Chapter227

Because she had to go to Plumera's Meiyuan Hall every morning, Elara simply moved her breakfast there too. After eating with Cleome and Clematis, she began working on daily matters.

Cleome and Clematis were very happy about this. Their stunningly beautiful faces lit up with captivating smiles as they said that in the Carnation Kingdom, only the most favored companions were allowed to eat with the wife-ruler.

But a few days later, Oswyn noticed that Elara was going to Meiyuan Hall every morning right after waking up.

His eyes were red as he confronted Elara, demanding to know if she had been seduced by those two foreign men. Then he said that if she liked being nursed, he could do that too.

This nearly gave Elara a headache.

In the end, she promised to go to his hall and eat breakfast with him every three days. Only then did Oswyn reluctantly suppress some of his jealousy. After morning and evening court, he would often find excuses to stick close to her and hug and kiss her whenever he could.

Besides dealing with these two, Elara also had to occasionally stay the night in Mathias's palace to accompany him, since he was still recovering.

After running between three places like this for half a month, Elara couldn't help but sigh inwardly. The emperors of old really had impressive stamina. She hadn't even made things official with these three yet, and it was already exhausting. She couldn't imagine how it was with a harem of three thousand.

Apart from the affairs of the inner palace, the past half month had also seen great progress in the various departments of the front court.

The day after the major examination results were announced, Elara saw that the large number of vacant official positions in the court had been mostly filled.

In addition to the familiar uncle and nephew pair, Pu Zhi and Pu Wei, and Gongliang Cheng, there were also many unfamiliar new faces.

Because Elara had worn a veil during her previous meetings with them, none of the three recognized her. When she spoke, they all instinctively looked up at her face, then quickly looked down again.

Using the memorials given by Minister Old Pei, Elara identified most of the newly appointed officials.

At the front of each department stood mostly young elites from aristocratic families.

For example, there were the two brothers of the Zhan family from the southern region, the younger brother of the Guo family's head from the east, the second son of the Yue family from the west, and even the young master from the Di family who had traveled a long distance from the newly subdued Edelweiss Kingdom.

Most of these noble young men ranked ahead of the other examinees. Especially those in the top three, who all held high-ranking posts, generally within the third rank. They stood at the front of the court with proud expressions and poised manners, reflecting their elite backgrounds.

Behind them stood most of the scholars who had passed from various levels, all standing quietly and properly among the officials.

Seeing so many new faces at once, Elara felt pleased. She also noticed that these newly selected young scholars were all quite handsome. Their average appearance was high, especially the front row of pampered noble sons.

Their looks were pleasant to the eye, and with most departments now well staffed, there were hardly any shortcomings except for the fact that they were all male and no women were present.

While thinking about how the Ministry of Examinations should promote exams to women in female-led nations next time, Elara happily resumed handling the unresolved matters of each department.

Kristof had returned, so the Ministry of Personnel could officially begin operations. Combined with the many talented individuals selected through the exam, the ministry had gained many new officials. The speed of reviewing the mountain of old unresolved cases improved greatly. Elara's desire for more death row prisoners increased, steadily adding to her army of Puppet Soldiers.

After all the departments received significant manpower boosts, many previously delayed tasks were officially launched.

These included continued construction in Plumera City of the Royal University, the Royal Hospital, the Royal Bank, and the Royal Merchant Headquarters, along with the main administrative buildings of the nine major departments.

In addition, with the problems of rebellion and refugees across Plumera nearly resolved, large numbers of displaced people were being brought back to the capital by the military. This influx of labor power gave the city departments more support.

The reconstruction of the old and new areas of Plumera City was becoming increasingly complete. With the available workforce, various buildings were being constructed faster than before.

Several satellite cities outside the capital had also begun foundation work. Apart from a few large factories still needing construction, large plots of land were set aside for Elara to plan future developments.

The land in Plumera that had been managed by the agriculture and labor departments for several months was finally sorted out. The officials set up many large waterwheels and planted Kristof's high-yield crops from another world: potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, as well as drought- and water-resistant rice varieties.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry also began constructing official roads connecting various cities and regions across Plumera. With sufficient manpower, they even started preparations for trade routes to the Carnation Kingdom.

Although the Commerce Department still didn't have a head minister, with Damon around, everything continued as usual, including the ongoing trades with Zhaiyun Pavilion and Lianyi House. Elara also had Damon sort and reorganize the leftover quality merchants from before, asking him to arrange them to work together and reopen their businesses, contributing to Plumera's commercial recovery.

At the same time, there were still many major business clans across Plumera's territory. Elara also planned to have Damon send people to contact them once he had more free time.

For example, the powerful Qu clan in Anqu Town, the Lei clan in the south, and major business clans across the east, west, and north borders. The Commerce Department had to reach out to all of them. Whether it was to develop trade after official roads were completed or to invite them to join the royal business circle of Plumera, it would all benefit Plumera's commerce.

The Education Department, after successfully completing Plumera's first major imperial examination, also began other tasks.

First: preparing for the appointment of new teachers at Plumera Academy. Second: compiling various textbooks as requested by Elara. Third: drafting and publishing enrollment brochures. Fourth: preparing for the future nationwide education campaign in Plumera.

Elara wanted to break the norm where only a few people could study. She aimed to ensure that every citizen of Plumera in the future would be able to read and possess basic literacy.

Speaking of writing books, Elara had actually already started compiling materials in the past to personally teach "Qu Haochen." These included drafts for basic primary school subjects like literature, math, science, and arts from modern enlightenment education.

Unfortunately, "Qu Haochen" was a fake. After realizing that, she secretly issued an order to search all parts of Plumera for the real Qu Haochen.

Sadly, there was still no trace of the child so far.

However, the books Elara compiled in the past were finally useful. She directly gave the four types of draft textbooks to Minister Old Pei, asking them to study them. If they didn't understand something, they could come to her.

Luckily, this world had divine blessings, and all sorts of strange things were common. So when Elara suddenly introduced these new foundational enlightenment materials, different from anything in this world, Minister Old Pei and the entire Education Department accepted them well. They held onto the drafts and continued to refine the details.

The popularization of education in this world basically started with Elara.

She didn't bring over the exhausting and highly competitive system from the 21st century. Instead, she reset the class schedules. In the future, students entering Plumera Academy would only need to attend three theory classes like literature, math, and science in the morning.

In the afternoon, they would take two elective skill classes such as horse riding, archery, painting, crafting, music, and other hands-on subjects similar to the six classical arts.

After all, children couldn't just study all the time. It was also important to help them develop hobbies and practical skills. Any society would need all kinds of talents.

In the future, they could make a living through academic subjects like literature, math, and science. They could also find stable jobs in Plumera City based on the skills they learned from practical hobby classes.

At this point, the nine major departments had basically started operating, and everything was finally running smoothly. Each department across Plumera began functioning as planned.

More than ten days passed again. A month after the attendants from Carnation arrived in Plumera,

Elara had already trained the team of traveling specialists personally selected from the Engineering Department. They had mastered ways to handle flooding and swamp issues. Elara then had the Military Department assign a young general and a team of soldiers to escort these engineering specialists, accompanying the Empress of Carnation and others back to Carnation.

The Empress of Carnation had stayed in Plumera City for a month and witnessed all kinds of development and construction. The more she saw, the more impressed and amazed she was. Before leaving, she made several large business deals with Elara.

She wanted to buy a large amount of paper and fabric to take back. Also, perhaps because she had seen the soldiers using light and sharp iron weapons, she was very eager to buy such lightweight yet strong and sharp weapons at a high price.