New World, New Life: I Became A Bigshot In The Ancient World
Chapter 90: BEEFS AND GRUDGES?— A LOVE RIVALRY

Chapter 90: BEEFS AND GRUDGES?— A LOVE RIVALRY

"The former patriarch of the Winston Duchy?" Vasily asked with slightly furrowed brows.

When Aristia nodded in confirmation, Vasily began. "The Winston Duchy’s current head is Duke Artem Winston. His father, the former patriarch of the Winston Duchy, is Lord Patrick Winston."

"Does the former head of the Winston Duchy have a good relationship with the former patriarch of the Eldridge Marquisate?" Aristia asked curiously, even though she greatly doubted it.

She was interested in knowing this ever since she had noticed the exchange of glares between the two former heads of the Winston and Eldridge families.

Viscountess Vasily shook her head in answer to her question.

"They don’t." She looked around and leaned forward, closer to Aristia like she wanted to share some gossip. "They’ve never had a cordial relationship." She added in a low gossipy tone.

She knew that Aristia had witnessed the exchange of glares between the two former heads and would nonetheless be curious.

She wasn’t planning on withholding any information anyway, so she revealed.

"When the two Lords were still young and unmarried, they had never had a pleasant relationship with each other. However, their relationship worsened when they were about to get engaged."

Aristia listened with keen interest, feeling even more interested at Vasily’s clearly exaggerated display of secrecy.

"Duke Patrick Winston and Marquis Lewis Eldridge had both wanted the hand of Lady Louisa in marriage. In the end, Lady Louisa chose Marquis Eldridge. This caused the Duke’s rivalry with the Marquis to develop even further."

Aristia nodded in understanding. "Then, what about their wives?"

Vasily continued, "Duke Winston had to enter a marriage with Lady Odelia Essylt. According to my sources, Lady Odelia had a bad relationship with Lady Louisa ever since they àwere children. She always seemed to be in a sort of competition with her."

Vasily paused."After the Marquis and Lady Louisa’s marriage, Duke Winston’s hatred for the Marquis also increased as the lady he loved was married to the Marquis that he hated. The two families had never had a good relationship."

"But, why did the Duke marry the duchess since he didn’t love her?" Aristia asked perplexed. It didn’t make sense to her.

The marriage couldn’t have been for power since Duchess Odelia Winston was from the Essylt family, a Viscount noble family.

Viscountess Vasily understood her confusion. "Lady Odelia was betrothed to the Duke even before she was born. Their families were very close and the elders promised to have their grandchildren married to each other. After lady Odelia was born, she was told that the Duke was her betrothed. She was in love with Duke Winston and hated that the Duke loved her rival. After her marriage to the Duke, Lady Odelia’s hatred for lady Louisa increased as her husband, the Duke still loved lady Louisa."

After this, Aristia understood.

Lady Odelia Winston loved Duke Winston and they had been engaged from birth. But after they had grown, her betrothed, the Duke fell in love with another lady, Lady Louisa Eldridge, who was also her rival.

Meanwhile, Duke Winston and Marquis Eldridge were rivals in love but Marquis Eldridge succeeded in winning Lady Louisa’s heart. This made the Duke hate the Marquis even more and also made Lady Odelia hate Lady Louisa even more since her husband didn’t love her and instead loved her rival.

She felt a little bit of sympathy for Duchess Odelia Winston. To get married to someone she loved but who didn’t love her in return and to watch him look at another woman with love, desire and regret in his eyes was enough torture already.

She couldn’t blame the Duchess for marrying someone whom she knew didn’t love her as this was the medieval times. The Duchess had no say. The marriage had already been set in stone.

She also didn’t think the duchess would have refused even if she did have a say. Love was like a strong drug. She would have still gone ahead with the marriage with the mindset that he’d grow to love her and forget his first love, only to be disappointed as he still had eyes for his first love, causing her anger and hatred against the Marchioness to skyrocket.

The only person who could have objected was the Duke. But he probably didn’t because the lady whom he was interested in chose the person she was going to marry. Therefore, he went ahead with the arranged marriage.

"How is Duchess Odelia Winston related to the Essylt Viscounty?" She asked.

