Zowen was close enough to Cao Jingyi to call her by last name, both became closer after the battle even though they did not really participate in an actual battle. However, since both were women, and it was a rare sight for women on the battlefield, both clicked out and got closer. Cao Jingyi thought of the academy idea after hearing about Tang Shaoyang’s promise to Zowen about the Mage Tower.

Kang Jiayi and Kang Xue exchanged glances. Even though Zowen did not say anything that she wanted to talk about, the father and daughter knew that Zowen just wanted to talk about it. They guessed it was about what happened during the meeting that Cao Jingyi almost lashed out at Tang Shaoyang.

“I will leave them to your care,” Kang Jiayi muttered before leaving the group by himself. The old man felt like it was not his role to intervene in the women’s business.

“What do you want to talk about? Just say it here. I have to talk with the dwarf when they are going to start to work, and also about their class,” Cao Jingyi noticed that Zowen glanced at Kang Xue. She waved her hand, “It’s fine. I don’t mind if Kang Xue is listening.”

Zowen glanced at Kang Xue, unsure if she must say it in front of her. After some hesitation, Zowen spoke up, “Do you perhaps hate His Majesty?”

“What are you talking about?” Cao Jingyi was not expecting the topic to be about Tang Shaoyang. She looked confused about where the conversation went on.

“I mean you are kinda rude to His Majesty early. I don’t think you can act like that to His Majesty. You can’t raise your voice at him,” Zowen voiced her thoughts when Jingyi seemed not to realize what she had done earlier.

“He’s the one who is rude to us. We prepared the proposal earnestly, but he did not even touch the scroll. If he wants to be respected, he should respect others too!” Cao Jingyi revealed her annoyance, and why she raised her voice earlier. The fact that Tang Shaoyang did not read the scroll annoyed her.

“I think he deserves respect from us without needing to respect the others for what he has done for us,” Cao Jingyi and Zowen turned toward Kang Xue, “He had to spend many months away from his home, risking his life to reach the high rank only to risk his life again fighting against the God Ranks. If he did not deserve to be respected, then no one deserves to be respected.”

“I understand your feelings because that scroll is your hard work, our hard work to develop the Tang Empire. But he did more work than any of us, no?” Kang Xue was not angry as she voiced her thoughts calmly, “After the long struggle and battle, he also immediately gets into the work even though he badly wants to spend his time with her daughter who was just born yesterday. Yet he still comes to meet us, listening to our proposal even though we are not fully ready to execute our proposal. I am not angry at you, but you know, you have to understand his perspective as well. I am asking for you to understand his perspective as well instead of getting angry at him for not reading the paper.”

“He has a big meeting with The Tarrior and Prime Minister Li Shuang, and maybe he has read a lot of papers before meeting us. Maybe he is just tired of reading those texts and just wants to listen to our presentations. It does not really matter if he read the paper or not as long as he listens to us, no? This sounds bias coming from me, but yes, I just ask you to understand him instead of blindly getting angry at him.”

Cao Jingyi and Zowen exchanged glances, not expecting to hear those from Kang Xue. Cao Jingyi could not say anything to rebut when Kang Xue brought up the battle where Tang Shaoyang single-handedly fought the God Ranks.

Zowen was kinda lost because she brought this up for another reason, not this. And again, it was hard to disagree with what Kang Xue said.

“What she said is true, but I am more worried about you. If you are going overboard, he might kill you or you will get kicked out of the empire. I don’t want to lose my first friend,” That was Zowen’s main concern.

For a spirit that had been staying with Tang Shaoyang for a long time, watching Tang Shaoyang closely. She was aware Tang Shaoyang could be cruel despite having a soft spot for his people. He would do everything to save his people, but he did not hesitate to kill. If he deemed Cao Jingyi as an obstacle, he might get rid of Cao Jingyi. That was what she was afraid of the most.

It was Kang Xue and Cao Jingyi’s turn to exchange glances before both burst into laughter. It was quite funny to hear that from Zowen. Both thought Zowen was close enough to know what kind of people Tang Shaoyang was.

“I can understand if you come from the same angle as her, but that’s just too funny, Zowen,” Cao Jingyi pulled Grand Lightning Magus into her embrace, “I know you are being genuine and worry about, but I don’t think he would execute me for that. I do agree that I might be a little too sensitive, but I know he will never do that to me. You don’t need to worry.”

