(Months without Yuuno : 9)

The future of the country. A man who would carry the legacy of the noblest of vampires, and the man whose veins carry the blood of our ruler. The man who was birthed right after Sadou Jii claimed the throne to the alliance.

That man was a 25-year-old taking an economics class in his room along with me. Well, I was just there because no one else was home and I was bored.

Every Sadou sibling with the exception of Yuuno was home schooled. Probably because the institutions that exist now didn't exist back then. In Rune's case, his homeschooledness really showed.

Sure he was also what many would consider a genius when it came to magic engineering, but his social skills were so poor that drunk people in pubs could make more cohesive conversation than that brat could ever hope to make.

Calling him a genius was just a way to cover his madness. His mood was always cranky except for when he was with Yuuno. And he had nasty deep dark circles and eye bags that were too big to carry into the aeroplane cabin. All the result of working and playing all night and sleeping for an hour or two a day.

And for some reason, some girls found that hot. He was a famous streamer online with an army of simps.

On the other side of the spectrum, we had Alez. The perfect kid anyone could hope for. The only imperfect trait in him was his relationship with his fiancee. She comes over rather often and I am more than acquainted with her. They are rather close and have known each other for a while.

So why is his relationship with his fiancee his imperfection? Tragically, because both of them act like they are dating strictly for political reasons.

But their awkwardness clearly shows how much they are trying to hide their affection towards each other.

They are like the leads from a manhwa who can't get over the employee barrier. Who would deny their feelings saying something like- 'We can't date because we belong to the same company. It would never work out Dong-min ssi! Please forget me!'

Thus I wonder how long it would take for them to realise that falling in love with your future wife is only natural. Not falling is what's unnatural.

Realisation would only come after self-reflection. And I seriously doubt he gets enough time to think about romance in the first place.

Much like now, he was either busy handling the country or learning how to handle it better in the future. Under the guidance of a tutor, of course.

His tutor was one of the professors from the most prestigious nobility universities around the world.

"The country is economically stable right now… there's nothing left for you to do." And according to the tutor, everything had already been taken care of. "Any step you might make now would only cause disharmony. But is there something you still want to do?" The tutor asked.

It wasn't a question I was expecting, but the answer Alez would give was blatantly obvious. He always dreamt about the same utopia almost every citizen dreams of.

So I dug deeper into the beanbag and waited for his answer to enter the periphery of my hearing space.

"I want to bring the economic wealth of the lower classes up to the level of the higher classes if given the chance."

His demand seemed kind on the outside, but the ideal was flawed simply because of how ambitious it was.

"That won't work." Wait... that wasn't the professor's voice.

I looked at my lips.

"Crap!" I shot up after realising that what I had muttered mindlessly.

"Did you say something?" The tutor turned around.

"No-"

"He said that it wouldn't work." Alez pointed out with his gentle smile.

"Oooh… an interesting proposition. Why do you think so?"

Do I tell them? Do I not? I mean everyone already knows that academically I'm somewhat of a genius myself. And we had already studied the basics of this in the discovery chapter last year. It wouldn't be too far fetched for me to interpret that information right?

Eh, whatever. It was too boring to sit around silently.

"I learnt this from my class last year, but the wealth owned by the privileged is in large part on purpose and not by function." I recite the text I read. "The rich could easily hand over the wealth and everyone would become on equal standing, but if they do that the only thing separating the ones in power to the ones in not would disappear. Making every leader lose authority."

"Why do you think that?" The professor looked intrigued.

"Hmmm…" I started using the side of my brain that I had used when I was a ruler myself. Why did the feeling of pretending to have absolute rule feel nostalgic? Power was enchanting. Anyhow, I spoke-

"The population of the country isn't necessarily poor. Especially compared to the other homogeneous race nations. The gross per capita income is relatively high and even. Simply because the privileged don't own the money themselves. Their money belongs to the government and the government belongs to them. On paper, the money nobility makes is about as much as a mid-tier businessman. But in reality, they make more money than every domestic company combined."

