Time passed, and the academy reopened.

There was no mandatory education in this world. Naturally, there were no set hours of required schooling either. The academy was essentially a substitute for high school, but unlike in my previous world, there was no rule about shortening breaks to make up for missed class time.

But while there were no such rules, money did exist.

And the Imperial Academy demanded quite a lot of it.

For imperial citizens, the royal family covered the full cost, and even for foreigners, a substantial portion was subsidized. But that didn’t mean the academy itself was free.

From the perspective of those managing the imperial treasury, having less class time was a deeply frustrating notion. The empire was investing significant sums into nurturing future talents—or at the very least, fostering pro-imperial sympathies among the students. If class time were cut, it would feel like part of that investment was being wasted.

Ironically, because the tuition was funded by the imperial family, the academy couldn’t get away with saying, “Well, due to circumstances, some classes had to be canceled.”