Chapter 228: | 228 | TIMESKIP: Part Sixteen - Daughter?
"Is the owner of this place dead?" Abraham questioned, curious about the monarch that had owned the castle beforehand. The edges of the dragoness\'s lips rose as she calmly responded with a tinge of sarcasm. "The king couldn\'t abandon the castle."
"For without it, he wouldn\'t be a king at all." Laplace stated the reason why the king didn\'t leave along with the evacuating citizens nor did he even agree to their evacuation. He was afraid of losing his power once the country was lost.
"I see... I guess it is what it is." Abraham muttered to himself, nodding in understanding. Perhaps death was better for the king than the lost of authority that would come after the fall of the kingdom. Especially if he wasn\'t extremely popular with the people.
"Anyhow, Abraham. I\'m curious about the development of the United World Government. How far of our country had grown?" She tilted her head, wondering about the advancement they had made regarding their sovereignty within the Ferus Sea.
"Development, huh? Well, I guess immigration is increasing by the moment. Beastfolks and humans alike are entering our country, mostly landing themselves into Dawn City. To be honest, the city had grown spectacularly large, there should be more than two hundred thousand people in it by now."
"They call Dawn City as the City of Opportunity, I don\'t know where they got that from. At any rate, most of them come from the Frontier, and their immigration is constantly affecting surrounding countries. This cause our relationship with them to be rather tense."
Abraham sighed to himself as he had already decided to not intervene with the United World Government until the completion of the Naval Task. Things seemed to be going well, of course, he hoped it would go well.
"There are becoming more of us, huh?" Laplace was a bit surprised that the United World Government had grown far larger than ever before. Especially Dawn City, which was the metropolis under her guardianship.
"I\'d like to be the bearer of good news, but criminal activities have been growing fast in Dawn City. Since your departure, criminal organizations have popped up one after another. Fortunately, the rate of increase hadn\'t affected other nearby cities."
"Though, it did make Dawn City the most dangerous city of the United World Government with how much crimes happened inside. Slums are also being created as the large number of immigrants have been oversaturating the city with people."
"While there are jobs, most of them need strict requirements. Most of the lower income jobs have been taken by those before them. As a result, the existence of the slums further increased criminal activities in Dawn City."
Abraham didn\'t hesitate to discuss about the bad news brought about by the massive increase in terms of immigrant population in the city. The UCIS, or the United Citizenship and Immigration Services were having a difficult time handling the population boom.
"I see... I guess I will have to go do some clean up once I return." A scary smile formed on Laplace\'s face as though preparing to clean some filth that had snuck into her home. Abraham didn\'t find it troublesome as criminal activities might lessen once Laplace\'s around.
There would be no need for him to intervene.
"Other than that, the Atlas Corporation have grown overseas. They have constructed branches in nearby countries, superseding the trade between the United World Government and the foreign neighbors that surrounds it. Mercedes is doing great as the Director."
"There\'s also the Bestian Confederacy. Its confederate government is currently undergoing through structural purge after someone almost assassinated the confederate leader in a conference. The country is quite chaotic, especially the warlords that reside south of it."
"Are you letting it fall?" Laplace asked, curious about the plans of her husband. Abraham looked at her for a moment before replying. The edges of his lips rose as he replied. "The Bestian Confederacy is not that much different than the warlords below it."
"While keeping it would give us a semblance of stability in the surrounding sea region, we can\'t stop destiny from taking what it had claimed. If it collapses, it collapses. There\'s no need for the United World Government to intervene with the politics of foreign powers."
"Alright, though I didn\'t expect by husband to be so rigorous, but that\'s what I love about you." Laplace smirked at Abraham, who glanced away, pretending to not understand the meaning of her words. Before the two could continue conversing however, a voice interrupted the two of them.
"Mother, is that Father?" It was a soft-spoken voice, akin to that of a child. When Abraham heard it, his eyebrows rose as he turned towards the direction of the voice. In the long-winded hall was a small girl wearing a pearly white summer dress of some kind.
The little girl\'s hair was pitch-black as her golden irises shimmered with radiance, like Laplace\'s. Silver dragon-like horns protruded from her head along with an ivory-tinted tail laying behind her. An aloof expression covered her face as she held a dragon plushy in-between her small fingers.
She was a beautiful little one, and mostly importantly, very cute.
Abraham glanced at Laplace as though asking for confirmation. The dragoness smugly nodded as she ran onward to give the little girl a tight hug. "My cute little lizard," She pinched the little girl\'s cheeks, snuggling her face.
The little girl could barely resist the onslaught of her mother. She was within the dragoness\'s mercy, and there was nothing she could do about it. Abraham stood behind the snuggling Laplace, and also softly touch the little girl\'s cheeks.
Only one word could escaped his mouth.
"Cute..."