Ch.134Shackles

Spring of the 36th year of Amurtat.

The citizens of Amurtat were filled with vigor as spring arrived.

Blooming spring flowers and vegetation began to fill the fields once again, and goods became plentiful as merchants set out on their journeys once more.

Spring was brief and would soon yield to summer’s momentum, but that made it all the more valuable as a season.

There weren’t many flowers that grew well in this cold northern region, but even those few were more than enough to melt the hearts of people frozen throughout the winter.

Thanks to the heavy snowfall during the cold winter, the thawed earth moistened its cheeks and allowed dewdrops to form on flower petals, which in turn gave the seawater desalination facility a long-awaited opportunity for maintenance.

As the cold retreated, young women’s skirts grew shorter and thinner, stirring the passions of young men, while babies born amidst the spring vegetation smiled brightly at the flowers that had pushed through the melting snow.

And soldiers, freed from snow removal duties, used the leave they had accumulated throughout winter to rush home like the spring breeze to reunite with their families.

The priests of the Order also gave thanks to the angels whose blessings had helped them endure the cold winter inside the cathedral, and offered prayers to the saints who brought the warmth of spring.

This was truly the season of rebirth.

A beautiful spring landscape.

However, just as every light casts a shadow, there were unfortunate souls who could not see these beautiful spring scenes and sentiments.

They were known as debtors.

*

Tick. Tock.

“Huk! Heuuuk..!”

The Lady Sovereign of Adrastea, Minerva, was having a fit at the sound of the clock hands turning.

The movement of clock hands meant time was passing, and the passage of time meant the deadline to repay debts was drawing near.

Strictly speaking, her small and precious nation was so poor that it could barely pay even the interest, and this quarter, they couldn’t even manage that.

Of course, there were still two months remaining, but time had no meaning if it couldn’t be converted into money.

This small nation, where even the sovereign couldn’t afford luxury, had accumulated too much debt, and the only way to settle it was to forfeit the collateral.

But that was impossible.

Adrastea, established later than Amurtat, was so weak that even merchants rarely visited, and the Amurtat-made steel sword in the spatial storage bore only the founder’s reputation with all sorts of flowery phrases inscribed just at the tip of the blade.

And in Adrastea’s spatial storage, that sword was the only item that could be called a “treasure.”

Many nations revere the first treasure they acquire.

Whether obtained from fighting monsters or received from people, it makes no difference.

Treasures embody history and represent a nation’s rise and fall as well as its external image.

And for this reason, Amurtat lent money using the steel swords possessed by all northern nations as collateral.

It could be seen as an intangible warning.

A warning that if the debt couldn’t be repaid, they would pay the price for their greed with a humiliation worse than death.

Many small nations received this warning and were uprooting the very foundations of their countries to secure the unmanageable interest.

They lacked experience…

Having never weathered such storms, they couldn’t build resistance.

They lacked talented people…

If they had capable advisors, they might have been able to maintain economic sovereignty even at the cost of letting their citizens be buried in cold.

It wasn’t their fault…

Small nations that were neither Fahrenheit nor Amurtat were not at fault.

They had neither the schemes to commit fraud, the opportunity to fall into corruption, the wealth to become depraved, nor the military power to run amok.

But this was their choice.

They had decided their own future and had to pay the price for their decisions.

“Hic… huuuk…”

Minerva wept endlessly alone in the shabby bedroom of her modest palace.

Unable to afford even servants, dust had accumulated thickly, shining like snow.

She cursed her own ignorance.

She lamented her own powerlessness.

If she could have foreseen the consequences of her momentary choice, if she had the strength to overcome the difficulties, perhaps she and her people would be smiling brightly now.

Grip…!

She clutched the lint-covered blanket fiercely.

Blood vessels had burst in Minerva’s eyes, with fresh blood seeping out, and a sweet scent emanated from her mouth.

And that meant she had not yet given up.

Adrastea was still alive.

Being alive meant there was still a chance, and Minerva would not miss that opportunity.

Shortly thereafter.

Rumors began to spread that one could receive the sovereign’s blood in Adrastea.

*

“Well… really…”

Honestly, I hadn’t expected this either.

The sovereign’s blood… in other words, selling immortality to mortals—I couldn’t help but pay my respects to such an ingenious idea.

In this world, sovereigns were living deities, so the idea of buying a sovereign’s immortality was often suppressed as blasphemous.

How should I explain this…?

If I had to make a comparison, it was about as shocking as Jesus opening a wine bar with unlimited refills because he could turn water into wine.

“It shows how desperate she is. Now that she has opened the floodgates, the commercialization of immortality will only accelerate.”

The advisor said this while massaging his left arm, which had received an injection of my blood this morning.

Although I now somewhat understood why selling blood was prohibited, I had no intention of selling my immortality.

Since even sovereigns need blood to live, drawing too much would be detrimental to health, and if I were to sell it, I wouldn’t be able to provide blood at the right time and place to people like my advisor.

“Is the interest that high? I didn’t think it would be impossible to repay.”

I shook my head and asked my advisor.

I had reduced the interest somewhat, so I couldn’t understand why they were struggling so much.

The advisor shook his head in response and said:

“I didn’t expect to compliment Your Majesty, but most sovereigns are not as capable as you.”

“Hmm…”

I was momentarily surprised by this unexpected praise, but thinking about it, the advisor was right.

The sovereigns of this world were those who had contracted with land cores, and the land cores didn’t care how capable or incapable their contractors were.

The land had no reason to follow the standards of the species living on it.

As a result, there were naturally many unqualified sovereigns, which was why this world had been stagnant for thousands of years.

“Your Majesty may be willful, but your abilities are unparalleled. Didn’t you transform a rural area into a metropolis in just one generation?”

“Right?”

“The fact that you can calmly acknowledge that is proof of your competence, Your Majesty.”

The advisor said this as he refilled the ink bottle.

It seemed I would have to put Michaela to bed alone tonight.

*

“I will forfeit the collateral.”

“Understood. We will begin the collateral recovery process.”

At the end of spring.

When the gradually lengthening days began to push back the night.

Another nation forfeited its collateral and had its debt settled.

Identia’s advisor had already prepared the steel sword and watched with vacant eyes as it was handed over to Amurtat’s debt manager.

The inscribed longsword would soon return to where it was made, rendering the words engraved on it meaningless.

It was a fitting end for a bankrupt nation that couldn’t even fulfill the words inscribed on a mere sword.

“All debt relations have now been settled. Farewell.”

“Goodbye.”

With this, the shackles of Identia’s debt were removed, but that did not mean freedom or liberation.

The shackles of bad credit filled that empty space.

Giving up can always be an option, but it does not mean exemption from responsibility.

Every choice has consequences, and if one can no longer pay the price, destruction is the only remaining option.

Regardless of their wishes.

Eventually, the debt managers reported Identia’s demise to Amurtat’s central bank.

“Identia. Debt settlement through collateral recovery.”

“Identia. National credit rating change. From C grade to F grade.”

Identia’s credit rating, which could hardly be called high to begin with, instantly plummeted to garbage status.

A home to tens of thousands of people was judged by just three letters, and this decision would not be reversed.

Now, it would take a very long time before the name Identia would be seen again at Amurtat’s central bank.