before you could receive even a single vote.
And the Imperial Patronage Association interview room was no different.
Marta Inglebert, Interviewer 1, Interviewer 2.
There were three voters in all.
Compared to shouting and dancing atop a truck before thousands or tens of thousands of people, it was laughably easy.
"Therefore, I will make a forceful demand of you, interviewers!"
Not a request, but a demand.
Because a golden-badge holder only bowed his head to an unbadged person to gain momentum.
"Please do not turn your backs on my patriotism."
Give me a scholarship.
"So that I may entrust my future to His Majesty the Emperor and the Empire!"
Anyway, sponsor me.
"And so that together, we may create a better Empire!"
If you do not, I will go join an anti-Emperor patronage association?
Hey, hey, I am really going?