Albion Rules the Wind 6 - or 'No, this is not a copycat of Noblesse Oblige' (Zero no Tsukaima, Wales' Twin!SI)

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The matters between Albion and Tristain forced a bit of a 'cold tension' between the two countries.

It goes without a saying that the foreign affairs saw us very isolated but... this was good. External competition meant an influence that could have tipped politics at a time where a reformation was needed.

Speaking of the reformation which was undergoing even before my personal rescue of a certain pinkette, I have to say that things were going smoothly.

Sure, I was pretty much dethroning a few nobles of their political might, but considering how intense these bickerings have been, and how their land had suffered a lot through those last few years, it was fair to say that the 'Meiji Option' had won over a large amount of support.

The creation of 'governorships' over the major territories and giving the current holders the current tenure with the promise of large pensions meant that the passage of powers from a noble-controlled authority to a meritocratic one was going to be smooth, slow, but overall stable.

Laws in parliaments were passed to increase the popular understanding of elections, of the voting power, and the establishment of the first political parties rather than create 'private clubs' for the nobility to exploit in the shadows.

The principal parties were the 'Noble Party' representing the conservative side of politics and the 'Popular Party' which stood to reform the current order.

The first elections were bound to happen within the next two years, but we had a census within the current organization on how the seats were distributed.

SEATS - PARTIES

Popular Party - 106
Noble Party - 94

The Popular Party, representing the Reformists, had a majority but it was fair to say that theirs was very limited.

Factions were already forming between moderates and radicals, so far-reaching legislations were not going to ever have a chance to survive the current parliament but these two years were going to forge more parties and a greater identity to the first two.

That being said, a reform of the taxation system into a more simplified system that allowed greater buying powers among all and incentives to expand the agriculture was fully supported.

A reform to the army was also passed in regard to a small force of quality capacity with the means to raise a conscripted force in case of crisis.

All in all, the first big steps had been taken, but where I had a widespread support over these politics, I started to get some flak in regard to my interest to 1) remove the harsh legislation against elves, mostly because I wanted my cousin, Tiffania to claim back her noble title as part of the royal family and 2) my interest to extend asylum rights to Louise.

The opposition was loud, but negligible right now as the first matter was easily handled by having Tiffania, who was easily rattled in being 'found' (same for her current caretaker), in signing a document that had her surrender any claim to land and royal ambitions.

Her title was effectively hollowed out for the sake of preserving some balance and it was just a fancy role that had limited power.

Same went with the restored Duchess of Saxe-Gotha. Matilda was more than happy to not tackle politics if it meant her and Tiffania were excluded from plots, but she was nonetheless miffed that it all came down to them getting in the spotlight.

They had rooms in the royal palace and they had their spaces nonetheless.

Louise's situation was... more complex. Less so about her political weight, but the effect she had on the politics we had to Tristain in the next few years. She wasn't a criminal but she was deemed a sore subject already by some of the diplomats we talked with.

And it was something that left the girl upset.

Gave her time to grow accustomed to her new 'home', even gave her books and a large purse of money she can use to buy things to 'distract herself'. It wasn't a substitute to visiting her, since I did that frequently, but I had no way to personally pull her out of her funk.

I was keeping tracks of her family's situation and I knew they were handling things well despite being ostracized and losing some favor with the monarchy. It doesn't help Henrietta's case that her mother was quite frustrated with her anger towards me to the point of destabilizing politics.

I couldn't get much about Wales, but I knew he wasn't actively assembling 'revolutionaries', so I was glad of this little relief. He was doing political 'exile' shit, but I was not going to send assassins over unless he tried to shake the boat.

The last thing I needed was issues from Tristain and Wales. After all, I was already dabbling with the Intelligence Service (something basic) to keep Gallia from infiltrating the isles.

Tough work, but their spies weren't exactly subtle in the eyes of experienced fellows.

The reformation itself saw the growth of major cities and littler settlements through the next few months, with Albion's isolation favoring it despite some of the population's needs being 'changed' by introducing alternatives to products we couldn't buy around.

Autarky was never a good thing to allow without the means to truly achieve self-sufficiency, but it wasn't like we had much of a choice in the matter.

Grain became more prevalent as an expansion of production implied a lowering of prices. The 'discovery' of means to preserve food for longer allowed for prizes to not float too harshly between ups and downs but we had some 'close encounters' with a financial crisis.

Bread. The source of joy and pain.

At the very least the price was fair.

We had applied a few incentives on new buildings, and the careful introduction of more green houses meant that nature wasn't being disturbed much at this pace.

The issue was more on the long-term as Isolation was not meant to last.

Technological advances made cannons better and I expected this to represent more innovation to weaponry by the first elections of the country but...

Only time will tell if we will be ready for the damning years following our return to the world stage.

AN

Little return. And the next time, after a much needed timeskip,... Albion will screw a few people up. AKA, the Russo-Germanic dudes that are much talked about and hardly do much in the story.