San Jeluk’s Tear, the private island belonging to Sol that now floated in the stratosphere, had once been one of the numerous islands that made up the Fol Mentera Archipelago in the Santeshesel Sea until they were restored along with the Floating Continent. All of the islands of the archipelago, including this one, had once floated in the sky. But when half the outer mana in the atmosphere disappeared, they had crashed into the Santeshesel Sea, gradually taking on the appearance of normal islands over the thousand years since.
San Jeluk, a tourist city that was a member of the Poseinia Eastern Seaboard Federation, had claimed ownership over them by merit of them being within its territorial waters. Before they returned to the sky, however, San Jeluk had ceded full rights to the entire archipelago to Sol.
The floating islands were all under the control of the Floating Continent, as they were really just broken-off fragments. It was a little hard for present-day humans to believe, but the entire continent, islands and all, was one massive magic tool in the guise of a landmass that had been given to the devinians long ago.
The devinians still living were officially under Libertadores command due to their leader, Demon Lord Alshunna, being in service to Sol. In other words, the former residents of the Floating Continent answered to him, and he therefore had full access to the system that controlled it and the knowledge of how to run it. Without them, humans of this age hadn’t the faintest idea how to start up the floating islands, much less manipulate them.
Even so, if San Jeluk had been persistent, it might have been able to eke out some compensation for them. Thankfully, the leadership of the city had seen the folly in doing so and opted to hand them over to Sol with no strings attached. It wasn’t like they had any way to make use of them when they were in the sky, so the city quickly reached the conclusion that asking for money, rights, or status in exchange for them—in effect, selling them—would only hurt them in the long run. The leaders didn’t dare hope they could earn Sol’s trust with this gesture, but they thought it would at least count as a small favor and maybe, just maybe, make an impression on him. They figured that this would lead to the most benefits in the future.
Now, all the nations on the continent could see for themselves what a brilliant call it had been. As a general rule, Sol gave one floating island to each country. There were a few exceptions where entities that were not proper countries received one too, such as Crystania and the other burgeoning city-states in the west, the Adventurer’s Guild, the Holy Church, and, yes, San Jeluk, a mere tourist city.
Despite being a city under the banner of Poseinia, San Jeluk had a floating island of its own, making it the equal of the entire federation in that respect. Even if there was no way to fully comprehend the why of this decision, its intention was not to be ignored.
The Poseinia Eastern Seaboard Federation used to be ruled by the heads of Poseinia’s five largest city-states. Now San Jeluk had a seat too, making it six in total. In fact, San Jeluk held more influence than all the others combined, which made it practically the permanent leader of the committee. That did not mean it had a direct relationship with Sol, but it did have an open line to King Franz of Emelia, the host country of the Panhuman League, which guaranteed it respect from all other countries. By giving up the right to lumps of rock it had no use for, San Jeluk had obtained enough control to helm one of the Four World Powers and, despite still being a mere city, was treated like a full country by the absolute ruler.
The truth of the matter was that this move had been Frederica’s way of addressing the issue of Poseinia being the only superpower without a firm connection to Sol. At the same time, it also served as an easy-to-understand example of how beneficial it could be to cooperate with him.
Her plan proved effective and was welcomed with much relief by both the citizens and leadership of Poseinia, who had been starting to worry that their nation was falling behind the others. In fact, it was a little too effective. The favor that San Jeluk, a mere city, had received made the leadership of all other countries sit up and take notice, despite the difficulty of reproducing the same combination of sagacity and opportunity.
As a result, countries scrambled to search for what they could contribute to the Panhuman League—and Sol, by extension. They knew mere pretense wouldn’t do; it had to be something of actual value. In a way, it was a very forward-thinking and action-oriented trend, as it motivated countries to seriously evaluate their own strengths and devise ways to better the world by sharing those strengths as opposed to monopolizing them.
Naturally, it took time to set such large-scale endeavors in motion. Countries that hadn’t been intentionally specializing in anything had to come up with something from scratch, while countries that relied on exclusive specializations needed to make drastic adjustments and create new frameworks. So they all looked for a way to take immediate action to buy time.
What everyone settled on was sending their princesses to become candidates for Sol’s rear palace. When they saw how much progress Reconquista Oeste, the campaign to resettle the western expanse, made in a month, the peer pressure to join the trend mounted until it practically became a compulsion.