I Didn't Want to Become the Emperor of This World

Chapter 44

The crown prince’s maid, Elly.

She gave a faint smile as she saw Leonardo finally lying down in bed to rest.

‘He’s finally resting.’

Elly had been by Leonardo's side longer than anyone else in the royal palace currently. Even longer than the King.

Because of that, she knew well how weak Leonardo's body was. Just a year ago, Leonardo had hovered between life and death several times a month due to high fevers.

That was why Elly had been so worried about Leonardo lately. Because recently, Leonardo had been working with almost no sleep.

Some might think that Leonardo was full of energy, unlike before. However, to Elly, the sight of Leonardo working looked like a dying bonfire struggling to keep burning, and it was heart-wrenching.

‘That’s why I always told him to rest, but he never did…’

For such a Leonardo, Elly brewed tea with tea leaves said to be good for fatigue recovery and health and gave it to him. Elly didn't know if it helped.

In any case, Leonardo was finally taking a ‘rest.’

‘I feel proud.’

Making Leonardo rest was more rewarding for Elly than anything else she had done for him.

As Elly was looking at Leonardo’s face with a satisfied smile, the voice of another maid came from outside the door.

—Knock knock.

—Your Highness. A commoner named ‘Yoanna,’ whom Your Highness invited to the royal palace, has come and wishes to see you.

“…!”

‘His Highness just fell asleep…!’

At the maid’s voice, Elly hurried to the door. It was out of concern that she might disturb Leonardo, who was finally resting.

Elly opened the door quietly yet quickly. Then, as she stepped out of the room, she said.

“His Highness is resting, so tell Miss Yoanna to come back later….”

As she was speaking, Elly saw Yoanna standing next to the maid who had knocked on the door.

Yoanna seemed nervous about coming to the crown prince’s room, as her body was hunched over, and she couldn't even look at Elly properly.

‘Wow… she’s cute.’

There wasn't much of an age difference between Elly and Yoanna, but cute was cute. When she first saw her, her face was covered in dust and grime, so she hadn't noticed, but seeing her cleaned-up appearance, she looked just like a doll.

Elly bent her knees slightly and asked Yoanna.

“Miss Yoanna, what brings you to see His Highness?”

“Ye… Yes?! Ah, it’s that!”

As if she hadn't expected to be spoken to so suddenly, Yoanna answered in a flurry, unable to pronounce her words properly.

“At dawn, I happened to hear His Highness speaking to the knights and soldiers in the training grounds… telling them to get rid of all the thugs in the royal capital… and he also said my name…”

“Yes, and?”

“I don't think His Highness captured the thugs for me, but… he mentioned my name during his speech and all. And there was also the time he saved me at the market, so…”

Yoanna, unable to speak properly. She seemed to be extremely nervous.

In fact, it was natural to be nervous. A commoner had courageously come to meet the ‘crown prince.’

Looking at Yoanna, Elly briefly recalled Leonardo’s speech at the training grounds at dawn.

‘Miss Yoanna must have heard His Highness’s speech at dawn. It was loud enough for anyone inside the royal palace to hear, so I guess it’s natural.’

Elly suddenly recalled Leonardo’s speech.

‘…He was amazing.’

Leonardo, as if proving his royal blood, showed great charisma in front of the knights and soldiers.

That charisma captivated the knights and soldiers, and Elly too found herself falling for another of Leonardo's charms.

The charm of being a weak boy on the outside, but strong on the inside.

After briefly thinking of Leonardo, Elly looked at Yoanna before her cheeks could turn red and asked.

“So you came to thank His Highness?”

“Yes, yes! That’s right!”

“I see.”

Elly unknowingly almost patted Yoanna’s head. It was commendable that she had come to express her gratitude after receiving a favor from Leonardo.

“I understand your heart, Miss Yoanna. But His Highness is taking a long-overdue rest right now, so it might be difficult to see him.”

“Ah…”

“When His Highness wakes up, I will tell him that Miss Yoanna came to visit. I will also convey your thanks on your behalf.”

At Elly’s kind words, Yoanna nodded.

‘Lady Elly is just as kind and pretty a maid as I felt when I first saw her…’

“Ah, I understand! Then I’ll come back later!”

After answering brightly, Yoanna walked towards the other end of the corridor with light steps. The pitter-patter of a child's steps.

