Chapter 79: Cut from the Same Cloth

Arachne who is quite well dressed is crying in her heart because of how restricted she feels when she dons any kind of clothing, being intelligent is one thing, but some eccentrism will never leave a person's body no matter what attainment she reached in her life, especially when it was rooted in their upbringing, in Sophia's case she still eats dry food bare-handed despite being an illustrious figure all in her two lives and Arachne's near if not Sophia level biological genius will not stop her from being a default exhibitionist.

"Can I take off my clothes?"

Arachne looked at Sophia, wriggling her whole body left and right as if she was a snake rather than a spider, Eleanor who had been staring at her wife all this time, was bothered by something about Sophia, and when she saw the silent nod of hers and her seemingly unconscious lean forward as well as the gulp that was visible on her throat, Eleanor finally confirmed her guesses.

_Well, that sucks for me._

She thought so to herself and shook her head, as one of the earliest children of a womanizer like Urduja, Eleanor had observed her mother up close and because of this, she knew a "playgirl" when she saw one, and the moment she got to look at Sophia in a closer distance than ever, she immediately concluded that her wife and her mother are cut from the same cloth.

As Arachne finally finished her stripping, Sophia returned to normal, Eleanor continued to look at her in silence with a single thought on her mind, being one of the lovers of a "playgirl" sure sucks, but it is more jarring seeing your wife punishing herself by restraining the seemingly sole enjoyment her body wants to enjoy.

Surely, nothing about being a monarch is euphoric, right?

[Sophia's POV]

Before ending the meeting with Luna, I also sent a Tikbalang to Indio to serve as the temporary Prime Minister, she agreed immediately, most probably because of emotions, but anyway, after which, I turned off the connection between us and put down the cork and put it in one of my pockets, I then sighed.

[Well she is not very smart, politically speaking.]

Yes, that, or she doesn't care about politics at all like the Luna I know.

[She probably took up a political position like the unofficial leader of the state of Indio so that her commands would be absolute, and as far as the span of her Rebellion goes, all of her commands are right.]

Yup, I can see that when she agreed to not build cities and build camps instead because cities need a proper running economic line to properly function and that takes a large amount of investment, while a military base just needs soldiers. In terms of funds, it's more convenient.

Well, she is Luna alright, even her temper is Luna (Search: Luna Temper it is famous here, historically), but anyway, her not-so-good political acumen made this negotiation smooth and silky, so I just have to let time do its work, right now I have to establish a proper monetary system and then the economy. For the monetary system, because this is a fantasy world and as how Eleanor explained it to me, the world of the Pentateuch in general uses gold, silver, and copper as their currency and the ruler's face will be the only thing that differentiates a gold from a Kingdom to a gold from another Kingdom.

"Say Arachne, do we have any reservoir of golds, silvers, and coppers in here? We need them to set up the privatization and economic efforts you see."

For an economy to work properly, it is not ideal for the government to control all of the resources and then redistribute them to the people, the people should be the ones to acquire their resources by doing work or creating work through business, the only thing the government should control are all the lands in the kingdom and some specified industries beforehand, only then that the state will be able to start its economy.

It's the basics and I can do it this early because the majority of my population only needs clothes and houses.

"Well, since I started to become the eye of the forest, I have not seen a cave, hill, or any other kind of deposits of those three minerals, probably, there is, but because this place is owned by a god, all of them probably became magic ores."

Arachne replied, an idea immediately popped out of my brain.

"Say Eleanor, how much does a single magic ore cost in terms of gold?"

Eleanor who was beside me looked at me with squinted eyes, it seemed like she already knew what I was thinking, and even then, she still replied.

"A single ore costs two gold coins..."

Oh... I see, with my mouth starting to grin, I hurled another question,  can't be too excited, I still have some things to consider before the swirling plan in my head gets the green light.

"One more thing, can you, in complete detail describe to me all of the properties unique to a magic ore?"

Arachne then, with a smirk similar to mine replied, surely the three great thinkers of my queendom is at an accord at this one, though Eleanor is still squinting her eyes.

"Well, all of them can regenerate their reserve for a month, they are tougher, and more expensive than the standard minerals that are used in usual global currency, meaning that you can quite literally make our currency the strongest in the world few days after the conception of Kamatayan."

_Shit. she spoiled it._

That was all I could think of as Arachne just destroyed my mysterious act, both of us had great smiles on our faces, but Eleanor did seem to not agree with it as a block of sand appeared in between us and stopped Arachne and me from fantasizing such a ridiculous feat, I mean, who wouldn't want a leap into the ladder of financial greatness, right? Furthermore, this world as I see it is yet to have a "US Dollar" or a currency used to compare and understand the power of other currencies.

In any case, in the block appeared a map of the whole Genesis continent, and the name Valentine at the back of Kamatayan and Gjallarhorn at the front appeared, she then spoke while making us focus on the two nations.

"These two countries here are the two nations who hold the greatest economic powers in our continent and the world of course, not the Apolaki or Mayari Empires, but the Kingdoms of Gjallarhorn and Valentine and as you can see, we are being sandwiched by them, if we just came in and overtake them, our military who consists of undying soldiers who lost their edge and needed to be retrained, forget about being strong the moment you were born, all of Kamatayan will die before it can even walk, that is not even considering the two great rulers of Valentine and my mother, The Hero of the Sun Urduja."

