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nHearing the teacher’s voice who was standing in the middle of the stage in that amphitheater, Lothur turned to her with a look of curiosity. “Is there a problem?”

nThat woman’s eyes sharpened as she noticed the positioning of this young newcomer. “What is your name? Are you by any chance a new student?”

n“Oh? Do I have to introduce myself?” He asked aloud, looking around, surprised at that. ‘Well, this is a room full of children. That shouldn’t be strange…’

nHe looked again at that woman dressed in an outfit very similar to those worn by stewardesses in his last world and said. “Well, my name is Lothur Ritter, but you can just call me Lothur.”

n“And yes, I am new here, but don’t bother introducing yourselves to me. I won’t be staying long in this place, so I will hardly remember your names.” He said, looking at where the children in that place were.

n“How arrogant!”

n“Who is this idiot?” 𝚍ｏ𝚟𝚕.ｏｒｇ

nMurmurs spread through there as the young people began to look strangely at Lothur.

nAt the same time, the teacher stood watching him with her mouth open, enjoying the sight of this new student who was self-sabotaging his social situation.

n‘How can someone be such an idiot? Does he think he’s a genius?’ She wondered, startled by his out-of-the-ordinary behavior.

n‘Young people his age are already at least in Sector-3, but he starts in Sector-1 saying that?’

n“Now, dear teacher, may I sit down? Or is there something else you want to know? I don’t mind personal questions…” He said, standing between the stage and the row of seats, waiting for that woman’s answer.

n‘This boy…’ She shook her hands and said. “Call me Miss Koch, and yes, you may sit down. But since this is your first day here, try to follow the class with one of your classmates.”

nLothur then headed toward the place he wanted to sit before, where there was a small group of beautiful women.

nLooking at those women who must have been between 16 and 19, he waved at them, smiling, and sat down next to a redhead, who was just as pretty as Elise.

n“Hi, you wouldn’t mind if I follow the class with you, right?” He sat down next to her and said this in a quiet tone, looking her in the eye in an eye contact that few would attempt in the first contact.

n“I…” She stammered, turning her eyes away from his with embarrassment. “You can.”

n“Hmm, by the way, what should I call you?” He smiled at her.

n“Elke.”

n“Elke, call me Lothur. I’ll probably adapt quickly to this place, but being around someone like you might make me want to stay here longer…”

n“That…” The woman’s face turned red at hearing that, experiencing such an explicit situation like that for the first time in her life.

nShe was only 17, the age at which humans in this world became adults. Because of this, and also due to her beauty, she had never experienced a situation where a man was so direct with her.

nShe had several suitors, many of them in this class. However, none of them dared to come directly to her, even just to sit next to her.

nConsequently, she was surprised to hear Lothur’s words as she observed this young man’s incomparable countenance.

n“Hehe…” Her lips formed a discreet smile, and without realizing it, a graceful laugh reached the ears of those in her surroundings.

nAfter this, Lothur moved a little closer to her and began to look at Elke’s books on a stand that existed in front of each seat in such an amphitheater.

nAs he did so, he leaned sideways while quickly using one of his hands to touch the upper middle of that young woman’s back while supporting himself. “Elke, would you mind lending me one of those other books?” He used his other hand to point in the direction of an open bag on the floor.

nThat was the cultivation world, but spatial items were not so common and cheap to the point that even low-level people had independent spaces to carry books.

nNo, even if some of those students had storage items, such a thing certainly could not store many cubic centimeters.

nTherefore, they would never carry books in spatial devices, as it would be much more interesting to have medicine and emergency resources in them.

nSo, everyone in that class had bags or backpacks, like the one at Elke’s feet.

n“Yes, but wouldn’t you rather attend class?” She asked in a low voice, not bothered by Lothur’s touch. “It might be more interesting for you to catch up on the weeks of your delay at another time.”

n“Is that so?” He smiled, saying softly in Elke’s left ear. “Perhaps you would like me to follow this class very closely…”

nGulp!

n“I…”

n“No, that’s not why…”

n“Oh? Too bad.” Lothur removed his hand from her back with the same expression on his face as before, finally bending down and picking up the book that had the name ‘Geopolitics-I’ in her bag.

n“Don’t worry. I’ll finish reading it before class is over.”

nNoticing Lothur’s movement, Elke felt strange by the change in his behavior, which had gone from a warm person to a cold one in a matter of seconds.

n‘Did I do something wrong?’ She wondered quietly, looking sideways at Lothur’s face, curious.

nAnd while Lothur was reading that book, Elke watched him every 2 or 3 minutes, seeing how focused he was, totally ignoring her presence there.

n‘Why don’t you look at me? Are you pretending to concentrate just to tease me?’ She began to feel nervous, watching that young man change pages every 30 seconds.

nThis situation was extraordinary for her. After all, right now, while Lothur was standing next to her, reading that book focused, more than a dozen young men were watching her from afar.

nAnd she obviously knew this since every woman had this divine sense of noticing the eyes watching them.

nHowever, the young man closest to her, who could take the opportunity to talk to her and try to get closer, was ignoring her.

nThat was incredibly annoying!

nShe then moved a little closer to him, running one of her hands through her hair to get his attention.

nHowever, Lothur was not doing any of this on purpose. Or rather, he knew how his actions could influence those around him, but his goal there was not to provoke Elke, although that would be good for him.

nNo, he was just focused on the content of that book while using his speed-reading technique, something he had learned in his previous life.

nThat was the first book about this world Lothur had read, and as he learned some basic information, he could not ignore the feeling of satisfaction that came with the knowledge he was accumulating.

nWith that book, he had already discovered that Peters City was actually the largest city of Linn Province, one of the ten regions of Leopoldine.

nLeopoldine was a large state ruled by an imperial family of the same name. That was an ancient power that almost 2,000 years ago had brought the ten then independent regions together into a centralized government.

nBut even if Leopoldine was as large as the Europe of Lothur’s previous world, this place had less than 30 million inhabitants and was surrounded by four other empires and a few kingdoms. Each of them with populations as large or even larger than the one of this state.

nAnd precisely because of this, this empire was constantly involved in conflicts with outside powers, trying to regain or take new territories.

nLeopoldine did not have a passage to the sea, so from time to time, wars took place. After all, having to cross borders could be very costly…

nHow could overtaxed goods from a state not unlike its neighbors with access to the sea compete in the continental market?

nThat was a problem!

nBut Lothur did not delve too deeply into the external affairs of this state. No, there was not much information in that introductory book on the subject. So, he had soon begun to learn more about Linn Province, the learning focus for the young beginners at this academy.

n…

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