Chapter 189: Chapter 188: College

Chinatsu has decided that she doesn’t want to go to college, even though Ryu and I will still be attending. Both of us have already had several of what you might call elite colleges contact us about going to their school. MIT, Cambridge, Tokyo University, etc… Basically, if a territory has a great college, we’ve been invited to attend. Ryu said that it’s most likely a prestige thing for the Queen to attend their school. Regardless, he’s decided that he’s going to attend wherever I decide to attend, so that’s nice in and of itself. Of course, Chinatsu will also be staying with us wherever we attend.

She said it was because doctors won’t be needed as much after we field the nanites, and while I’m still unsure of when we will be doing that, she wants to start a charity. One that collects donations of clothes and money to distribute gowns for formals or proms, along with everyday clothing for girls that are in need. Personally, I think it’s a wonderful idea.

Chinatsu, Ryu, and I talked it over, and she’s going to be using $50,000,000 of our money so that she can start it. Of course, the money is merely a single drop in a very large bucket compared to our net worth, so it’s not an issue by any means, but she’ll be accepting donations once it’s up and running. We then talked to Dad, and he said that he’ll help her get all the paperwork done to set up the charity.

We threw ideas back and forth for what to call it and finally came up with ‘The Successful Woman Project.’ I really hope it works out for her. It should because there are always those in need, even with a mostly booming world economy. She seems to be really enthusiastic about it. I’m happy for her, and I believe it’s a worthwhile cause.

Anyway, her idea got me thinking about children and education. Especially in the less developed parts of the world. There are millions of children in these areas without access to advanced education, and truthfully, we can’t have that. We need everyone pulling their weight in the world, and they can’t do that in today's high-tech environment without a good education.

With that said, I’m thinking of using Japan’s idea of establishing national academies for the free education system, only making it Commonwealth-wide and expanding it to include all children from elementary to high school. I’m thinking we’ll have it all funded by us so that we can have the Ministry of Education oversee it and set all the standards.

It’s been shown time and time again that the better-educated citizens are, the less likely they are to fall into poverty. Looks like it might be time for me to sit down with Sanai Hirohito, my Minister of Education, and lay out the basics of what I want to be done.

Educating the citizens in the less developed areas is something she’s talked about in cabinet meetings multiple times. Unfortunately, at the time, we had much more pressing matters to deal with. I think its time has come, so I’ll have her come see me soon for a talk and then allow her to flesh out the plan.

[Monday, January 8]

School begins again today. There isn’t anything of any real interest that happens, merely normal classes and saying hello to all of our friends there, so I’ll just leave it at that. That goes for the remainder of the school year as well. Nothing really interesting happens, so we’ll just skip ahead to the end of the school year.

[Tuesday, January 9]

I’m taking the day off from school to have my meeting with Sanai about setting up the academies. What I thought would be a short meeting of less than an hour turned into something much longer and far more involved. My passing off the idea to her wasn’t going to stand, apparently, and we also had to bring in Anne, who is the Minister of Finance, along with many members from congress.

So, far more involved should be a euphemism for pain the butt for several ministries, as well as me. Not only did we have to reallocate the local taxes for education in the places that have them, but we also had to institute a small tax in the places that don’t have them. Then we had to set up exemptions for those who enrolled their children in private schools, such as the one we attend, although they will have to meet or exceed the same standards. I don’t really see them having an issue with meeting them though. Sanai also brought up technical education in some of the less developed parts of the world and fielded the idea of adding technical academies for those who are more interested in something like that than going on to college.

As an aside, the American senators howled about that, saying that funding all that would put us in debt. It really made them mad when Anne outright laughed at them and I smirked as I stated, “My dear Senators, if you bothered to look, you would see that we are running a surplus of several quadrillion dollars per year and have been since I was enthroned. Regardless, in the long term, educating our citizens will only help bring in more money to the crown since they will be able to hold better jobs for more money. Come on now, this is economy 101 stuff.”

I don’t think they liked being lectured by an 18-year-old girl, even if said girl is their Queen.

There’s also allocating money to build the academies around the world. Setting up the process for awarding the contracts for who’ll build them. Etc… etc… etc… Ad nauseum. I have a bad headache and am more than mildly irritated by several more members of congress by the time the meeting adjourns.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term, ‘Herding cats.’ That’s what it felt like when dealing with the BS that several members of congress tossed in. Most of the time, it had little to nothing to do with the subject. My cabinet members know far better than to try doing that with me. Congress? Well, they would try the patience of Job, let alone me, who has no patience for idiocy.

[Friday, July 6]

The alarm wakes us up, and as is normal, we spend the extra time making love. Then we shower, bathe, and get ready for our final day of school.

It’s nothing much since it’s a half-day. Still, it’s going to be busy. Headmistress Smyth already informed us that we’d be having the closing ceremony, awards, and then the college recruiters would be set loose on us.

