“Hello, welcome to the Great Library of Belnuo. May I please see your documents.” Luca hands her some papers. The man just glances at it before nodding and handing it back to us. “I hope you find what you are searching for.”

There are rows upon rows of books. At least three stories of this as well. People walk up and down the rows in search of the book they are looking for. Thousands of books, all in one place. The entire history of Arria, all of our political thought, our economic achievements.

Where is the navy section?!

After a long time searching I found a dusty corner with a couple of books on the subject. While the number itself wasn’t all that low it wasn’t anything compared to some of the other subjects.

This is ignoring that half of them are Allonian in origin.

I scan the pages looking at the important points. I understand why Arria never had a navy before. It seems that to build it takes a lot of money and some time to build. With no immediate benefit it makes sense that Arria has no major advancements navy.

Might as well change it. Safe waters would allow me to pull more resources from all over the empire. I have to simply blame discrimination for my current situation. To simply neglect an entire section of warfare.

“Have you found what you were looking for?”

“Yes, we shall be heading out now.” I answer Luca before turning to leave. The next destination is the national academy. It should be nearing completion shortly. A lot of resources have been put into it and progress has been fast.

“It is a wonder, to have been built in such a short time.”

“It is not complete just yet, it will still take another year for us to finish. Though I must admit progress has been rather rapid.” I feel as if nothing in the world is impossible. If I merely set my mind to it then I can accomplish it.

“Have you thought about what will be taught?”

“Military strategy, philosophy, politics, and history. These are the major subjects I intend to teach. I might allow them to teach Allonian, depends on if it might be useful or not.” I shrug. If the war is still going on I will ignore it. Once it is over and public sentiment against Allonia has calmed down I will add it.

Diplomacy is important and in order to have diplomacy one must be able to communicate. The other issue is that when one learns about their enemy they are better prepared to defeat them.

Though, I must admit that language is rather dull.

“These are good to learn. Education can be... varying when it comes to our generals. Some of them are decent while others... not so much.” This is putting it nicely. Our educational system is utter trash. It is mostly focused on religious nonsense rather than anything of practical use.

I had it better because I didn’t learn through the church but even still a lot of books are related to religion. The rest are often military in subject. Politics, philosophy, and economics are very far and few between.

“That is what I intend to fix. Incompetency is the gravest crime one can do against their nation. To waste lives with no regard is pathetic and hardly a strategy.” To do something that damages the nation should only be done in desperation when no other viable solutions. These idiots do it as their first measure.

This is why I dislike battles of annihilation. To win a major victory against your enemy is far too risky. Not to argue that trying to safely destroy you opponent isn’t viable. It is very effective.

“I forgot to mention, we received news from Matteo.”

“I assume he has accomplished his mission.”

“He wrote that ‘Antonio is no more’ in his letter.” Luca affirms my assumption. I knew that Matteo would succeed as he has some knowledge of the area. “I doubted him at first but now I can safely say that I was wrong.”

“I did tell you that he forfeited his life to me. You merely chose to not believe me.”

“That wasn’t the issue. He was a stranger, the unknown. It was, in my humble opinion, much too dangerous for you to let him next to you.” I smile at his words. It was a calculated risk. That being said sometimes risks are necessary.