The World Is Mine For The Taking Chapter 1276 - 196 - Boiling Point (5)

"I think you’re much more helpful to than you let yourselves believe," Myrcella said.

Her voice wasn’t loud. It wasn’t dramatic either. But the way she said it carried a quiet weight that lingered in the air for a mont, like the last echo of a bell that had been struck just once.

It was almost as if she already knew she would end up saying sothing like that. The words ca out smoothly, without hesitation, like they had been sitting on the tip of her tongue long before this conversation even began. Because of that, she imdiately followed it up before the silence between them had ti to stretch too long.

"I don’t think it’s sothing you need to think about that much," she continued calmly, folding her arms loosely. "You only need to believe in ."

That was... a bold thing to say.

Telling soone to just believe in you sounded simple on the surface. But the mont those words were spoken, sothing subtle tended to happen inside the listener’s head. There was always that little pause. That tiny mont where your brain tried to figure out whether the person in front of you was soone worth trusting, or soone who was about to drag you straight into a pile of problems.

Still, sotis confidence alone had a strange effect on people. If soone looked you straight in the eye and said it with enough certainty, sothing inside you might just go, well... screw it, why not?

"Well, if you’re fine with , then why not," she said after a brief pause, letting out a slow breath as if she had already been carrying the thought for a while. "I think right now the kingdom has been walking down a path of destruction, and honestly, it’s starting to get really, really concerning."

She tapped her finger lightly against the table while she spoke, the small rhythmic sound quietly punctuating her words.

"And it would be really, really bad if people with bad intentions managed to slip behind the throne," she added. "At that point, things would beco seriously troubling. The kind of troubling that keeps people awake at night."

It was really concerning.

That wasn’t even an exaggeration. If anything, it might have been putting things a little too politely.

But even with all that in mind, I didn’t think I would allow sothing like that to happen.

Right now, we were taking every precaution possible.

Of course, the biggest problem was that unknown variable.

Moriarty.

With soone like that involved, I didn’t think this situation would stay a simple political struggle.

No, that would have been far too convenient.

This had all the signs of becoming sothing much larger. Sothing ssy. Sothing complicated. A conflict where too many pieces were moving at once, and half of them were probably being moved by soone we couldn’t even see yet.

In short, it was the kind of situation that made people wish life ca with a manual.

Unfortunately, it didn’t.

After that, the conversation gradually shifted toward another subject—one that Myrcella had been thinking about for quite so ti.

Her plan.

More specifically, her intention to allow all cadets the opportunity to graduate as magic knights, even if they weren’t part of the Gold Class.

"I’m working on that right now," Galdea said, leaning back slightly in her chair as she spoke.

She let out a short breath through her nose before continuing.

"The tradition of only allowing Gold Class cadets to graduate as magic knights is honestly pretty outdated at this point. I an... seriously outdated."

She lifted a hand and gestured slightly as she explained.

"And considering there are only less than a hundred magic knight graduates each year, it’s really not enough to build a stronger military force. Not even close."

Her tone wasn’t angry, but there was clear frustration underneath it.

"The older magic knights are retiring year after year," she went on. "anwhile, fresh graduates are entering the ranks. But the numbers just don’t match up the way people think they do."

She shrugged.

"Basically, the kingdom isn’t developing the way people in the past imagined it would. In fact, the number of magic knights produced every year keeps decreasing."

She paused for a mont before adding another point.

"I an, so cadets in the Gold Class genuinely want to beco magic knights. That’s their dream, and they work their asses off for it. But there are also cadets in the Gold Class who don’t even want that job. They’d rather pursue sothing completely different."

She gave a small, almost amused shake of her head.

"And honestly, who could bla them?"

"Well, that’s one of the main issues with this old tradition," Myrcella said, nodding slowly.

Her voice carried that sa calm confidence as before, but now there was also a quiet determination behind it.

"Because they believe they’re protecting the tradition so carefully, they’ve beco stubborn about changing it."

She paused briefly before continuing.

"And when people beco stubborn about tradition, things tend to stop moving forward."

Her gaze shifted slightly, as if she were picturing the future in her mind.

"If we don’t make a change, then everything will just beco stagnant," she said. "And when a system becos stagnant, it eventually starts to rot."

That was... honestly a pretty accurate way of putting it.

It wasn’t like people would keep seeing the position of magic knight as the ultimate dream job forever.

Tis were changing.

The world itself was changing.

Modernity was slowly creeping in, and with it ca new opportunities, new careers, and new ways of living. There were jobs now that paid far more than being a magic knight ever could, and most of them didn’t involve risking your life on a regular basis.

Which, for so reason, people tended to appreciate.

Strange concept, I know.

Because of that, fewer people would choose the path of becoming a magic knight.

Sure, there would always be so who still dread of it. There were always those stubborn, passionate types who refused to give up on an ideal.

But compared to the numbers from a few years ago?

Yeah. It would be a noticeable drop.

And that drop would slowly beco a serious problem.

The academy existed to produce the kingdom’s military backbone. If fewer and fewer students enrolled with the intention of becoming magic knights, the entire system would start to weaken over ti.

And once that happened, the kingdom itself would begin to feel the consequences.

If that future was going to be avoided, then both the academy and the kingdom needed to adapt.

Tradition wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, it had value. It gave people identity, continuity, and a sense of history.

Personally, I believed it was necessary to preserve tradition.

But tradition that refused to change eventually turned into a cage.

And cages weren’t exactly known for helping societies grow.

If change never happened, problems would eventually appear down the line, like problems that would be far more difficult to fix later.

"Right now, based on what I’ve been seeing, I think it could work," Galdea said after a mont.

Her tone was thoughtful now, more analytical than before.

"However, with everything happening at the sa ti, it’s going to take ti."

She let out a small sigh.

"Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be able to make it happen within this academic year."