Hi guys, here’s the chapters. So I was just sitting and thought to myself, instead of giving you guys three chapters then two, why not give you all five at once. Bet you thought I had gone back on my promise. So here you go, five promised chapters. Sadly, from tomorrow, it will be down to one chapter a day. Well with that, enjoy!

“Okay, let’s start the meeting... Mmh, before we do though, someone please wake her up. We cannot continue the meeting in such a manner” The empress said in a calm voice. In a much as her voice was calm, however, Dusk could detect a hidden displeasure to her tone. This lady’s ability to hide emotion this well was something that Dusk admired greatly. Her ability was so good, in fact, that it was almost as good as his (someone who had had his emotions dulled and had the ability to control brain waves).

“Haha Empress, she’s not waking up. This one’s gonna be gone for a while. It was her fault for being weird though. She’s a scientist but she thinks even less than me haha, how weird.” Said Barbra as she turned Francisca over and continued to shake her with her foot, all while bursting out in laughter.

“Sigh.” The empress could only sigh as she looked towards the two grown women. Even Dusk felt pity for her. For her to be burdened with the job of supervising such idiots must really take a toll on her. The only good thing was that she, as the empress, was really powerful and so she could use her strength as a means to get them to behave when needed.

As Dusk observed all this, he was quite stunned to learn that out of all the people in the room, only one had not let out a single sound ever since he entered the room. Let alone speak; she hadn’t even looked over since the time that Francisca collapsed. Back then she had merely opened her eyes for a short while and then returned to her own little world once more. While from the outside she looked the same, beneath those long bangs of her lay closed eyes. Dusk was only able to notice this fact as his method of seeing the ordinary one.

At this moment this lady Night Everdark was just seated there with her eyes closed just like his. Were one to enter the room, she would be the last person that they would notice as she carried almost no presence. Something which dusk did not know whether he should take as a blessing or a curse.

After he thought about it for a moment, however, he came to the conclusion that it was more of a blessing than it was a disadvantage. It was always better for one to be mysterious after all. That way your enemies will not know what to expect. Her air of mystery did indeed do her justice. In as much as not much was known about her, it was speculated that besides the empress, she, Queen Night Everdark was one of the strongest people in the empire at the upper S rank.

Of course while most of those were just rumors of the masses, Dusk could confirm from his mother’s memories that those rumors were, for a fact, true. For some reason, Dusk found this woman to be very pleasing. Maybe it was just the attraction of two individuals with similar temperament or maybe it was that he really liked her mysterious air. All in all, there was something about this lady that appealed to Dusk greatly.

On the other side of the room, there was someone whose expressions had changed so much that Dusk was not sure whether her facial muscles were still functioning properly. Ever since he entered the room, Onaho had been adapting different facial expressions. First, when Dusk entered the room and was about to be pounced on, she was all smiles.

Once Dusk put Francisca out, her expression first turned into that of confusion then anger. Later when the Queen shot her down, she had a certain expression that made her look as though she had been stepped on by three hundred wild beasts, it was really unsightly... And funny.

Nonetheless, Dusk could not bother with her as the empress had already signaled the start of the meeting and was just about to announce the topic of discussion. While Dusk did not seem to be listening as he had his eyes closed and was seated on his mother’s lap while resting his back on her stomach, he in fact was.

As his mother gently run her slender fingers through his hair, Dusk paid his utmost attention in observing what was going on inside the room. He was smart enough to at least know that a meeting called for by the empress was bound to one of utmost importance.

“I know many of you are curious as to why... Ooh, Queen Francisca, you’re up? Perfect. Have a seat. Next time don’t just go sleeping on the meeting room’s floor. Have some decency please.” The empress said in a matter of fact kind of manner.

“Huh, what happened?” Francisca asked once she sat up and looked around.

“Francisco, please, this meeting is really important so sit at your seat and keep quiet. I won’t repeat myself.” Said the empress in her calm voice that carried the power to instill fear. This method of instilling fear just through words was something that Dusk was once again left in awe of.

“Ye.. Yes Empress, sorry I got a bit too greedy.” Francisca said in a stammer. Everyone knew of the Empress’ wrath and so no one ever liked to irritate her. Before she sat down, however, Dusk could feel Francisca looking on him. The feeling that she gave off at first was that of confusion and later one of extreme greed. It was almost as though she wanted to steal him then cook him then eat him whole.

“Ooh no, what did I get myself into?” Dusk thought to himself. This time he honestly felt scared. That lady was just too creepy.

