CHAPTER 25 – GRADUATION DAY

Having figured out the answers to most of my problems, my return to the palaces was tamer, unlike how I had left in rush. Unlike the previous few times, I did not head to check the palace walls and defences. Instead, I headed to look for Claude and Ingrid to explain my newfound discovery in my prophecy.

Now that my perception of this issue had changed, I was able to put it off for now and focus on issues that required my attention now. Such things included the topic of the formation of my battalion.

However, there was something even more important that needed attention and it involved the future development of our Kingdom. It was the education reforms that I had proposed to help change the lives of children for the better.

I had not forgotten the original purpose for the recruits to come and attend the academy. It all started with a promise of a performance increase to the armies of Kar, in exchange Claude would allow for the reforms to be made at the academy.

The reforms would not come easy and without protest or opposition. This was why our first mission was to find a suitable person to be placed in leadership roles at the university. I already had an idea as to who should be placed as the spearhead and forefront for this reform.

My first choice was Camila the granddaughter of the head librarian. Not considering her educational background and obvious intelligence. She was also the person who knew about my vision the best. As she was also the one to in detail describe my vision and give form to it.

In addition, I had not spent the better half of the year simply focused all my attention on military matters. I had frequently worked with Camila in planning for the university. We had already located a suitable place and started to build the university.

Behind the sense, Camila had also been gathering academics and skilled personnel that would be interested in joining our cause. Unsurprisingly, the dean of runes and magic technology were more than willing to coordinate with us. I still remember her striking words during the first opening ceremony. ‘To limit the free flow of knowledge is akin to halting the very progression of civilisation.’

For someone that had grown up and lived her whole life in a land where knowledge was limited to a select few, her ideas were revolutionary. It was just that she lacked support and momentum. If she had all those, I was willing to bet that she would be forever known as a legendary revolutionary. She lived up to her name as Minerva, the Roman goddess of Wisdom. While the goddess Minerva was not a goddess of Arcadia, I was sure that she had visited it before in mortal form, like my mother had on earth and brought about enough change to popularise the name.

Both Camila and Minerva were vital for my plans in reforming our education. Minerva was more suited to be the face of our reforms as she was a well-known academic and an established leader of runes and magic technology. However, she was not familiar with other fields of studies, and this was where Camila came in. With her experience as a librarian and extensive understanding in a variety of fields, she would be the main planner and the driving force, that would be working behind the scenes.

To date, Camila had already done a considerable amount of work. Without her, I would still have not even started my plans for this reform. Now the main buildings were well under construction. As Claude had not yet approved of these reforms we were still constrained by our budget. This was because we were only using the funds, I had available. While the amount I had was considerable if you were only thinking about using it on an individual or even a large family. However, if this was used for a project of this size it would be considered minuscule. It was only barely enough to purchase the land and start work on one of the buildings for the university.

If we were to follow our original plan, we would still calls for more funds to build the other three buildings. All this was just for the university. We still need to build schools that taught the population literacy and numeracy skills.

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Now that the recruits have almost finished their training at the academy, it was time to start talks with Claude about the issues on education reforms.

Knocking on Claude’s office I found him alone and working on a few documents. Stopping what he was doing he invited me to sit down on a chair by his desk. Asking me what I was here for.

“So, Ayra, what are you here for today?”

I felt offended by the tone he was using. It was like he was dealing with someone troublesome. I made sure to let him know I did not like it.

“Claude, why are you treating me like a troublesome individual? It is like you do not want me to be here.”

Finally, realising his mistake Claude made an effort, to change his tone as well as explain himself.

“I am sorry, Ayra, it is just recently every time someone has enters my office, they have bad news for me or more work for me to deal with.”

While I felt guilty about placing more work on him there was nothing I could do. I was not familiar with politics and did not know who else to talk to regarding the reforms. So, I might as well just ask Claude it was his kingdom after all.

After I informed him, what I needed, Claude instantly sighed and proceeded to rest his head on the table. It was easy to tell that he was tired from all the work, but I really did not know what to do, and I did not want to bother Ingrid about these things.

Finally, after a while, Claude conceded and promised he would allocate extra funds for the reforms. While he was reluctant to do more work he was still going to work for the benefit of the kingdom if it mattered.

Having secured funds for the rest of the university buildings, I could finally focus on the battalion again. While I was all for improving the welfare of children and everything, I was not the most suitable person to do it. I was not the most patient person to start with, so I was not a very good teacher. It was fine with the recruits as they needed someone to intimidate them into training hard.

However, it was another story if I was working with children. If I went off at children that would just be mean. Especially if they did not understand what was going on. I need to get my act together if I was to become the patron goddess of children.

It is not like I do not like children. I quite like them, and I do not mind looking after them if that is what needed to be done. It is just that I am not a suitable teacher for them or anyone. It was better for me to act as the wealthy sponsor and let more suitable people like Camila and Minerva do the complicated things. I could chip in when I had an idea but often Camila would be able to improve upon it anyways.

So rather than hindering them in such an important task, it was better for me to just do what I can do. Which was annoying Claude until he gave us funds, while Camila and Minerva planned the actual reforms and implementations for the new education system.

Time quickly went by, without waiting for anyone. On my last day at the academy, a graduation ceremony was held for all the graduating students. It was a very simple ceremony the only speeches were from the deans before a class went up for their graduation certificates, there was no valedictorian or student representative that went up for a speech. It was all bland, but as someone that was straightforward and did not like complicated procedures, it was obvious that I preferred the ceremony the way it was.

My friends and I started to say our farewells to the classmates that we were closed to it had only been a year, but it was long enough for everyone to get to know each other. I was mainly friends with the people that tried to study hard but were for some reason or another would forget about everything they learnt previously. These troublesome students would often ask me similar questions. I wonder how they will fare when they get older, and their memory deteriorates further than it already is. When my friends and I leave, they would have to ask someone else to help them with their assignments and homework.

Today was not only the final day for the academy students, but also for the recruits as today was the day that they would be deployed into one of the nine armies of Kar. Many officers had arrived today to pick them up and take them to their respective home bases.

The only group that would not be going with the officers and entering one of the nine armies of Kar were the fifty recruits that had trained under me for the whole time. They were to join me in the new battalion.

This was also a great opportunity for them as they were joining a new battalion that did not have any other soldiers in it yet. Hence it was easier for them to be promoted as everyone would have the same starting point.

As I still have not officially received the conferment of the rank of Lieutenant colonel or as the commander of the battalion, we did not have a base that the recruits could stay at. So, they would stay here at the academy until we were already. It could not be helped as Claude had given his word that I would only be conferred these titles when I finished training all the recruits under me. As I had only officially finished training them today, I would have to wait until tomorrow at least, for the official conferment and induction into the military.

End of arc 2 Amongst Students and Recruits