That number left the conference room silent for a moment.
The first literacy program alone had enrolled several thousand people... That was nearly the entire workforce of Castel's heavy industry production lines.
"Y-you organized all of that? That's several thousand people!"
"Just finding enough rooms must have been difficult, right?"
Zoe smiled. "The literacy classes weren't all held at the same time. Some were during the day, while others were in the afternoon or evening. People with regular jobs could come attend after work."
"And..." She turned to Josh.
"Ahem. The Mystic Society already had plenty of organized gatherings, with ready-made channels and venues. We could simply set up the literacy classes there."
Theus nodded in satisfaction. This was precisely why he had preserved the Mystic Society's entire organizational structure instead of dismantling it completely and bringing it back to Castel.
The influence a religious organization capable of reaching deep into the lower classes could exert over Blood Port was difficult to imagine. The Prince's administrative orders could scarcely reach the slums, but the Mystic Society could.
Furthermore, with the Mystic Society vouching for them, Castel faced far less difficulty in setting up literacy programs. Theus had no foundation here, but Josh did.
"How many of them do you think could ultimately be turned into workers?"
Zoe hesitated before answering uncertainly, "...Five hundred?"
Theus raised a brow. "That low?"
"The beginning is always the hardest. When we first started classes for the islanders, the factories also struggled to recruit workers. But once the first batch entered the factories, everything changed."
"After that, everything in the factories spread throughout Blood Port. People's perceptions would gradually change, and more and more would come flooding in. They'd take the initiative to learn to read and study."
Those were all experiences that had occurred