Machi County was exceptionally peaceful that winter.
For more than two consecutive years, it had been selling agricultural, livestock, and handicraft products, with prices rising year by year. Combined with support funding and loan funds received by the county, infrastructure projects had been launched, local people had been hired for work, and there had even come a point where the local labor force was insufficient.
In just over two years, the county's per capita disposable income had nearly doubled. Of course, that was mainly because incomes had been very low to begin with, so earning a little more had doubled them.
Meanwhile, as more and more tourists arrived from elsewhere and the cultural tourism industry developed by leaps and bounds over those two years, many people came here to do business. More goods were shipped in from outside, which instead drove down prices.
Naturally, things were still relatively expensive for tourists, but for local residents, many goods had become cheaper. With higher incomes on top of that, their quality of life had improved considerably from both ends, their sense of happiness had soared, and even the birth rate was higher than before.
Outwardly, the county town used to be old, its roads were dirt, and the people were all dusty and grimy.
Over the past two years, the county's Central Avenue had become a brand-new asphalt road. Half the buildings along both sides had been torn down and replaced with six- or seven-story buildings, finally breaking the county's former record of three stories as the tallest.
The asphalt road stretched in both directions along Central Avenue. In one direction, it only needed to extend a little farther to connect with the main road that was being built toward it. In the other, it spread outward, linking the villages below, the