Quest 2, Part 15: [... and the weapons are ready.]

I believe, I can’t change the future at this point anymore. The invitations were sent, the orders were given out. In a single day a temporary cease fire happened that surprised even me.

The moment the enemy received the order, the attacks stopped. Since our side was informed quicker, they also did so. Every single person put their weapons down in their own camps and pretended to be watching the enemy side.

In reality, they were simply tired of fighting. Mercenary teams, common soldiers, everyone. Who wanted to fight to death, with such a high number of casualties and when both sides are talking about peace? They have seen as their friends and family died right next to them. Sometimes purely rage was the only thing that kept the continuous suicide attack going forward to the “certain” victory. Yet, they kept going forward so they won’t lose everyone else at home.

Our side was a bit different. Their own lands and innocent lives were taken from them. When the enemy stopped, many wanted to rush forward and slaughter them. But what can they do? The Princess’s order is the law. She is the one that allowed them to survive. She is the person who gave them the weapons that made their attempts of retaliation possible. How can they turn into traitors and risk to be hunted by both sides after all that? They grief for all that has been taken from them, but maybe, maybe the Princess found a way. Maybe the attackers finally run out soldiers to throw at them- or maybe they gave up because of the lack of provisions.

That many people need a lot of food and their equipment need a lot of maintenance. The guns on the other hand, work pretty well. They don’t break or get chipped. If they jam a single second is enough to clean them. The ammunition is cheap and the citizens gift willingly much more mana using the new crystals than they can ever use. They can almost feel the love and warmth inside them that their own people’s magic power give off, praying for them, from home. Even if on occasion they break, they simply get a new, even better model.

Opposed to the enemy, they don’t starve. Strange, that the defender side is better off foodwise. Their food is simple but it has a calming taste. The small bars of compressed looking food was created by the Princess’ own wisdom. They last long, take up less space and give them more energy. They weren’t this well fed even at home.

Maybe, just maybe the Princess can stop all these horrible thing from happening again. They did good for this long, didn’t they?

But the most bizarre thing was not his. It was the fact that after both sides stopped, the soldiers themselves provided their enemy with the very same food as most of the attacker’s reserves were destroyed. Strategically a correct decision, but they still hoped for the oncoming peace. Why would they let the other person in front of them starve when they have a never ending amount of food? They are people too.

To this the tip of the frontlines somehow washed together. The nonhumans are excluded from the party of course, but they feel safer in a distance from those who hate them. Not everyone is like that, but they don’t want to risk it. But the humans, they can pretend to be grateful. They are very good at stabbing others in the back. The soldiers eat together, talk to each other, a few even sing the pain of their hearts. The officers test their mind with games. Chess is one popular way of proving their intelligence. Those who were unable to accept the loss of their loved ones simply walked towards home without anyone trying to stop them.

The enemy has only one order, when the signal comes march forward and occupy the capital. The defenders won’t stand in their way. If so, they will gladly accept the help now, and calmly wait until the signal to murder them. At least, something like this is in the mind of the nobles. ‘The peasant are not clever enough to understand strategy and they won’t hold back against the enemy because of the fear’ is a common old saying.

The war was mostly over for the soldiers, everyone knew. It ends one way or another, they cannot change the outcome anymore. Why fight then?

Is this a beautiful or the most disgusting sight that I’ve ever seen?

I don’t know.

I don’t care.

I turned my back to them and followed my daily routine. Morning to noon, practicing magic and aura control. From noon to dusk I’m doing paperwork. All the time day. I do not trust anyone with these. The only one allowed to help in it was Neth, but I gave her other responsibilities. I trust her, yet not. I know that she is doing her best, but not for what purpose and reason. I don’t know what she thinks of the current me, as it is impossible to predict. Maybe she is loyal, maybe she wants me to be her puppet. Maybe she loves me for fucks sake, I have no idea. My brain is full of thoughts, constantly running, checking all the possibilities that may or may not happen. For the sake of speeding things up I often use [Mind magic] to accelerate my thoughts and memorising capability, but since it comes with heavy repercussions in the form of terrible headaches and paranoia I refer from using them too much.

