Time continued to pass.
As autumn drew to a close, a letter arrived for me.
It was from the neighboring nation, the Kingdom of Galastone.
The Kingdom of Galastone was one of the countries with which Glaston had signed an unequal treaty.
The letter was filled with long-winded paragraphs, but in essence, it simply said:
『We’d like to continue the unequal treaty going forward. Thank you in advance.』
「An unequal treaty, huh…」
In the royal castle’s office, I stood by the window, gazing down at the castle town while deep in thought.
The unequal treaties had been established by Glaston and Lord Hydra.
――― Leasing territory at a bargain price.
――― Granting special privileges to foreign residents.
――― Waiving certain customs duties.
And so on. The terms were extensive.
In return, Glaston and Lord Hydra had received vast sums of so-called “national donations”.
The term “national donation” might literally mean “money donated to the country”, but that was just a facade.
In reality, it was nothing more than a bribe.
In other words, Glaston and the others had sold pieces of the nation through these unequal treaties and, in exchange, pocketed enormous sums of illicit funds.
(Glaston and Lord Hydra are dead. But just because the former regime has collapsed doesn’t mean the treaties vanish with them)
What a troublesome legacy they left behind, I thought with a sigh.
(Unless I can eliminate these unequal treaties, the Warrior Nation of Bernada will never truly achieve economic development. I have to do something about this…)
Thanks to Prime Minister Timeria’s leadership, the country was gradually beginning to change.
Of course, economic reforms don’t bear fruit overnight, but in three to five years, people should clearly start to feel the improvement.
However, with the unequal treaties still in place, achieving strong and steady growth would be difficult.
A slowdown in progress was inevitable.
―――― Incidentally, the aforementioned letter also included something like this:
『This year’s donation will be delivered within half a month.』
In other words, the bribe that served as compensation for the unequal treaty was about to fall into my lap.
But I had no need for that money.
I wasn’t interested in short-term wealth. What I sought was long-term prosperity.
(I’ll send back this year’s funds. Then I’ll initiate negotiations to dissolve the unequal treaty)
That was what I decided.
For now, I needed to write a reply to the Kingdom of Galastone.
I picked up a quill and began drafting the letter.
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