Fake Professor, Misunderstood As Strong - Chapter 139

Chapter 139: Bastille, A City Blessed By The Moonlight! Part-1.
“Er… and there he goes…”

Shin sighed while staring at Jareth’s fading figure in the sky and glanced at Mark and Risa before saying.

“The big bad guy is gone, so what do you say, kids? What do you want to do next? Directly go to the dungeon to train, or should we first wander around in the city?”

Before Mark could say anything, Risa directly raised her hand and said, with a big smile,

“Let’s visit the city! I wanna see what unique food they have here!”

Hearing the word food, Aria also became excited and nodded her head.

“Yes! Let’s go and eat something delicious!!”

And since the two had already said it, Shin and Mark also decided to go with the flow, and thus the dungeon training was put on hold for the time being.

…

When the group reached the city wall, the guards at the main gate had a shocked look on their faces.

The journey to this city is very difficult; not only can thunder fall on you anywhere and anytime, you can’t even use any vehicles.

Which means that the number of people who come to this city is extremely low.

The only time people travel between this city and the others is when they have to import some resources, and even then, they have to use space rings to carry the resources while traveling on foot.

You can’t even use mounts to travel in this place, or you will get struck by thunder.

Thus, when the guards at the main gate saw Shin and others, they were really shocked and curious.

But when they felt the aura of a peak grade-2 mage from Shin, they dared not behave rudely and treated the group with respect.

This place might be located in an isolated area, but even the people here know how to respect the strong and avoid trouble.

A Peak Grade-2 mage alone can level cities in a single attack; there’s no point in trying to offend such a strong person just to satisfy your curiosity.

The person in charge himself came down from the office and said it with a flattering smile on his face.

“Welcome honored guests to Bastille, the city built around the oasis of the full moon!”

The chief guard hurriedly led the way for Shin and the group and decided to arrange a car for them.

Although it’s nearly impossible to bring a car here from outside, that doesn’t mean you can’t build it here.

There are car-making factories in this place too, so they have cars and other facilities.

The place is isolated, but the government has made every effort to keep it as connected to the rest of the empire as possible.

Although there is corruption in the government, they don’t want to lose even a single inch of the land under the human empire.

So they take a lot of measures so that the people of this city don’t end up separating themselves from the rest of the empire.

Shin nodded his head at the chief guard and spoke.

“Good, take us to the most luxurious hotel in this place…”

The chief guard smiled happily and ordered the driver to do as Shin said.

Only when Shin and the group finally left in the car did the chief guard relax and wipe the sweat from his forehead.

“D*mn, this is the first time I have seen a grade 2 mage up so close; only after meeting one in person did I understand why they are respected all over the empire…”

Despite his extensive experience as a grade-4 mage, the chief guard seldom encounters any grade-3 or higher-grade mage in this city due to its isolation from the rest of the empire.

The resources they have are not enough to support the growth of a grade 3 or higher mage, so even if someone talented had appeared here, they wouldn’t be able to grow up properly.

Without resources, a person’s talent gets wasted.

Unlike Jareth, who has a mana singularity, all mages need various rare elixirs and precious herbs while meditating and training.

Imagine a scenario where one person has to sleep and take rest to recover their mana after every training session, but the other person can just take a mana recovery potion and continue training without rest.

That means the person who has more money can train for a longer time and can avoid many detours by consuming rare herbs to improve their abilities.

This is the reason why people say that ‘becoming a mage is all about who can splurge more money…’

It’s a profession where the person with more money will always win, unless, of course, you are insanely talented like Mark or have legendary skills like Jareth.

…

Sitting inside the car, Mark glanced outside and saw a lot of unique things.

Not only the clothes that people wear in this place are different, even the vehicle designs and architecture of the houses here is very different.

The houses in the capital city are more inclined towards the ‘Modern’ look, whereas the houses in this place seem more traditional yet amazing to look at.

At that moment, Mark noticed a small group of guards walking on the road, and they were dragging a lot of people in haggard clothes whose hands were bound by ropes.

Mark glanced at the driver and asked,

“Uh, what’s happening there? Why are those people being treated like that?”

The driver took a quick glance and then said,

“Young man, you don’t know… There are certain rules in this city… We live in a place that is surrounded by desert, and thousands of underground monsters are always ready to lay siege to our city…”

“This city needs a lot of money to operate as the maintenance cost of the mana barrier is high, and we also need a lot of rations secured…”

“Surely the government is helping us from outside, but that’s not enough…”

The driver sighed and said,

“So the minister in charge of this place created a few rules; they collect a lot of tax from people who live in this place…”

“The tax is used to maintain the defenses of the city and provide better equipment to the guards…”

“But the thing is, this tax is too high, and everyone has to pay it, so the people who are jobless and poor are helpless against it…”

The driver hesitated for a moment but then said,

“Those people who fail to pay tax for more than six months get dragged out of their houses and exiled from the city…”

“This is what’s happening to those people right now… Every single year, at least three or four thousand such people get thrown out…”

Hearing those words, Mark asked back curiously.

“And what happens to those people after their exile?”

The driver shook his head and said,

“Do I even need to say it? There’s nothing out there to eat; it’s no man’s land; thunder can fall on your head at any moment; hungry underground monsters roam the whole area…”

“Most of these exiled people either die of starvation or become food for the monsters outside…”

“It actually quells the hunger of the monsters, thus reducing the monster siege’s intensity every once in a while…”

The driver sighed and said with a sad voice,

“Although it’s sad, there is nothing we can do; for the survival of the majority, a few people’s sacrifice is always necessary…”

“Unless the government starts sending tons of money from outside to support the lives of these people, there’s nothing we can do…”

Hearing those words, Mark couldn’t help but sigh. He wanted to help out these pitiful people, but even he knew that this was an unrealistic thing.

Even Shin sighed and said,

“Helping a few of them won’t change the situation… As long as this city exists in this desert where monsters keep attacking, there will always be a need for a lot of money to maintain the barrier…”

Mark also stopped looking at that group of people, as he knew that helping them wouldn’t change anything.

He can pay money for them today, but then what next? What about the other people who are also in need of money? Will Mark have to donate money to the whole city then?

Even though Mark himself is a prince and has a lot of money in his bank, even that bank balance is extremely small when compared to the expenses of a whole city filled with millions of people.

“Forget it, young man; leave things be; don’t get emotional over something that you have no control over… This is the way of the world…”

“Only the fittest survive; without money, you have nothing in this world; either you earn or you die… That’s how the world works… Don’t blame yourself for it…”

Hearing those words from the old driver, Mark nodded his head and said,

“Thanks for the advice; I will keep it in mind… This world really isn’t a place for innocent souls…”