Chapter 33 (2/2)

The Ardent Fire Empire wanted to take back the direct jurisdiction of the local areas and achieve the centralization of power in the kingdom. They wanted to exploit the rights of the local nobles, so the local nobles naturally would not agree.

Baron Darkmoon and Baron Soro belonged to different sides.

Baron Darkmoon belonged to the direct line of descent of the king and was personally conferred by the king. Baron Soro, on the other hand, was a subordinate of Count Tianfang. The 2 of them had a fundamental conflict and it was impossible for the them to get along peacefully.

Moreover, since the establishment of the 2 sides, wars had not started, but small fights had never ceased.

Just the mining planet that Lin Dong was staying on would not only bring various mining resources to Baron Darkmoon, but would also affect the ore market within Baron Soro’s territory and cause economic losses.

The relationship between them was neutral.

The reason why they were able to sign an open trade agreement was because of the forces behind it. It was not because the barons on both sides were willing to do so.

In response to this, both sides added additional clauses in the agreement. They were playing tricks, but it did not seem obvious that they were disobeying orders.

For example, the education clause that Zhao Yan was thinking about. Baron Soro’s allowed Baron Darkmoon’s people to apply for the secondary education academy.

However, Baron Darkmoon was worried about a large-scale loss of talents in their territory, so they restricted the number of people to join the academy.

Baron Soro was also worried that Baron Darkmoon would use this opportunity to spy on their advanced technology and gather intelligence. Hence, they would also restrict the number of people joining the academy.

Both sides were trying to restrict their rivals. Thus, it would be much more difficult for Lin Dong and the rest to climb their way up to a higher class.

Zhao Yan quickly revealed some information that she had obtained from her own sources.

Firstly, children and relatives of administrative officials working for Baron Darkmoon were not allowed to apply for the academy.

Which meant, Ding Ling was not eligible to join the academy.

No matter what she said, with her family background, she would also have to bear the rest of the responsibilities when she obtained the resources from her family.

They would just reject Ding Ling. They would not care about her family background

Secondly, after the applicants passed, they would need to sign a contract. After studying, they would have to work for Baron Soro for 30 years. During that time, they would not be allowed to return to Baron Darkmoon.

There were only that many spots in total. Half of the spots had already been decided by the various forces in Baron Darkmoon’s territory.

The open trade agreement was still being discussed. Nothing had not been decided yet.

The remaining half would be for the commoner class to compete. Once they could not find any connections or bribe the bigwigs, they would definitely not get a spot.

No matter how harsh the conditions were, it was also a good opportunity for the commoner class.

Li Ziqing and Luo Fei frowned and remained silent.

Luo Fei was the only son in the family. He had gone out to study for 3 years and worked for 30 years. If he still could not get anything out of it for these few years, it would mean that he would have to leave his parents for almost 40 years. His parents were not in good health. Thus, if something happened to them during this period, Luo Fei would not be able to make it in time.

Luo Fei heart was wavering as he looked down at his feet.

Li Ziqing was thinking about how much she would have to pay to achieve her goal.

Her family had a medium-sized company on the mining planet, and her father had a lot of connections on the planet.

However, there was not only 1 mining planet in Baron Darkmoon’s territory, so her family could not do much as well, right?

There was no specific standard for how much effort they had to put in to get it, and her father might not necessarily waste time on Li Ziqing.

On the other hand, since Zhao Yan could give out so much information, she might have a better chance.

However, the fact that she had deliberately organized this gathering also meant that she did not have enough confidence. At the very least, she was unable to guarantee that she would be able to obtain a spot.

Only Lin Dong had an indifferent expression. His friends’ expressions were awful.