"How interesting. In the Empire, these vehicles were created thousands of years ago, if I recall"

"Regarding your inquiry, the Imperial Academy receives millions upon millions of applications every year from prospective youth. They determine who shall enter and who shall not by analyzing their Imperial High Test and Analytic Imperial Test results, their GPA, and an essay they must submit for review. This is the first stage, for those 'finalists' selected to continue on to the second stage are interviewed by the Academy and they conduct in-depth investigations into an applicant's life. There are also other tests conducted to carefully select the candidates for admission. It is up to the university to accept or reject these finalists after extensive review and consideration. The sole official exception is the Emperor or their children, for they are granted automatic entry into the Academy if they so wish it"

Of course, if he told them he had gotten there by his family's patronage they would be horrified, or at least pretend to be.

Carl was a brilliant person, there was no doubt about it. However, his intelligence was augmented by his family, for he was born into a prestigious and extremely wealthy noble house. He was educated in the best schools and had the best educational resources available to him since his early infancy. If it were not for that financial support from birth, he would have never even gotten close to stepping foot at the Imperial Academy. How fortunate and how unfortunate it all was, no?