<h4>Chapter 678: New Shawen</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>imperfectluck <strong>Editor: </strong>Kurisu
The Shawen Free States. What a nostalgic name. That was where everything had begun.
Eight years ago, back when I just returned to East Mist, the entire Nortnds had been hostile and fully on guard against both me and the Mist Kingdom. The only ce in the Nortnds which had a friendly rtionship with us back then was the Shawen Free States, with their significant number of mixed-blood descendants and descendants of the Mist.
Shawen was the ce where East Mist reentered the stage of history, allied with the barbarians and free state domain lords, and where the entire n to revive the People of the Mist began.
Shawen was where the barbarians transported tremendous numbers of mining resources, giving us the money to import the equally tremendous amount of food we needed. More than 40% of the mining resources and magical metals required for magical engineering came from Shawen, establishing the first Nortnds supply chain.
Shawen had the only warm valley in the entire Nortnds. Although this valley was quite tiny and couldn’t produce enough food to feed an entire country, Amelia and I performed countless experiments there. In the end, we sessfully invented new cold-resistant crops there, making the Nortnds’ food self-sufficiency no longer just a dream.
Shawen was whererge numbers of mixed-blood individuals from various species lived together. Previously, they were all looked down on by the other countries, but their status rose as the entire Nortnds joined the Mist Alliance, and Shawen became East Mist’s most solid ally. Due to Shawen’s unique geographical advantages, it was a great location for international trading. Shawen was now one of the richest ces in the Nortnds.
The People of the Mist hadn’t forgotten that Shawen had been their irond ally during the hardest of times. Many policies and benefits were heavily biased in favor of this rtively small country. Just Shawen’s own share of mining profits that they were allowed to keep would be more than enough to support all of Shawen’s residents. Additionally, as cold-resistant crops became more widespread, the valley became one of the few warm ces in the Nortnds. It would be too much of a waste to make the valley into a crond, so the valley had instead be the most famous tourist spot and recuperation center in the entire Nortnds.
Hmm? You’re asking if all of this was caused by a certain someone’s rmendations? Who knows?
Each winter, Shawen would host a grand party to celebrate peace. Royalty and major nobles from each of the Nortnds countries would attend together with their families and spend winter here... Well, although this yearly party was nominally in order to celebrate peace in the Nortnds and the establishment of the Mist Alliance, the main activities would actually be hunting, dancing, performances, bathing in hot springs, and so on. Serious speeches by leaders wouldst for less than 10 minutes, and the rest of the party would be filled with all sorts of performances and amenities.
Moreover, as the entire Nortnds entered a period of peace, everyone woulde to Shawen for winter. Not only was this a vacation for the Nortnds royalty and nobles, this was also a way to deepen the friendship of everyone in the Mist Alliance, and as time passed, the Nortnds countries actually gained the habit of engaging in diplomacy and business negotiations here in Shawen.
“First making others lower their guard with food and drink, then improving friendship through soaking in hot springs together before taking out your ace for a total ughter on the negotiation table. This strategy really seems so simr tomon business negotiation tactics from my previous world...”
Since the Shawen Free States had many different species and mixed-blood individuals to begin with, they really did have an advantage when it came to the vacation industry. Stores in their vacation districts would not only have elven artisanry, beastmen totems, unique local beast bones, and so on, but there would also be plenty of dwarven sculptures and weapons. Everything you could think of could be purchased here. People who visited for the first time would often mistake such products for imported goods, but anyone more familiar with Shawen would know that these were all locally produced products.
Singing and dancing performances by mixed-blood elves, war dance performances by beastmen, and so on were also quitemon. This culture brought about by many species was quite multidimensional. Although such performances weren’t quite as authentic as the real deal, the observers would feel far more rxed when watching mixed-blood performances. As for whether or not something “romantic” would happen after the performances... Well, it wasn’t like Shawen was the crimeless city. Wumianzhe wouldn’t directly intervene. Such industries which couldn’t be talked about in public also became one of the main draws for Shawen’s vacation cities.
Typically, the closer to winter it was, the busier this ce would be. The warmest and mostfortable vacation vis would always be set aside in reservation for the various royalty from the other countries. But in this year, the Holy War began, making all the countries’ leaders and royalty much busier than before. There were many war preparations to make and issues such as war provisioning. In the first year of the Holy War, reliability would be more important than anything else. You want a vacation, you ask? Wait until next year!
