Chapter 50: The Karina’s Maiden Voyage
THE head of the Department of Public Works in the Kingdom of San Luenne had been feeling a subtle sense of discomfort recently. This was because the chancellor, usually strict about withdrawals from the treasury, seemed to be much more permissive than usual on the matter. Of course, all the disbursements were necessary for things such as repairing the stone paving on the roads, fixing the aqueducts used to draw vital fresh water from the springs, mending the churches, replacing the decrepit ships owned by the country, and more. Since the Kingdom relied on tourism for its survival, everything needed to be taken care of anyway, so better sooner than later.
So the chancellor’s behavior wasn’t necessarily odd in the grand scheme of things. It was just the first time in memory that the marquess had been so lax in approving the costs of expenditures.
But the blame would ultimately fall on me if I did nothing about any of this. With that thought, he set about instructing his subordinates on the various repairs and purchases they needed to make. He made sure they knew to adhere to the approved budget.
As time passed, the heads of the canal management, harbor maintenance, and emergency rations divisions slowly came to the same realization as the head of public works, that the chancellor was being unusually magnanimous in approving budgets this year. But they all gratefully spent their funds because they were the ones who had requested them in the first place. No junior civil servants noticed the changes occurring in the treasury as the only ones with full access to the ledgers were the chancellor and the minister of finance. Moreover, the minister of finance and senior officials had already consented to the chancellor’s proposals.
As a result, the reparation payments were once again postponed due to the steady decline of capital in the national treasury. The fact that not a single demand came from the Federation also helped the royal family push repayment out even further. When the queen asked the chancellor why this could be happening, he had an answer ready for her.
“Perhaps the Federation is feeling generous toward us because the Empire repaid its share of the reparations in full?”
His deliberately mild response was designed to make her lower her guard.