Providing Shells

The room's soothing music could not conceal the turbulent emotions in everyone's hearts.

The Gefra diplomat was absolutely right. Once a person grew accustomed to using simple methods to handle problems, the farther they went, the less willing they became to use complicated means.

Even thinking seemed to have become a burden.

It was just like Gefra a few years ago. They had been invincible, with no one in the world capable of defeating them at sea, and they had gone around making trouble for everyone else.

Sometimes they attacked a port over nothing more than a rumor. Other times, they disguised themselves as pirates and plundered the seas.

They had been unreasonable, and had grown increasingly unreasonable.

That was because the Gefra Emperor had discovered that being reasonable was tiring, yielded none of the benefits they expected, and even made him angry.

So why be reasonable? The bay was blockaded and the shells were loaded. Either apologize and pay up, or attack the port.

The losses caused by the destruction of a port far exceeded what the Gefra Emperor was extorting from them, so they might as well just give him what he wanted! Precisely because he believed this method could rapidly accumulate wealth and resources, the Gefrans became dangerous. They began actively invading other countries, eventually triggering a war that engulfed the entire world.

The most infuriating part was that they had still ended up on the victorious side. A bunch of thugs had won the war, and justice had lost to evil.

The Federation was now following Gefra's old path. It was no longer like it had been a few years ago, when it would first send a formal diplomatic letter whenever something happened, negotiate whenever an issue could be resolved through discussion, and not mind suffering