"Hey, Artoria, are you really setting up another festival? We just had one."
Rimuru said to Artoria as she was reading progress reports on the aftermath of the war in an office.
"I know. That's why I'm holding it in a month."
"But…that would mean two big festivals just a month apart!"
"Don't worry, we'll have another one, a much bigger one, in about…seven to eight months. Maybe a bit earlier if magic has some kind of side effect, or later, depending on how the biology works in this unusual circumstance. Uh, anyway, I plan for that one to be much, much bigger than even our victory parade."
"Seven to eight months? Wait, that's when Shuna is probably going to—"
"Yes, that's right. But, in the meantime, there are things to focus on. The expedition into our new territory is ongoing for the new national parks, the national military park is already being worked on for preservation and some monuments are being built as well, Benimaru is already in the Eastern Empire helping Masayuki rebuild, our aid package is already doing its work, and integration of former people of the Eastern Empire is going smoothly."
Results were coming in fast. Not to say that everything was done, but if things went as they did now, they might end ahead of schedule. The part that would take the longest would be helping rebuild the Eastern Empire, followed by the expedition to establish more national parks. But there were more problems with having so much land and a large increase in population. More infrastructure would need to be built, and not only that, but there were also logistical challenges. More people meant more use of natural resources, more food and water consumption, energy demands, transportation, waste management, environmental degradation, housing, and more things.
Luckily, the Eastern Empire already had systems in place, but now it was the responsibility of Tempest to handle all of them. The most important one, in Arotria's opinion, is transportation. The new land was vast and wide. Better transportation routes would need to be built and developed to facilitate travel between all the villages, towns, and cities. Along with the more typical roads, it was time to develop what Artoria considers the best form of logistical transportation for cargo, and maybe even develop it for passengers later, especially considering that they're basically landlocked.
"Nice, so, uh, now that rebuilding is underway, how do we handle our allies?"
"Why are you saying it like that? You make it sound like our allies our hounding us. Anyway, we can go for more ecomimc growth. Since we're kind of the center of the world economically, and with the new industry from our new territory, we'll need to be able to move a lot more stuff."
"Yeah, a bit too much. What if the roads become too overcrowded?"
At Rimuru's question, Artoria let out a small smile. Roads were good, yes, but this world still mainly used horses to pull stuff. And while roads would make it more efficient. It wasn't all too unrealistic, even if this world did have magic. But it was time to introduce new technology.
"Simple, we use one of your ideas. The train, or magic train, or magi-train, whatever you want to call it.. AKA, one of the best forms of logistical transport. This thing is going to move so much stuff and make the economy boom even more. We'll put Vesta on the job with the brains, so he can figure out what we need, and then we'll have Geld and his orcs build it and get the resources we need."
"Alright, cool, yeah, I'm all for it, but where will we build it? Like, it needs a place to stop," Rimuru excitedly said, but quickly calmed down, knowing that trains needed a lot to build, especially if magic was going to be involved.
"We'll start with Dwargon. We'll have Vesta propose the idea, and with the help of Dwragon, we'll be able to do it. I mean, the money alone it can generate will be more than enough incentive. But, the most important thing is that we have full ownership of the train and railroads, and have all the rights to them. No sharing with any other country. It should be easy, given how this kind of technology is novel in this world, and they'll be distracted by how much money it can generate, that they'll overlook the importance of actually owning the railroad and trains."
"Okay, but I don't Gazel would be that dumb."
"You're right, which is why we're not going to negotiate with Gazel, but with a representative or representatives. Probably someone of finance and infrastructure, or something similar. They'll be too distracted by the money and the novelty of such technology that they'll overlook it. And they'll help by providing a lot of resources to build the tracks and trains."
Rimuru thought about it, and it sounded a bit conniving. "That's kind of…unfair."
Artoria just shrugged her shoulders. "It's business and money; if you're playing fair, then you're doing it wrong."
"Okay, so, who will own the railroad and trains?"
Artoria sighed, as if she were making a hard choice for herself. "Us, of course, and by 'us', I mean the government. I'm going to nationalize our railroad industry, that way we have full control of it."
Rimuru immediately sat up straight upon hearing what Artoria said. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that is something I wouldn't expect to hear from you. You're always saying how you don't want to interfere too much in business and all that."
"I know, but I consider it too important to leave it up to private ownership. This is something I'll have to bite the bullet on."
"I don't think any government would see this as something they would want to 'bite the bullet on.'"
"Well, the only country I can think of that does privatization of railroads efficiently, even if it's kind of a monopoly, is Japan."
Rimuru nodded, sort of feeling a bit proud. It may have been a new world, but it's hard to give certain things up, mainly a consequence of having basically lived your entire life in a country. "Cool, yeah."
Rimuru waited to hear more from Artoria, but she said nothing more. "Wait, that's all?"
"I mean, it's just that good. Like, don't get me started on America, 'cause there's a lot of mess involved in that, and it's been like that since it first started. You could even bring in Europe, internationally at least, not domestically. Taking a train domestically? Great, awesome. Trying to take a train between countries? Not so much. Well, maybe that might have changed. But that's mostly passenger, and not cargo, but it's just to give you an idea."
"So, going for government control would be the better option despite it going against some things you believe?"
"Yeah, I guess. But if I have to do it, I'll do it. I'm not some kind of person who hold steadfast to a set of ideals of how a government should run. Like, I do have my own ideas, but things change, and I'll change along with them. Every decision is different, and if you force yourself to stand by some made-up ideal and ideology, even if standing by it will result in a bad choice, then you need help. You have to be flexible with this stuff.."
"So…you're an opportunist?"
"No, I'd say it's more of…adapting. I might do one thing that some side thinks is right, only to do something later that they'll think is wrong, but I don't care. I'll make whatever choice I think will lead to the best outcome. All that to say, I do my best to conduct diplomacy and make polices depending on the given circumstances and factors instead of sticking to an ideology."
"What about that time you gave a divine order on people's right to own weapons and stuff? Or a lot of the things that are clearly inspired and brought over from America?"
"That's why I said, 'I do my best,' I never said I would do it perfectly, and besides, you think it's that easy to just abandon and not think of your home after being reincarnated into a different world? Let's be honest, you can't. There will be things that you get influenced by, whether you know it or not, because that's where you spent literally your entire life."
"Right, yeah, that's true."
Artoria closed a notebook and stood up, bringing it along with her as she left to visit Vesta.
"Anyway, enough about it. Let's go to Vesta and get this train idea going. There's a lot of money to make."