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At first I did not understand why I have so much to do as a Princess. But when I did most of the work alone, I understood. The reason all this works as it does is because all departments directly report to me and I check every single thing for them. Truly, an unshakable monarchy.

However, most of the work comes from the finances department. The reason why everything goes smoothly in the city and there is almost no poverty is because I destroyed capitalism. Not in the literal sense, but the system offers no leeway. At first, this idea sounded horrible even to me.

Anyone can join the market, but if they violate the competition laws or try to take advantage of a closed market, the system joins and offers an alternative with a small, limited profit to keep the prices from going too high. Most of time thanks to the research facilities and large amount of starting founds we are able to provide a good alternative. Of course this system only works because I personally manage it, preventing corruption, which is punished by execution.

If one does not go against these ideals, they are hired or left alone.

Nowadays if someone has a new idea or invention they are not taking a loan, they present it to the financial department who decide if it’s worth it to, well finance, because people trust the system. No, instead of trusting it, they don’t care about anything as long is it’s good for them.

Currently all larger factories, be it carpentry or ironworks belong to me. The directors are the original owners who I hired after buying them out, because they are already talented people and this way I don’t have to do all the work. The buildings were upgraded and modernised by me using my founds, creating even larger profit.

Apart from these there are the small and medium factories and workshops in private hand. Feudal guilds are close to death, but there are a few that can stay alive thanks to the very high quality work they offer. I admit, I tried to recruit some of them, but was politely refused. I did manage to order a few nice dresses though.

As for the food market… Our lands have very little food production, simply, most of the area is occupied by steep hills or forests filled with dangerous monsters. Then, my little dragon burned most of it down. Thank god that the harvesting season has already ended, but the second branch of crops were simply gone. I did what I could and bought the land back so the farmers won’t starve next half year. After hiring them back as contracted workers and adapting new farming techniques, I literally own all of the food production inside the territory and even like this it’s barely enough. It takes a lot of money away so it’s a pain to keep the prices low. Before this, we relied on import though...

All in all, it is not perfect, but the best that I can possibly imagine. Such crazy way is not possible to be done in the real world for many reasons. For starters, the number of citizens in my territory is tiny compared to both worlds. The size seems large for that, but most of the area is not habitable. In short, even here it’s difficult to maintain. This is why I finance the church’s orphanage. It’s essential for me and for the future to raise people capable of doing such job. Educated, paid workers who willingly wear slave collars to ensure cleanness. Well, at that time the collars are going to look like ornaments or they might be simply invisible.

As for the rest of my day, from dust to morning I usually survey the area surrounding our region. I plan to earn as much as I can, I want to know what places worth to take away and what must be taken away from them. Composing a list of what I want, I fly above the grounds without escorts. I learned how to fly with magic by myself and since almost no one can see my form I can safely tour the hills and plains at a great speed. With my aura I check the soil, geography and the underground. Not only it’s easy to detect most things, I can create a map inside my head.

I do not need to sleep, at least that’s what I think. Ever since I entered the game I’ve never been physically tired. Mentally, yes, but who has time for that.

I know that I prepared more than enough for the “peace talks”, but I can only feel the need for more and more. I know they will all try to gang up and rip me apart. That, this is only a race of who gets the most out of me. Maybe some of them already made agreements of who gets what.

The royal castle/mansion, I should really give it a real name, let’s call it palace from now on, is not called a castle for nothing.

Even if they were able to win on the battlefield, only max level players have the power to raid such a place. The problem is, that it cannot defend the city. It can only defend itself. I can’t rule a country with only dead people.

This [Royal Palace] has many anti-siege weapons, magical formations and other tricks inside it. For example, inside the Mirror Hall, people cannot physically hurt each other. Using magic is possible if it’s a higher level spell, but even those are weakened greatly. Not like many can use such magic.

I can’t wait to see the despair on their faces after seeing the difference between us. Despite all thing considered, most of my plans are going well, I have no reason to complain. If this is over I can finally talk to that goddess and kick her teeth in as thanks. Right, I almost forgot about her existence. Not like it matters.

The question is, will there be any other [Testers]?