I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Cassius and the others spent several days enjoying themselves before finally being arranged to board a carriage heading toward the Royal Capital. As for trains—those were something they still did not have for the time being.

The riot-control wheeled armored vehicles used by the Seris Alliance Guard units only existed in limited numbers. These were specially modified versions that did not use diesel engines but rather elemental internal combustion engines, providing stronger power and longer endurance.

Although they were traveling by carriage, the new carriage developed by the United Kingdom of Suria offered a fairly comfortable ride. At least it was no longer as miserable as in the past.

The slow pace of travel also turned the journey into a rather unique spring outing for Veronica and the others. Because their identities were special, and because they were traveling with high nobles such as Princess Natalie, they could move freely through every region they passed and conduct on-site observations without obstruction.

For these young students, it was their first time in their lives leaving the Seris Alliance. Everything—the unfamiliar institutions and the exotic local customs—sparked intense curiosity.

However, after passing through two states, their enthusiasm completely withered.

Aside from suffering from discomfort caused by the unfamiliar environment, what troubled them the most was that everything they witnessed in the Tsarist Nation was fundamentally different from the worldview and habits they had developed while living in the Seris Alliance.

The Tsarist Nation still maintained the serfdom system.

In the fields, most of the labor was done by people themselves. There were barely any young and strong adults; the majority were the elderly, the weak, women, and children.

Cassius and the others even found it difficult to understand how several old men, thin as firewood sticks, could pull ploughs that in the Seris Alliance were normally dragged by tractors or Cat-type All-terrain Vehicles.

Did the Tsarist Nation not have cattle?

This became the question they asked most frequently during this period.

Each time, Natalie would smile and answer that they did—but she deliberately swallowed the latter half of the explanation: that cattle were more valuable than serfs.

At one point, the convoy even encountered a group of manor lords from the Tsarist Nation who were driving newly purchased serfs back to their estates.

Large numbers of poorly clothed women—barely able to cover themselves—and young men walked along the road. Two long wooden poles rested on their shoulders, with each arm tied to one of the poles beneath. Five people formed a group and were forced to march in this manner.

From time to time, someone would slip in the soft mud and fall, causing the entire group to collapse into the mud together. Immediately afterward came the frenzied cracking of the overseer’s whip, accompanied by earth-shaking screams and cries for help.

Although the convoy did not intersect their route, it stopped by the roadside to allow the column to pass. From a short distance away, they could see the trail left behind by the slave group—excrement, urine, and blood mixed into the mud.

A trace of pity flashed through Veronica’s eyes. Unable to hold back, she asked Princess Natalie beside her:

“If the kingdom were invaded, would they pick up weapons to protect the people who once beat them?”

The smile on Natalie’s face stiffened slightly.

She had never considered such a question before.

After a moment, she simply replied, ‘Our country has brave warriors and powerful weapons.’

Veronica nodded noncommittally.

“Perhaps.”

She did not know whether the military strength of the Tsarist Nation was truly powerful, but according to the textbooks they studied, this was a very typical example of a weak country.

The university exchange students led by Cassius and Veronica had been sent abroad by Mitia for a specific purpose: to observe firsthand the advantages and disadvantages of how different nations operated.

At present, the Seris Alliance lacked many things.

But the one thing it lacked the most was a new generation of governing leadership.

It could be said that students cultivated by top universities naturally possessed certain advantages when it came to entering politics.

However, Mitia wanted to ensure one thing—that their thinking remained relatively open-minded.

That was precisely the reason she sent them abroad.

They needed broader horizons.

Why would a kingdom create laws in a certain way?

What benefits would such laws bring?

Who would benefit from them?

Who would be exploited?

What kinds of groups became the beneficiaries, and what kinds became the exploited?

She was not afraid of young people knowing too much.

She was only afraid that they did not know enough.

The more limited a person’s sources of information were, the more absolute their understanding became—and the more easily they would fall into extremism.

Furthermore, whether something was happy or unhappy, good or bad, was often vague.

Most of the time, such judgments relied on comparison.

And at this moment, comparison with other kingdoms was precisely what Mitia feared the least.

In the textbooks printed under Mitia’s direction, all forms of unfair treatment were explained as a scissors-gap distribution of economic deprivation.

The cake was only so large.

If a nation could not expand outward and make the cake bigger, then the only option was to devour the weak within.

Therefore, as long as a political system remained in a stage of growth—either with internal expansion space or with the ability to break outward and extract resources—such contradictions could continually be reduced.

That was why, throughout history, almost every emperor dreamed of outward expansion.

The more successful they were, the more open and confident the people tended to become.

Only when they failed—or in very special circumstances—would societies collapse inward and begin exploiting themselves.

Discrimination, bullying, and unfair treatment toward a particular group were themselves outward manifestations of a weak nation turning its violence inward against those even weaker.

Men, women, the elderly, and children could all become victims.

Mitia did not need bureaucrats.

What she needed were elites.

Elites who had personally experienced grassroots society, who possessed international vision, who understood the cruelty of international resource distribution—and understood what distribution meant for a nation.

Projecting military force outward, plundering and extracting resources to sustain oneself, had always been the most effective way to release pressure within a country.

There was nothing shameful about this, nor was it inherently vile.

If planetary resources were limited, then society would inevitably be this cruel.

Because if the cake was fixed in size, the only way to obtain more was to squeeze others’ share—by whatever means necessary.

To people of other nations, this might seem despicable.

But to one’s own people, it made someone a hero.

A starving person would not care where that life-saving mouthful of food came from.

And if he did care, then it was best not to tell him.

Someone always had to bear the accusations of those who had eaten their fill.

Perhaps the Seris Alliance still lacked overwhelming military superiority over the Main Continent.

But in every other aspect—economic systems, laws, livelihoods, even ideological development—it was far ahead without exaggeration.

Yet internally, it still operated through a cold and ruthless mechanism.

Through trade harvesting from other countries, economic exploitation, and the continuous application of the scissors-gap strategy of buying cheap and selling expensive, the Alliance accumulated enormous profits.

Those profits were then poured into massive infrastructure construction at home.

Prices were lowered.

More advanced machines and equipment were developed and iterated.

When huge sums of money were thrown into infrastructure projects, it was like the fall of a whale in the ocean—when one whale falls, countless creatures thrive.

Infrastructure projects led the way, and hundreds of supporting industries waited for ambitious people to develop them.

Behind the massive number of jobs created were countless families.

When family incomes increased significantly, consumer demand naturally followed.

That demand stimulated the rapid development of cities, allowing numerous livelihood-related industries to flourish like blooming flowers.

Everything had its price.

If a nation lacked sufficient income yet still chose to print money recklessly, then the cost would ultimately be paid by the next generation—or even the generation after that.

However, if investments were launched using profits earned externally, as the Seris Alliance did, then the side effects would be reduced to the minimum.

There would still be a price to pay.

But this time, the next generation would not need to pay it.

Foreign friends had already settled the bill for their parents thirty years ago.

That was the transfer and offsetting of damage.

Mitia had given them excellent educational resources precisely so they could understand the pressures of a competitive society.

When they felt curiosity, fear, or disgust toward something, they would have the opportunity to understand the essence of the problem—and therefore possess the possibility of solving it.