Building a Kingdom and Conquering the World

Chapter 36: Education

Icemit's subjects have been sucked and extorted from their money by Juriel, who used the winter as a pretext to raise the taxes all over the city. As a result, within a couple of months, the people were unable to afford basic necessities such as food and firewood to survive. All this money went directly to Juriel's pockets.

Henry has been reading the report about the city's situation for a whole day, trying to figure out how to solve this situation. However, time was running dry, so Henry delegated the task of managing the city to a few trusted individuals from the capital, chosen by Luke, who had a talent for identifying and filtering skilled personnel. In fact, Luke's abilities would make him an excellent talent acquisition employee back on Earth, gaining at least six digits.

"The most pressing issues right now are food and healthcare." – Henry muttered as he pensively tapped his fingers on the armrest of the throne – "The food stock of the capital has been stabilize to a certain point, so we can send some to here. But doctors are going to be hard since I only have a few hands to help on this case. It seems like I will have to speed up the plan of opening the First University in my lands. We don't have healers, so we must raise doctors and herbalists."

Henry was aware of the existence of healers who could utilize Mana to cure innumerous diseases in this world, maybe even cancer had treatment. However, healers were scarce even in the Central Regions due to the strict requirements needed to become one, like affinity and a certain pattern of the Mana Circuits. The poor North had only two known healers, he needed to develop doctos.

Regrettably, knowledge in this world was concentrated in the hands of a selected few, who only passed it down to their chosen disciples. It was like an inheritance that could only be divided by those who the dead chose to donate. This was a recurring issue, even on Earth, where prior to modern times, knowledge was transferred solely to professors' direct students within universities, which limited the scope and progress of various fields. This fact only changed once the capitalist system required a workforce more capacitated and trained.

The benefits of implementing and erecting public universities in his kingdom were immense, greatly outweighing the risk of a democratic revolution taking place, due to a highly educated elite. He only had to do a good job brainwashing this people and school was a great place to do so.

The universities would allow him to expand numerous areas, like health and military forces, maybe he would even be able to develop a modern fire gun, changing the course of this world, like when the Chinese discovered gunpowder. Education was the better way to construct a better future for his people and achieve his dream of becoming someone who could change the world with his own hands, like Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Julius Caesar.

"I can only begin executing this plan once the kingdom has been completely stabilized" - Henry muttered, scratching his forehead - "I have to accomplish everything within this month, otherwise, I risk losing the trust of the people and also another country entering my borders to take my land."

Although the countries around didn't want to take a territory that bordered the Frozen Forest, they would surely want to get the South-West side of the kingdom, which had a small production of cold iron, enough to raise a small army. Henry couldn't allow that important asset to fall in another's hand. It would be a big impact to the economy and would probably delay the progress of the kingdom in at least ten years.

"I must take Mirante and recover control over the White Merchant Road, which gives access to the village where the iron is extracted." – Henry knew that he needed to hurry as the winter ended and the neighboring kingdoms must have already heard about the noble's betrayal and the weakened Stahl.

"The administrative personnel must already be on the way with a carriage of food and a few doctors and the barbarian herbalists." – Henry muttered, standing up from the throne and picking a sword laying peacefully against it – "I must get going."

He had been resting in Icemit for two days, enough for him and Luther to recover their strength after the attack against the city. Now, he was ready to take down Mirante, the second most important city in the Kingdom of Stahl and the richest of them all, where the money concentrated in the greedy hands of its Lord, Duchess Codicia, the most powerful warrior after Luther, a woman who was near the Sixth Stage, a woman who had deep control over Ice Mana.