The Pathway Of Wisdom-Chapter 17: The City of Knowledge, Ilma. Part-4.

"Your holiness, this is the training grounds where all the soldiers and knights of the city train together..."

"I have also worked here as an instructor before; most of the young men of the city who aim to be warriors and knights come to this place for training..."

Ethan smiled as he led the way forward and acted as Alex’s tour guide.

He was very good at explaining things and had a lot of patience to reply with a calm voice to every question.

"I see, seems like there are quite a lot of young men here. The future of the city seems promising..."

Hearing Alex’s words, Ethan took a deep sigh and shook his head.

"If only that was the case... your holiness, the number of young men we can recruit nowadays has become much lower compared to before..."

"Ever since they started distributing those things called ’newspapers’ in the city, everyone is more inclined to have their kids go and study in ’schools’!"

Ethan seemed very sad and regretful about this matter, but Alex was surprised.

’Oh! So, newspapers do exist in this world! I see! That’s good news!"

From Ethan’s words, Alex figured out that ’newspapers’ must have come to exist in the past few years, as the nation is still in the middle of the industrial revolution.

’It’s a good thing that printing technology has already advanced in this world and they are already printing newspapers!’

’Newspapers are the sources where early scientists used to print their inventions and let the world know about it!’

’I can do something like that too! I can just open my own newspaper company in the future!’

Alex wasn’t knowledgeable about company management and stuff, but in this era, it was likely impossible to find anyone more knowledgeable than him, so he had to do many preparations beforehand.

"I think that agreeing with creating schools in every city was a good decision made by the nation’s ministers, but this has made the nation’s children lose a lot of time for training..."

"Those kids who could be training their proficiency in weapons are now stuck in schools and have no time to train at all..."

"If this continues... the nation’s army would be crippled..."

Alex shook his head at Ethan’s words.

"That’s not how school works; in fact, studying will create better soldiers. They will be able to know more and will be able to do more complex operations..."

"Besides, you can just recruit people who have already completed their school education instead of trying to recruit children who are still in school..."

Alex knew that this was just the beginning of the industrial revolution; the era was still not mature enough compared to his previous world. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

So, he knew it would be hard for people to understand his words.

It might take decades for people to understand the importance of knowledge and studying, but that age will also come to exist some day in the future.

’They are making newspapers and other stuff, which means private companies and groups are just starting to rise and are still in their primitive forms as of yet...’

’Things will change eventually... I am actually in a very good time period; if I do things the right way, I can become the richest man in this world while also being called the greatest scientist of all time too...’

After passing the training grounds, the two of them reached the main street that was extremely wide and was directly leading to the mansion of the count located right in the center of the city.

"This is the road of pilgrims, your holiness; all pilgrims, all seekers of knowledge who come from all over the world in search of knowledge and wisdom, take the same route as us..."

"Whenever the city’s armies go on any expedition and return victorious, they take this road and do a victory parade until the count’s mansion to show their honor and loyalty to the people.

Alex noticed that there were many carriages and people on the main street.

Some were walking on foot, while some were on horses; the road was made of solid concrete, and it was very clean.

Alex even saw dozens of people cleaning up the road with brooms and sweeping away the dust on it.

Horses, carriages, and people on foot all had separate lanes as a way of managing traffic; everything was in order.

’Things are better than I expected...’

After walking for a while on the main street, they took a left turn and entered a street with less traffic and very few people.

"Your holiness, this is Blacksmith Street; most of the blacksmiths and weapon masters have shops on this street..."

"All soldiers in the city get their weapons built from here. You see that shop? That’s the one that made my armor and sword... all the swords and armor that belong to the church are made there!"

The shop that Ethan pointed his finger towards was more dilapidated compared to the others on the street.

Their shop was located around the end of the street and in such a position that it was hard to notice.

Its location was likely the reason for its bad business and it being so shabby.

Alex even saw a man lying near the entrance of the shop and drinking in broad daylight; it was clearly not the ideal place to have your weapons built.

’Err... little Ethan are you so lacking in funds that you are entrusting your equipment to such shady places?’

For a warrior, their armor, weapons, and equipment are their lifeline; they might skip a meal or two, but they can’t survive without decent equipment, especially in this monster-filled world.

Even those mercenaries who got slaughtered by that horrific monster were wearing good equipment.

’Forget it... he did say that the church was not in its prime anymore... I don’t care about money as long as they have enough food to have three meals a day; that would be enough for me...’

After crossing the blacksmith street, the two of them turned at the end and reached another wide street, but this one was almost completely empty.

There were barely any people, and there were mostly shabby houses in the entire street.

But there was a food vendor who was grilling meat, and Ethan greeted the man with a nod, and the other party smiled in return.

"Oh! Sir Paladin! You are back! May the god of wisdom bless you!"

Ethan also replied to the greeting happily.

"May the god of wisdom bless you too!"

After they passed by the vendor, Ethan explained,

"Your holiness, most of the people that live in this street are devout believers of our church including this vendor..."

"His cooking is also quite famous in the street; most of the people like his cooking. My children are especially fond of it!"

Ethan shook his head as he sighed.

"I have warned my son many times that this kind of street food can cause health problems for him, but he never listens, sigh.... His day doesn’t start without eating this unhealthy food..."

Ethan sounded like a concerned parent of the modern age worried about his kids getting sick due to junk food, which brought a smile to Alex’s face.

"He’s working hard to train every day; cut him some slack!"