The harder you work, the better our lives become

"I can answer your question now."

Shirahoshi looked at Makino with amusement, the corners of her mouth curving up silently.

"What you said does make sense. Those nobles buy services and indulge themselves on the Red Line, and that money does ultimately flow back to us, returning to the hands of the ordinary people on the Red Line."

"But the problem is, the ones truly becoming wealthy are the ordinary people of the Red Line. What does that have to do with your Kingdom of Goa?"

"The larger your country's trade surplus is, the more net labor your country is exporting, and at the same time, it means you are giving us more resources for free."

"Those resources can be the goods you manufacture, or of course they can also be your manpower and material resources. And precisely because the people of your member nations work hard enough, the Red Line can maintain such high benefits. The average worker's pay there is over 30,000 a month."

Makino could not quite understand these economic terms, so much so that she did not know how to refute them.

She stood there hemming and hawing for a while, and in the end could only pick a point she did understand to argue back.

"Then is this what you mean? The reason I only earn 4,000 a month is actually because of the nobles and royal families indulging themselves? If they distributed that money to us, would our income be able to match the Red Line's?"

"Of course it isn't only that. All of this has to be explained from the root. Because at the root, the citizens of the member nations are serving the Red Line."

Shirahoshi smiled and shook her head.

"The existence of the World Government ensures free trade throughout the