National Defense Council (1)
“Correct. So, to open a successful sweets shop in the Royal Capital, the fastest way to success is to gain approval from you. Of course, I understand that your screening process is strict. If you have any advice, I would appreciate it.”
For now, I ate the cake and sweet potato, then gave my feedback. The cake was delicious enough for me to stamp my approval on the spot. However, there was room for improvement in the sweet potato, so when I mentioned that, the old men started earnestly taking notes. The person who brought the cake was doing a little dance on the side.
Anyway, the first half was quite chaotic.
“You guys are getting too close to my daughter!! We came for a meeting, so get on with it! Also, Alice, your seat is over here.”
“Your Majesty!! Please, you should leave your daughter be a bit!!”
I have a seat, but I was placed on my Father’s lap. Some of the surrounding nobles got angry. It definitely wasn’t about the dignity of the meeting. It feels more like personal emotions were involved…
“Don’t envy me just because you guys don’t have daughters of your own. You’re just jealous. If you had such a cute daughter, you wouldn’t want to marry her off, either.”
“Gngngnhh.”
“True, I only have sons… ughh.”
“Ri-right. Since the Princess has a seat of her own, she should go sit over there.”
“Absolutely not.”
The nobles pointed to a chair with long legs meant for children. I would rather sit on my Father’s lap than being blatantly treated like a child… wait, they are both the same!!
Gnnh. A regular chair would be too low for me… Let’s just go with the flow. I don’t know anything.
Afterward, despite the people demanding that I be put down, my Father stuck out his tongue and refused. As a result of the quarrel, I somehow ended up sitting next to my Big brother. Naturally, at the central round table.
Why did it end up like that? I don’t know. Father and the daughter-less nobles were in an ugly dispute, then started whispering something to each other. After that, I, who was ignoring the people making a fuss, somehow ended up sitting next to my Big brother.
Since the majority of the nobles already agreed, Father couldn’t refuse. If I just sit next to him, there’s no problem… The only issue is that it’s not good for newcomers to sit in the center.
I did get a regular chair. The table was a bit high, though.
“I should be at the outermost round table. Cheating is not good.”
“What are you saying?! You have accomplished the great feat of reviving ancient technology. No one will complain if you sit in the center. Right?!”
“Y-yeah. Indeed, there’s no problem at all. As His Highness said, you have achieved such a great feat that it’s no problem for you to sit in the center.”
A noble voiced his support in retort to my confusion. I saw him glancing at my Big brother with a face that was about to cry, but he smiled coolly back at him. What on earth did he do?!
Since they are here, the people here must be quite influential, but it seems that Big brother already has some leverage against the majority of the nobles here. If they are nobles, they must all carry something questionable, and they were probably blackmailed. Pitiful.
“Damn, that Gill fella went and did it.”
“Well, I don’t really mind either way. If we can conduct the meeting seriously, there’s no problem with Princess being in the center. The only issue is when she’s on His Majesty’s lap, and he can’t focus on the meeting.”
Here, even the nobles who were in conflict with my Father sided with my Big brother, so my Father’s opinion was rejected. Indeed, he doesn’t work well when I’m on his lap.
Now, it seems we can proceed with the meeting. According to Big brother, everyone present here was among the top eccentrics in the eccentric country, so the meeting doesn’t progress normally very often.
However, once it starts, they have a serious discussion all the way. In other words, it seems like the period before it starts is considered an OFF. Can’t we switch to ON mode when we enter the meeting room, please?
“Now, the reason for this emergency assembly is that my daughter not only revived ancient technology, but also unexpectedly improved it to construct a totally new airship. How do we plan to use it in the future?”
Father brought it up first. It seems to be quite a significant issue.
“First of all, we didn’t know that Princess was building airships, so we can’t say much. And we still don’t even know where the dock is.”
“I made it because I was asked to. But the original airships are quite shabby, so I made one that is larger and more stable. I have the documents here.”
Since we can’t do anything in the meeting without knowing anything, I submitted the basic specifications and the main operational methods of the new airship.
“Hmm, a cargo type… It would indeed be more efficient to separate them into types if we can freely create airships in the future.”
“Indeed. However, isn’t this new model a bit too expensive? Can we reduce the cost a bit more… the alcohol expenses, for example…”
“Why are alcohol expenses included in the construction cost in the first place?”
“If we don’t let the engineers drink, efficiency drops. If it’s okay to lower productivity and incur resentment, we can refrain from letting them drink, but… make sure to take responsibility, okay?”
In this world, Dwarves’ abilities drop by about 40% without alcohol. This is common knowledge academically verified through a long history and numerous scholars. Many people might not know about it, though.
If you ignore that fact, the engineers would likely get angry. They are a race that operates on alcohol more than money.
Well, the abnormal construction speed this time is thanks to the power of new kind of alcohol, so we probably won’t be able to achieve such abnormal speed in the future.
Anyway, although there were thoughts about alcohol expenses, the conclusion was not to pursue it. I can’t drink alcohol, you know? I wouldn’t engage in fraudulent claims in a place like this, and even if I did, my Big brother or Mr. Volken would probably see through the lie from subtle behavior.
“The problem is the construction cost… Volken, how many can we make with the surplus from the national budget?”
Father asked Volken, who was also sitting at the central round table.
“I don’t think there’s much surplus for it. However, bringing money from elsewhere would also be a problem. The budget issue is indeed significant. Arland cannot afford to pay such construction costs repeatedly, even with the need to limit the burden on the citizens.”
Volken frowned while looking at documents. It seems he was dealing with budget issues.
I also tried to investigate as much as possible. Currently, the major project in progress is the accumulation of the budget for the renovation of the border fortresses. Naturally, there are reserves, so we can manage this time, but it’s not something we can do repeatedly.
In addition to that, there are numerous issues such as protecting orphans created during the Empire’s wars, handling refugees from outside the country, and the ever-growing issue of slums. The fact that the slum issue is somewhat postponed concerns me, but without a budget, there’s nothing we can do. In this world, there are no banks or government bonds. While it’s not impossible to create them, it’s still too early. Moreover, relying too much on them poses a risk of the nation collapsing. We cannot afford to run a national budget deficit.
“In the long term, our debt will multiply, but reducing the national budget in the short term is still a problem.”
“However, not being able to utilize the technology we’ve just acquired… that’s right!! Princess, do you have any ideas?”
“Yes, we should consider new opinions here.”
For some reason, the atmosphere made it seem like if they rely on me, some opinion will come up.
“I have one, but…”
“You have one!?”
“Export that.”
I pointed to the airship floating outside the window. The newly constructed airships are currently being used by the air force to take citizens on sightseeing flights around the Capital.
“… In our country, the sale of large airships is prohibited by law. Princess, you should be aware of that…”
“Indeed. Airships are military assets. Sending them to other countries…”
“More than that, the parliament would not approve.”
Well, the parliament, which currently harbors Empire sympathizers, would certainly be an obstacle. But, you know, the Japan of my previous life was a country where people loved to bend and twist laws through interpretation. So, even without changing the law, you can do anything.
“What’s flying there now is no longer a large model, right? After all, it’s smaller than the new model. Medium-sized airships should be allowed for sale to nobles and other countries.”
Everyone in the meeting fell silent. Yes, the other reason I simultaneously introduced the new model as a comparison――is that Arland can gain immense profits by exporting airships.
“The new model surpasses the old model in almost every aspect. Even if other countries use the old models bought from Arland, they can’t pose a threat to Arland. The parliament can’t interfere as long as we don’t break the law. After all, the airships we considered large-sized until now, have now become medium-sized.”