Simple day

Seth teleported to the academy grounds, dressed in casual black pants and a white shirt. His hair was cut medium long, and he had a subtle smile.

The sun was barely appearing past the horizon, and students could already be seen walking from their dormitory to classes.

As they walked past Seth, they would all bow respectfully, and Seth would nod back to them before continuing on his way.

There were no people in the kingdom anymore that didn’t know their king’s face, and all the changes he had brought to the continent’s garbage dump in such a short time had earned him the respect of both the young and old generations.

The fact that he had eliminated the worst criminals living there, leaving alive only the ones who had petty crimes in their names, like stealing some food so they could pass the day, or feed their children, also helped a lot.

The academy was now like a small example of what the kingdom’s future would look like as long as Seth continued reigning over it.

The students were all dressed in proper uniform, a long step up from the cloth and rags they used to wear. The farms built at the kingdom’s periphery also provided enough food for everyone and made them look a lot healthier than before.

The dirt and fecal matter covering the streets and the people’s feet were also mostly gone. The academy, the palace, the residential area, and some other places already had paved roads and public toilets for the people to use.

A lot of effort from Seth and the other ascended, paired with the people’s desire for a better life, has brought Endora on a path of greatness.

“Excuse me, teacher?” a quiet voice broke Seth from his thoughts, making him turn to the side to see a petite youth, looking no older than 15, maybe 16, staring at him with hesitation clearly visible on his face.

At their admission, Seth had told all the students they should address him as ‘teacher’ inside the academy, so no one addressed him as a king there.

“Yes? How can I help you?” asked Seth with a smile, looking the teen up and down.

Under Seth’s gaze, the young boy felt even more embarrassed as he lowered his sight and said: “Teacher, I am one of the students in your time class. I was wondering if teacher could answer a question I have.”

“Sure, but you could have waited until class. I was on my way there anyway.” Replied Seth, not understanding why the kid bothered to stop him there.

The kid blushed and nodded before looking up again and saying: “I know, but I got too excited and wanted to ask teacher as quickly as possible.” Waving his hand forward, the air in front of the kid seemed to blur slightly as he asked: “Is this time energy?”

Seth’s smile froze, and he quickly channeled his time source into feeling the energy the kid was moving with such ease. After identifying it as time energy, Seth spoke to the system.

‘How is this possible? There had only been a few days since they were given the theory. How can he feel and even manipulate time energy?’

<Checking world records for an answer.>

<Sam. Orphan of the Blood Kingdom. Died in the former history after being caught trying to steal food two years into the former future.>

<Indulged in cannibalism a few times to prevent death from starvation.>

<Has read without a break through all the time theory twice ever since Asteria’s opening.>

<Conclusion. No special circumstances. Sam is a time-energy genius.>

Seth’s eyebrows rose in surprise as the smile on his lips grew wider. He knew that for someone to be able to control time energy after only a few days of studying it, genius won’t even begin to describe the person.

Creating a small orb of time energy and letting it float in front of the kid, Seth asked: “What do you think?”

The sudden stop of Seth in the middle of the pathway and Sam’s question brought the attention of all the surrounding students, and a small group slowly formed around them.

Sam brought his hand forward, almost touching Seth’s orb, and he smiled, knowing now that what he felt was time energy. He was over 80% sure even before, but now he was certain.

“Does that mean I can start forming my time source?” asked Sam in excitement, his question eliciting a wave of shushed discussions from the students around.

Seth let his orb dissipate and nodded. “Of course, you can. Go by the vials storage room and get yourself two vials of energy. Drink one every two days and ensure you properly channel the time energy inside towards where you want to form your source on your body.”

Turning towards the arena in the center of the academy, Seth chuckled before continuing: “If you don’t slack up, your name will be the first one that appears on the Star Pillar, Sam.”

“Teacher knows my name?” asked Sam with his eyes widened, a sense of appreciation and excitement running through his mind.

“Of course I do. How could I not know the name of my most talented student?” said Seth before turning around and walking away, ignoring the <…> notification that had appeared in his vision.

The other students who were just observing the situation started approaching Sam, asking him all sorts of different questions. For Sam, who used to be an orphan and a loner before, having so many people talk to him at once was quite anxiety-inducing, but he still did his best to answer everyone’s questions.

Seth walked the academy grounds for around half an hour more until it was time for classes to start. The courses were going to rely on the students’ self-learning capabilities, but at least at the start, Seth wanted to show up as often as possible to give them a chance to ask as many questions as possible.

The class day went on as usual, with Seth answering the questions everyone had for him before letting them study in peace and departing the classroom.

Walking out of the time energy classroom, he went to the darkness energy one and repeated the process. Once he was done with both classes, he went to the creation energy class and picked up Pearl.

