The Course of the Meeting

After Lostar finished speaking and paused for a moment, Nova remained seated and began speaking leisurely. "Today's meeting is being held primarily to comprehensively develop matters concerning the people's livelihoods in the future. Considering that many of you may not have experienced related matters before, the content of this meeting will begin with the most basic issues.

"The first matter concerns the overall arrangements for the former Roa citizens who have just joined our family.

"The citizens of the former Tru Kingdom now enjoy living standards that can be considered free from worries over food and clothing, and they each have their own jobs and responsibilities.

"Our nation has also developed its own brands and sources of income. Therefore, this newly incorporated group will be the foremost issue we need to consider next.

"Now, Minister of Commerce Lostar will first speak about the economic and land-use planning for the citizens of the former Roa Kingdom."

Nova looked directly at Lostar as he spoke.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Lostar replied respectfully. He then turned to face everyone, rose to his feet, and held up the draft papers he had prepared long ago. In a clear voice, he said, "In accordance with His Majesty's orders, we have long since begun organizing the overall plans for the former Roa citizens.

"The former Roa Kingdom has a total population of 27.68 million. Of those, approximately 25.25 million cannot meet their daily needs for food, clothing, shelter, and warmth, placing them in a state of severe economic poverty and backwardness.

"The arrangements for these people in the future are as follows..."

Everything Lostar said was practically a report—not only to Nova, but also to the entire Tru Kingdom National Assembly.

By the time the entire report had ended, the citizens outside did not know what to say. Some simply stood there blankly in a daze.

From today onward, they at least knew that Tru Kingdom would soon gain many processing plants, including factories for alcohol, beverages, tobacco, food, household utensils, and many other industries, offering a wide range of jobs and factories to choose from.

That was what mattered most to them. At the same time, for Tru Kingdom, this meeting was essentially its greatest publicity campaign.

And it was publicity that did not cost a single coin.

At the very least, it would let outsiders know that Tru Kingdom was about to make even bigger moves.

At that moment, the citizens across the nation were not as excited as one might have imagined. Everyone was suppressing the restlessness in their hearts, because they wanted to keep listening and learn what choices would be better for them and what decisions they could make about their future lives.

Still, although so many factories were to be built, they remained somewhat insufficient for such a large population.

Fortunately, Tru Kingdom now possessed more than enough land to accommodate this entire series of developments.

After Lostar finished speaking, everyone else diligently took notes, afraid of missing anything.

Those attending the meeting were not only former citizens of Tru Kingdom, but also citizens of the newly surrendered Roa Kingdom, as well as the former military leaders.

They could be happy about their current lives. At the very least, they no longer had to live the wandering, unsettled lives they once had.

This meeting was crucial to everyone. There was no longer any distinction between us and them, and most of the participants were young people.

Their thinking was more flexible, and their ability and competence in handling matters exceeded that of older people by quite a bit.

Now that leaders were already in place, all they needed to do in the coming days was work steadily and practically. There was no need to worry so much about anything else.

Those above had made the plans; those below only needed to make arrangements.

Tru Kingdom's actions had truly reshaped everyone's understanding of national affairs. This open and transparent current politics also filled the people with anticipation for their future lives.

Yet while their meeting was underway, people thousands of miles away were also watching the broadcast at the same time.

"Vivi, why are you here? Didn't we agree that Father had matters to attend to today, and that you would go out and play by yourself first?"

Inside another royal palace, a little girl who looked to be only seven or eight years old stood there with long blue hair, looking very adorable.

She had tiptoed inside and suddenly appeared beside a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his forties.

At that moment, several of them were also watching the live broadcast of the Tru Kingdom meeting.

However, the broadcast they were watching was merely a rebroadcast of the footage from Tru Kingdom's national live channel.

The little girl named Vivi smiled and asked curiously, "Father, what are you watching?"

"Something important happening in another country. Father needs to watch it carefully now. Hurry and go play with the others. Don't stay in the room and disturb us."

The middle-aged man who spoke wore a crown and black clothing, giving him an extraordinary air.

This was the desert nation of Alabasta, also an unavoidable setting in the story of the Pirate King.

It was one of the largest nations on the Grand Line, and unlike those formed from islands, its territory was incomparably larger than that of present-day Tru Kingdom.

The king who spoke was Cobra, a man who currently held absolute real power.

"Father, I won't make any noise. Let me watch too!"

The seven- or eight-year-old girl said coquettishly.

However, the king was not the only person in the room. Several ministers and nobles were there as well.

Faced with this situation, Cobra did not want to miss a single part of the broadcast. He could only smile helplessly, then pick up the little girl and place her in the seat beside him.

Tru Kingdom's first national meeting was currently underway, and nearly every sentence spoken deeply moved him as a king.

After all, such a situation was truly rare. A nation openly announcing the political affairs it intended to carry out next was something kings of other countries had never imagined.

Yet that was far from the only unexpected thing. More importantly, there was their planning for the national economy. That was the true priority: how many people each area being established should accommodate, how many years economic development would require—they had to narrow all of those timeframes down to an approximate range.

These were things the kings of such nations had never even dared to imagine. Cobra had always believed that as long as his citizens lived reasonably well, he had done a decent job as king. Yet he had never imagined that a country located in the South Blue could handle national affairs with such meticulous care.