"So are you saying that the society is already even?"

"No. The conglomerates and crime chains hold the most amount of money 'on paper' and by estimate. But the labour and salary compensation laws have taken care of the employees such that many of them get a large portion of the companies revenue. The people employ are rich, but the people who are employed are compensated for their work properly. If you tend to them too much, you would risk upsetting the people who risked their livelihood towards making the conglomerates, the business owners."

"There's inequality but the system is still rational, you say."

"Yes."

The professor had a satisfied grin on his face. He acknowledged that Alez wasn't all dreaming out of his head. His proposal would increase the gross happiness of the country but that too would come at a risk of a revolt. Like I said, too ambitious.

The information I had was not something I researched, but something I was taught. All I did was interpret that information into logical conclusions.

"In that case, what would you do if you were given the throne today?" Alez finally turned around and asked. Those words probably weren't light. The crown prince asking the son of a military head about something like that? Not ideal. But then again in his eyes I was a family member.

Plus, I think that he thought about all of this already but decided to go for the ambitious approach anyway.

Should I propose an even more ambitious approach then? Hehe.

"Cut the taxes altogether…"

"?!" The two looked more surprised than they did confused.

"You would think that giving money out to them would solve the issue… but in the case that you can't do that, like right now… the second best thing would be to use that excess fund to improve the living quality of the country. Better infrastructures, increase the quality of domestic produce, and reducing taxes. The three things people complain about the most. The country would become a better place and you would raise the per capita happiness."

Both of them tried to comprehend what I just said. Silently before one opened their mouth-

"That's the same ideology as the primordial reformation isn't it?" Alez spoke.

"Primordial reformation?" Wazzat?

The door flung open and a boisterous old man with glossy blond hair jumped in.

"Under the rule of the demon lord, the land became abundant and self-sufficient. The peasants and farmers started to earn money equivalent to the goods they produced. To give the people the incentive to work harder the demon lord promised a decrease in taxes with every more bit of produce made. He made them work so that they did not have to work anymore. Ah also, we're back!"

Now that I think about it, I did do something like that. So that's what they decide to call it, huh? I never expected that policy to make it into the history textbook. It was so over the top, after all. Funnily enough, the stupid demons fell for it too. They worked incredibly hard for the taxes I was gonna reduce anyway whether or not they exerted themselves to that extent.

And it all worked out for me! I used that extra produce for international trade to buy an upgraded version of the cooling artefact. The castle never saw a day of heat after that.

Boy, it was worth it.

Reminiscing aside, after Sadou Jii's return, the class was dismissed. It was plenty for the day anyway.

I was picking my stuff up when a hand landed on my shoulder. Naturally, I turned around.

"Mao-kun do you want to participate in my economics study once you are old enough to join the high school?" The old grey-haired professor asked.

That sounded like a pai- Wait, NO! That was perfect! I could build connections from there, earn money, and buy an island and run away from the war. Everything would be right according to plan!

"Yes, please!" I shook the professor's hand.

"Nice! Then I hope to see you in the Zenith League! We run an economics circle… given your lineage you should be more than strong enough to join. So I'm really looking forward to meeting you there. You are a very bright kid!"

Strong enough? Well, whatever! This was a great opportunity.

"Yes!" I nodded.

He left soon after and the ones left in the hallway were Alez and I.

I doubt that he was the type to feel inferior to me. But being shown down by a 6-year-old must have hurt something in him. A part of me just wants to confess that it wasn't his fault and that I had 13 years worth of ruling experience but that would cause more harm than anything else.

I continued to walk forwards with a slightly hunched back… and then a hand gently slid through my hair.

"You really grew up quickly, huh?" The large handsome man ruffled my hair.

'You shouldn't get jealous of family, should you?'

"I'm relieved to have a brother like you. I hope that you can help me out whenever I'm stuck in the future!" He sounded genuinely happy.

That was good enough.

I let out a slight chuckle.