The Empror's Trap-Chapter 88: Ch - Suggestion

When Kenji approached Pluvia, those around them finally noticed the two. However, they didn’t dare directly question Her Majesty, and besides, it wasn’t unusual for Kenji to discuss matters with Her Majesty that others couldn’t hear. The officials merely remained more alert, hoping to catch some noteworthy information, but weren’t foolish enough to ask the emperor what she had discussed with the Grand Marshal.

"What is it? You summoned me to come over?" Pluvia cheerfully handed Kenji a cup of wine, speaking in a quiet voice.

"I wouldn’t dare. I didn’t summon Your Majesty; my guard simply misunderstood my intentions," Kenji quickly explained. "Your Majesty, I have something I wish to discuss with you."

"Hmm, do we need privacy?" Pluvia glanced at the crowd below and asked softly.

"It would be better to have some privacy. This matter isn’t suitable for too many ears."

"Very well, follow me then," she said as she stood up.

Everyone present noticed the emperor rising, and they hurriedly prepared to stand as well, but Pluvia gestured for them to remain seated: "Ministers, continue eating and drinking. The Grand Marshal and I have some matters to discuss. We’ll return to feast with you shortly."

Since the emperor had spoken, her ministers naturally couldn’t refuse. They all expressed that Her Majesty should go ahead without worry, as they would respectfully await her return. Pluvia and Kenji walked along the corridor, followed by Lina and several imperial guards to ensure their safety.

"Let’s talk here," Pluvia pointed to a pavilion built alongside the corridor and sat down. "What did you want to discuss?"

"Nothing special, Your Majesty. I just wanted to chat with you for a while," Kenji said with a smile as he sat in the pavilion. Shortly after they sat down, an imperial guard brought over two exquisite small bowls. Inside were soft, springy cold cakes topped with brown sugar, still emitting a cool vapor that looked refreshingly delicious.

"Summoning the ruler of a nation for a chat—you truly are interesting," Pluvia said with a smile. However, Kenji didn’t show any happiness at her smile; he just silently looked at her. After a long while, he finally spoke:

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"Your Majesty, regarding Prince Yunis’s words, what are your thoughts?"

Silence.

The air seemed to freeze. Pluvia looked at Kenji with a calm eyes, revealing no thoughts, but Kenji knew she was likely somewhat surprised, or perhaps unable to react immediately.

The matter of Yunis had essentially concluded, but Pluvia had always kept his death in her heart. Kenji certainly understood Pluvia’s thoughts, as the feelings between her and Yunis were not false. This pair of siblings had supported each other to reach where they were today, yet for the stability of the political situation, she had been forced to make a cruel decision.

So when Kenji mentioned Yunis, she would naturally feel somewhat at a loss.

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Pluvia took a bite of the cold cake in front of her, then calmly said: "You probably heard Yunis’s arguments against me before his death. That was nothing but deceptive rhetoric. Our Great Camelot has maintained its thousand-year without a moment’s negligence. How could he understand?"

"Do you truly believe that?" Kenji asked.

He wasn’t clear about Pluvia’s thoughts, but he knew that while Pluvia could deny anything Yunis said or did, the Prince’s assessment of Camelot had been quite objective.

Yes, Camelot’s development was slow. A thousand years of dynastic rule meant the Camelot family had consistently maintained imperial power for a millennium. Successive emperors had strived to govern Camelot well, yet an empire that had existed for a thousand years was little different from other countries, merely expanded in scale.

Strangely, despite needing to develop domestic productivity, Camelot had always maintained an extremely large standing army. Its military force made surrounding countries tremble, and an army of this scale greatly constrained Camelot’s productivity.

There were no truly equal enemies surrounding them, nor was the country chaotic enough to require over a million troops, so what were these armies for? During the previous emperor’s reign, Kenji had checked that Camelot’s army had expanded from an initial 300,000 to 1.06 million massive troops by the time the previous emperor passed away.

1.06 million—with the military quality of Camelot’s soldiers, were they planning to confront other intelligent species?

"Whether I believe so or not, what business is it of yours?" Pluvia raised her head and then continued, "Camelot has its own circumstances, and I have my own thoughts. Yunis’s ideas may not be wrong, but the current Camelot is not ready yet."

"Is it an issue concerning Camelot?"

"To be precise, it’s more important than just the empire of Camelot. We must consider our descendants," Pluvia said. "At least for now, my approach is the relatively safest option. What do you think of what I’m doing now?"

