Chapter 427: Ethan really pleased his auntie

"This is bigger than the Royal Academy in the capital of the Burning Ice Kingdom!" Ysara exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

The Royal Academy of Ice and Fire, the great academy where Ysara had served as director centuries ago, had been a colossal undertaking by the royal family.

A project that had taken fifty years to complete.

Of course, the main reason for the delay was resistance from the nobility.

At the time, fear had spread among the noble houses that the king would try to force their children to attend the academy, placing them under the direct influence of the Crown.

The king, for his part, insisted that the academy existed solely for the lesser noble houses and for selecting talent among the peasants.

Not that many people believed him.

In the end, the academy barely got off the ground, nearly costing the kingdom a civil war. Even now, centuries later, it remained a major point of conflict between the royal family and the feudal nobles.

One of the last four kings, in fact, had been assassinated after attempting to pass a law that would force noble houses to send their heirs to the academy—a great disgrace for those families.

Still, politics aside, the academy had consumed hundreds of millions of gold coins... and even so, it barely amounted to half of what now stretched out before Ysara’s eyes.

Ethan smiled at her reaction, crossing his arms and following her gaze.

In terms of area, the academy was roughly the size of 561 American football fields.

All that space—between the buildings, the parks, and the recreational areas—was meant for just ten thousand students. The elite of the elite.

It wasn’t much compared to Earth’s gigantic modern campuses, but by Estria’s standards, it was simply massive.

Ethan finally tore his eyes away from the Blooming Roses Academy and pulled the staff summons card from his spatial ring.

He didn’t hesitate.

With a sharp flick of his fingers, he tore the card in half. The pieces disintegrated into particles of light before they even hit the ground.

Ysara’s golden lips parted as she suddenly sensed several Fourth-Stage presences springing up out of nowhere. At least five of them, one after another.

Her eyes, shining like molten gold, snapped toward the academy’s enormous courtyard.

There, in a shimmer of light, thousands of figures appeared at once. All women, each with a unique form and power.

Most were not especially impressive, but five hundred of them carried exceptionally distinctive auras. All were former instructors from the era when the academy had been at its peak.

Five were at the Fourth Stage. The other four hundred ninety-five were at the Third.

The remaining fifteen hundred were also at the Third Stage, but clearly lacked a strong foundation.

They were responsible for cleaning, food service, administrative work, and the academy’s general management.

Their apparent ages ranged from twenty to forty, and their first reaction was, naturally, shock.

A heavy silence fell over the courtyard. Thousands of eyes darted toward the sky, the surrounding buildings, and the women beside them, unable to comprehend where they were or how they had gotten there.

After that came confusion, low murmurs spreading from one corner to another like a growing buzz.

And after the confusion came the pain.

The System bombarded their minds with a flood of information, without warning and without pause.

Several brought their hands to their heads. Some staggered, others doubled over with muffled moans as the System forcibly crammed it all into their skulls.

Along with the information, it adjusted their brains—and, with them, the way they perceived Ethan—ensuring that every one of them started with a high baseline of loyalty.

Gradually, the pain subsided.

And then, thousands of eyes turned to Ethan.

Despite the changes the System had made to their minds, they were still themselves. It took them a few seconds to process it all, exchanging glances, taking deep breaths... until the first one dropped to her knees.

The others followed in a wave. No one said a word. There was only the rustling of fabric and the muffled thud of thousands of knees hitting the courtyard stone, echoing across the grounds.

Ethan flashed a bright smile and patted Ysara on the back—she still hadn’t managed to close her mouth properly.

"Come on, Headmistress of Goldenveil’s Blooming Roses Academy.... introduce yourself to your teachers."

Ysara snapped out of her daze.

She turned to Ethan, her full breasts swaying softly with the sudden movement, and without ceremony cupped his face in her hands and kissed him on the lips.

A quick kiss, but by no means chaste—her golden lips lingered on his for a second longer than necessary while her huge, soft breasts pressed against his chest.

The plump mounds squashed gently against him, their pillowy weight molding to his body.

"Little Ethan really pleased his auntie... your mommy and I are going to reward you properly soon."

She purred the words into Ethan’s ear, her warm breath sending shivers down his neck. Then she stepped back, her breasts settling into place with a slow, weighty bounce, and walked toward the waiting teachers.

When she reached them, she began to introduce herself.

Ethan just nodded, a crooked smile slipping out as his eyes followed those hips for longer than they should have.

Then he took a deep breath and got back to work.

He still had a lot to do.

First and foremost, the salaries.

Ethan began crunching the numbers, drawing from memory everything he knew about Goldenveil’s economy.

In Goldenveil, an ordinary citizen needed about one gold coin a year to live comfortably and support a family of six—a father, a mother, and four children, for example.

That, of course, assumed someone who spent nothing on enhancing their own power and simply led an ordinary middle-class life.

The minimum wage in Goldenveil was, therefore, about ten silver coins per month. One hundred twenty silver coins per year, before taxes.

Each silver coin was worth one hundred bronze coins, and five kilograms of rice cost the average citizen of Goldenveil only ten bronze coins.

A family of six would consume twenty-five to thirty kilograms of rice per month. Not much more than half a single silver coin.

Even after adding other costs—such as meat, clothing, desserts, entertainment, and other common expenses—a single man earning Goldenveil’s minimum wage could support a wife and four children, with money left over to save at the end of the month.

With this in mind, Ethan set the salaries, well aware that specialists had costs infinitely higher than those of ordinary people.

A Fourth-Stage teacher would receive thirty gold coins per month—the same as a commander of a thousand men in the Goldenveil Army.

Third-Stage teachers would receive ten gold coins per month, equivalent to the salary of an ordinary army officer.

Such salaries were somewhat meager compared to the actual cost of advancing a Third-Stage specialist to the Fourth Stage.

On the other hand, the academy where those women served would cover nearly all of those costs itself, and the same applied to nearly every talented civil servant in Goldenveil.