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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
King Balm Edria Column was at a loss for words in his office.
Normally, he would be busy sorting out paperwork, but he sometimes found time to ponder in this way.
There were many things that bothered the king’s mind, but the issue of the Central Continent was the one that occupied the most of his time at the moment.
A problem of the Column Kingdom, which the King had meddled with in the past, did not seem to be a problem for him at the moment.
However, it would not be surprising if they were to come out again anytime soon.
After all, the previous fleet sent out by his own country was the only one that had so far taken military action on the Central Continent.
Balm had expected other countries to start messing with them anytime soon, but the surprising offensive power of Amamiya Tower had put a stop to that.
Some of the countries claimed that it was just a rumor, but Balm could not find any that had actually gone so far as to act.
Some time ago, there seemed to be a pirate disturbance in the northern part of the Central Continent, but that too had now subsided.
There was some talk of some state being involved behind the scenes in the Column Kingdom, which was positioned far away, but eventually, it did not seem to be having much of an effect.
Balm was hoping that the state behind the situation would get impatient and take direct action, but things never work out that way.
As for Amamiya Tower, it was already in the process of becoming a nation.
However, it still lacked a military force, as a nation should have one.
After all, there had never been a nation on that continent before.
It was a unique continent, but it was a well-known fact that the situation had changed drastically after the Tower was conquered.
The existence of the Transfer Gate had a major impact on the continent.
There were towers on the western continent, where the Column Kingdom was located, as a matter of course, and some of them had already been conquered.
However, for some reason, there was no such thing as a transition gate.
Or they could have been hiding their existence in case something went wrong.
The method that allows one to move to a safe zone in the Tower instantly could be treated by the royal family as a hidden passageway that should be kept secret.
If Balm owned the Tower and had a transfer gate, it would not be surprising if he treated it as such.
Or perhaps the Tower itself did not have a transfer gate.
After all, the country that controlled a Tower changed its ownership several times since it was attacked in the past, so it may be that the ownership of the Tower was not changed successfully at that time.
This would be a greater possibility.
There was no way to properly hand over such an important asset as the Tower to a hostile nation.
Since Balm did not know what the Tower system was like, he could only speculate.
After thinking that far, Balm decided that it was no use thinking about something that did not exist, and he returned his thoughts to where they had left off.
What he should be thinking about now was how to deal with Amamiya Tower as the Column Kingdom.
Currently, the hardliners had not said that they would send out the army again.
However, it would not be surprising if such voices eventually emerged once more.
At that time, they needed to have something that could silence the hardliners.
Balm did not intend to send out the navy because he was not willing to cross a dangerous bridge.
However, it was also true that if their voices became louder, he could not ignore them.
King Balm was thinking about this when his gaze fell on a document.
It was one of the reports he was about to process.
And it was about Crown.
King Balm started looking over the document as if it were an opportunity.
Soon, his face broke into a smile.
If the report was correct, there was a possibility that the hardliners could be silenced.
He really needed to hear the details.
He immediately decided to call the heavyweight involved in the document.
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The person in charge who was called to Balm was from the department concerned with taxation.
The report was that tax revenues from the merchant guilds associated with the Crown were increasing.
In absolute terms, this was not a huge amount.
However, in terms of the growth rate, it was larger than that of any other merchant guild.
Of course, this increase was not limited to the merchant guilds.
The craft guilds that process goods imported from Crown were also in a similar situation.
“This report is for last month, what about before that?”
“Ha, haha. The situation became more noticeable last month, not so much before that. But this month, the number is likely to increase.”
Balm nodded his head at the representative’s report.
“Why are these vendors growing?”
“Well…”
“That’s fine. Just tell us what you think.”
Balm saw that the person in charge was stuttering, and, sensing this, urged him to continue.
“Perhaps, it is because the quality of the material from Crown is good.”
With that one word, he understood what the person in charge was trying to say.
“…Is it really that good?”
“From what I’ve learned, crafts, industrial goods, and luxury goods are all excellent. The exports are growing domestically, but above all, exports to the rest of the world are developing as well.”
In the Kingdom of Balm, products produced from Amamiya Tower were purchased in their raw material form and then processed.
Since they originally imported materials from the Central Continent, they had the groundwork for such technology.
The materials from the Central Continent were renowned for their high quality.
The materials produced in Tower were equal to or even better than those in the Central Continent.
The guilds involved in such business were increasing their sales because they could sell such materials at a higher price when they sold them outside of Japan.
The result was increased tax revenues.
“Is it possible that Crown is intentionally increasing exports to our country?”
His intention in asking that question was because he suspected that because of the previous fiasco, they were strengthening their commercial ties.
“I can’t get an accurate picture of the situation in other countries, but I’m afraid that’s probably not the case. It simply seems that the production of resources from Amamiya Tower is increasing.”
The increase in the number of adventurers or those engaged in similar work in the Tower resulted in an increase in the production of resources.
Naturally, this would increase the number of resources that could be exported to the outside world.
As a result, the number of materials coming into the Column Kingdom increased, and the sales of the guilds involved increased.
The question was how long this growth would continue.
Even in the Tower, resources were never going to be unlimited.
Or there may not be enough adventurers to harvest them.
The growth would always come to a halt somewhere.
It would not be something that could be predicted.
They may be able to make some assumptions, but they remain only as predictions, not absolutes.
But be that as it may, this situation will be of use to the country.
After all, tax revenues have been growing.
If they made a bad move, they might lose those tax revenues.
This could be used as an ingredient to silence the hardliners.
But some of them might say that they should go on the offensive for that reason.
There would not be that many who would be that short-sighted.
In the short run, the increase in tax revenues from materials coming from the Central Continent would be a good thing for the Column Kingdom.
However, eventually or when a country centering on the Tower was established on the Central Continent, whether this would be a good thing or not remained to be seen.
Balm kept in mind that this was still an unknown factor.
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