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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Silavin
Queen Floria of the Razequa Amamiya Kingdom was sighing after receiving a report from her Prime Minister, Alec.
Alec had communicated with his brother, King Maxim, just a few minutes earlier.
He told Floria the contents of their talk.
Since they were brothers, there was naturally some small talk inside, but all of this was omitted. After all, the important content of the conversation was mixed in with chitchat.
It was regarding the Airika Kingdom finally ready to accept Crown.
“Oh. So they have finally decided.”
Hearing the report from Alec, Floria nodded.
It was only after hearing the next report that she let out a sigh.
“Yes, the movements of Airika Kingdom are as I had heard from Crown, but the problem is the Flores Kingdom.”
“What’s going on?”
“It seems like despite the Airika Kingdom’s decision, things are still the same in the Flores Kingdom.”
“I see…”
When Floria heard this, she had the impression that nothing had changed in the Flores Kingdom since she had left.
Putting aside Floria’s current position, it was easy to predict what the outcome would be if a Crown branch were to be established in a neighboring country.
For now, it appears that the Airika Kingdom would only allow the establishment of a branch in the adventurers’ section, but it was obvious that eventually that would not be enough.
One only had to look at Summit Kingdom to see why.
Of course, some say that in the case of Summit Kingdom, Crown was just that great of a match to their needs.
That was why no other country in the southern continent had been able to establish a branch except Summit Kingdom.
It was feared that if a branch was to be established, many things would be swallowed up by Crown.
Floria and Alec’s current analysis was that countries were overreacting when it came to the establishment of Crown branches.
It could not be helped, looking at what happened on the Central Continent where all of its towns and villages were absorbed and integrated into Razequa Amamiya via Crown, it was normal for other countries to be wary.
However, these countries forgot about the unique historical context of those lands. The circumstances of such towns and villages within the Central Continent were unique compared to other continents. Their worries were merely assumptions based on the current economic and political circumstances, without much consideration of anything else. In short, they were boundless worries.
“I don’t think it’s too difficult to be misunderstood, though.”
Floria muttered unintentionally, and Alec, who was in front of her, nodded.
“Not at all. If they think about it a little calmly, they should be well aware that the situation in this continent is extremely different from other continents.”
“Ah… well, is it possible that the other continents are too far away for them to tell the difference?”
“Well… I won’t deny that.”
Alec nodded with a wry smile at Floria’s calm words.
Their current positions were that of the Queen and the Prime Minister of Razequa Amamiya.
Now, even if they informed a third party to pass on their message, there would always be a point where the information would get distorted as it was passed around. The third party would inevitably add in their own opinions and views as they exchange it with others. Thus, Floria and Alec would have to be the one to directly communicate with the others.
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“So, what are you going to do?”
One of the entourages who had been listening to their conversation asked.
“What do you mean?”
To Floria, who tilted her head, the aide continued to question.
“Are you going to tell Crown that it is politically wrong to establish a branch in Airika Kingdom before Flores Kingdom?”
From the look on the aide’s expression, she could tell that he did not intend on asking in such a blunt and rude manner. Nevertheless, he dared to speak like this because he understood his duty. As an aide, he needed to give his various opinions.
“That’s impossible, Crown is a private organization. And as a country, we can’t go out of our way to intervene.”
Floria said this in response.
In reality, her ties to the private organization were far too deep. However, since that was how they needed to act outside, she had no choice but to say and do so.
It was already well known that compared to the cases in other countries, the relationship between Razequa Amamiya and Crown was particularly close. However, this was also normal. In other countries, it was quite common for a royal family to have a number of royal trading companies directly representing them. In some cases, it was quite common for meetings between countries to turn into business exchanges.
It was not clear whether Crown was the official trading company of Razequa Amamiya. However, it was a fact that Crown was the only big trading company in the Tower with direct ties to the royal family.
There were naturally other channels within the Tower for other trading companies, but it was difficult to say whether any of them were connected to the royal family of Razequa Amamiya.
Given this relation with Crown and Razequa Amamiya, it was not surprising that Crown was considered Razequa Amamiya’s royal family’s official trading company.
There were other relationships between the royal family and Crown, with Kousuke in between, but they were not the kind of relationships that could be talked about.
In the first place, in any political exchange related to Crown, they had never mentioned Kousuke. It was mainly to not tie him down to such matters. Thus, from an outsider’s perspective it was understandable why they would think Crown was fully under Razequa Amamiya.
“So, was that what you told them?”
Floria turned her gaze to Alec.
“Of course not. We don’t want you to get their hopes up when it comes to the negotiations.”
“Indeed. What we should be more worried about is other countries cutting off our eastern towns in retaliation.”
“Oh, that’s possible. A strong possibility.”
There was a possibility that forces from various countries, or even the countries themselves, opposed to Airika Kingdom setting up a Crown branch, would meddle in the eastern towns.
For Razequa Amamiya, that was the greatest problem.
However, just as the northern towns were isolated within the Central Continent, it would not be a fatal problem if the eastern towns chose to leave Razequa Amamiya.
To begin with, politically, each town and village was governed independently. Taxes were sent to Razequa Amamiyah, but since most of the governing authority was with the towns and villages. If they cut off connection with Razequa Amamiya, taxes from them would just get reduced. According to the royal family, this was not much of a problem.
The major issue would be if numerous eastern towns were to suddenly leave Razequa Amamiya. This might spark chaos and uprising within those towns. Naturally, since connection had been cut off, if any damage were theirs to bear, with no support coming from Razequa Amamiya.
From the perspective of other countries, the authority of the royal family over each region was weak. However, to the royal family of Razequa Amamiya, they considered it to be their strength.
To put it another way, Razequa Amamiya had a solid foundation as long as the fifth-tier towns were not taken by other countries.
“Besides, it won’t end up in violence, will it?”
“Well, if we ended up going down that route, so be it. We will still prioritize the Airika Kingdom.”
Even if countries moved to prevent the Crown branch of Airika Kingdom from being established, since Airika Kingdom had decided, they would do everything in their power to make sure that things proceed as they wished.
Since they had already gotten the go ahead from Airika Kingdom, Crown would move as well. Crown would also oppose any attempts to block the establishment of their branch.
As for Razequa Amamiya, they would naturally act on their own to proceed with the establishment of the branch.
“By the way, I don’t think the Lord of the eastern towns would be on board with this decision.”
Floria gave a light laugh as she thought of the faces of their representatives.
Like other towns of the Central Continent, they basically had a history of being at the mercy of countries outside the continent. They needed to get their support to continue their existence.
From what Floria heard, the Lord of the eastern towns was said to be wise. He was not the type of person who would easily fall for baseless rumors.
It seems like he only would only believe information he received from other continents at face value. He would not act unless it was something that threatened the existence of his towns.
This became all the more apparent by how willing he was to listen when Floria told him about the different circumstances of the countries. About the history of the Central Continent.
This history explained how the Central Continent had always been at the mercy of the agendas of other continents, and such issues ran deeper than one might think.
When Floria was in the Flores Kingdom, she was never too worried about it. It was only after she ended up living in the Tower and also ended up becoming a Queen, that she understood how horrendous such issues ran. How awareness of this was key to the first step in correcting this.
The same was true for Alec. He only realized how dire the problem was when he was managing the town in the Tower, earlier than Floria as Kousuke’s representative. The town that now known as Razequa Amamiya.
…
In the end, although there were various behind-the-scenes activities, such details were not told in the history book. The establishment of the Crown branch in the Airika Kingdom was also carried out, as planned.
Meanwhile, the other countries of the eastern continent could not help but wait and see how things would develop later.
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