The maid who had brought Yoanna here was about to follow the quickly disappearing Yoanna down the corridor, but she politely bowed to Elly.

“Then, Lady Elly, I shall take my leave as well.”

“Ah… yes.”

Elly answered awkwardly at the overly polite bow from the maid.

The reason the maid called Elly ‘Lady’ and bowed politely was that Elly was the personal maid of the absolute ruler, Leonardo.

Until just a short while ago, no maid had bowed to Elly so politely. But after the purge, Elly had become the most influential person among the maids.

Of course, Elly was well aware of the evaluation of the maid society surrounding her.

‘If it becomes officially known that I am the Head Maid… will this kind of treatment increase?’

Being treated well was certainly a pleasant thing, but Elly also felt burdened by it.

“Ah… yes. Good work.”

“Thank you, Lady Elly. Then I shall excuse myself.”

The maid bowed once more and followed after Yoanna. As Elly watched the retreating figures of Yoanna and the maid, a thought crossed her mind.

‘That girl named Yoanna… she seems to admire His Highness too.’

At that fleeting thought, Elly felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort. Just a moment ago, she had felt like a cute younger sister.

“…”

No matter how much she was the personal maid of the highest authority, Elly was still just a fourteen-year-old girl.

For her, this emotion was natural, and also a first.

***

Chirp chirp—.

I woke up to the sound of chirping birds.

A familiar ceiling came into view.

‘…How long did I sleep?’

I tried to recall. I had fallen asleep around noon. But I woke up to the sound of birds chirping.

So that meant it was morning now… which meant I had slept for about 24 hours.

‘…I really slept like a log. I should get up now. But why is Elly dozing off over there?’

I could see Elly sitting in a chair next to my bed, nodding off. I didn’t know how long she had been there, but from her appearance, it seemed she had been by my side the whole time I was sleeping.

There was no need to wake Elly, so I cautiously tried to get out of bed on the opposite side of where she was sitting.

But as if awakened by that small sound, Elly straightened her back like a meerkat on watch and said. Swallowing the dried saliva that had trickled down her chin.

“Sip…! Y-you’re awake!”

“Haha, yes. Why are you dozing off there? If you’re tired, you should have gone to your room and rested.”

“…D-did you see me dozing?”

“Yes. Just for a moment.”

At my answer, Elly bit her lip and her eyes widened. Her cheeks also turned red. I wasn't sure if she was worried about being caught sleeping, or embarrassed about showing her sleeping face.

***

‘Shall I start working again? I should check the first.’

After getting out of bed and washing my face lightly, I immediately sat down at my desk. Then, as I was about to check the , I noticed Elly was by my side and asked her.

Her face was still red.

“Elly, could you possibly bring me something simple to eat? I’m hungry since I woke up after sleeping all day.”

“Yes, yes! I understand!”

Elly replied immediately, as if she had been waiting for me to send her out of the room, and quickly walked towards the door.

As she was about to open the door and leave, Elly spoke to me as if she had forgotten something.

“Oh, Your Highness. Miss Yoanna came to visit while you were sleeping earlier. The commoner you saved from the market before.”

Come to think of it, I seemed to have vaguely heard someone say that Yoanna had come to visit before I fell asleep.

“Did she say why she came?”

“Yes. She said she came to thank Your Highness. She said she heard the speech you gave to the knights and soldiers before the ‘war on crime,’ and you mentioned her name then… and thank you for getting rid of the thugs.”

She came to thank me.

‘That’s a good thing. Yoanna has the talent to become a considerable knight someday.’

The fact that a child with such talent held goodwill towards me was a very, very, extremely welcome thing.

“I should have met her myself, but I couldn't because I was sleeping.”

“There’s no need for Your Highness to meet her in person…”

“What was that?”

“…It’s nothing. Then, Your Highness, I will bring something for you to eat.”

I couldn’t hear Elly’s words well and asked again, but Elly left the room.

It didn't really matter.

‘I’ll talk to Yoanna later, for now, should I look at the first?’

It was better to check the before Elly returned with the food, so I immediately took the diary from the bookshelf and checked it.

The page with the future closest to the present.

‘Just as I expected, new content is written.’

….

I had intended to increase the army to prepare for the war that the bandits would start in four years.