“Mmh, let’s continue. Before we do though let me introduce these three people beside me, I am sure that while most of you have not met them, all of you know them. Well these are my two twin daughters and my son. I won’t go into any further details as you will come to know them as time goes on.” The three people waved to everyone present and the empress continued speaking.

“Okay, as I was saying, I know that most of you are wondering why I have called you here considering that it has been more than ten years since the last time you were summoned. We’ll, it’s pretty simple really. See, I’ve been thinking, while it’s okay for me to stay here all the time in secrecy and manage the continent, I feel really bad that my children have to do the same too.”

“I mean, my kids are quite grown up and yet they have never interacted with children their age leading them to be quite naive. As they have always been at home being tutored, they have a rather narrow view of the world. It is so bad, in fact, that apart from a few things that they learnt from books, they are totally clueless of the outside world.” As the Empress said this, all three of her children had wry smiles on their faces. It was pretty clear that what she has just said had hit them right at the spot.

Dusk could really empathize with the empress though. There was a true problem there. After all, how could a person lead a whole continent with just the information that they got through books? As it was pretty certain that the future empress would be one of the two daughters, especially considering their potential as the empress’ daughters and the fact that this matriarchal society required a strong lady to lead them, how could the empress just allow her children to only be book smart?

Even the empress herself by their age had gone out under a hidden identity and seen the world thus, coupled with her book knowledge, had been able to become the successful empress she is today. Considering how this conversation was going, Dusk could already pretty much guess what the empress wanted. And just as he had guessed, so did it come.

“I have been thinking for some time and I came to realize that my overprotective nature of them has lead them to become the way they are. For this reason, I called you over today to make a request which I would like all of you to think of not only as a personal favor for me but also something to develop the country’s younger generation. I would like to build a place where not only my children will be able to gain social knowledge but also a place where the smartest children in the continent will be able to attain knowledge for free, an Imperial academy.”

Once everyone heard this, most of them were left dumbfounded. For one, the cold and ever so serious and independent empress had made a personal request, and two; the request was to build a school. Not just any school, but an imperial school. This was a big deal why? Because while every Kingdom had an academy, those academies naturally only admitted students from the kingdom itself and very rarely did they admit students from the other kingdoms.

With an imperial academy, however, there would be kids from all over continent learning at one school. This was just so surreal that it wasn’t even funny anymore.

Once the empress finished speaking, there was a stretch of silence before the childlike Queen Modred Fribi chided in “But Empress, if we are going to make this academy as you say then it will obviously be for the young generation, how will your children who are obviously past that age attend?” Contrary to her appearance this lady was really mature. It was no wonder she was a queen.

“That’s simple. As it is obvious that my children cannot be students at their age, they will naturally become teachers. They are well educated after all and this will enable them to only enable them to interact with fellow teachers as their peers but also with the students as members of the the younger generation.” Said the empress in her ever so calm manner.

“Haha, I see, that does make sense but how will we choose the students that will join the school. They will come from all over after all so this needs to be handled efficiently.” Asked Barbra.

“Good question. I had thought about this and I decided to make it so that the queen of each Kingdom chooses the best students and teachers in her country and sends them over. This will be beneficial as by the time the school is open it will be completely diverse.” Said the empress.

“Okay, so… uum empress if you don’t mind me asking, which subjects will be taught at that academy?” Asked Francisca. She had become surprisingly meek since the empress chewed her out earlier. It was almost as though she had stepped on the tail of a sleeping tiger once and now had a traumatic experience.

“Francisca, your country’s specialty is mana research right? Then naturally that will be taught too. Similar to Barbra’s kingdom’s specialty in combat studies, the academy will teach aspects from all different kingdoms to its students.” Said the empress. She didn’t pay any mind to Francisca’s change in attitude, as she knew that it was all a farce. She was quite certain that as soon as the meeting ended, Francisca would revert back to her usual disturbing self.

“I know what the next question already is. You want to know when the academy will be opened right? It will be opened in one years’ time. While the earth affinity mages can complete the necessary infrastructural work before that one year ends, the rest of the time will be used to prepare the teachers and the rest of the resources.” Continued the empress.

Once the empress spoke to this point, very few people had any questions left. Even for those who did, they knew that they would obtain answers soon enough so they did not bother asking. Even though she tried her best not to show it, everybody could see how anxious the empress was about this matter and thus they tried their best to not make it any harder for her.