Book 15: Chapter 49
On a personal level, Freya didn’t consider the unification of the continent a good thing. Freya had a lot of work. There were things that needed to be finalised after the formation of the alliance, from census registration investigations, communications, creation of a new currency, information pertaining to the military and even worrying if humanity and elves would take any harmful action. She was virtually at the point where she needed to find talent to help out. She’d meet with one person and then another immediately after. However, Freya remained strong. Aware she once erred, yet her brother never punished her, she was very eager to make up for her mistake with merit in order to appease her guilt.
Of course, the alliance greatly influenced the North. The North had just been united not too long ago. Even humanity considered it to be a very short amount of time, let alone the new North that had melted the ice. The North hadn’t even had many harvests by this point, yet the North was facing a second change. The denizens weren’t politicians who looked decades or centuries into the future. They only looked at today. Right away. They wanted to have a better life immediately. They wanted a stable life, so a second change in the North was bound to leave them unhappy.
Freya had lost the trust of some of the people, which was her fault. The people had a limited amount of trust. Freely using their trust without placing any limits on its usage is digging your own grave. Being a noble, Freya considered those lower on the hierarchy to be livestock to feed herself, but if those animals were mad, they could take down the barricade. That was why Freya paid close attention to the reactions of said livestock to check if they were angry. However, it seemed she needed to work harder to gain their acceptance.
Freya had to demonstrate the gains to be made from the alliance even if they were compensated with money. Speaking about militaries, exchange rates and so forth to livestock was a pointless endeavour. What was important to them was whether or not they could immediately get their hands on money. If they found they had a few more gold coins after the alliance, they would cheer and support the decision. If the status quo of the North was what it formerly was, she would’ve persuaded her brother to give up on an alliance, since the financially poor North lacked the funds to keep itself together. Fortunately, Dragon Mom brought so much wealth that Freya herself was absolutely stunned. There was enough to maintain an operational North for decades with that amount; hence, Freya decided to proceed with the alliance.
Freya watched the boiling pool in front of her. The pool was golden. The dragon race’s gold coins couldn’t be used, but if they melted it, it could be remoulded into coins. Her brother decided on the new coins’ design. On the back of coins was a six-cornered star-shaped sun. The sun was the fairest thing. You can enjoy the warmth it offers from anywhere. The skies may be dark, and it may rain, but if you waited, the sun would eventually shine.
The dragon race’s metallurgical industry did very well. The gold was pure enough to forego purification. Freya looked at the flowing gold. She sighed to herself. The commoners of the North rarely had the chance to see gold coins, while there was so much in front of her that the smell of it made her feel sick. There so much gold produced in the North daily that it would require hundreds of horses to deliver. There was enough to buy an entire continent.
Moreover, those were the assets in just one dragon’s cave. The dragon race was originally a massive race. That was the asset of just one dragon. Back when the dragon race was most prosperous, how much wealth did they amass? Humans killed each other for a minute amount of wealth. I bet the dragons could never imagine anyone killing another for that drop in a bucket. Given that one dragon possessed a mind-boggling amount of wealth, if there were more dragons, say another one or two, how wealthy would we be? It was no wonder every warrior’s dream was to slay a dragon. Slay a dragon, and not only would you possess a body impervious to blades, but also enjoy astounding wealth.
Freya didn’t care for the history of dragons or what they were like. All she cared about was their amassed wealth when they were still alive.
“Where are their assets left when they die? Do they leave it at the desert Brother went to? If that’s where they leave it, I want to send a team of adventurers there to see if we can bring back more gold,” contemplated Freya.