24 Chapter Twenty-Four

"What's the country like? I mean outside of the capital? You read a lot so what's it like?" Raven asks, and his eyes sparkle as of he found a gem. Or perhaps a rodent to eat since he's a bird. What? Fine I'll stop with the bird stuff...

"Mmmm, well unlike other countries it's required that you can read, so there are public libraries and schools in every big town, and the small towns and villages all have a teacher. Those born with magic can attend the academy from age fifteen to eighteen, and those highly intelligent who pass the examinations can as well. Because of this our economy is far higher than other surrounding countries." They stared transfixed at the information. It's hard to hear about other places, even if your a noble, beyond your territory you never hear very much.

"Why does literacy increase the economy?" Sparrow asks and I sighed and explained.

"Because people can read means they can figure out exactly what something is worth. Also it helps prevent scamming more too, and if you can read, you can go-to a library and research what you do and find ways to increase efficiency too. The Country is working on building a second Academy so that they can have one with higher academics and Mana, and one with lower. This will in turn increase the students that can attend, and help raise the economy in turn. Why? Because those intelligent people usually become researchers who create better theories or new tools which increases efficiency. Infrastructure is a huge thing to help citizens too, because public roads means they can travel faster, and proper schools means they can learn more than just reading. Banks to put money in, guard stations to increase public safety. All these things help immensely! Compared to the countries around us, we triple there economies easily. So in short, our conditions are more superior to there's. There is more guarantee that a person won't starve here than in another country, and that they won't be killed by a bandit because we have guards stationed in all larger towns, and in every five villages too. Soon however it should be every four villages and so forth. Hopefully, at least if we can get some of the problematic territories economies up so they can afford it." I sighed thinking about it. Both Raven and Sparrow nodded at what I had said, their eye's still glistening.