From what the Head Mistress said in our conversation, over 80% of the girls here will go on to college; 25% will attain an Associate's degree; 40% will attain a Bachelor's degree, which is a rather high percentage when you think about it; another 25% go on to attain a Master’s degree; and another 10% will get a graduate degree of some sort.

As I’ve said, Ryu and I have already been solicited by many colleges, but I’ve narrowed down the choices of where we will attend to either Cambridge, Tokyo University, or MIT. I tried to get Ryu’s input, but he just kept saying that he didn’t care where we went as long as the three of us were together. I dearly love the man, but seriously? Make a decision from time to time. He doesn’t always have to leave it up to Chinatsu or me.

After quickly turning away all the other recruiters, Ryu and I sit down with three of the recruiters, from Cambridge, Tokyo University, and MIT. The conversation quickly devolves into who can offer the most incentives for us to attend there, which, as you can guess, has me rolling my eyes in exasperation.

Seriously, we have no need for any incentives since I could pay cash for our entire college education and wouldn’t even notice.

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Ryu sees how irked I’m getting and brings the ‘Bidding war’ to a screeching halt when he says, “All we need to know is what educational opportunities you can offer us. We have no need for free housing since we’ll be buying a place to live wherever we go due to security concerns. The same goes for all the rest of it.”

In the end, I chose MIT since they have the most advanced Nanotechnology program on the planet. Harvard and MIT have a joint Law program, so that was the deciding factor for me. Otherwise, I would have chosen Tokyo University for their awesome law program, and they are right behind MIT with their Nanotechnology program. That’s settled, we signed letters of intent with MIT.

Back at home, I have Akari contact a realtor in Boston to find us a house. Of course, Jason also had to put stipulations in there as well. Safety first, you know? Not that I’m too worried about it since my approval rating is far higher than any world leader in history. Hell, even congress has a higher approval rating than any other congress or parliament in history. Of course, there’s a lot of very strict rules that they have to follow, and they know that trying to pass idiotic crap will merely result in it being summarily vetoed by me.

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[Tuesday, July 11]

This week, I’m rushing through paperwork and trying to get in all the requests for meetings that I can since we’ve planned a week's vacation at our summer house in Okinawa, which I’m going to take regardless of anything.

There’s moving, getting the new house set up, not that I have much to do with that other than some input on decor, and getting ready to begin classes in Boston. Of course, I also want to tour Boston a bit before classes begin.

A meeting just finished and I’m going through a report when Akari pokes her head in to state, “Sora, Miyuki Yoshida is on line three and would like to speak with you.”

“Thanks.” Tapping the line on the screen, I answer her call. “Hi, Miyuki. I haven’t heard from you in a while. What’s up?”

“Oh, not too much. Taking care of the house, school, friends, and Hiroki asked me to marry him. You know, the usual.”

It takes me a second to catch on to what she just said, and when I do, I squeal happily. “Congratulations! I’m surprised that it took him this long though since he could have married you two years ago.”

“Trust me. I said the same thing to him, and he said, ‘I wanted to wait until we graduated.’ What difference that could possibly make is beyond me though. Well, other than the obvious of us living together and getting to have sex more often.”

“Mhmm. I agree with you, but men have their own ideas about things. Ryu, well, he’s a bit different since he’s happy as long as Chinatsu and I are.”

“True, he’s a rare man. Anyway… The other reason I called is that I’d like you to be my Maid of Honor and Chinatsu to be a bridesmaid.”

“I’ll have to ask Chinatsu, but I’m fairly sure she’ll say yes. As for me, I’d be delighted to be your Maid of Honor.”

“I’m happy you accepted, not because you’re the Queen, but because you’re my friend.”

I smile as I reply, “Always, Mii.” A thought occurs to me, and I ask, “Mii, we’re going on vacation to Okinawa for a week. Do you want to come and have your wedding there as well?”

“Can we?”

“Of course. With me attending, it would be a circus otherwise. I’ll have Akari send the details to you. Will you have enough time to get all the invitations out? You needn’t worry about transportation or the like, we’ll take care of that, just get in touch with Akari and tell her who and how many, alright?”

“Thank you, Sora. You have no idea how much I appreciate this. So, umm, dress shopping?”

“Sure. When? Or, would you rather I have my people design and make one for you. I’d be really happy if you would allow me to do that for you. Oh, and colors for our dresses as well so that they can be made.”

It’s a long conversation as you can tell, but one I’m extremely happy to have. I haven’t said much about her for a while now with everything that’s been happening with us, along with going to school in England, but she’s blossomed into a very happy, lovely young lady. She has many friends, is well-liked, and does very well in school. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see her as much as I’d like to with my schedule.

We end the call about an hour later, and I smile as I delve back into my work.

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