Connections

Permission to enter was granted, so we went inside.

I'd visited Queen Tianis's room a few times before, but coming this late at night was unusual.

It was probably a good thing Kanon was with us.

If Azu and I had come alone, it would've been a headache if strange rumors started circulating.

With Kanon, the loyal retainer, at our side, that wasn't a concern.

As the door closed behind us, a faintly sweet fragrance reached my nose.

She seemed to be burning aromatics.

When I looked at the product, she was using the aroma set we sold, which made me a little happy.

Queen Tianis was sitting on her bed, running a comb through her hair.

She was in pajamas, which was both refreshing and somehow embarrassing.

Probably because it was an outfit I wasn't used to seeing.

Kanon stepped forward.

Queen Tianis continued combing her hair while listening.

"Your Majesty, I apologize for the late hour."

"It's fine. That's part of my role. In times of need, a monarch can't afford the luxury of sleep."

"I can only imagine the burden you carry."

"So, what brings you here?"

"Regarding the census revision, based on an idea from Yohane, we've prepared a proposal. By using a tax reduction as the reason, we would gather everyone who holds citizenship or wishes to acquire it at a designated location. They would pay the reduced citizen tax, and during that process, record their current address and name in the registry to bring it up to date. This falls outside our authority to implement, so we've brought it directly to Your Majesty."

She handed the summarized proposal to Queen Tianis.

The queen set down her comb, accepted it with both hands, and immediately began reading.

"Hmm. So rather than fussing with the current registry, the idea is to just build a new master copy from scratch. That does seem simpler…"

"There's no point referencing documents that have been tampered with."

"True. The Secretary of Military Affairs really left behind nothing but headaches. Can't we just gather people without the tax reduction? Collection is already a given."

"The wealthy would come, certainly. They'd want to maintain their citizenship. But whether people who are currently struggling would part with what little money they have to come pay is another question. Losing citizenship doesn't mean being expelled from the Royal Capital, after all."

"They'd prioritize today's meal over the right to vote for a representative. You have to survive before anything else matters."

"Exactly. I believe there's a substantial number of people in a bracket where a tax reduction would make the difference between being able to pay and not."

This was the Royal Capital's middle class, I figured.

Married couples raising children, working hard to support the capital.

Given time, their incomes would stabilize, but right now many were strapped due to costs for repairing homes and shops.

"I thought the relief measures I'd put out would have been enough, but they're still not?"

"Your Majesty's aid saved a great many people. But relief like that is only meant to get people through the immediate crisis. Until the Royal Capital fully recovers and the economy returns to normal, this problem will persist. Money alone doesn't solve it."

Conversely, once the capital was fully restored, the problem would resolve itself.

The Royal Capital was the second-largest economic zone in the Deianclure Kingdom and had the highest population.

As long as nothing threatened the city's infrastructure, like the meteorite incident, there was no shortage of work.

"I see. So this is like the final push toward recovery. I'd thought the concert marked the end of reconstruction, but…"

"This would mean the recovery is complete in economic terms as well. You're almost there."

"Good. Then what I've been doing wasn't wrong after all."

Queen Tianis let out a breath as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

This restoration of the Royal Capital must have been her first and greatest undertaking.

And she'd brought it within a single step of completion.

She surely had a lot of feelings about that.

"I understand the need for the tax reduction. But I am uneasy about granting citizenship to anyone who pays the standard rate this time around."

"The master copy is useless, so we might as well. Other nations are already running operations against us anyway. Working from that assumption, let's at least have the willing ones pay up."

"Easy for you to say… Well, I suppose all we need to do is scrutinize the proposals that come through the Citizens' Assembly. Any representative pushing suspicious agendas can simply be monitored."

"Exactly."

It would actually make surveillance easier, if anything.

"So all that's left is for me to submit this to the House of Lords and get it passed. That's my job, correct?"

"Yes. Being able to hand it directly to Your Majesty without all the usual red tape is a real help."

"Honestly, you… If the wrong person heard that, they'd faint."

"Consider it one of the few perks of being worked to the bone on a daily basis."

"Ugh, I do feel bad about that… It's just that commoners I can casually ask things of are hard to come by."

Through normal channels, just submitting this idea alone would have probably taken months.

Instead, we'd put the plan together in a single day and delivered it straight into Queen Tianis's hands.

It really drove home how much power came down to having the right connections.

"Even though the royalist faction now holds the majority, the Finance Minister's faction still maintains its influence. I don't expect them to agree to this easily."

"Please push it through no matter what. We considered other approaches, but they all require more effort and money. In terms of cost, effectiveness, and certainty, this is the best option."

"… Understood. I'll do it. If Anatia-neesan were here, it would pass without a doubt, but I think I can manage on my own."

"Please do. The House of Lords is beyond anything I can influence."

"You could become a noble and join, you know?"

"That's exactly why I don't want to become one."

"Stingy. You should cultivate some loyalty like Kanon."

"I think she's a special case…"

Speaking of which, Kanon hadn't chimed in at all during this conversation.

When I checked on her, she'd passed out standing up.

Apparently she'd finally hit her absolute limit.

Azu, stop poking her out of curiosity.

"No one else serves you as faithfully as she does."

"I won't deny that. I'll let Kanon sleep here, so you can go. Is there anything else?"

"No, that's all."

Queen Tianis laid Kanon on the sofa and placed Kanon's head on her lap.

A lap pillow.

That was probably a privilege no one but Kanon would ever experience.

"Yohane, would you like to rest your head on my lap too?"

"I'll pass. Who knows what you'd demand in return."

"So calculating. And here I was just being kind."

We left the room.

The rest was up to Queen Tianis and the House of Lords. There was nothing more we could do.

"Master."

"What?"

"If you ever want a lap pillow, just say the word."

"… I'll do that."