"Your Majesty, over the past three months, the Ministry of Examinations has strictly followed the edict you issued. Officials have already been sent with the Ministry of Works to various major cities and counties across the country to establish local offices of the Ministry of Examinations."
"So far, apart from the main office in Plumera City and the office in Marigold City, we've also sent officers to set up branch offices in seven major counties. These include Petunias County in the central south, Nasturtium County in the central east, Lupine County in the central west, Belladonna County in the southeast, and the three major counties in the far southeast—Peony County, Lobelia County, and Pansy County."
"Plumera City's national academy was completely finished two months ago. The professors appointed at the academy are all distinguished scholars from the Plumera Kingdom, as well as top performers from the first national exam."
The new academy system created by the Ministry of Examinations requires teaching in both literature and rituals, but also includes mathematics and martial arts. In addition, each student must choose a technical skill that they are either good at or wish to learn.
The range of technical skills offered is extremely broad. It can include various types of artisans, performers, or martial artists.
Because of this, the Ministry of Examinations and the academy in Plumera City are different from the traditional private schools of other nations in this era. Besides teachers who teach literature, rituals, and history, there are also instructors for mathematics, martial arts, mechanics, geography, agriculture, embroidery, sculpture, weaving, and many other specialized fields.
Inside the academy, students must learn three core subjects: basic literature and rituals, basic mathematics, and basic physical training. In addition, they must also choose one technical skill as a required subject.
By the time they graduate after a few years, the national exam will test them on these four subjects: literature and rituals, mathematics, physical training, and their chosen technical skill.
Three months ago, when the academy in Plumera City was still under construction, Elara had already told Mathias and the Ministry of Examinations about her new requirements.
Now, both the ministry and Mathias have given her a very satisfactory "answer sheet."
"Additionally, Your Majesty, the academy in Plumera City has already enrolled more than three thousand students from counties across the country. More students are continuously signing up. In preparation for teaching students nationwide, your plan to build national academies in every major city and county is also being carried out alongside the setup of local ministry offices."
"The university in Marigold City had already been completed earlier. It has already admitted nearly a thousand students. During this national exam, Marigold City had the highest number of students coming to take the test."
"The academies in the other seven counties are also being built along with the ministry branch offices. Within another month, construction of these schools should be mostly finished. The Ministry of Examinations is also preparing to select instructors for these academies during this nationwide exam."
"If there truly aren't enough candidates by then, each county and city's local administrative office can search for talent on their own. However, any instructors they find must first be assessed by the respective branch's Department of Education and submit their personal household registration data to the local Household Department for review before they can officially take office.
With Mathias around, Elara really didn't need to worry about most of the Department of Education's affairs. He had already handled everything thoroughly on her behalf.
Elara was very satisfied. She listened as Mathias continued in his clear, gentle voice, calmly reporting on the department's other matters.
Since he had already given her a detailed report in person the night before regarding the upcoming second major exam, he now gave only a brief summary of other key issues in court, then bowed and stepped back behind the other officials from the department.
Once the Department of Education finished reporting, the other departments also took turns presenting their updates from the past three months.
During the three months of Elara's absence, each department had been working overtime, pushing hard to develop and build.
The Ministry of Works still had no top-ranking chief official, but the younger new officials beneath were full of energy. In just three months, they had not only built an entirely new Plumera City, but also nearly completed several satellite cities outside the main capital. These were designated for commerce, the military, and major construction factories.
Among the sub-departments, the Agricultural and Industrial Division was the first to dispatch personnel to set up local offices in various counties and cities.
Once the agricultural officials were sent out, they fully reclaimed and upgraded all the fertile farmland in Plumera City and its surrounding counties. Inside the capital, the agricultural officers followed the construction knowledge Elara had given them and built public restroom channels that connected throughout the city. They also set up several large composting pits on the edges of the larger farmland plots.
The main farmland areas in several major counties also had new irrigation ditches dug, and many wind-powered waterwheels and other agricultural structures were constructed.
All the ancient, heavy stone tools had been replaced or upgraded. With the constant output of iron from the iron smelting plants, the Agricultural and Industrial Division had used Elara's original blueprints to produce iron shovels, hoes, plows, axes, spades, sickles, rakes, and other iron farming tools.
This transformation of agricultural tools directly boosted the pace of farming development in Plumera Kingdom. It greatly improved the efficiency of plowing and harvesting and led to a visible rise in food production.
As Elara traveled with her army, she saw that many previously abandoned fields had been fully reclaimed and reworked.
The high-yield crops she had originally tasked Kristof to recover in Belladonna from other worlds, such as high-yield potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, upland rice, and paddy rice, were now densely and neatly planted across the farmlands of major counties in Plumera Kingdom. Most of these crops had already sprouted noticeably. Some were even half as tall as a person, growing beautifully.
Just before reaching the city gates, she had even spotted several greenhouses built in nearby farmland.
These greenhouses were based on knowledge she had previously given to the Agricultural and Industrial Division, using bamboo, stone, and treated animal hides.
Unfortunately, she hadn't obtained the glass-making technique yet. Otherwise, she could have used glass to build real greenhouses. Still, she had acquired a lot of technology this time from the core palace inside the Divine Ruins. She hadn't had the chance to go through it all or start any upgrades yet. Once she had time, she'd look through it to see if the glass-making technique was included.
If it wasn't, she'd just open a custom tech box and select it. Then she could assign some of the Ministry of Works staff to start producing glass.
Glass hadn't appeared in this era yet. Once they created it, it would be not only practical but also a valuable luxury item for sale. Just thinking about it was exciting.
After hearing the report from the Agricultural and Industrial Division, Elara no longer had any concerns about Plumera Kingdom's future grain reserves.