Inheriting a Lost Bloodline, My First Task is to have heirs?!

Chapter 696: Chapter 696 - The Athanoviya Empire is just too vast (Part 1)

During my past two immersions, I realized just how vast the Athanoviya empire is. Including all the settlements, villages, towns, cities, territories and kingdoms that I have visited and passed by so far, I don’t even think that I have even visited half of its total land area. I haven’t read as much as I could about the other places but I atleast know how the map of the entire empire looked like from books. It totally looked small on paper though compared to the real deal.

The next thing I realized is that it is just too vast of a place for a single family to govern. A central government is indeed needed which is why the capital city of Hoffen was established by the royal family bearing the surname where the empire is named after but a single family definitely cannot manage the whole government on its own. No wonder this place can never get rid of the feudal system as it is normal for nobles to govern a certain part of land to manage all the people and the money flowing within it.

Even if there were laws as well as punishments set for crimes, one cannot have eyes and ears in all places at the same time to ensure that it is enforced properly. Due to the resources not being provided to those that needed them the most in a timely manner, people willingly become slaves to those in power or those with wealth just to secure the next meal for themselves and their families. No one can ever judge another person’s choice since one can’t exactly put one’s feet in another person’s shoes. There are no perfectly identical circumstances or lives.

Humans may be many in number here in Aeocrescens due to them not being fully affected by the curse from Eieneos but the resources are concentrated among a few chosen individuals, families or groups. These chosen ones were the ones who decide who gets those resources or not. This in turn breeds people who tend to abuse power and those that are prone to corruption.

Money, power and wealth really changes people. As to whether it is a change for the good or not, who knows?

I could only shake my head and sigh repeatedly as I was making my way to the next town inside a carriage on this bumpy road. I hated solving problems of the governing groups. This is the reason why I did not want to be the crown princess! But here I am doing it anyways for these humans!

I am sure my in-laws bribed the academe grandmaster to give me this assignment. If I had another choice, I wouldn’t do it. I just want to graduate from the academe in peace!

You may be asking why I am so sure that this is a conspiracy between my in-laws and the academe but I have proof! I have already asked someone I trust to check and the assignments of my classmates weren’t as hard and definitely not as time consuming as the one I have. They did not even have to deal with anything political, social or economical! I am being treated as free labor by these people! Once I graduate, I won’t do anything that I do not want and especially no more assignments of this sort.

The travel time to the next major town did not take that much time. It only took about 6 hours which included me stopping at areas that looked rich with resources much to the dismay of my rented carriage driver. Well, I did pay him a bit extra for his patience once we got to the destination.

The next major town was called Duha. It is of similar size with Anfang at around 3 square miles. The population though is higher at around 15,000. Besides farming, they also earn money from mining. There is also a huge lake within the the area of the town and nearby villages so the industry of freshwater fishing is also quite profitable.

Since this town has more sources of income, the quality of life is a tad better than Anfang. You can feel it with in the bustling streets and the overall lighter vibe within the town. The nearby villages benefit from the industries so they live much better too.

Just like with Anfang, I stayed in Duha and visited the nearby villages for about 3 days before making my way to the next town. I had an agreement with the academe that I will send the completed observation reports once a week so at the end of my stay in Duha, I sent back my reports for both Anfang and Duha back to the academe for their review.

As I looked at my basic map, it seems that I will still need to pass through 3 more major towns before finally reaching the region where my four husbands: Helios, Yren, Calyx and Xenos originally came from. I am also excited as to how I would deal with the supposed ex-family members of my men once I meet them.

After sending the report for the week, I used one day to just rest and do fun things like eating, shopping and looking around. By day break of the next day, I am on the road again to get to the next major town on my checklist. This time, the travel time is longer at half a day if you did not do any stopovers. Of course, it would be longer than that because I liked gathering stuff I find useful along the way and I will never skip proper meals too.

I reached the next major town of Samtreina an hour after dusk. I am quite happy about it since I am not too far off the schedule, just in time to sample the food that they have to offer for dinner. I decided to just secure an inn first to stay in for the next few days. The night time is still lively in this major town so I did some night market shopping. It won’t be so late if I start my official work tomorrow.