Chapter 25: This Grilled Corn is Pretty Good

Chapter 25: This Grilled Corn is Pretty Good

If someone were to ask you what the tastiest food you’ve ever eaten is, the former Aierjisi would surely say the potato chips she had in an air-conditioned room without hesitation. But now, her answer would definitely be grilled corn eaten in this cold weather.

“Mmm, this grilled corn is spot on! It’s been ages since I had grilled corn. I remember the last time I had it was back in college during a farewell dinner with a few classmates.”

Thinking back to that last corn experience, Aierjisi couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic. She wondered how her “sons” were doing; it’s been such a long time since she’d contacted them. Even if she wanted to now, she couldn’t reach them.

“What’s a farewell dinner? What’s college?”

Yake listened to the Little Princess, perplexed by all these new words he’d never heard before. He couldn’t help but be curious about what life on Earth was like. Compared to this world, was life on Earth truly better or worse?

“A farewell dinner? It’s when a small team disbands and they go out to eat together to commemorate the team. It’s called a farewell dinner. Don’t you have that custom here?”

“Nope. We’ve never had anything like a farewell dinner here. You know, as adventurers, we often team up with random people. If we had to celebrate every time we left a team, that would be a hassle.”

“Well, that’s true, I didn’t think about that. Wait, isn’t there a school or something in this world?”

At that moment, Aierjisi realized—yeah! She had been in this world for nearly two months, yet she had never seen anything resembling a school.

“School? If you mean an academy, then yes, we have those. But for commoners like me, it’s basically impossible to get in.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The academy? That’s a place only the children of nobles can attend. The tuition fees are ridiculously high. Even if a commoner struggles their whole life, they wouldn’t be able to gather that amount for tuition.”

Yake had thought about sending Xier to school, but just looking at the tuition fees made him back off. The costs were outrageous; even as an adventurer, he could never earn that much money in a lifetime.

“Are the tuition fees really that high? How much are we talking about?”

Hearing Yake’s words, Aierjisi became very curious about just how expensive the tuition was.

“About a year’s tuition is roughly this much.”

Yake extended his right hand, fully spread his five fingers. This represented the yearly tuition fees for the academy.

“5 gold coins? That’s quite expensive! I thought it would at most be 50 silver coins.”

Seeing Yake’s five fingers, Aierjisi was taken aback by this exorbitant tuition. 5 gold coins a year? That was definitely something a commoner couldn’t afford.

But little did she know, what really shocked her was Yake’s next words.

“5 gold coins? You really have a beautifully naive imagination.”

Yake shook his head, negating Aierjisi’s prior assumption.

“What? So the yearly tuition is actually more than that?”

Aierjisi was astonished. Could 5 gold coins really not cover even a year’s tuition?

“Of course not. The tuition is about 50 gold coins a year.”

“Holy moly! Are you serious? 50 gold coins a year? That’s highway robbery!”

Upon hearing that the school’s tuition for a year was 50 gold coins, Aierjisi could no longer contain herself. What kind of ridiculous school was this? To charge so much money in a year? The principal must be using that money to buy luxury cars or something!

“You find it hard to believe, huh? To be honest, I was shocked the first time I heard it too. Just the yearly tuition costing so many gold coins—let alone the tuition for four years! Only the nobles can afford that kind of expense.”

“Now that you mention it, that tuition is truly something a common household could never handle.”

Aierjisi realized that for those living on the lower rungs of society, dreaming of providing their children with a good education in the face of such steep tuition was a wish they wouldn’t dare to entertain.

Looking at it this way, life on her Earth didn’t seem too shabby. At least everyone there had the opportunity to receive education. Hmm.

“Alright, that’s enough wandering for now, let’s head back. Yake, do you want to stick around here a bit longer?”

After finishing her grilled corn, Aierjisi casually tossed the cob into a nearby trash can. There wasn’t much else to do, and it was time to head back to the Royal Palace to think about strategies against Diablo.

“I don’t think so. There’s really nothing worth looking at. If you hadn’t wanted to come out, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

Yake spread his arms, indicating he had no interest in buying anything or checking out any place.

“Hey, what do you mean by that? Are you saying I’ve made it a hassle for you to come out?”

The way Yake put it seemed to indicate his dissatisfaction with her.

“That’s not it. It’s just…”

As Yake started to explain, he suddenly fell silent, unsure about what to say. If he spoke his mind, it would definitely make the Little Princess upset.

“Just what? Come on, keep going!”

“It’s nothing. I just wanted to say my previous words didn’t mean that.”

“What did your earlier statement mean then? Please, explain it to me!”

“I don’t want to explain! Just know it’s not what you think it is.”

“I refuse to accept that! You’ve got to explain what you meant by that statement!”

“I really don’t want to explain. If I have to, it’s basically… since you left the Royal Palace, as your servant, I had to follow you out. That’s what I meant. I came out with you without any intention to buy anything or to visit anywhere interesting. Now that you’re going back, that’s perfect.”

Yake couldn’t win this argument with the Little Princess and finally gave in to clarify what he meant.

“Okay, fair enough. Next time I go out, I’ll try to go alone. Seriously, Yake, if you didn’t want to come out with me, you could have just said so! If you don’t speak up, how am I supposed to know what you’re thinking? Honestly, if you have any concerns next time, just let me know and I’ll consider them.”

Aierjisi nudged Yake’s side with her elbow, expressing her irritation.

“I just didn’t want to make you angry, that’s all.”

“I wouldn’t be petty enough to get upset over stuff like that!”