Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 156: Access to Resources

Chapter 156: Access to Resources

As Count Cordelia was telling stories about Ivan, Arabella learned from Ivan’s thoughts that when he was younger, he believed he would be able to succeed as an official in Riva without having to be a noble. Thus, he refused to be adopted.

Ivan believed in the meritocracy policies of Valeria that allowed even commoners to be part of the governing body as long as they had the knowledge and skills. That was what the Imperial Civil Service Exam was for, after all.

Regardless of his ancestry and bloodline, Ivan believed that as long as he continued to learn and maximize his knowledge and skills, he would be able to do well in Riva.

As far as he was concerned, performance was more important. He could show what he could do and things would work out.

Thus, he fully thought that once he passed the exam, he would be able to work in Riva and perform well.

But after he passed and tried to apply for jobs, Ivan realized that the reality was harsher than he thought.

Nobles who ranked far lower than he did, got hired so much faster than he was. Their relatives already working as officials and had high positions hired them instead of Ivan, the top passer, who should have been prioritized.

It was the first biggest disappointment Ivan experienced in his life. Still, he believed in the policies. He still hoped he would get hired and earn his own money so he could stay in Riva for as long as he wanted.

With his perseverance and patience, Ivan did get hired soon and he learned that nobles still dominated the population of civil servants so their sense of entitlement was still prevalent in most offices. He had heard that other offices were good but the offices Ivan worked at were not.

His superiors and co-workers looked down on him because of his bloodline but they were insecure and envious of his talents and capabilities. It led to him getting bullied and not promoted to higher positions so he was always in beginner jobs. It was a waste of his talents.

More nobles in the population of government officials couldn’t be helped either since the nobles were competent. They didn’t want to lose their power and influence so they did their best to educate their children well so they would pass the exam and get employed.

One of the things Arabella learned from Ivan in her past life was the difference in available resources between the nobles and commoners.

Nobles could afford to buy a lot of books and hire great tutors to educate their children. Meanwhile, most commoners couldn’t. Only the rich commoners could afford it as well.

Efforts had been made by Valeria to increase the number of commoners in the governing body. They built public libraries accessible to everyone. And it did increase the number of commoners who take the Civil Service Exam.

However, public libraries were only available in some locations. And usually, there was only one per territory.

Thus, commoners usually cram in libraries to review for the Exam or borrow what books they could. But once the Exam date was close, the books run out.

If they had no one they could borrow books from, and there were no libraries in their area, they would have to go to another territory. It was a lot of expense so others give up on taking the exam and try military service instead, or, just do the job they could in their locality.

Arabella wouldn’t have known about all these if not for Ivan informing her about it in the past.

She once thought she could just have them whenever she wanted because she never personally bought a book in her life. All she needed was provided for her after all, so she didn’t really know how much they cost.

If she didn’t know the life of the common people was not as easy as hers, she would have been so naive until now. She had ignored it in the past since she didn’t care about anything anymore. But now, she had to take everything seriously.

Ivan was lucky to have been in Cordelia since the Count had widened their library and bought a lot of books from Riva to educate his people about Valeria’s laws, culture, and practices.

Ivan was among the few who always borrowed a lot of books from the library. And he actually read them all.

Count Cordelia himself, was a man who valued books. Thus, he had a lot in his personal collection and Ivan was given access to them.

Thus, Ivan who hungered for knowledge since he was young was able to read as many books as he wanted because of the Count.

Count Cordelia was still a second father to Ivan even if he didn’t adopt him.

[Just how good is this man for my wife to look so proud of him?] Ferdinand wondered.

’He is beyond excellent,’ Arabella wanted to say. She reminded herself not to look at Ivan too much in front of Ferdinand or else she would trigger his jealousy again. It wouldn’t be good. Ivan would be in her office most of the time in a matter of days after all.

"Oh, my apologies. I was too happy Ivan had truly become Her Majesty’s assistant that I ended up babbling," Count Cordelia apologized once he noticed Ferdinand had been silent the whole time. Only Arabella had been responding to him.

"It’s alright. I’m glad I was able to learn more about my assistant," Arabella smiled. Ivan meanwhile was embarrassed.

They continued the tour shortly after and visited Ivan’s family residence. His family was indeed, second only to Count Cordelia in terms of land owned.

The Meyers had wide farmlands cultivated for various crops.

Ivan had been acting so humble and referring to himself as a poor commoner but Arabella could tell they were among the richest in Cordelia.

The Meyer’s mansion was huge and their wide farmlands surely earned them quite a lot.

However, she soon learned from Ivan’s parents that all of these were the results of Ivan’s hard work.

The Meyer’s did not have this much farmland before and was not as productive.

Ivan’s parents could only read and write the basics since they did not have proper education. Thus, their source of knowledge was also limited.

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A/N:

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