"Duchess Odelia Winston and the mother of Viscountess Svetlana Essylt are sisters and are very close. Duchess Odelia was the younger sister. She is the aunt of the current Madam of the Essylt Viscounty, Lady Svetlana Essylt. Lady Svetlana Essylt and Duke Artem Winston are maternal cousins. The Winston and Essylt families are quite close. Because of what happened in Duchess Odelia Winston’s marriage and between the Duchess and Lady Louisa, The Winston and Eldridge families don’t have a good relationship with each other." Vasily finished.

Aristia hummed in thought. So it was like that. No wonder she found them glaring at each other during the banquet. She suddenly remembered something and looked up.

"Viscountess Vasily, what about the Academy?" She asked.

"Oh, the Academy?" Vasily asked. Then, she started her explanation.

The Academy was just as it sounded. It was an academy. There was only one academy in the Continent of Yosanda. The academy was attended by three groups of people.

The first group was Royal and Noble children. The Academy was attended by royal and noble children from all the kingdoms in Yosanda and even in Altunia. They attended the academy to be educated on how to be proper royals and nobles in their various kingdoms and also to form connections with heirs of other kingdom and to foster allies.

The second group of people who attended the academy was the Aides. Aides to the noble children attended the academy to be educated on duties of an aide and on how to serve their masters.

The third group of people who attended the academy were the Mages, Sorcerers, Magicians, Wizards, Witches and basically all magic users. They were taught to control their abilities and to develop them to be able to reach higher lengths. But, they were majorly taught to use those abilities to serve and protect the royal family, and to protect their kingdom.

It was called The Royal Academy. Previously, only male children were educated. But later, the new policy was adopted that allowed females to be educated and they were tutored from home. Later, females were also allowed to attend the academy.

All Royal and Noble children were obligated to attend the academy as soon as they turned eight years old, and graduated after eight years when they turn sixteen, with added two more years for the boys to make it eighteen.

This was because sixteen years was seen as the age of being viewed as an adult when they would enter into society and nobility as a Lady and a Lord.

The same wasn’t applicable to aides and magic students as they could begin to attend the academy from ages eight to sixteen.

However, the new policy stated that entrance to the academy would begin at ten years of age instead of eight. The students would graduate six years later when they were sixteen, but the males would still graduate at eighteen.

The ages for the aides and mana users still remained the same.

However, the age for being viewed as an adult and officially entering into society and nobility had been changed to fourteen years of age, instead of the previous sixteen years of age.

[Common people don’t have a school to attend.] Aristia observed.

It was either they were the ruling class— that is royalty— or the nobility, or they served the ruling class or nobility directly—the aides— or they had useful abilities to serve the ruling class and help protect the kingdom—the mana users.

Normal people who didn’t belong in any of these groups weren’t considered.

"I see." She nodded at Viscountess Vasily for answering her questions.

"The Academy was actually part of today’s lesson on the nation’s education." Vasily exposed. "There’s only about five minutes left to complete the questions, Princess Aristia." Vasily reminded, gesturing to the test sheets.

Aristia nodded and got to answering the questions, while Vasily continued to read her book, leaving the teacher and pupil busy doing their own thing.

Just as the five minutes has elapsed, Aristia placed down her pen. "I’ve completed the assignment, Viscountess."

"Good. And right on time." Vasily nodded, impressed. "I will announce the result tomorrow during the lesson."

Vasily closed the book she had been reading. "Time to start today’s class, or should I say continue the lesson since we’ve already talked about part of it. As I said earlier, we’re considering the nation’s education. Turn to page fifty, section two of your history book." She instructed and Aristia did as told.

They then continued the lesson, discussing about the education system of Amberale and other kingdoms.

"That’s all for today. Do you have any other questions about the academy or the Amberale’s education system generally?" Vasily inquired towards the end of the class.

"I do, actually. Is there any school or academy for the common people?" Aristia asked even though she doubted there would be.

As expected, the answer she got proved she was correct.

"No. Commoners don’t attend the academy and there are no schools built for the commoners." Vasily answered.

Aristia understood why that was so.

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