Kang Xue shook her head to the side, smiling while looking at Zowen funny. The serious atmosphere melted out. Cao Jingyi pulled the magus with her, “Let’s meet the dwarf. Don’t you want to meet them as well for your Mage Tower?”

The three girls headed to the elevator while Zowen looked embarrassed, looking down as they walked together. Her face reddened, but she really thought about it. Tang Shaoyang never got rid of the people who worked with him even though those people made mistakes. But the traitors would be dealt with no mercy. Cao Jingyi was far from being a traitor since she worked to make The Tang Empire better.

They arrived in front of the elevator, and the timing was impeccable as the elevator opened on this floor.?Eleven people came out of the elevator. Li Shuang’s secretary led ten foreign people out of the elevator. Kang Xue and Cao Jingyi recognized most of the faces. They are from The Polar Guild, The First Order Guild, and The Revolution Kingdom. There were three faces that they did not recognize.

Kang Xue pulled Li Shuang’s secretary and asked, “Are they going to meet His Majesty?”

The ten people stopped behind the secretary, scanning the three girls as well. The secretary nodded in response.

Kang Xue did not inquire further and let the secretary go. Yury Semenov and Mikhailovich recognized Kang Xue, giving the greeting with a nod. Then the secretary continued to lead the ten people into the meeting room.

*** ***

The meeting room

Tang Shaoyang tried to crack his neck. It was impossible to feel tired with his attributes, but he felt tired from just sitting here, “When is this over?” He asked Zhang Mengyao who joined the next meeting.

“You have another meeting with our vassal, then you have another meeting with the Queen of the Elven Kingdom to speak about the Trial of Justice of the former king. That’s for today,” Li Shuang told him the schedule for the day. More meetings for him to attend.

“Do we have a break? Maybe a one or two-hour lunch break?” Tang Shaoyang raised his right eyebrow multiple times, giving the girls a code.

“One hour is too long. Elin will bring our food after this meeting,” Zhang Mengyao did not get the code. She was reading the scroll that he did not touch earlier about the academy. Just like him, she was interested in the idea. That would solve the recruitment problem, more efficiently than each division trained their own recruits.

At this moment, the door was knocked as a female voice came from behind the door. Li Shuang answered and the door opened. A woman in a suit led ten people into the room, and Tang Shaoyang only recognized one person, the person he did not even remember the name of.

“I only recognize one person, and I don’t even know his name,” Tang Shaoyang whispered to Zhang Mengyao, “And what are we going to talk about with them?” There was a lot going through his head right now, and he had forgotten why he met them.

It seemed Herman Bonivido, the First Order Guild’s Guild Leader overheard the whisper, “My name is Herman Bonivido, The First Order Guild’s Guild Leader. These two are my Vice Guild Leaders, Frans and Henry. Pleased to meet you, Sir Tang.” He bowed at the end, and the two Vice Guild Leaders followed to bow.

“My name is Yury Semenov, Polar Guild’s Guild Leader. He is my Vice Guild Leader, Mikhailovich,” Yury Semenov came forward and gave a proper bow, more respectful than Herman.

Three more people came up, introducing themselves. Looking at the three people, Tang Shaoyang recognized them, but again, he did not know their names. He remembered meeting these three people, he met them after he finished the first ten floors.

“My name is Vaso Galliades, Olympus’ Leader. They are my Vice Leaders, Natasa and Alkis,” A man in a suit, looking in his mid-thirties, said, “We met a few months ago at the tower city, Sir.”

Tang Shaoyang responded with a nod, and then he turned toward the last two persons. A man with white hair, and a man with gray hair.

“I am The King of The Revolution Kingdom, Victor Brent Whitney. He is Prime Minister of The Revolution Kingdom, Raymond Irving,” Different from the three representatives earlier, Victor did not bow and came off with a different tone as well. If the others put themselves lower than Tang Shaoyang, he regarded himself as equal to Tang Shaoyang.

Tang Shaoyang nodded and stood up, “I am The Emperor of the Tang Empire, Tang Shaoyang. She is my Prime Minister, Li Shuang, and she is the Supreme General of the Tang Empire, Zhang Mengyao. Please sit,” He turned into the official mode, changing his tone and way of speaking, to more formal since it was an official meeting with the other factions. He needed to keep his image as The Emperor, and he did it pretty well.