The Empire of Al-Shan welcomed a prosperous decade, where the people’s lives seemed to improve by the month. New policies were instituted that reduced quite a few privileges from the nobles and officials of the realms, privileges that the Emperor had deemed to be excessive. Of course, since the Emperor himself led by example and similarly excised those privileges off his own life, those under him could only follow suit.

While the nobility grumbled and chafed somewhat under the new regulations, the commoners rejoiced, as many other policies that benefited their lives, allowing them to live better, easier lives, were also put into place around the same time. The result was that the current Emperor probably had the highest popular support from the general populace in the history of the Empire.

Despite the past worries about the continuation of the Imperial bloodline, of which the current Emperor was the last of the direct line, coupled with his refusal to fill the Imperial Harem with concubines as was normally done, those who were concerned about the matter breathed a sigh in relief as the Emperor and his Empresses repopulated the direct line over the following years.

In total, Emperor Xain Haroone had seven children by his two Empresses. Ying Xiao gave birth to a daughter named Kai-Hua roughly a year after their wedding, while the year after, she and Layla gave birth to children within days of each other, another daughter by Ying Xiao named Tiao-Wu, and a second son by Layla named Rashid. When Layla gave birth to another daughter named Shireen a couple years later, the Imperial bloodline had grown from one last survivor to eight members, which alleviated the worries of those that feared the discontinuation of the bloodline.

A peculiarity of Xain’s reign that many outside observers noticed was how he pushed hard for the Empire to become more progressive. Many old traditions that had been deemed to be outdated and irrelevant in the modern age were tossed aside, while others were preserved, as part of the Empire’s history and culture. Such sweeping changes were rare especially in old nations like the Empire, and were it not for his popularity with the people, there would have likely been plenty of setbacks from those entrenched in the old ways amongst them.

Those changes helped to rebrand the image of the Al-Shan Empire as an open, welcoming land, where it used to be rather isolated and xenophobic in the past. Together with the change of image came a steady and constantly increasing influx of traders from the continents, as the secluded location of the archipelago where the Empire stood meant that there were quite a few items that could only be found in its vicinity, leading to a brisk trade of specialties.

The young Emperor’s achievements were not entirely his own either, as he often admitted openly. First Empress Layla often consoled the Emperor on matters of state and diplomacy, a feat she was well-suited for given her extensive training in such matters by her grandfather, the retired Prime Minister Halmout Mansoor. Second Empress Ying Xiao retained her military rank and title even after her marriage to the Emperor, and would often be seen training with officers and soldiers who were stationed in the Imperial Palace. She was the military counterpart to Layla’s civil advisory role.

A fact that people were reminded of in the year 684 FP, when a young, minor noble formerly part of the traditionalist faction decided that they had had enough of the reduction of privileges and attempted to revolt once more. The Second Empress personally led five thousand troops and subjugated said noble’s retainers and personal army in a single battle and led him in chains back to the royal capital. Witnesses of said battle claimed that she had charged straight through the enemy army to grab the rebelling noble in person.

One of the earliest supporter of the new academy in Paradise - which was no surprise, when one stopped to consider how the founder of said academy was still considered a living legend in the Empire - which had sent a steady stream of young, promising officers to train there, the Empire had also inadvertently began the trend amongst the current nations to have their best martial-minded people trained there.

That the Emperor himself - along with his Empresses - had been seen personally visiting the head of said academy hinted at the good relations between them, and many also saw it as an attempt to curry favor with the slowly increasing number of graduates from said academy, many of which made a name for themselves over the following years.

Even without the graduates making a name for themselves, though, the new academy already had living advertisements around, as some adventurers who recently rose to fame - including the youngest black-tagged adventurer in history - claimed that they had been trained by the same person who founded the academy. Their existence and feats alone were easily an advertisement for the benefits and effectiveness of the training they had undergone.

It was an unexpected thing for a retired veteran, who could have easily been a high noble or official in their homeland, to live out their lives elsewhere and founded an academy instead, yet it was exactly what the Blood Demon of Al-Shan, Celeysria Ambervale, had done. Despite her lack of academic qualification, the veteran of the Imperial Civil War had decades of practical experience behind her, and the disciples she took under her wing after her retirement already made names for themselves to boot.

The construction of the academy itself was finished in the summer of the year 680 FP, the delays in construction mostly to match the exacting demands from Cal. It took some time before some items she asked for could be supplied in the quantities she asked for, which delayed the planned spring opening, and instead the academy began to open its doors in the autumn of the year instead.

As a show of solidarity, all of Cal’s students had enrolled themselves to help spread the news around, as from then on they too would be linked to the academy, as the first “graduates” from it. That many of those students later formed an adventuring party that rose to great fame helped, as when one looked at them, they could not help but notice the change in the trajectories of their lives since Cal stepped into it.