The Reality Of The Rubid Kingdom

The Rubid Kingdom could be called a new country with a population of about 4.3 million. It was now in its seventh year since gaining independence from the Polia Kingdom, and at present, it was receiving recognition of independence from many countries.

In truth, only the Polia Kingdom and the Noma Empire had shown signs of guaranteeing its independence, but this time, by sending troops to the operation to subjugate the colonial rebels and suffering many sacrifices, it had finally become properly recognized and could be called a country acknowledged by the world.

Of course, since a country with a population of several million had sent tens of thousands of troops and suffered many sacrifices, its circumstances were not good. By losing them, it had lost a great amount of human resources. Of course, since the vast majority of those victims were the natives who had originally lived there, from the perspective of the kingdom’s leadership, it was not a fatal loss.

The Rubid Kingdom had a structure in which a minority of several hundred thousand Polians who had broken away and become independent ruled over several million natives. As such, the sacrificial lambs inevitably had to be those of native origin, and perhaps because of those circumstances, dissatisfaction could be said to be erupting here and there recently.

As King Rubid felt this situation, he thought that he needed to calm it down.

‘What should I do? Their dissatisfaction is quite great.’

It was not a situation where he could only forcefully suppress them with strength. Though he had an arrogant nature, he was also a cold analyst, so he thought that he needed to find another way to resolve the current situation. Inwardly, he thought that after finally becoming independent and even becoming the king of a country, he could not collapse easily like this.

“Your Majesty, people of native origin have gathered in the square right now and are singing and dancing, saying that the souls of the victims must be comforted.”

“…It must be a silent indication that they want compensation money from us immediately.”

When the Polia Kingdom army suppressed the colonial rebels, it could be said that tens of thousands of victims had emerged under its command. This was not only the Rubid Kingdom, but also the Vincent Kingdom, and one could say that at least more than 50,000 had died.

Amid those many sacrifices, what returned to their families was effectively nothing. Only words of comfort saying that they had served the nation were delivered. Was it because of that? Quite a few people had gathered around the families of those victims, and they were holding silent protests in the square day after day.

They were singing and dancing in their own way and comforting the dead, and as such, he could not help but feel quite annoyed. It was also a problem to forcibly disperse them as they were, and if they were left as they were, more people would join in, and the entire kingdom could be shaken.

‘In the worst case, forced dispersal is inevitably the answer, but the problem is afterward. Seeds of rebellion will spread throughout the entire country. Hmm, is there no other matter that can turn their attention?’

At a time like this, something was needed to divert their attention. However, there was no way such a thing existed. War? What war could a mere new country wage? Even if there were a target, at most, the target country could only be the Vincent Kingdom established by his elder brother Vincent, who had become independent like him.

Of course, if he did such a thing, he would have no choice but to receive strong sanctions from the Polia Kingdom. Perhaps within half a year, a landing force might land and seize this country’s territory again. Thinking of that fact, he asked the people sitting across from him for understanding, rose from his seat, and turned his gaze toward the window.

In his view, he could see a broad garden. It was a garden with a scale that seemed to have been properly arranged in its own way. The problem was that the height from which he looked down like this was not very high. Only the third floor, the current location of the king’s office of a nation.

‘I miss the royal palace of the Polia Kingdom. The view was wide open compared to now.’

If he thought of the scale of the royal palace that had once been high enough that one had to look down from a dizzying height, this place was truly a scale that was embarrassing even to call a royal palace. In truth, even now, as it neared its seventh year, they had still not completed a proper royal palace.

‘When will I obtain a proper royal castle?’

When he thought of the situation of the royal palace, which was filled with piled-up problems, he always felt that there was no answer. The population was one thing, but there was no money at all to become a proper foundation for growth. A king this financially pressed—if there was such a thing as the poorest king in the world, he wondered if it was not himself.

‘There really is nothing that can make money.’

Since the land was vast, some resources did come out to a certain extent. Since long ago, it had been a land where resources were swept up and sent to the mainland, so there were some places where money could come in. However, it was not enough money coming in to develop greatly.

‘If only it were not for those damned independence conditions…’

The prices of raw materials continued to rise every year. What mattered was that they were continuing to provide those raw materials to the Polia Kingdom at prices frozen for seven years. In truth, he was continuing to shoulder the burden, while the increasing profits continued to be sent to the Polia Kingdom.

