Gevai generations didn’t work in exactly the same way as human generations, but the idea of generations was somewhat weird anyway. People were born continuously instead of all at once in two dozen year groups. Either way, a generation basically consisted of enough time for people to grow from children into adults. In gevai, with their lower birthrates but longer lifespans, generations were stretched out over a wider age range to compose a similar proportion of the population.

Either way, William found that somehow he had been king for a generation- and he was surprised to think about it. He was constantly busy, and even if he had a few weeks now and then that weren’t, he didn’t stop to think about how much time had passed. Part of that was having lived a long life already, and the rest was just falling into a gevai mindset.

The best thing to come from that time was increased education among the gevai. Humans had improved their standards as well, but William didn’t have as many details about them as he did about his own country. An entire new generation had grown up with decent- if not amazing- education standards. That was better than the near complete lack of education for most of their history, at least for the most poor. Lila had been working on educating just a single city and the surrounding area for approximately a gross of years, but the new standards were now nationwide.

It hadn’t actually been possible to implement all at once, for various reasons. The most critical of those reasons was lack of people who could or would teach. As time passed, more people met basic education standards which meant they could distribute that knowledge on to many others. The current state of things was a generation with about a middle school education according to William’s standards from Earth. That, and those from the generations preceding them willing to learn.

The biggest problem with such education systems was children not being available to help their parents with work. Though each family might only have one or two children every dozen years, they might need all the help they could get working on a farm or in the family business. For that, William divided the year into seasons. Each season would have a series of classes basically identical to the others. People could send their children- or go themselves- during any season and obtain the same learning.

Going through the education system like that could easily take three times as long… but to gevai it wasn’t such a big deal. It allowed workers who needed different seasons free to fit their own schedules.

It also allowed those who needed to repeat a section to come back the next season or year if necessary, and those who had more time to learn to move onto the next level of courses the following season.

Education was mandatory, but flexible enough to work for most people. William considered that some might just go through the most basic courses repeatedly just to fulfill the requirements of going to school, which was why he included even more options. There were many vocational options, and though everyone shared core learning, courses existed with practical applications for the most common jobs. Even common laborers could learn about good posture and healthy eating- and they could learn to be qualified for other jobs.

Of course, the whole system hadn’t appeared all at once. The education system was constantly changing and growing. The lower number of birth helped, because that meant teachers weren’t overwhelmed with students… past the beginning of the system, anyway. It was also very expensive, both to implement initially and as a continuing process.

However, it was worth the costs. It took over a dozen years to see it, but there was a significant increase in tax revenue when looked at over the whole period. The other effects were more immediately visible. As William had personal experience with farms, he paid close attention to them. They were producing just as much, if not more- with fewer workers. Those workers weren’t unemployed, but instead moved to the cities. William noticed that many of the big cities were growing quickly.

With the focus on education and the migration to cities, there was also industrialization. With industrialization came things like printing presses- which made education cheaper and easier.

It also came with a constant battle to keep workers safe and fairly paid- and employers productive and profitable. However, at least those sorts of battles were the main types William had to deal with.

Even the human countries remained relatively peaceful. Eclea remained insular- not accepting outsiders, but also not interfering with outside affairs. Ustil only had one piece of territory anyone was interested in, and that the city of Jeim, deep in their desert. Likewise, there wasn’t any point in Ustil trying to expand into other territories. Laoyang had their own internal struggles, with several groups gradually subsuming the various territories through battle or economic or political pressure.

Ostana had some political upheaval of its own, resulting in the monarchy being dissolved in favor of an elected representative- though the king’s power had already been getting lower generation by generation. The knights still remained as a military organization, and though they didn’t engage in any wars, they served as a useful deterrent from those who might want to. The mages guild grew… and then split into several separate organizations. Some of them catered more to providing services for the common people… who were also growing more in education and wealth. William didn’t think it was as much as Cruonia, but perhaps that was his own personal bias and desire to be better.

The dwarves… agreed to a non-aggression pact with Cruonia. There was little diplomatic interaction beyond that point. All of the prisoners were returned in small batches in exchange for nearly token ransoms. Communications with the dwarves was rare. It wasn’t practical to open up trade, with a long dangerous trip only able to be made by special ships, not that the dwarves would have been interested anyway.

William only had one major worry. The humans were expanding and growing to fill their territories. While they could fit more people… eventually they would begin to feel crowded and want to expand. The only places they could go was to another country… and Cruonia had the largest amount of empty land.

Then William was met with another worry as a messenger ran into his throne room. “Sir! There’s a message from the Western Cruonian Islands. An unfamiliar ship has been spotted nearby. It has been recommended that you go to the communications center yourself.”

William sighed. Well, one ship probably wasn’t too bad… right?