Vice-Chairman Bramwell was not a bit flustered upon seeing the three deans react in shock. The one that caught his attention was the clueless look on Eli's face.
"Ah… Pardon me for not explaining it well. Young Eli, the Grand Tournament of the Three Great Continents typically happens every five years just like the knight tournament in Seirende." He started explaining the matter to her.
"This Grand Tournament is actually a battle of all the Educational Institutes in the entire Prasinos. Of course, the main participants were the top three schools, The Farauld Magic Institute, The Vanderford, and the Green Wave Institute. But there would be other participants apart from the three that I had mentioned.
The tournament was composed of three events, which were according to the three main branches in every institution.
First was the Mage Tournament, where the students with caster, summoner, and devourer abilities fight each other until a winner prevails.
The second was the Academic tournament, where students compete with the knowledge and skills that they have learned on the four walls of the classroom.
The last event was of course the researchers' tournament, which of course let the researchers present to the representatives of the kingdoms and territories of Prasinos an invention or creation that would eventually bring a breakthrough in our living."
Eli intently listened to Uncle Bramwel's explanations attentively and immediately understood why the deans were in shock.
"I see… if it was going to be such a big event that has to be done in six months, then it would not be beneficial to our Empire as we cannot risk holding such a big scale event right after having an internal war…"
Simone, the dean of the School of Magic, sighed and replied to Eli,
"Indeed… Great Inventor… apart from the readiness of the Empire, it also has something to do with security. While the Temple and the Imperial Family worked hard to weed out the traitors of the land, the forces on our Empire were still vulnerable and unstable."
"Usually in order to protect the balance of power, the event will never be hosted by the strongest representatives of the three great continents - the Seirende and Vanderford Imperial Families and the Green Continent's Unified Government.
They would usually contract a neutral kingdom that was independent of any of the three main forces. That would also prevent any attempts to disrupt the balance between the three great powers."
Upon listening to this matter, Eli's expression started to turn serious as she now fully understood the gravity of the matter toward the Seirende empire, "But now… they're suggesting that we need to host the tournament."
"Yes… on the pretext that the students might gain a lot of knowledge on how the Empire had been releasing great development from our politics to our technologies." Athena, the Dean for the School of Academics clutched her hands and continued, "Heh… even after they knew that we have just suffered from an internal strife."
"But, can't we ask the Emperor to decline the matter?" Zeke, the dean of the School of Research asked with a worried expression.
Bramwell shook his head and replied with grumbling, "The situation was not a bit hopeful. Our side along with Grandmaster Reuben had already expressed our opposition to this matter… but it was like our empire's affairs were too interesting for them that they could not let go of the opportunity to run their nose inside our land."
"In fact, only the Seirende Empire and the Green Continent's Unified government voted against this move… we are simply overwhelmed by their numbers…" Greatly distressed by what happened, Bramwell placed his hands over his head soothing it from the headache that he was suffering.
"This Farauld Magic Institute and the Seirende Imperial family had already submitted a motion to reconsider the decision… ideally we could get some leeway… but from what I see… it was a hopeless protest."
Eli did not respond as she thought about how Leon and the rest of the Imperial Family were trying to tackle this matter. She thought that it may not be wise for her to put her nose on a subject that was clearly a political one, rather than a supposedly exciting event for the youthful students of Prasinos.
She looked at the forlorn faces of everyone and clapped her hands to immediately divert their attention and change the mood of the four, "Well… well.. Either way, we are still going to select our representatives and prepare them for the tournament, isn't it? We cannot just wallow on the matter and neglect our students."
"What Great Inventor Eli mentioned was correct… we cannot let this matter be an excuse to not prepare our students." Dean Zeke cast a grateful look at Eli as he supported her words.
"That's right… so now I task the three of you to come up with a systematic way to identify who would represent our institute at each event.
As always, the institute does not limit its participants, but remember that the ones that had to be sent were only those who really had a chance to stand up and take on the challenge to represent our institute and our empire proudly!"
Bramwell then issued his commands to the three deans upon Eli's signal.
"We hear your orders, Vice-chairman!" The deans answered in unison
"As for you, Young Eli, I'd like to ask for your help in training the selected students in the magic, academic, and research schools, if you would agree.
I believe that the sciences and mathematics that you have been introducing to the institute can be applied in all aspects of living…
Whether it be academics or a simple combat exchange, the principles were useful and handy."
"Alright… no problem…" Eli nodded and accepted Bramwell's request. Giving a crash course in mathematics and sciences was something she had already done before, so it was not an absurd request for her.
The meeting finally ended smoothly and eventually, Eli and Zeke finally returned to the research institute.
"Many things had happened when you weren't around… but all of them were something that was like a dream to me…"
Zeke finally had time to have a good talk with Eli regarding the matters of the research institute. For the entire month was only spent on Eli catching up with the information her doppelganger left for her to review.
"You told us before that the projects might be done within a few months after completing the intensive crash course for the research institute… but I was really shocked that these researchers were able to finish it even earlier!!!"
Zeke smiled happily, not masking his amazement and excitement over the positive changes that happened in the research branch.
"Indeed… believe it or not, I myself was really surprised that what I would be seeing first in my office were no longer the papers they were working on previously but were proposals for their next research…
Sigh… it was a little bit overwhelming to review more than a hundred thesis proposals after taking a leave in just a few months…"
Eli replied as she remembered her shock when she stepped into her office during her comeback. She thought that her office was actually turned into an archive room with all the proposals submitted on her end.
"Hehehe… it was actually my fault… I couldn't dare to throw away their ideas without letting you see them.
Our researchers were brilliant, and I could not find a heart to reject their ideas upfront."
Although Zeke was a few years older than Eli, he still acted like a student learning under her tutelage and embarrassedly scratched his head.
"Sigh… that's why you left me to do the job for you right?"
Eli rolled her eyes and accused her in a casual manner. However, both of them knew that she was not actually angry, but was actually bickering with Zeke like a normal colleague.
"Kidding aside, I think you already need to employ more advisers other than me and Dr. Einz.
This would really help you a lot in managing the volume of the research proposals that we accommodate…" Eli suggested.
"Well… I was actually convincing some of our existing instructors to take on the role of an adviser but then… they all rejected it…" Zeke once again sheepishly replied to Eli's suggestion.
"Rejected? Why so?" Eli stopped and raised her brows in interest.
"Ermm… when they rejected my offer they told me that they were better off spending their days as a researcher rather than a research instructor.
They said that they had already wasted their time doing research without even following a stable structure…
Now that you have introduced them to several methods…
How could they not spend the remaining years of their lives proving that your methods were working and much more efficient than the old ways… is what they said."
Zeke ranted and poured out his disappointment like an abandoned dog, he even shouted with an extreme grievance,
"Did you know, I had to spend an entire week processing their records from research instructor to a regular researcher yet again?
How absurd it was for a teacher to enroll back again as a student of the same level??!"
Eli face palmed upon hearing Zeke's explanation and mumbled helplessly,
"Ah… I can never get used to a researcher's eccentricity…"