But after hearing Jereuth and Heinshtangl say that now was not the time to increase the army, I decided to postpone the conscription. For the time being, I intended to first develop the kingdom’s agriculture and commerce, and then reinforce the army when we had some leeway.

To develop agriculture and commerce, that is, the ‘kingdom’s economy,’ I pondered a lot.

Then I remembered a passage I had read in a book when I was a university student before coming to this world. The words, ‘To develop the economy, leave it to the market.’ I also remembered the words that an invisible something would then develop the economy on its own.

So I put that into practice. I judged it to be right since it was said by one of the top economists in Earth's history.

Still, I thought I should create a basic framework, so I first distributed the land I had taken from the nobles to the kingdom’s people. Fairly and equally.

The reason I distributed the land was to give the people a minimum foundation on which they could conduct their own economic activities.

Of course, in return for distributing the land, I decided to collect more taxes, but the people were very grateful to me for getting ‘their own land’ and farmed diligently.

In the first place, the additional taxes I said I would collect were a very small amount compared to the taxes the nobles used to collect, so there were no complaints from the people.

Secondly, I supported the merchants to conduct their commercial activities with as few restrictions as possible. I rebuilt the markets in each city and had the knights and soldiers patrol them. With that, I helped the merchants to focus solely on buying and selling goods.

I also reduced taxes and left the merchants’ activities as free as possible.

Due to giving various benefits and reducing taxes, more money was spent than I thought, but since the money taken from the nobles was quite substantial, it seemed it would be fine for a while.

Thus, I entrusted most things related to economic development to the private sector, and I believed that many things would be resolved on their own.

…And so, two years passed.

That was the content written in this chapter for now.

‘To develop the economy, I left everything to the market… my future self did the complete opposite of the direction I am thinking of now.’

My current self is thinking of developing the kingdom’s agriculture and commerce while also developing ‘military power’ at the same time.

But my future self, according to the diary, postponed military power for later and focused on economic development first.

‘Moreover, he took the approach of creating only the minimum foundation for farmers and merchants to conduct their economic activities and leaving the rest to the market. He entrusted the economy itself to the market.’

It didn't seem like the wrong choice. It might be better to leave it entirely to the market than for me, who knows nothing about economics, to get involved and ruin the kingdom’s economy.

As my future self said in the , ‘it will be right since it was said by one of the top economists in Earth's history.’

‘What happened after operating the kingdom in that way for two years? I hope it went well… so that I can follow exactly what’s written in the diary.’

If, as I hoped, the kingdom’s economy revived on its own with only minimal intervention from me, it would alleviate a significant portion of my worries.

With that small hope, I turned to the next chapter.

But as expected, as always. My future always betrayed my ‘expectations.’

….

Two years of waiting in expectation of the kingdom’s economic development.

The result was very disappointing.

Many people failed at farming. Those who originally farmed for a living did relatively well, but the harvests of those with insufficient farming skills were pathetic.

The farmers who failed at farming sold the land I gave them to other farmers to make a living. The farmers who sold their land were able to get money to live on for the time being, but of course, it was a ridiculously insufficient amount to live on for the rest of their lives.

In the end, the farmers who sold their land ended up working under wealthy merchants or people who succeeded in farming.

In other words, they had returned to the time when they worked like slaves under the nobles.

There were even farmers who sold the land I gave them from the beginning to save money and then headed to the city. They knew that farming was hard, so they bet all their assets, saying they would become merchants, which seemed relatively easier.

Needless to say, for people who had only farmed their entire lives, doing business in the city was not easy, and they all went bankrupt. Every single one of them.

The farmers who failed in business became vagrants in the city and became another problem. The children became pickpockets, the men began to work as secret thugs or in the underground economy, and as for the women, what is there to say. They had to do whatever it took to survive.

Thus, since agriculture, the foundation of the kingdom’s economy, was not doing well, commerce could not do well either. Since most of the kingdom's people were poor, the merchants could not make a profit, and in the meantime, the merchants colluded to raise the prices of various daily necessities to make more profit.

The worst economic nightmare began to occur where prices rose while the people had no money. A few with large farms emerged, and merchants colluded with them, trying to eat away at the economy again.

The situation where prices rise despite a bad economy, ‘stagflation.’ That worst-case scenario had occurred.

