“I will talk to her, but I don’t think we should interfere if it’s her decision to lead the trial. It’s something she has to face as The Queen of the Elven Kingdom, after all,” Ava let out a sigh, “It’s just unfair for her that she has to bear her mother’s sin.”

The atmosphere was bad when she brought up the last part. Tang Shaoyang also did not know what to do to cheer her up since he was a big part of the problem.

“It’s not your fault. It’s mine,” Tang Shaoyang pulled her into his embrace.

*** ***

The following day, Tang Shaoyang woke up and had to attend more meetings. The topic was about public execution, more proposals on how they should govern the territories outside China, and the plan for the empire’s development. They have confirmed that the three factions would no longer send an army to fight them, so they proceed with the empire’s affairs.

Tang Shaoyang just finished the meeting with Wei Xi, Alton, and Li Shuang along with their people, but it was not over. He had to meet with Cao Jingyi, Kang Jiayi, Kang Xue, Zowen, and Li Shuang. As the Prime Minister, each time the meeting was about the development or to build something, Li Shuang would get involved.

“Can you just take over the meeting and report everything to me later?” This was not the type of work he liked. He would rather go out and fight zombies or monsters. He felt his people made things more complicated than it was supposed to be. For the public execution, for example, they did not need to ask him who to invite, just invite everyone they could reach, that should be fine. As long as the words spread out what happened to the World Government, then they had achieved their goal setting up the public execution.

But for his people, it was not as simple as he thought. Wei Xi even brought up how to handle the protesters of the execution. Many people still had the old mindset where the death penalty violated human rights, and stuff. His thought was simple, if these people wanted to stay in the Tang Empire then follow the regulation, and if they did not want to stay they could leave. He had risked his life for this empire, and he was not going to waste his time with such an issue. Not when the battle was not entirely over. The next battle would not just be Nirvana, but also the other six God Alliances allied to Nirvana as well. He was not going to waste his time to spoil these protesters.

“That will waste too much time. They will not proceed with the plan without receiving your agreement, and it will take a few days longer because I know you hate to read long texts, so listening to them directly is much better than reading pages of texts, no? Also, I can’t give them your approval, all projects can’t be done without your approval, and I want to make it that way until I leave my post,” Tang Shaoyang raised his eyebrow after hearing the last part.

“I have told you that I will help you to set up the order in your government, but you must choose a new Prime Minister later. Unless you can trust the next Prime Minister just like how you trust me, then giving the Prime Minister the power of the Emperor’s authority is a bad practice for the empire!”

Tang Shaoyang remembered that Li Shuang told him about her plan for the future. Her position was temporary because her passion was not in politics, and he had to look for someone else to replace her once the Tang Empire settled down. It was another headache for him, choosing someone he trusted to manage the empire’s affair.

The door opened, a sign that the next meeting was about to start. He heard from Wei Xi that Cai Jingyi stepped down from The Tarrior. But she still held the reputation and position among his people, and she came up with a new proposal to start an academy. That was right, the next project he was about to hear was about the academy.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” Cao Jingyi, Kang Jiayi, Kang Xue, and Zowen greeted him. He acknowledged them with a nod, waving at them to go present their proposal.

Cao Jingyi gave him and Li Shuang the scroll, but only Li Shuang read the scroll. He did not even touch the scroll. Not because he meant to disrespect them but because he was not going to read thousands of texts after reading ten scrolls earlier. He would rather listen to their presentation directly. His action caused Cai Jingyi to frown, clearly she mistook his action, but she did not say anything.

These four people came up with a big project, bigger than he thought. The Tang Empire Academy, and it was not as simple as it sounded because in this academy, the studies would be split into many studies. It started with the basic survival, fight, into more specific study such as Mage Tower where Zowen would be responsible for it. There was also a Healer Tower where Kang Xue, Arina, and Selene took charge. Zaneos even took part in this academy, Swordsman House where he would teach sword technique. The Elven Kingdom would send representatives to teach the students to be Elven Ranger, or more like the Elven Kingdom taught the students how to get Wind Ranger class naturally instead of using class scroll. Not just that, the academy would also teach other things such as blacksmithing, alchemy, or other stuff. The things that would be essential to the Tang Empire’s future development.

Later, the graduated students could choose where they want to serve. The Tarrior (Military), The Tang Empire Internal Security (TEIS), The Tang Empire Intelligent Division (TEID), The Healer Division, and other divisions. In another word, The Tang Empire Academy would be a more effective way to nurture their force, also giving the student more freedom to choose where they wanted to work.

Halfway through the presentation, Tang Shaoyang was already sold to the project even though he had not touched the materials in the scroll. If there was something he did not know, he would ask Li Shuang. More than that, he promised Zowen to make her Mage Tower as well. Might as well used her Mage Tower to teach his people magic, introducing magic to his people in a larger scale, more than just skills.

His divisions could search for the people they needed in a single academy as well, the effective way to fill up the empty spots in many divisions.

“This is a great proposal,” Finally he got to listen to something he was interested in after the last meeting, “Let’s get to work on the project immediately. What do you guys need to start with the project?”

“We have written everything we need on the scroll. If you read it, you will know what we need, Your Majesty,” Cao Jingyi responded, kinda salty in her tone.

Tang Shaoyang was caught off guard, looking at Cao Jingyi then glanced at Li Shuang. Li Shuang just shook her head and showed them a page of the list of the project needed. First, it was the location. It seemed the right location was important, and it was emphasized not to set up the academy in the capital.

“Why not in the capital? All divisions operate in the capital, isn’t it more effective to set up in the capital. If the academy needs someone from Tarrior or TEID to teach the student, it’s more convenient for them since it’s closer to the main headquarter,” Tang Shaoyang could not understand the reason.

“You will know the reason—” Cao Jingyi was getting more annoyed when Tang Shaoyang asked, but Zowen stood up and pulled her back, “I know you are annoyed because you wrote everything in the scroll, but I don’t think you can’t act like that, Miss Cao. Let me take over, I don’t want our project to get canceled because of your temper.”

Tang Shaoyang blinked his eyes. He understood why Cao Jingyi was annoyed, but he felt like there was no need for her to be angry like that. He felt it was more effective to have an interactive conversation rather than reading the proposal, but of course, one of the reasons was because he hated reading thousands of texts when he could just listen to them.

Zowen explained why the location must be outside the capital. It was because the academy needed more spaces than what The Capital had. She gave him examples like how Mage tower needed a training ground where they could practice the spell without worrying the civilians, and they needed a lot of spaces since the training ground would be separated between the apprentices’ levels and stuff.

Just like how the dwarves requested to build a bigger smithy because they wanted to separate the apprentices based on level, so they could provide a focused lesson, much better than a mixed hall. At the end, Zowen asked for a whole territory to be dedicated as an academy city, and they asked for Suzhou territory because it was closer to the capital. There was no reason for Tang Shaoyang not to give them the approval, especially when the project benefited the empire a lot.

The four left the meeting hall after an hour conversation with Tang Shaoyang, and right in front of the meeting hall, Zowen grabbed Cao Jingyi’s arm, “We need to talk, privately, Jingyi.”