Fu.....

　When you soak in the hot water, you feel comfortable and warm from the core of your body.
　The color of the water is cloudy white.

　I have heard that the effect of beautiful skin can be expected.

　If I put only a complaint, it is an odor like a rotten egg.
　It's a sulfur spring, so there's no way around it.

　'No, I've always wanted to go there at least once.
　It's been a busy time for me.

　Julia says as she entwines her right hand with mine.
　It feels rich and soft.

　I knew that hot springs existed.
　That's right, if there's sulfur, the material used to make black powder, then there must be hot springs too.

　Sure enough, I did a lot of research and quickly found them.

　But unfortunately, Adelnians don't seem to be in the habit of bathing in hot springs.
　To be more precise, they don't have the habit of going all the way to a hot spring to take a bath, or should I say, they don't have the habit of taking a bath.

　The local residents seem to take a bath frequently.

　In Adelunia peninsula, where people basically move on foot, there are few people who are willing to go to the hot springs tens of kilometers away to soak in them.
　Perhaps because they are too busy with agriculture, few people are willing to go out of their way to find a hot spring, so there are not many of them.

　There must be many other kinds of hot springs besides the sulfur springs. There may be hot springs that are unique to this world. Yeah, that's good.

　When we unite the Adelian peninsula, we will dig up all the ground we can.

　'I'd go in there every day if I could. Can't you do something about it?
　Tetra says as she tangles herself around my left arm. It's not as firm and resilient as Julia's, but it feels solid. Personally, I like the feel better here.

　What do you want me to do about it?

　The wagon.
　The cost is ridiculous.
　You are a king and should have this level of luxury. Your tax revenue has gone up a lot since your predecessor's time, hasn't it?

　After the civil war, the lands under the king's direct control doubled.
　In addition to the original lands under the king's direct control, the lands of As and Dibel, the lands of the rebellious tribes, and the lands taken from King Domorgal's country.
　And the trade of boxwood (garnet).

　Of course, not all of them became directly under my control because I divided the territory among the great tribes that followed me, but the amount of increase is still large.


　Boros gave them the land around the Terrier Fortress.
　It is a key location that connects the old and new territories, but Boros will be able to defend it.

　It was Bartolo who was lost.
　Naturally, Bartolo must be added to the mix, but his abilities are simply too high.

　After much trouble, he moved into the new territory.
　There should be no complaints since he was increased by one and a half times in the territory.

　Bartolo's ability would be enough to prevent King Domorgal's country.

　Ron Roseward Gram's three men were sealed up near the lands under his direct control.
　They will continue to work at the palace as my hands and feet.

　So the three of them won't be living in the territory directly.


　The most troublesome were the relatives of the Royal House of Rosais with Raimondo at the center.

　In particular, Raimondo owns one of the three rock salt mines in our country.
　And of course, when I implied that he would be willing to transfer in exchange for a three-fold increase, he refused with a smile. But he refused with a smile.

　It's riskier to forcefully reseal and worsen the relationship, so I added a little more.


　''If possible, I'd like to cut off the power of the great family.
　'Well if only I could do that...'

　Tetra agrees with my mutterings.

　It's clear that the great families are interfering with the smooth running of the state.
　This is not a question of whether they are doing good or bad government.

　Their very existence is inefficient.
　When you go to war, you have to get their consent and you have to be careful not to turn on other countries.

　It is not uncommon for great families to turn over their entire territory to other countries.

　But the centralization of power is quite advanced. As for the local clans, I don't think we need to worry so much about it.

　Thanks to the flamboyance of the last civil war, no great clan has been able to rebel from the front.
　We also succeeded in turning their influence on the land back into a blank slate through the means of subsealing.

　The problem is.....

　"The central powerhouse family, led by Raimondo...
　Tetra muttered.

　The central Australians are on my side for one thing, and they have the same policy of reducing the power of the local Australians.
　They want to strengthen the power of the Lossies family.
　And their territory is small.

　But since they have fiefdoms around and within their direct control, their influence over the center is very strong.

　Moreover, it was Raimondo and his men who made me king.
　I'm in a position where I have to respect them.

　As far as I'm concerned, the reason Raimondo chose me to be king in the first place is because I have no relatives as far as I'm concerned.
　The House of Ath are my relatives, but they are not close. I have vassals in my family tree, but I have thirty at best.

　So I must always rely on the Rosais family to run the country.

　They set me up so that they wouldn't despise me.

　They didn't care about my abilities or anything else.
　If I was incompetent, they could just make me a puppet.

　Unlike Rigal, the only relatives I can rely on are the Rosais family, so that would be easy.

　We want to rub our interests together successfully. And I'm sure they have the same idea of wanting to reduce the power of the great families and promote the centralization of power.

　'By the way, are you serious about unifying the Adelian peninsula?
　'Yeah, I'm serious. It's always been nice to do. But just thinking about it doesn't make it happen, you know?