‘Only fourteen more years. After that, we will be able to prepare the foundation for this country to grow.’

While he was worrying and thinking that he should endure while thinking of that time, knock knock knock. A rapid knocking sounded from the door of the office. Then it immediately opened. At this rude sight, the people in the office each spoke as if asking what sort of rude behavior this was.

“How can you open the door without permission!”

“Who said you could barge in like this!”

“Whose man are you to be so lacking in manners?!”

“M-my apologies. It was such an urgent matter…”

When the person who entered hurriedly bowed even at the waist and delivered words of apology, King Rubid, seeing that, raised his hand as if to say it was fine and spoke.

“What urgent matter is it?”

“It is news that has just come from Hilo Province, and they say an oil deposit has been discovered.”

“What? Is what you just said true? You are certain an oil deposit was discovered?”

“Yes, they clearly said so. They said an oil deposit was definitely discovered.”

“Heavens, oil!”

“Ooh! If we can develop the oil, will money not come pouring in?!”

“We are saved!”

Oil was an important energy resource forming the current world. Coal had already become a setting sun, and its usage was sharply decreasing, while oil was currently a resource whose usage was explosively increasing. It was being used in that many places. Everyone rejoiced at the discovery of such a resource, but King Rubid could not simply be pleased.

‘This is not good.’

Oil, of all other resources—he began to worry whether they could properly protect this. As far as he knew, the only country in the world, excluding the empires, that could properly develop and own oil deposits was the Polia Kingdom where he had grown up.

He also knew that they had formally joined the oil-producing nations union this time. In any case, he knew that other kingdoms had all their discovered oil deposits taken by the empires. They truly used all sorts of methods to take them, and he thought that they would end up no different.

Someone who noticed King Rubid’s expression carefully asked what was wrong.

“Your Majesty? What is the matter? Is discovering oil not a good thing?”

“…I do not think it can be considered good.”

“No, what do you mean? It is not good?”

“Do you think we can protect this resource?”

At King Rubid’s words, the office had no choice but to freeze for an instant. Only then did they begin to realize reality. They came to understand that there was nothing good just because an oil deposit had been discovered. And then, they soon realized one fact.

“Ah, even if we can extract oil resources, will we not end up having no choice but to hand them over to the Polia Kingdom at the frozen price?”

“This time as well, it will become something that only fattens the Polia Kingdom’s belly…”

Everyone could not help but feel gloomy at the fact that the same situation would continue. There was no need to worry about the other empires. For now, if they cooperated with the Polia Kingdom, there would be no chance of having the deposit taken away. The problem was still that they would have to send that resource to the Polia Kingdom.

It seemed they could not abandon greed after all. Originally, everything would have been taken away, but if they cooperated with the Polia Kingdom, they could obtain a certain degree of profit, and yet they were acting like this because that felt regrettable. At that moment, someone seemed to notice a loophole in this problem and immediately explained.

“Wait a moment. Since oil resources were resources that did not exist before, they are not under the frozen prices from seven years ago, are they?”

“Ooh, that is right. Since oil resources are not covered by the treaty we made, do we not have to hand them over at the prices from back then? In other words, we can set them at the current price.”

“Then what about hiding the existence of the oil deposit as much as possible? The later it is mined, the more profitable it will be for us, will it not?”

“That seems impossible. Who do you think discovered the oil? Did not the exploration team from the Polia Kingdom’s Smith Petroleum Company already say before that they were carrying out drilling operations on our kingdom’s land?”

“Hmm, it must already have been reported. Still, if we create more excuses and delay the development, would greater profit not come back to us?”

While various words were being heard, King Rubid thought of his younger brother Ian. Would that fellow really try to accept such a loophole? Even making them delay development? That fellow would probably force them to develop it even by compulsion.

‘He will try to extract all the oil resources in the deposit within ten years.’

He would carry out development indiscriminately. Since it had even been discovered once, there might be another oil field nearby, so he would quickly find that as well and proceed with development. Thinking of the resources that would drain away like that, it would truly make his stomach hurt.

