I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Bored out of her mind, Natalie closed the carriage window and turned to look at Veronica, who was quietly reading inside. A trace of admiration flashed in her eyes.

She had liked this girl from Seris the moment she first saw her, so she invited her to share the same carriage.

During the journey, aside from speaking with her occasionally, Veronica spent most of the time reading. It wasn’t for show either—she was genuinely absorbed in the book. Every now and then she would pick out a passage and discuss it with Natalie, wanting to hear a different interpretation.

Natalie admitted to herself that this level of self-discipline was absolutely impossible for her. Forget reading for several days straight—she couldn’t even endure staring at a book for an hour.

But that didn’t stop her from liking excellent girls. Through them, Natalie seemed able to glimpse what another version of herself might have been like if she had made different choices.

Resting her chin on both hands, Natalie stared at Veronica’s snow-white fox ears as they occasionally twitched.

‘Veronica, actually I’ve always had a question I wanted to ask you…’

“Hmm?”

Veronica raised her head and looked at her with confusion. “What is it?”

‘Um… why does your Alliance insist on chasing those traitors so relentlessly? I feel like letting such a scandal spread until all seven nations know about it is a bit too much of a loss compared to the gain.’

She was extremely curious about the Alliance. Aside from those strange machines that were clearly from the Alliance at first glance, all kinds of rumors and gossip also piqued her interest.

As the Tsarist Nation—an old enemy of the Dmitria Church—both commoners and nobles took pleasure in anything that made the Church unhappy.

And in recent years, the one that had made the Church the most uncomfortable was undoubtedly the rapidly rising Seris Alliance. From land to sea, from the physical realm to the spiritual one, the Alliance had driven the Church away on every front—each of those things was something the Tsarist Nation had wanted to do but couldn’t.

But the biggest recent news was still the massive corruption case within the Alliance that had swept across the entire country.

Many former Alliance officials had fled to the Seven Nations, and the Alliance government had repeatedly issued warnings, ultimatums, and extradition requests. Those who were well informed had plenty of gossip to feast on.

However, if she thought about it from another perspective, Natalie didn’t really agree with the Alliance’s approach. Scandals should be sealed off as much as possible to prevent malicious people from stirring up trouble.

The most important issue was always maintaining national stability. Taking some minor losses was acceptable—there was always time to settle the accounts later.

Now that she had finally encountered someone from the Alliance, Natalie naturally wanted to hear how an Alliance citizen saw the matter.

Veronica closed her book and replied, “Because this is what we want.”

‘Huh?’

“It’s what we Alliance Citizens want. Even if it costs something, even if someone embezzled seven hundred thousand and it costs three million to capture him, we’re still willing to pay the price. Workers and farmers will donate the money themselves! Two dollars from each person is enough to buy the lives of his entire family. That’s a very worthwhile deal.”

“Maybe the cost-benefit ratio isn’t perfect, but we still need to tell them that citizens’ money isn’t so easy to steal. The government only acts as the representative of the citizens, expressing our demands.”

“An international scandal? Why should this count as a scandal? Why should the victims bear the cost of crimes committed by bad people? They deserve to be nailed to the pillar of shame forever!”

Natalie became even more confused.

‘But wouldn’t that indirectly prove that your governing system easily produces such officials?’

“Then we correct it when mistakes happen. If there are loopholes, we fix them under public supervision and amend the laws. And what use is that hollow reputation you’re talking about? Is it meant to deceive others—or ourselves?”

“Look, things are already much better now. Since we don’t care about appearances or the cost of capturing them, the image has been established. Those bad people have no way out. Before they dare to reach out their hands, they must think carefully about the consequences.”

Veronica smiled, her eyes curving into crescents.

“As long as someone dares to do it, the Seris Alliance will hunt them down to the ends of the earth. They won’t have a single place left to stand. That kind of deterrence is more effective than any rule.”

According to the extradition treaties Seris had signed with other countries, as long as a country handed over all the offender’s blood relatives within its territory to the Alliance, it could keep half of the stolen money. That alone blocked about ninety percent of escape routes.

Even the criminals themselves might hesitate to offer such conditions. If they wanted the country sheltering them to withstand the Alliance’s pressure, surrendering half the stolen money wouldn’t be nearly enough—they’d need to give up more than seventy percent before anyone would truly protect them.

So they risked having their entire clan executed, fought desperately with every ounce of cunning and intelligence… just for that little money?

With the Seris Alliance publicly posting wanted portraits and estimated stolen sums abroad, bounty hunters, mercenaries, and even neighbors all knew these people were walking bags of money with no backing. In the end, they probably couldn’t even keep thirty percent of it and would be stripped clean by others.

As for the claim that it damaged international reputation—hadn’t anyone heard the saying “habit becomes natural”? The first few times people might be shocked, but after many repetitions, they would realize it was nothing special.

In fact, it even demonstrated that the Alliance dared to take responsibility for its mistakes and stand upright after being punished.

Moreover, Princess Natalie hadn’t noticed that the Seris Alliance had mixed quite a bit of “extra content” into its diplomatic statements and propaganda.

Most of the stolen money actually came from the Alliance’s free voucher system.

The state paid for essential goods for vulnerable groups and distributed them for free. Even after malicious vendors added illegal surcharges, the prices were still extremely cheap.

Damn it—after the added fees, the goods from the Alliance were still cheaper than what you bought yourself. So why were you grinning like an idiot?

At first glance this seemed like a bad thing, but in reality it had also become a large-scale piece of soft advertising for the Alliance.

Natalie couldn’t help scratching her head.

She understood the explanation, but she still felt that the behavior of Alliance Citizens was somewhat explosive. Raising money to ask the government to buy someone’s life… no matter how she looked at it, the operation felt strange.

If she lived in that environment, she’d probably give up her habit of casually pocketing small valuables. Living every day in fear would be far too terrifying.

What Natalie didn’t know was that the Seris government was actually even more ruthless than its citizens.

As the largest oil buyer behind the United Kingdom of Suria, Seris possessed tremendous influence over Suria.

Under the leadership of Empress Mitia and Crown Prince Bratt, who had gradually begun taking over domestic affairs, negotiations had already begun between the Alliance and the kingdom regarding stationing troops on Olyesk Island. Progress was advancing rapidly.

Once permission for the garrison was granted, the Seris Alliance would construct a first-class large military airfield on Olyesk Island.

In the future, once long-range bombers were successfully developed, Mitia would not mind using this “unsinkable aircraft carrier” as a springboard—guided by agents—to deliver divine punishment from the sky upon those traitors.

As for bombing accuracy, the Seris Alliance already possessed mature radar models installed on warships. Terrain-scanning radar suitable for aircraft bombing had naturally entered the research agenda as well.

Before that technology appeared, the Alliance’s bombers would mainly rely on dive-bombing to ensure accuracy. High-altitude horizontal bombing had accuracy so poor it could essentially be ignored.