　The reason for the constant conflict on the Adelian peninsula is that it's not integrated.
　Once you bring them together and lay the groundwork, they won't divide so easily.

　''So where do we attack first?''
　'It depends. I'll start by building up the country's strength.

　The foundation is important for everything.
　Buildings that aren't piled up properly in the basement will lean.

　Oh, hey...
　I hug Julia. She strokes her purple-red hair and crawls her tongue down my neck.

　'Next Dauphin, we need to make a firm decision.

　The question of succession to the throne.

　It is the biggest problem that haunts monarchies.
　I've seen this problem plagued many times outside of King Rosais' country, and I know many in history.

　Setting up a Dauphin would calm them down, but if they sit in that position, they become a dark monarch.
　On the other hand, if you don't decide to do the opposite, it's going to be very rough.

　If the king fails to appoint the next king before he dies, of course, even if he does, the vassals who heard his will will will lie to him, or accuse him of lying again, and a civil war will break out as other princes try to take the throne.

　'Almus the crown prince should be Julia's son. The country won't be as rough that way.
　Well thank you.

　Licking her ears in return, Tetra shuddered as she licked her ears.
　She ran her fingers down its white back and asked.

　''Should I still set up a crown prince knowing that the dark lord will be on the throne?
　'Hmm ... every system has its flaws. I think that's the next best thing. We need a system that allows the king to run the country in his own way, even if he's a dark lord.

　Well that's the best thing I can do.
　The bureaucracy I'm trying to recommend is the best I can think of for that....

　Non-corrupt bureaucrats are like unrotten cheese.

　Well, they say meat is better when it's a little rotten.
　We need to create a surveillance system for the bureaucracy.

　We'll figure that out eventually.
　We don't have enough bureaucrats to do anything about it.

　"What is Almus' policy on internal affairs?　You said you're going to diminish the power of the great family, but how exactly do you do that?
　Julia asked me to press her breasts against me.
　Julia's breasts press against my chest plate.

　''Well I want to be able to take a direct tax from all land. No exceptions from the private lands of powerful families. Now all that's left is to empower the commoners........
　"To the common man?

　Tetra gives him a dubious look.

　'Yes. 'As a counterweight to the big families. 'Well, it's a natural progression,' said Tetra. With the expansion of rotational agriculture and the money economy. And don't you think we'll have a strong influence from the Cilician people?
　''Well then you'll definitely be asking for suffrage in the future, won't you?''
　'Well...'

　As people get richer, they naturally turn to politics.
　But we can't prevent that from happening. If I were to unite Adelunia.

　Conscription of the common people will give them a voice in the affairs of the common people. Because the core of the army is the heavily armed infantry of the commoners.
　The more territory you have, the more home-grown farmers you have, and the more slaves you have, the cheaper they become, and the more commoners you can reach.

　If we try to prevent this from happening poorly, the frustration will be directed at us.
　Because if the monetary economy spreads, the democratic ideas of the Cilician people will spread along with it.

　If I try to modernize our country by deepening our relationship with the Cilician people, sooner or later democracy will infect the common people all over this country.

　So do I exclude the Cilician people?
　That would make the unification of the Adelian peninsula a long way off. No, it will be impossible.

　We have to accept it.
　In fact, we should be open to it and take advantage of it.


　But that, however, is still a long way off.
　There's no point in arguing about it now.

　It's no use arguing about it now, it's just a matter of sitting down and thinking about it then.
　I have no intention of stopping the monarchy at all.
　I want my children to inherit what I have built.

　In the first place, a democracy requires an educated population.
　This is not something we can talk about in Adelunia, where few people can write.

　The Cilician people have been able to achieve democracy in the first place because they are divided into city-states.
　The small size of a single administrative unit makes it possible to run a government in a democracy.
　The northern part of the Adelnian peninsula, north of the country of King Rosais, has been completely transformed into a territorial state.

　Or rather, even the Cilician people, who have built a much more advanced civilization than the Adelnians, have fallen into populist politics and outbreaks of pretenders.

　It's not a good fit for the administrative system of the unified Adelian peninsula I'm aiming for.

　After all, all the ancient democracies in history have collapsed and moved to monarchies.

　In short, the monarchy is the most suitable system for ancient and medieval times, when ideology and science and technology are underdeveloped and religion is strong.

　Nevertheless, someone somewhere is also saying something like, "Democracy sucks, but it's better than the political systems we've tried so far!

　And what will spread is what will spread.
　We'll have to come to terms with that.
　We need to keep that in the back of our minds.

　"You look like you're having a hard time. Ey!
　Julia splashes me with water and I huff.
　She seems to have gotten a little lost in thought.

　Oh, sorry, I'm sorry. .........I'm about to go up, let's go up.
　Hmm, let's do it.

　We got out of the hot springs.
　We'll come back next time.