Though Tarentek had not yet commented specifically on the soup, he was quite visibly pleased with it. He certainly intended to complement her on the dish, though as was common with his people, he would wait until the end of the meal to give his full opinion. As for the present topic, he was also quite eager to talk about his people's system of education. It was a point of pride for his city, and by extension, himself. "Ah, well, I should specify that some knowledge was considered to be secrets of the government. This mostly consists of the secrets of our weapons and defenses, including how to repair human weapons, creating gunpowder and ammunition, and building our fortifications. I am actually one of the few privy to some of those secrets, since they related directly to my role within our military. Otherwise, though, our knowledge is freely given to any who wish to learn. Now, it is true that most of the students of the university at any given time were citizens of Amman. Comparatively few outsiders are willing to come and live in Amman for the years required to receive a comprehensive education. However, they certainly exist, and we are happy to teach them. You see, spreading our knowledge through the world ultimately improves the lives of those who receive it, and eventually, that improvement will reach us. Settlements that learn better farming practices will have more food, those that learn better domestication techniques will have more productive work animals. All of this knowledge creates more wealth wherever it goes, and the common threads between it all are the people we educate. That is how the improvement returns to us. To learn what they need, these people spend years in Amman, not only learning from their classes, but connecting with the city. They become familiar with our customs, they form friendships with their peers and create bonds that give them ties to our city even after they leave. Though there are some exceptions, most of these outsiders become allies to us, or at the very least, remain friendly with our people. And remember, these people are creating wealth elsewhere. Those that become merchants often make trade deals with us that would not have existed otherwise, and if we are lucky, some of them will even grow to influence in their own cities. To us, educating someone from another city is to make a friend in another city."