Since the coronation of King Ophire, this would be the first year that he had not met with the Fief Lords of his Kingdom on his birthday.

Sadly, unlike every year in the past, no festival was held and no fireworks were seen on the King's birthday.

No one arrived at the Palace bearing presents, to meet their Ruler, and discuss the state of their fiefs.

However, he did not care about this as long as his citizens were safe and happy.

Eventually, Lake Poliza had also frozen over which indicated that winters had arrived in Amarthea as well.

Days passed by in a blur and with it was the progress of the mission to eradicate the plague from their Kingdom.

The cure was made available to more people in the infected fiefs and the number of patients healed began increasing drastically.

Along with the cure to heal those who are infected, the new medicine was distributed among those who came in constant contact with the infected population.

This medicine claimed to protect and prevent them from getting infected by the plague and to everyone's surprise, it delivered on its claims.

After taking this preventive medicine, none of those treating or working with the plague victims had ever been affected by the plague themselves.

This aided in halting the number of cases from increasing while the existing patients received treatment.

When the cure was first given to the infected people, the physicians administering it to them had explained in detail what they would experience after consuming the lavender liquid.

Hearing that they would be in pain and even ooze a mysterious black liquid from their blisters was scary but they had to endure these sufferings if they wished to be healed.

Thus, they accepted whatever the effects they might experience as long as they could survive and live a longer life to stay with their family for more years.

Thankfully, no one was being denied the cure due to any reason and all had equal rights to gain treatment from this deadly disease.

The Royal Medical Association was grateful for the aid from the Lumex fief when they began to fall short on a certain herb needed to prepare the cure.

Viscount Lumex was generous and sent over as much as was needed which made up for the shortage without wasting any time while waiting to grow those herbs from scratch.

Through the aid of so many fiefs, people had been able to survive without starvation and even obtain the cure in the last many months.

Today was the last day of the year and there were only a few places where the cure was yet to be delivered.

From the report the King had received from Sir Barton Merde, the Head of the Royal Medical Association, all cases of the plague would come to an end very soon.

This was a matter of celebration for members of the Royal family who were currently dining together in the Main Palace.

Usually, the streets would be filled on this day as the citizens welcomed the new year with much joy but today, everyone was inside their homes as the fear of the plague had not left their hearts entirely.

However, this would soon come to an end as the new year would bring with it new hope for a better future.

Meanwhile, the members of the Royal Family were seated around the large table in the Dining Hall of the Main Palace.

With the King at the head of the table, raising his glass in a toast, everyone else followed soon after.

The King and Queen's glasses were filled with wine while the three youngsters had grape juice instead.

"May this new year bring joy to dispel the gloom that we faced in the past year." King Ophire proposed with a smile on his face.

Queen Zena smiled and brought her glass towards him and the children imitated their actions as they all clinked their glasses together.

The short yet apt toast came to an end and everyone took a sip from their glasses before enjoying the meal the chefs had worked hard in preparing.

Though this was a moment of celebration, the King still felt saddened at the number of deaths that had been reported until now.

The latest reports had yet to reach him so he would not know if the death toll had hiked up once again.

The Queen noticed his drooping spirits and held his hand as though she wished to lend her support to him by this small gesture.

Coming out of his glum thoughts, King Ophire smiled at her while holding onto her soft hand in his wide one.

The Prince and Princess were too busy in their meal to notice this but the younger brother of the King had done so.

Prince Draco smiled that his sister-in-law was able to make his brother smile like the one he had displayed earlier was forced.

King Ophire did not wish to worry the children with his gloomy mood so he pretended to be happy but Draco had caught the facade with ease.

Thankfully, the Queen was capable of changing the King's mood which relieved his troubled heart as well.

The King had regained his spirits after that short incident and the dinner that followed was smooth and jovial.

Once dinner came to an end, the Queen returned to her room while Princess Felicia chose to do the same as it was already too late.

However, Prince Fritzen, Prince Draco, and King Ophire remained in the same room.

The Royal Steward refilled the King's glass with wine who accepted it without hesitation.

"The plague will end soon…" He muttered while glancing at the two boys next to him.

In response to this, the boys nodded as it would only be a matter of time before the cure would be administered to every single patient.

"Everything will return to its normal conditions once again." He added and once again received the same response from them.

The King was bringing up this topic as he had something to say to them and the two Princes were smart enough to grasp that.

Therefore, they sat in silence and waited for him to get to the point.

"Since the entire Kingdom was in a state of chaos this last year, many things had come to a halt." He sighed before taking a sip of the liquid in his glass.

The clock had already struck twelve, implying that the next year had commenced.

Hence, the King's usage of 'Last year' was not wrong as the next year was already here.

"Including the Royal Academy." King Ophire finally arrived at the matter at hand.

The academic year which should have begun after summer came to an end last year had failed to do so thanks to the plague and the lockdown to curb its spread.

Therefore, no classes could take place during this time.

If the Royal Academy and the Sonete Academy were to start functioning after the lockdown ended now, they would have a measly amount of time before summer would arrive once again.

This had been on his mind for quite a while now.

The future of their Kingdom belonged to the children so he needed to be careful and act cautiously when it comes to their education.

Therefore, the King and the few ministers who were in the Capital with him were set to have a meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the fate of the pupils studying in these academies.

An entire batch of boys was set to graduate this year but without attending any classes, that would be an impossible task.

The Dean of the Royal Academy, Aramis Brodie would never allow anyone to just graduate from his academy without the proper qualifications needed to obtain the graduation certificate.

Now that the plague was taken care of, this was the next issue at hand and there would be a long talk to discuss it.

Therefore, the King had mentioned this matter before them as he wished to hear their opinions regarding the same.

"What do you say that we do to alleviate the worries of the noble families whose children are studying in the Royal Academy?" He posed this question before them and waited to see how they would deal with the situation at hand.

This was a serious issue and proper consideration needed to be taken before coming to any conclusion.

King Ophire wished to take this opportunity to judge how the boys would react to this situation and see what kind of solutions they would come up with for this problem.

'I know you won't disappoint me.' He smiled while alternating his gaze between his son and his younger brother.