Chris's government reforms had only just begun. On Marquis Dirac's first day as the new deputy minister of state affairs, before he had even worked out what he was supposed to do, an attendant hurried in to report an urgent diplomatic matter.
Two ambassadors from southern nations had arrived in Votradnoi almost simultaneously and presented diplomatic letters requesting formal relations with the newly established Kingdom of Bagnia.
The two nations were the Macon League and the Pomerelia League.
The Macon League lay along the coast south of the Retalia Empire. It was not a kingdom in the traditional sense, but a union of several powerful commercial city-states and autonomous territories governed under a distinctive presidential republican system.
The League's highest leader was its presiding president, elected by representatives of the member states for a fixed term, with powers heavily constrained by the senate and the citizens' assembly.
It was a powerful nation, among the foremost middle-ranking powers on the Greek Continent, particularly renowned for its formidable navy and flourishing overseas trade.
It possessed a vast merchant fleet whose routes were said to reach as far as the mysterious lands overseas, bringing back spices, silk, precious metals, and rare treasures.
Yet such immense wealth also drew greedy eyes.
The Makon Alliance and the northern hegemon, the Retalia Empire, had long been at odds over trade routes, colonial interests, and territorial disputes. Border clashes and minor naval battles broke out from time to time; they were sworn enemies.
The Makon Alliance might have been in urgent need of potential allies or a strategic counterweight north of the Empire, and Bagnia, which had just annexed Minisia and was gathering momentum, had undoubtedly caught its attention.
The Pomerelia League lay farther south than the Makon Alliance. It, too, was a republic founded on trade,