Chapter 9: The Scholar’s Oath
The gates of the new Tsar’s Academy of Scientific Doctrine and Statecraft opened under a snow-laden dawn. Carriages lined the boulevards of Moscow, unloading prodigies from every corner of the empire: peasant children with photographic memories, noble sons with engineering obsessions, war orphans who could recite artillery calibers like poetry.
This was Mikhail’s most audacious project yet—not a fortress, but a forge of minds.
[System Update: Academy System Unlocked – New Resource: Genius Points] [Bonus: Propaganda Efficiency +10% | National Unity +8% | Innovation Speed +20%]
The Academy was more than a school. It was a doctrine factory.
Its students would be taught science, warfare, philosophy—and loyalty. They would memorize the Code of the Iron Doctrine:
The Empire does not wait.
Strength is responsibility.
Ignorance is treason.
Each student swore an oath beneath a statue of Prometheus holding not fire—but a gear.