"Very well, Your Majesty. I can hardly find a second person comparable to you."

"You’re flattering me, aren’t you?"

Pluvia smiled, then pointed outside the corridor toward the area beyond the palace: "Kenji, Camelot’s citizens are not consumables or tools. If possible, I too wish for everyone to find happiness. But that’s not realistic, so I can only minimize losses as much as possible. You are one of my arms, and the empire needs your help."

"So if you also agree with Yunis’s views, then Kenji, I may disappoint you. I am not that kind of enlightened ruler, nor can I universally bestow benevolence."

"I understand," Kenji nodded, looking at the sky above. "I know that Camelot still has many urgent problems to solve."

"You wanted to chat with me today just to ask how I view Yunis’s words?"

"Ah, that was secondary," Kenji finally remembered the question he wanted to raise. "I wanted to ask Your Majesty, what are your thoughts on education?"

"Education?"

Pluvia pondered for a moment, then gave her answer: "The education currently implemented in Camelot cannot possibly be applied to the common people. Implementing education on a Camelot-wide scale would be very difficult."

Her meaning was clear.

Camelot’s education had always focused on literature, politics, and such, while also covering archery and horsemanship. This type of learning was currently only available to wealthy people who didn’t worry about food or clothing.

She wasn’t rigid in her thinking. In fact, she had seen her brother’s educational planning proposals before. The ideals were beautiful, but for Camelot, they were currently difficult to implement.

"Your Majesty, our country currently has private teaching halls run by individuals, and official schools run by the government. Besides these, there are also sectarian teachings from various cultivation sects. Of these three, the first two primarily cultivate talents that meet Camelot’s personnel requirements, while the latter trains cultivators."

Kenji casually picked up three small stones and arranged them together.

"I’ve previously considered whether, if domestic conditions become slightly more stable, we should try to promote more education in Camelot. At the very least, Camelot currently does need more talented individuals. From the results of this exchange, we can see that we’re already somewhat behind in many areas. Although the difference between us and the Western Empire is merely in our areas of expertise, this is sufficient to show that Camelot currently lacks talent in various fields," Kenji explained.

Education—if one wanted to advance a country, this step was essential. Although Camelot had multiple educational systems, these were only for a minority of people. The vast majority never even had the opportunity to receive education.

Kenji didn’t expect to implement compulsory education or universal education in this society. But at the very least, some talents in various fields should be cultivated. Studying literature and practicing horsemanship and archery were fine, but a country’s development wasn’t solely dependent on horsemanship, archery, literature, and classical interpretation.

"Continue," Pluvia said, seemingly interested in this topic as she rested her chin on her arm to listen.

"I’ve previously researched the talents currently lacking in Camelot," Kenji took out a piece of paper and wrote down some characters on it. The nearby imperial guard immediately brought a lamp closer. "What Camelot currently lacks are theoretical talents. In other words, talents in fields that can be expanded. I’m considering whether we need to train talents in these areas?"

"But these fields are rarely seen in Camelot itself," she looked at those fields that many officials in Camelot wouldn’t even know about, feeling somewhat troubled. "We would need to start from scratch, which requires considerable time."

"There’s no immediate rush for now. My point is that, at the very least, we should help the common people learn to read. This would also benefit the implementation of Your Majesty’s future policies," Kenji advised.

"You want to do this too? When Yunis tried to implement this before, it cost the national treasury a considerable sum with little effect. If you do this, the treasury doesn’t have that much money now," Pluvia quickly warned him.

Please don’t start another major project, she thought. They had just fought a war, then had to repair reservoirs, purchase surplus grain, provide disaster relief and reconstruction... They couldn’t withstand more strain. Yes, some corrupt officials could be squeezed for resources, but they couldn’t be completely drained all at once.

"Ah, it doesn’t require much money—just teaching them to recognize words," Kenji said confidently. "To teach common people to read, we need teachers to go among them."

"You want to find a group of teachers to teach them literacy? Where would we find so many people in the country?"

"It’s just literacy training—we don’t need to hire experienced teachers. Those failed scholars would be quite suitable."

Kenji already had a plan in mind.

Truly qualified teachers would be hard to find, and even if found, would cost a lot. But failed scholars? Weren’t they easy to find? Every region would have a group of scholars who never passed the examinations. This was a perfect opportunity for them to contribute to Camelot’s development.