Chapter 207: Fastria Agricultural City Tour – part four

Chapter 207: Fastria Agricultural City Tour – part four

There have been very few comments recently. I am publishing this bonus chapter because the last one got a comment.

Cheers!

“So, this is Fastria Agricultural City, then this one is Sekandia Industrial City and the last one is the Serdis Financial City.” Gillian said while pointing towards the cities in a map. At the same time, Hanako and Takeo were using the subordinate of Gillian as a host, so that they can produce some offspring that Tarou may consume.

Gillian seemed to be troubled by that, but he continued on with his explanation, “You want to understand the Grand Duke election better, right? The current situation is a bit complicated, and its roots go back to how the current structure of the country was formed.

“Basically, this used to be a monarchy with fairly oppressive rulers in it. The merchants were sick of the excessive taxes, so they started slowly trying to dwindle the power of the royal family by making particularly disadvantageous deals with the royalty, taking some lands to themselves in order to collect debt and many other methods.

“Eventually, the power of the royal family because weak enough, to the point it was possible to make a peaceful revolution, taking the power away from the royal family and putting it into the hands of the people… To some extent.

“There were still some issues with the neighboring countries being wary of this peaceful revolution serving as a trigger to make their own citizens try to take the power away from them, so our merchants had to do a lot of deals to calm down our neighbors.

“Also, while our ruler is decided through the Grand Duke election, in one or another the Grand Duke always had some connection to the royal family… Though well, they tended to be nothing more than a puppet ruler, with the big merchant families, who each control one of the major cities, being the actual rulers of the country.

“But now… Well, with the current king having only one daughter and no other living relatives, it is expected that the Grand Duke will marry the princess, so as to maintain the connection between ruler and royalty, as that was one of the requirements that the neighboring countries wanted in order to not attack us.

“And we have to abide by that, since our military power is low, but… The people currently aiming for the position of Grand Duke are all part of the three big merchant families, so… Whoever ends up getting the position and becoming the ruler of the country, will end up upsetting the balance of power that existed between the three families so far… Which leads to our current mess.

“And to add insult to injury, there are rumors of the princess and the heir to the Fastria Agricultural City, Dirk, being in love with one another, so… Well, there are some worries about what he’ll do to the current structure of the country if he rises to power. Maybe he’ll try giving power back to the royalty or something.

“… Not like the other two are much better though. The guy from Sekondia seems to want to funnel a huge amount of our resources into strengthening the military power… And the one from Serdis seem to want to essentially take control of the whole country to himself, like… By taking away the power of the other families and the like.

“Anyways, that’s the gist of it… So, what do you want to do with our princess now?”

——

Quest No. Extra

World Quest: Political Changes in the Commercial Nation

Commissioner: Gillian

Task: Support one of the factions or usurp the post of Grand Duke

Reward: 5 levels + 5 Million G + ===

Note: World Quests heavily alter the future and, regardless of success or failure, they cannot be taken again.

Do you accept? Yes/No

——

Oh my, it’s been quite a while since my last World Quest, hasn’t it? Last one was the Krebskulm Liberation Front if memory serves me right… I guess other players must have gotten World Quests in the meanwhile, but I wonder if there was anybody else that got two of them.

Well, let’s not mind that and accept the quest.

“Thank you for the concise information.” I told Gillian, “Though I still don’t know which side will be the most fun one to play with.”

I still only have the bare minimum of information after all, but… Well, the princess should show me around the Fastria mansion soon enough, and I should be able to use Gillian to make a connection with the Serdis family, so… Well, that’s two that I have an easy connection with?

So, for now, let’s work with what we have, “Gillian, translate this message and send it to your employer, G-G-Greg…” I started saying, but I forgot his name already…

“You mean Gregoir Serdis?” Gillian asked.

“Yes, that one. Translate and hand over my letter to this guy.” I told him.

“Why me!?” He asked.

“Because I don’t know how to write in your language, but you obviously know how to talk in mine.” I replied.

“Ah, of course…” He replied, then started translating my letter.

Now, what will I do tonight…?