"What is happiness?"
There is no standard answer to this question. You may think gathering together is happiness, while someone else may think parting is happiness.
Everyone defines happiness and pain differently. We cannot simply assume that something that makes us happy will necessarily make someone else happy too! A pay raise certainly isn't happiness for a boss!
In Nagaril, a young man named Aken might consider happiness to be sitting together with his family and watching television.
That was happiness.
The room contained all kinds of brand-new household appliances. After the Federation people arrived, the first thing they did was improve ordinary people's living conditions.
They destroyed the Old City, which was actually a shantytown, and then forced everyone to move into houses.
At first, people were somewhat unaccustomed to it, but things had improved greatly by now.
At the very least, an enclosed space could give a family a strong sense of security.
The whole family sat beside the television, watching a famous host they seemed to have heard about before as he discussed work related to the new laws of the New Nagaril Federation.
Then came a television drama—a Federation television drama.
These novel things gave the impoverished family an entirely different kind of enjoyment. Human beings seemed to possess... an indescribable, transcendent talent.
If someone wanted to learn self-discipline or control their desires, that might be difficult.
But if you wanted someone to do what they liked and enjoy themselves, you did not even need to teach them. They already knew how to make themselves happier.
These things had always existed deep within people's bones. They had always been there and had never been lost.
This family had never watched a Federation drama at this time of day before, but they quickly understood how to properly