Eleanor said, trying to persuade me to make my move, but right now I am the Queen of Kamatayan, so I have to refute what she had said.

"So you're telling me to pass on greater export returns, lower traveling costs, and greater business opportunities for our locals because of those three people when I also have a lot of powerful individuals present in this room alone? Plus if we did not use what we had to create our own money and started to import raw golden ores, we would sink into the bottom of the chain even before we attempt to climb up the pyramid, and I don't want that to happen, do you?"

Eleanor with locked brows, made the block disappear, but she still argued.

"... Agh...."

But apparently, what I just said makes sense so much that she is speechless, I am speechless too because our first lover's quarrel is about currency production.

"So, does Eleanor agree? I have my appointment with Sophia, so you can settle all of this in your room... One way or another, bye."

Eleanor flinched and then nodded as she said "I agree."

However, the worry in her eyes is still evident, she loves Kamatayan so much, me too of course.

"Don't worry, I will not do something not beneficial for this nation."

I then left my throne and waited for her to go down with me too, I then started to hurl orders using my hive mind of mine, some orders and decrees shouldn't be known to other people, because they are quite delicate, but mostly because hive mind is convenient.

First, I  started my first display of sovereignty and used the Marionette Spiders to capture the orcs, even though they are not very smart and according to the bestiary, an orc will only have an unnamed goblin's intelligence as their intellectual limits even if they got named, I still want them to be useful somehow and I reckon that they will be more useful if they were robbed of their free will.

Well, I don't think the one who positioned them over our behind will even be provoked by what I am gonna do, so that should be fine.

"Oh, Arachne, don't forget to give me a map of all the sites in the forest that have magic ore, make sure that they all have the same properties before you do."

I can hear the sigh from Arachne, she then said.

"I just got back to my cave, you could have told  me when I was still there, you know?"

I just sighed and then replied.

"Just do it okay? It's not like you will have it easier when I state my orders to you here. You can start tomorrow and celebrate in your cave."

"Yes, yes, concerning the Queen, servants cannot eat with you, not like I like cooked food. But I will take up the holiday offer."

Surely, I can't tell her that I don't want to see her being swallowed by giant spiders, so I used the authority card to unreasonably brush her off, anyway I have a lot of things to do, I have to attend a banquet in the palace that only two living beings can attend as celebration for the National Establishment Day that will be celebrated yearly as the very first holiday of our Queendom, of course it is to celebrate the establishment of my monarchy and the state.

And yes, I will prioritize food over everything else, primarily because I did not eat anything for days, I am afraid I will not be able to eat anything if this continues, those dying days of mine in which I can't taste anything are still vivid up to this day.

[But didn't you just taste your wif-]

Ok, the next person I have to command is Agilus about all of the animals that Bulawan city has to rear to create a proper husbandry industry, but because I can already hear the party in the city as all of the citizens started to shout my name and all of that, I did not continue my command and put it off for tomorrow, I can't really impose my workaholic tendencies to others, so I just drafted in my mind all of the race that will be captured by the Bulawan city, how it was reared something that I referred to in my last life knowledge, I also gave them free will on the lands that they need so that they can freely allocate the place most suitable to which animals or monster because most of them are bigger than normal bunnies/wolves/pigs, etc.

Next up is the Magayon Industrial Center, I made notes in my mind that I will send tomorrow to the secretary of construction that first, do not start the creation of exterior design and blueprint because I will be the one that will create it, after all, I want to preserve the cone (as much as possible) without compromising the functionality of the industrial city, plus I also need to tell them to not start because I will send miners under the volcano to extract all of the ores needed for the creation of the coins, I also have to tap some sculptors to carve my mug in it and to make it round, of course, I will ask Eleanor to recreate the mass production machine of their Kingdom later on.

Oh, I also need to announce the privatization and give the starter packs for the living and the dead. I have to create a very good speech so that they will be inspired to create jobs for the jobless, the construction efforts and the commercial and military industrialization cannot create 20+ Million jobs, so I need them to learn how to create business and be bold.

Don't forget the soldiers I have to retrain too

Seriously, I just sat on the queen's throne and my schedule was loaded the next day and the day to come, an ambitious person's daily life sure is busy, but before that, we arrived at the dining area in which all of the chefs that were newly appointed as the royal cooks gathered in front of me, for some reason majority of them are females, but anyway all of them put their left hand to their right chest and then bowed ever so slightly as they made the way for their two queens.

"We hope our cooking will suit your palate, Her Majesty, Our Lady."

I walked in front of Eleanor with my usual confident look, but Eleanor still seemed to be nervous, I wondered why is that even though she was technically a noble in Gjallarhorn, but anyway I sat in the center seat and Eleanor was in my right side as I inhaled the aroma of all the piping hot food, I exhaled in satisfaction.

_It's a long time since I ate anything._

_____

Side Story:

[Guide] After Sophia said her last line: What are you, a beggar?