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.
"I will not serve the empire as it is, but as it should be."
The curriculum was brutal. Instructors were imported from Prussia, Japan, Persia. Subjects included thermodynamics, encryption, logistics, and comparative state ideologies. Debate clubs argued the philosophies of empire and revolution. Every graduate was promised land, a stipend—and a future.
Mikhail walked the halls himself.
In the courtyard, he passed a duel being fought with equations. In the auditorium, a girl from Kazan built a steam-powered codebreaker. In the archives, he found a boy sketching designs for a solar turbine.
These were his children. Not of blood—but of empire.
[Legacy Points +300 | Doctrinal Reach Expanded | Propaganda Options: Enlightenment Pathway Unlocked]
But not everyone celebrated.
The Orthodox Church issued a veiled condemnation. The nobility whispered about "brainwashing." Foreign diplomats accused Mikhail of weaponizing knowledge.
And in the shadows of a burnt library in Smolensk, a rogue faction calling themselves the Children of the True Flame declared the Tsar's Academy a heresy against old Russia.
A manifesto was posted in blood:
"He replaces God with Gear. Soul with Steel. We will not be forged."
An explosion rocked the academy's east wing the next day. Three students died. Five were wounded.
[System Alert: Terrorist Cell Activity Detected – Flame Rebellion | Status: Escalating Threat]
Mikhail stood among the rubble that night. He did not cry. He gave no speech.
Instead, he summoned the surviving students.
"We do not mourn as the weak do," he said, voice like frost. "We remember. We rebuild. And we advance."
He raised a broken gear from the blast site and set it into a pedestal in the main hall.
"This will never rust. Just like you."
[Doctrinal Loyalty: Hardened | Terrorism Response Systems Enabled | Military Academy Bonus: +15%]
The academy reopened two days later—twice the size.
And in its halls, a whisper spread:
The Iron Tsar does not break.