"Your Majesty, please wake up."
Candice stood elegantly by Elashia's bedside.
Morning sunlight streamed into the imperial bedchamber as Elashia drowsily lingered in bed.
"Wait a bit, let me sleep five more minutes~"
Candice mercilessly pulled off Elashia's blanket.
"Your Majesty, Principal Erin has been waiting in the garden, please get up."
Candice's voice remained calm and cool, but her tone brooked no argument.
"Eh! What time is it?"
Hearing that Erin was about to arrive, the sleepy Elashia immediately lost all drowsiness and quickly climbed out of bed.
"Quick, Candice, get me some presentable clothes!"
Elashia pleaded with Candice while taking off her nightgown.
"Sigh."
Candice sighed.
This girl truly had no guard around her, having known each other for just over a month yet changing clothes in front of her without any hesitation.
After Elashia had said "the method is confidential," within a few days, a huge amount of grain mysteriously appeared in the granary.
In addition to her surprise, Candice immediately arranged for reliable officials and soldiers controlled by Elashia's [Mind Control] to distribute the relief grain.
The grain crisis was thus resolved.
And after issuing the decree that all spells would be made public, the entire Elasia and Abyss Marsh continent were shaken.
Being able to openly discuss magic in public was unimaginable for humans on the continent.
As the instigator of this decree, Elashia finally gained a moment to breathe, as all the major characters in early-stage Elasia had been placed in advance, and she had nothing important to do anymore.
To be safe, Elashia hadn't completely slacked off.
To ensure she could respond to events in the Elasia Empire in the shortest time, Candice, who managed the entire country, moved to live in the imperial palace at Elashia's strong request.
Elashia had previously dismissed most of the palace servants and almost all the concubines to save money, so now there were only a few servants controlled by Elashia responsible for cooking and cleaning in the palace.
So after living in the palace for a while, Candice discovered something wrong—when she had nothing to do and no one to supervise her, Elashia liked to read novels she bought from outside markets at night, then sleep until noon, then order the controlled servants to bring her a meal, eat and take a nap, then continue reading novels until late at night...
Candice really couldn't stand it...
Although all important matters had been taken care of, she absolutely couldn't let her deteriorate like this!
So the still-energetic Candice volunteered to be Elashia's maid, confiscating her novels at night despite Elashia's pleading eyes to make her sleep, preparing breakfast in the morning, and waking Elashia from her dreams.
Though Elashia seemed to suffer, she still obeyed Candice.
After all, it was for her own good.
Helping the drowsy Elashia put on her white imperial robe, Candice looked her up and down.
"Good, have breakfast and then meet Principal Erin. I should go handle state affairs now."
In the palace garden, Erin, dressed in a purple mage robe, had been waiting for some time.
Seeing Erin waiting through the window, Elashia quickly started running through the palace.
Only when she reached the door did Elashia stop, composing herself to walk calmly out of the palace gates.
"You're here early, Principal Erin."
Elashia smiled as she addressed Erin.
Erin returned the smile.
"Not early, Your Majesty, I just arrived."
You're fooling no one; if not for Candice, I might have believed that.
It was now eight-thirty in the morning, with the original appointment set for ten, yet Erin had arrived at eight.
Thankful in her heart to Candice for waking her, Elashia gestured to a bench and said to Erin: "Please sit."
After both were seated, Elashia immediately got to the point: "How is the school coming along?"
Erin promptly took out a prepared report from her bag.
"Please have a look."
Elashia took Erin's report.
"Plan to recruit 100 professors, actually recruited... 200?"
Erin nodded.
"I didn't expect there would be so many qualified magic users. Since there was sufficient funding, I recruited them all."
In the past, when magic exchange was forbidden in Elasia, many people who secretly learned spells didn't dare use them, and due to their greatly extended lifespans, they had to frequently change residences to avoid being discovered. Now that the decree had been issued, they all emerged.
Erin continued:
"Rest assured, my requirements for magic professors are very strict. No unqualified individuals will be admitted."
Elashia nodded; of course, she trusted Erin on this point.
"Are many of them your 'disciples'?"
Elashia suddenly grinned mischievously at Erin.
Erin blushed.
"Indeed, many are my former disciples, but..."
Elashia waved her hand, smiling: "I'm just joking with you. I know these people were all carefully selected talents by you in the past."
Ending the joke, Elashia continued reading Erin's report.
"Curriculum design... students divided according to aptitude and knowledge into 'Combat Mages' who graduate in two years with a focus on battle capability, and 'Academic Mages' focused on spell research..."
Elashia couldn't help but nod after reading this.
This design perfectly suited Elashia's current needs.
The main purposes of establishing the magic academy were two-fold.
One was to train mages for Elasia and other human countries who could fight in the coming Undead Calamity.
The other was to gather humanity's collective wisdom to develop new spells.
Elashia nodded approvingly and continued reading Erin's report.
"Royal Garden renovation plan... completely finished... very good."
"Plan for one professor or associate professor to mentor fifty students... quite reasonable..."
"And then... currently recruited 1,200 students?"
Elashia was stunned after reading the last line of the report.
"Why so few?"
Erin smiled awkwardly.
"I apologize, Your Majesty, but such a significant change is difficult for most commoners to process immediately. The concept of a 'Magic Academy' is unheard of for most people. Recruiting two thousand students is already quite challenging."
Elashia nodded.
In the game, recruiting for the magic academy was indeed very difficult, with the first year being successful if it attracted a thousand students.
Without Erin's help, there might not even be enough teachers.
However, Elashia, coming from the 21st century, actually had a method to recruit enough students this year.