Descendants of the False Gods

Chapter 024: Life in the Imperial Capital (2)

The Imperial Capital is by the sea, and winters are especially cold.

For three whole months, the city is in a winter break, with the military and political departments working as usual. In fact, it’s simply too cold—if you don’t want to work, you just rest.

The winter break lasts until March, and the citizens take care of their own livelihood during this time. Therefore, the shops in the Imperial Capital open every day because merchants always seek profit.

The Yan brothers’ two shops don’t have a storefront, but they accept any work that comes their way, typically repair and maintenance jobs. As long as Lan and Luo aren’t off playing, they learn to do what they can.

The two little ones wake up before dawn every day to run around the inner circle of the outer city. Many early-rising residents are already familiar with these two small figures.

After breakfast, they go to the cedar forest in the middle district to practice the basics. Little Bear and Xiao Yi often come along to practice as well, and occasionally Li Yao shows up to join them, always bringing his “bodyguard” with him.

Kids like flashy things, and while practicing together, Lan and Luo “secretly” picked up some cool moves. Every afternoon, Lan and Luo help out at their shop, and during their free time, they also practice stance and archery. Crossbows are off-limits, as they are military weapons, and the use of crossbows is forbidden among the citizens of the empire.

Their two fathers do have a hand crossbow, but it was taken apart into pieces. The little ones had secretly reassembled it once, but they never managed to complete it. After many failed attempts, they finally gave up.

Time passed slowly, the ice and snow began to melt, and the winter break was nearing its end. The academy was about to start, and the two little ones were full of anticipation for school life.

On the last day before school began, Yan Tie and Yan Bo took the little ones on a tour around the outer city, spending half the day purchasing all the necessary learning supplies for Lan and Luo. These supplies were based on advice from their Uncle Yu.

By the way, Uncle Yu no longer uses the surname Yan but Liu now. Neither their big father nor second father uses the Yan or Tian surname anymore.

Their two fathers told them that in order to avoid being hunted by bad people, they had to change their surname. They handed them two official documents stating their new names as Tian Lan and Tian Luo and told them to always remember their new surname, Tian.

On the morning of their first day at the academy, after finishing their run and breakfast, they sat at the door with their leather bags, waiting for their big father to take them to school.

Every so often, they would shuffle through the stationery in their bags, then neatly pack it away before continuing to wait.

Finally, Tian Tie came out, and with a proud look, he followed their big father to the school.

The academy was located in the middle district. First, they had to pass through the checkpoint at the Middle City Gate. It was their first time officially registering here. Several familiar guards teased the two brothers, who couldn’t suppress their excitement and happily filled out the registration form.

Once inside the middle district, on the left side was the city guard barracks. They turned right and walked along the city wall, reaching the academy gate at the end of the road. The wide gate had a plaque reading: “Imperial Royal Secondary Academy for Young Scholars.”

It was the first day of school, and the academy’s entrance was full of various carriages. The academy was royal, but it mainly provided basic education for the children of small to medium nobles from around the Imperial Capital. Since the academy was large enough, many capable merchants also sent their children here to study.

Merchants striving to become nobles almost never succeed, so those who wish to rise higher send their children to such academies.

The main goal was to help the children stand out in the future and give them a chance to mingle with the upper class. If they had connections, they might even try to send their children to higher academies. However, all higher-level institutions in the empire only accepted children from the royal family or high-ranking nobility.

As they entered the academy, the clean stone steps, lush green lawns, neatly trimmed flowerbeds, and the huge teaching buildings left a deep impression on Lan and Luo.

Some senior students were either reading or chatting on the lawn, while others were playing. To their surprise, they saw Little Bear and Xiao Yi playing with a few children of similar age on the lawn.

Yan Tie led them to the registration desk, explained their purpose, and handed them over to the teacher there. Before leaving, he reminded them, “Listen to the teacher and study hard,” and left without worry.

The two of them, along with a group of new students, listened to the teacher’s instructions on school rules and were then assigned to their classes.

Although it was class assignment, this class was essentially just a self-study area where students could apply for different courses and study at their own pace.

Of course, as newcomers, they had a lead teacher for the initial lessons. They would be rated every month or even week, and based on their ratings, their class hours would be adjusted. Returning students could apply for exams to modify their course schedules.

The academy offered four main subjects: linguistics, mathematics, martial arts, and miscellaneous studies, all of which were elective.

Apart from mathematics, which was a systematic subject, other subjects had many branches.

For example, linguistics included: General Language (Divine Race Language), Human Language (around twenty dialects), Beastmen Language (including Southern and Northern Beastman languages and Extreme North Beastman Language), Dwarven Language, and Elven Language—five major categories with more than ten languages.

Martial arts included boxing and weapons, with dozens of common boxing styles and various types of weapons.

Miscellaneous studies were more diverse and varied.

Students could choose to adjust their schedules and attend classes based on their interests. As long as they passed three courses each year, they would level up, eventually graduating.