“My lord, what are we doing today?” asked Pearl, slightly tired. She’s been draining her source almost continuously for a long time, with barely any breaks in between.

Seth put on an apologetic expression as he said: “If you want, you can take the day off, you know. The kingdom won’t crumble into pieces if you take a break.”

Pearl looked up and shook her head with a decisive look in her tired eyes: “No, my lord. How can I rest and let my liege do all the work alone.”

Seth chuckled and raised his hand to rub on Pearl’s head, ruffling her bright pink hair as he said: “I already told you to just call me Seth, and you’re working a lot more than I am. You could really use a break.”

Pearl pouted and looked like she wanted to complain again, but Seth didn’t give her a chance as he flicked her forehead and said: “Fine. Consider it an order. Go to the Royal Sleeping Grounds and have the girls show you the group bathing area. Take a bath and relax for today. You can start working again tomorrow.”

Pearl lowered her head with a dispirited look and changed directions after a quiet: “Yes, my lord.”

With a shake of his head, Seth found Sal in the temporarily built knight quarters.

Sal was speaking to one of the kingdom’s citizens, and once Seth walked in, they both sat up. Sal fell on one knee the next moment while the other man bowed low.

“My lord.”

“Your Highness.”

“Just sit down.” Said Seth with a sigh. Once the two sat straight again, they remained standing, and Seth had no choice but to sit down himself.

“What were you talking about?” asked Seth, the royal etiquette making him feel slightly tired already.

“My Lord, Julio here wants to open a shoemaking shop and has come to put on a request for us to build the shop.”

Seth raised an eyebrow and asked: “You know how to make shoes?”

The man, Julio, nodded and showed the pair of poorly made leather shoes he was wearing. “These are made by me a long time ago. I could make even higher-quality ones if I had better materials.”

“Hmm.” Nodded Seth before turning towards Sal: “Are there other requests like this?”

“Yes, My Lord. With the introduction of gold as a currency, people have been assaulting the libraries, looking for ways to earn the gold, and everyone who found a job they felt they could pull off came to us to open a business. We’ve been honestly stumped on how to even handle so many requests.”

“That’s fine. We’ll accept the requests and start with the earliest one. We’ll also provide them with a few raw materials and a bill for the materials. If they manage to sell products and gain the money to pay the kingdom back for those materials, they can keep the shop, but they would need to find other ways to procure materials in the future.”

“If they don’t, their shop will be taken away, and further requests from them will be declined for two years. They could still request normal jobs for us or business owners in the kingdom.”

“Yes, My Lord. I will inform everyone as soon as possible.” Replied Sal.

“Fine. Give me the first request. I’ll start building it. Once Pearl returns to work tomorrow, you can also give her a project.”

“Tomorrow? Where is she today?” asked Sal with a raised eyebrow.

“I ordered her to take a break. She looked more like a walking dead-person than one of my knights. Oh, that’s right; implement five working days and two days off for everyone, including the knight and the current and future workers.”

“Understood, my Lord.” Replied Sal before giving Seth the first request he had written on paper.

Seth nodded and turned around, walking to fulfill the request. It was for a weaver’s shop, which Seth had to admit, the kingdom desperately needed.

The students were all dressed in their new uniforms, but the general population still needed new clothes.

Once he reached a decently large place, a bit further away from the capital center, Seth had the system create a quick simulation of how the shop would look.

Thinking it would be better to have the owner’s opinion, Seth opened a portal toward where the system told him the owner was.

Seth stepped through the portal, arriving inside the living room of two people.

The two, a man and woman who looked to be twins, froze with their spoons in their hands at their king’s sudden appearance in their house.

Seth also felt slightly awkward, not expecting the coordinates given by the system to lead into their living room.

‘Why didn’t you give me their front door coordinates?’

<Host has required coordinates leading to the new shop owners’ location, which is inside the living room of their house.>

Sighing, Seth looked towards the two and said: “Sorry for barging in like this, but I am starting to work on creating the shop you requested, and I would like to hear your input. Do you mind following me?”

The two twins nodded absentmindedly and followed Seth through the portal, even forgetting about the warm food on their tables.

Once out of the portal, Seth started explaining how the system had designed their shop, making changes as they requested them.

The shop would have two floors, the first floor being the actual shop, where they would sell clothing products, while the second floor would act like the atelier for creating the clothes.

Seth also explained how the new procedure would work so that Sal won’t have to, before starting the building process itself, with the twins asking to watch it themselves.

In the evening, he had yet to make that much progress but had to stop for today since he had other plans.

Taking the twins back home, he teleported to the Royal Chambers and walked towards Aleena’s room.