All of this happened in just two years. For such a change to happen in an instant… it is surprising, if you think about it.

That’s right. As a result, I had not just wasted the precious time of the past two years, but thrown it away like an idiot.

Now I regret it. I suddenly remember why I had intended to pursue ‘state-led economic growth’ two years ago.

‘…When developing a country that is not properly established, a state-led planned economy is much more effective. Not only our country, but all developing countries in the world developed that way. I knew that, so why did I leave it to the market?’

Perhaps I was lazy. Just leaving it to the market, thinking it would all be resolved on its own.

Now, in two years, the bandits will start a war, but I have not yet properly reinforced the troops.

…I’m worried.

‘If it was going to be like this, I should have reinforced the army first. And instead of giving the land I took from the nobles to the kingdom's people for free, I should have used the army to farm. Turning the farmers into soldiers. If I had put such soldiers into rebuilding the market, the market reconstruction would have been much more efficient.’

Another thought came to me.

‘The King advised me to entrust difficult tasks to ‘experts.’ So if I had turned the farmers into soldiers and had farming experts teach the soldiers how to farm, everything would have proceeded much better.’

A belated realization. Turning farmers into soldiers and putting them into farming and market reconstruction, and appropriately rotating them to also conduct military training.

That was the answer. Then I could have developed military power, agriculture, and commerce all at once.

But time had already passed and could not be turned back.

Now, in two years, the bandits will start a war. But the kingdom’s economy was still pathetic, and I had used up almost all the money confiscated from the nobles, so the kingdom was even poorer than two years ago.

Now I had no money to conscript new soldiers.

In the end, it seemed the only method left was forced conscription. Unpaid forced conscription.

I didn't know how the kingdom’s people would react if I forcibly dragged them into the army… but in the end, I used the crown prince's authority to forcibly conscript the kingdom's people.

….

And two months after the forced conscription.

The feared disaster occurred.

…Damn it.

After reading up to this point, I let out a sigh.

Phew—.

‘'Disaster' means 'accident and trouble'. It wasn't specified what that 'accident and trouble' was, but... it certainly wouldn't be a good thing.’

My guess was that the ‘disaster’ that happened in the future was probably related to the army. Since it said the disaster occurred due to forced conscription.

‘Running a country, nothing ever goes easily, does it? Anyway, the fortunate thing is that the answer appeared in the diary, I guess.’

The answer that appeared in the .

It was to first increase the troops to expand the size of the army, and then use that army to develop agriculture and commerce. Jereuth and Heinshtangl had said that now was not the time to conscript an army, but my future self told me that was the answer.

So this time, I needed to overcome the opinions of Jereuth and Heinshtangl and stand firm.

‘The problem is that conscripting soldiers also costs a lot of money. When I went to the kingdom's warehouse to get mithril powder before, it was empty, so there was no mon… wait, money?’

As Heinshtangl said, the ‘kingdom’s warehouse’ was empty. The nobles had taken it all.

I had seen it with my own eyes.

But I had a source of money.

‘I confiscated the nobles' assets through the purge. With that money, couldn't I recruit new soldiers? The also said that there was so much money confiscated from the nobles that there was no need to worry about the state finances for two years.’

Not only the nobles’ assets, but I also had other assets. The assets confiscated from the thugs and wicked merchants through the ‘war on crime.’

Since their owners were now dead and gone, there was no problem with me taking their money.

‘I'll have to get Heinshtangl to do a detailed budget plan, but that money seems like it would be enough to reinforce the army.’

After thinking, I came to a conclusion.

‘Yes. Let’s raise my army. And with that army, I will cultivate my land and manage my markets.’

The core resources of a nation are manpower, land, and the market.

I decided to put all of them under my control.

Until the day this kingdom can properly fulfill its role.

‘Well… even when this kingdom properly fulfills its role later, I have no intention of giving it to others. Anyway, let’s do that for now.’

Click.

“Your Highness, I’ve brought your meal.”

Just as I finished my thoughts, Elly entered at the perfect timing. Holding the food I requested on a tray.

With a familiar movement, I leaned back and put the back on the bookshelf. As I did, I replied to Elly.

“Thank you, Elly. I’ll eat well.”

“Yes!”

“And please call Commander Jereuth and Sir Heinshtangl. I have something to talk about.”