What about if too few visitors came visit the Shawen royal pce? Actually, each year would see roughly the same number of guests, with very few here to actually travel. Maybe some of the younger royalty members were actually here to have fun only (very unlikely), but the nobles woulde bearing missions to improve rtionships with other countries’ royalty and those in power. They would all be here for various transactions. Meanwhile, rich merchants who were unable to make connections with the royalty would alsoe here, viewing this as a good chance for them to improve their rtionship with at least the nobles, so that they could find a good opportunity to make connections among the nobles and find a way to help their children enter higher society.
Of course, it was also because of the Mist Alliance’s establishment that the royalty and nobles of the Nortnds countries could all sit down together and peacefully negotiate and improve rtionships. In the past, if they’d all got together, they would have immediately started fighting due to umted grudges both new and old.
Moreover, since the Mist Alliance was established, the member countries would need a neutral district where they could improve their rtionships with each other and make deals. This indirectly helped the Shawen Free States to quickly be prosperous. Of course, the Shawen Free States’ prosperity was also rted to the Mist Kingdom royalty leading things. As for whether a certain person was behind everything or not... Let me put it this way. Each year, the Shawen Free States would send a certain person arge amount of money as their way of expressing their thanks. Unfortunately, Kelly, the chief financial officer of East Mist would always take that money for “safekeeping”. I felt like I was an elementary school student who had his birthday money taken away by parents with the same excuse...
This year’s situation was rather unique. The royalty and powerful nobles of each country didn’t have time for such idle pursuits this year. The end result was that the leaders in power didn’te this year, and even lower-ranking individuals were much fewer than in previous years. Many “tourists” who hadn’t understood the situation for this year were now really regretting that they hade.
This year, only 25% of the normal number of royalty was in attendance, and only 50% of the regr number of nobles. The vis and hot springs were thus more than half empty, giving the Shawen domain lords a serious headache because of how much effort and money they had put into this party. They realized that this year’s party would incur a major loss.
But soon, they wouldn’t need to worry about the ount books for this year, because they would need to first worry about survival...
“...There’s still no word on reinforcements? Has there been a response to our request for aid yet?”
The Shawen Free States, which had been peaceful for so long, actually met with a threat—arge group of wild beasts that arrived from some unknown location. Kakagar, the ruler of Shawen, found this iprehensible.
Eight years of peace, along with the richer and more abundant lifestyle and environment, had caused the already plump Kakagar to be even plumper over the years. Eight years ago, people would secretly call him the Frog King behind his back, but now people were secretly referring to him as the Hippo King.
“...Damn it, where are all of our guards? Where’s our Shawen barbarian elf archer squadrons and half-beastmen berserker squadrons? This is the time for them to disy their skills, but where have they all run off to? We still haven’t finished gathering them?”
“Apologies, Milord. More than 70% of the warriors have be professional actors or dancers for several years already. Many of them refused our summons. Even the ones who answered our summons need time to find their weapons and equipment again...”
“Ridiculous! Our warriors have actually be clowns! This is serious governmental corruption! I’m going to have a good discussion with my generals and find just which bastard did such a foolish thing!”
“...”
The Shawen government messenger keptpletely silent as he recalled how it was precisely Hippo King Kakagar who had made such a decision in the first ce—over the protests of the Shawen military, at that.
Kakagar calmed down quite a bit after venting for a while. He had also recalled the foolishmand he’d given back then. At that time, he figured that since everything with the Mist Alliance was quite solid, he could simply develop Shawen as a vacation spot. With the two major Mist countries as his shields, and the probability of internal warfare in the Nortnds near zero, Kakagar had felt that it would be far more profitable to disband the army and make the warriors entertainers to earn more money rather than pay for a useless military.
Other countries in the Nortnds now had military strength several times exceeding that of eight years ago. Meanwhile, Shawen had tax ie which was several hundred times that of eight years ago, yet theirbat strength was now less than 5% of what it had been eight years ago.
Not only were the Shawen nobles and domain lords busy trying to make more money, even the regr warriors were trying to make money through means other than fighting. The Shawen military was now apletely empty organization due to the warriors bing merchants and actors. How could such a military possibly have anybat strength left?
From a certain standpoint, having no external threats or warfare would actually be one of the most toxic poisons capable of destroying a country.
Bestial roars could constantly be heard from outside. Kakagar was quite anxious. He knew that now wasn’t the time to push responsibility onto others. If he couldn’te up with an idea soon, it wouldn’t matter no matter how much money he had to spend anymore.
His round little eyes kept spinning around as he stood in a daze on the tall wall of his mansion. He really did manage toe up with an idea, even though this idea would have endless consequences. Kakagar had formerly been quite renowned for his brains before.
“Tell the foreign nobles the truth, that we’re currently unable to protect them. Have their bodyguards and mercenaries participate in battle.”