‘We can also obtain profit, but what we should gain will become far too small…’

Still, the benefit was that if this fact was announced, the wavering public sentiment would quickly settle down. The actual profit they could gain was small, but everyone would come to expect that perhaps if there was something called oil, they might be able to live well.

In any case, what mattered was that a resource called oil had been discovered in the Rubid Kingdom. And this fact was quickly conveyed to Ian in the Polia Kingdom as well.

“Just during the day, the oil-producing nations union meeting was held, and now, in the evening, we have received news that an oil deposit has been discovered.”

Ian thought that the timing of the oil discovery news sent by the exploration team belonging to Smith Petroleum Company fit truly perfectly. Since he had already been concerned about continuing to consume the oil coming from their own land, they had become able to bring in oil from a good location under good conditions.

At the moment he thought this, Viscount Rubingston spoke with a stiff expression, as if there was a problem.

“However, there is a problem.”

“A problem?”

“Among the treaties, we can bring resources at frozen prices, but the problem is that at the time, there happened to be no oil resource.”

“It seems there are many loopholes. Whatever the case, it means we can obtain it at a price frozen at the current market price?”

“It seems it cannot be helped but end up that way.”

“Then we will have to hurry and proceed with development of the oil field.”

“Yes, only if we hurry and build production facilities will the profit we can obtain be large.”

“We will need to proceed rather quickly.”

“I judge that they will probably try to create all sorts of excuses and delay the development timing.”

“They would. The later it is, the smaller the amount of oil resources we take from them will become.”

He thought they would do something quite amusing. Of course, even if they did such a thing, the amount of time they could delay would not be that much. The clear fact was that the infrastructure construction to extract the oil would definitely proceed, and its scale had to be extremely large.

‘If we are to extract it all at once, we will have to build more than a hundred drilling devices at once.’

It was something that would break a lot of money, but at the same time, it was also something through which money would come in at the same time, so it was something that absolutely had to be carried out. More than that, amid this fact, he became curious about the reactions of the other empires.

“Perhaps by tomorrow, the news that an oil deposit was discovered will spread?”

“Yes, by tomorrow, it will spread.”

Since they frequently monitored the situation of the Polia Kingdom, they had no choice but to hear the news. The reaction they would show would generally be regret. Since it had been discovered in the Rubid Kingdom, which had become independent after breaking away, and not in any other country, it was deeply connected to the Polia Kingdom, so there was not much they could gain.

“But they will still try to obtain even a little profit.”

“They will try to tear it from the Rubid Kingdom.”

“That, well, is not our business.”

The Rubid Kingdom’s profits decreasing was a matter they would have to handle on their own. It was cold, but this was the cold-heartedness of international affairs. The king was his blood-related brother, and the land was a former colony that had become independent, but it had to be treated entirely separately.

“As long as they do not infringe upon our profits, does it not matter?”

“You are absolutely correct.”

At the sight of Viscount Rubingston agreeing, Ian thought that he was truly lucky that oil resources to consume had appeared unexpectedly. At the same time, inwardly, he thought that perhaps it was fortunate that it had been discovered now.

‘If later on, the country I granted independence to lived well off oil, everyone would have no choice but to feel bitter, would they not?’

If that happened, all the criticism would clearly be directed toward the royal family, and that would have become something his children and descendants had to bear. Since such a fact had not come, he thought it was truly fortunate.

“Ah, come to think of it, I heard more mermaids were discovered in our waters?”

“Yes, recently, it is said that incidents of mermaids attacking passing cargo ships have happened frequently.”

“What about damage?”

“They say the cargo ships were so large and loud that there was no problem at all regarding the sound-wave attacks.”

“Still, if such attacks keep happening, will the moment not come when a problem arises?”

“Therefore, I am thinking about whether we should carry out a mermaid subjugation.”

“A mermaid subjugation. Would there be no sense of rejection?”

“Since their upper bodies look like human females, there does seem to be such a tendency.”

“To be honest, I also felt that way. But we cannot leave them alone either, so what should we do about this?”

Leaving alone mermaids that were clearly hostile to people was also not a desirable thing. In such a situation, he also felt that eliminating them was somewhat difficult. Still, he could not help but wish that they possessed enough intelligence that at least words could pass between them.