From the first day of classes, Lan and Luo learned that the common language used by everyone in the empire was the Divine Race Language.

Mathematics at the academy was simply basic counting and various calculation methods, with no other categories.

The martial arts classes were the most diverse. As long as they were willing and had time, they could choose to study all types of martial arts, though no one could master every single boxing style or weapon technique. Even if they did, they wouldn’t become experts in all of them.

For Lan and Luo, the academy life was quite easy. Much of the content was familiar to them. The basic classes they were assigned didn’t involve anything too advanced. Linguistics taught them common characters for reading and writing, mathematics focused on basic numbers and operations, and martial arts classes emphasized strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance training. For them, these courses merely defined the scope of their upgrade evaluations and posed no real difficulty.

Each day, besides their morning runs and evening stance training, the calm life at school replaced the complex routines of practice. What they now eagerly anticipated was the first monthly exam.

As long as they passed the monthly exam, they could move up to the junior class. Then, they would be able to adjust their class hours based on their learning goals and progress.

When the monthly exam was near, Lan and Luo applied for the upgrade exam. They discovered that many students from noble families, who had private tutors, were at the academy to make up for their deficiencies in some areas.

The language and mathematics exams were held in a large classroom, with different grade levels seated in alternating order to prevent cheating.

Most of the students in the basic class finished the exam early, and so did Lan and Luo.

In the afternoon, the martial arts exam for the basic class focused on overall physical fitness. As long as their total scores for strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance met the standards, they would pass. So, after finishing the exam early, the two of them suddenly found themselves with nowhere to go.

The classroom they had been assigned still had other students who hadn’t taken the exam, so they didn’t try to sneak out of the academy. Instead, they wandered aimlessly around the school.

By chance, they found a large training ground where some older students were practicing martial arts. There were tiered benches along the side of the field, where many students were sitting. They figured this must be the training ground for upper-year students.

After watching Little Bear and Xiao Yi perform martial arts, the two brothers were eager to learn some cool moves of their own. They sat on the benches and watched the senior students practice.

While they were discussing what they saw, a group of senior students approached them. One of them interrupted their observation: “Hey, which class are you from? I haven’t seen you around.”

The two brothers honestly replied, “We’re new students this year. We just finished the upgrade exam, and we didn’t have anywhere to go, so we came to watch the seniors practice.”

The senior students, apparently bored, decided to make fun of the new students. They asked, “Oh, so you’re new? Didn’t you learn any martial arts before coming to the academy?” The two brothers answered truthfully, “Our family didn’t teach us anything advanced. Just the basics like throwing punches and swinging swords.”

The seniors smirked to themselves, thinking the two brothers had only learned a few simple moves. They didn’t realize the brothers had been training the basics of martial arts for nearly five years.

Exchanging looks, one of the shorter seniors pretended to be kind and asked, “I see you’re interested in martial arts. Want me to teach you a few moves?”

The two brothers eagerly agreed, “Yes! We want to learn!”

“Alright,” the senior said, “None of us brought our weapons, and we don’t have much to do today. How about we each teach you one set of boxing moves?”

The two brothers were thrilled by the idea of learning five sets of boxing moves from five seniors. “Okay! Okay!” they exclaimed excitedly.

The five seniors grinned mischievously and led the brothers to the field, shouting loudly, “Hey, everyone, step aside! Today we’re teaching these two little freshmen a few boxing moves! Anyone interested, come watch!”

Some curious students gathered around, while others who were focusing on their training moved away. The freshmen were given a patch of open ground about one hundred square meters.

The short senior demonstrated a set of boxing moves in the middle of the field. The moves were awkward and weak, completely lacking any connection to martial prowess or style. He then told the brothers to try practicing it. Lan hesitated and asked, “Does this boxing technique even work? It doesn’t look like a useful technique.”

The short senior was planning to just fool around and watch the little brothers put on a show. When Lan asked the question, he was annoyed and quickly replied, “Who said it’s useless? This is an advanced technique! You won’t understand until you practice it yourself.”

Luo, feeling something was off, said, “Brother, maybe we shouldn’t practice this. It doesn’t seem like what Big Father taught us.”

However, when the two brothers hesitated to practice, the short senior got impatient and decided to show off. He stepped forward, pretending to attack Lan with a punch to his face.

“Ah!” With a loud cry, the short senior collapsed to the ground. Lan, still unsure of what was happening, instinctively blocked the punch with his left hand and landed a counter punch with his right, hitting the senior’s abdomen with great force.

Lan was shorter than the senior by over ten centimeters, but his punch, strengthened by years of training, had enough power to send the senior tumbling.

The surrounding students were stunned—one of the senior students had been knocked down by a freshman with a single punch. It was hard to believe.

Lan, still confused, rushed to help the senior up, saying, “Are you okay, senior? I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t realize it was you.”

The short senior, feeling even more embarrassed, groaned as he rubbed his stomach in pain. “You weren’t paying attention, yet you knocked me down with one punch? This doesn’t count! Let’s try again!”