Not even two days after that event, the Queen of Prettania and her entourage had already returned to their country. Their return marked a drastic change in the lives of citizens.
For three days, people saw trucks whizzing from one side of the nation to the other. Nobody knew what they were doing and why. In particular, the Tanz industries were working at full speed. Even the workers and truckers didn't seem to know much about what was going on. All they knew was that it was a major project ordered by the queen.
Then, at dawn on the fourth day, a magnificent surprise greeted the people: in all the cities of the nation, from the largest to the smallest, trucks loaded with all kinds of food were flowing.
People reacted to the event with extre joy. Due to the naval blockade, famine and the almost total loss of the livestock industry, a large part of the population was starving. But now, the food was finally back!
Nobody knew where it ca from and nobody cared: what was valuable was that people could finally fill their bellies with sothing edible! An exorbitant number of citizens poured into the streets visibly raising their wallets, so even raising money regardless of the fact that soone could take them. But when they learned that all food was free, and that it would be distributed equally to everyone, their joy beca overwhelming!
The hymns "Long Live the Queen" and "God Save the Queen" rang across the nation throughout the day and into the next night. Human hearts were easily won, but during monts of crisis they were won even more easily: if soone gave a person what they had been deprived of for a long ti, that person would beco hers for her life. Although until a few days there were not a few people who cursed the people at the head of the nation because of the terrible famine that afflicted them, now that feeling seed completely gone and only a few angry ones still sulked.
The following day, the queen then made a proclamation that shocked the entire nation: she revealed that the Prettania Kingdom had obtained a source of food sufficient to feed everyone, and that from that ti on the food would be distributed equally and free to all citizens.
With all the problems the nation had faced in recent years, half of the population was unemployed, so the announcent could only make them happy even more. The sa was also true for a large part of the population who still had a job, because now they could use the money they would have spent on food in other things. So, for example those who worked in the catering sector, initially had so doubts fearing they would end up unemployed, but then discovered that the food provided to citizens would only be necessary to et their daily food needs; if people wanted to try more refined dishes, they would still have to go to a pizzeria or restaurant. Supermarket chains also quickly realized that they were not in danger of going bankrupt at all, because sooner or later people would want to cook sothing other than what they were provided, and therefore all the grocery stores had to do was equip themselves. of more unusual ats or vegetables or ready-made dishes such as cakes and ice cream. In short, in the end, the only ones who were really unhappy with that change were the large agricultural owners, who soon realized that their empire, which had enriched them up to that mont thanks to famine, had finally co to an end.
Obviously, all the food ca from so of the feeders Sobek had provided to Pauline. Since the Prettania Kingdom was quite large (about four or five tis the size of Brazil), just one or two of each manger was not enough: for this Sobek had supplied several hundred. After that, Darius had thought of the rest: in a few days he had modified so plants of his industries positioned in strategic points of the nation, so that no city was more than a day's journey by truck from a plant. Once the work was completed, the mangers could now easily provide food to any inhabitant of the kingdom.
Darius had already made agreents with Pauline: he had agreed to donate all the factories where the mangers were located to the state, in exchange for only a small sum, infinitesimal compared to the value of the factories, to be able to stabilize his business. Harris had done the rest, placing the factories under watchful army surveillance so that no one would try to steal the feeders.
But the changes had just begun.
On the sa day as the proclamation, Pauline gathered her entire court, both aristocrats and ordinary citizens, and revealed what she intended to do: a total reform of the state order of the Prettania Kingdom.
For generations, the ruler of the kingdom had always retained all powers. Over ti, the state system had changed a lot, passing from a court ford by the king's trusted people, to one ford by nobles, to one finally ford by both noble families and ordinary people in recent decades; but the sovereign's excessive power had remained unchanged. Now, for the first ti in the history of the kingdom, Pauline gave up part of her power and shared it with new legislative, executive and judicial bodies, drafting the first truly rigid Constitution of the Prettania Kingdom.
The tripartite division of powers wasn't an unusual phenonon on Eden: as had happened on Earth with Montesquie, even on that world there had been philosophers who had understood the need to keep the powers separate and subsequently many nations who had supported this thesis. About three-quarters of the nations of Eden had by now adopted the tripartite division of powers. Furthermore, many nations already possessed strict constitutions. The Prettania Kingdom during its history had sotis seen the birth of sovereigns who agreed to divide their power, but it had always been weak constitutions that the king or queen could withdraw at any ti.
Not this ti. This ti Pauline aid to make the country's Constitution lasting over ti.
Drawing it was obviously not an easy job. Of course, all walks of life, from nobles to commoners, wanted to have a guaranteed part of the power, since it would no longer be possible to obtain it. The negotiations between the various parties were therefore quite fierce and went on for two weeks, and probably would have lasted longer if Pauline had not made it clear that she was in a hurry to get the job done. The Constitution was anded many tis during its completion, but Pauline was nevertheless always adamant with regard to the cornerstones desired by Sobek: guaranteeing the freedom of every single citizen, food and accommodation provided by the state, tripartition of powers.
Eventually, after much effort, she managed to reach a satisfactory agreent. It was established that the legislative power would be entrusted to a Parliant composed of two chambers. One of them would have been ford by ordinary citizens elected democratically, in respect of the principle of everyone's freedom; the second would have been ford by the aristocrats. Both would have had four hundred and fifty mbers. Only with the approval of both chambers could a law be passed.
The executive power instead remained in the hands of the royal family, in this case to Queen Pauline, who, however, should have created a governnt composed of both common citizens and aristocrats, and this governnt should then have received the confidence of Parliant. The queen was supposed to form a new governnt every seven years.
Finally, the judicial power was entrusted to the Supre Court, which would have been composed of judges who, to beco part of it, would have had to pass nurous tests to evaluate their legal abilities, and only the best would thus have ford this body that would have had the task to supervise all laws and regulations decided by Parliant and the Governnt.
Once the division of powers was completed, various articles were decided in the Constitution which sanctioned the various freedoms that each citizen could dispose of and the functioning of state powers. This ti the process was faster. In particular, it was clearly specified that the State from now on would take charge of providing food and accommodation to every citizen (obviously of age).
Finally, the ways in which the Constitution could be anded were established. It had to be a very long and tiring process, since only in this way could the Constitution be defined as rigid. Eventually a path so complicated was established that it would take a full year to edit a single article.
Once the new Constitution was fully drafted, it was publicly announced to the entire nation. The Constitution would co into full force only after a year, which was ti to settle all state matters (unlike Jocelyne, who had planned the Great Republic of Beleriard well in advance, Pauline had many problems still to be solved), but this didn't it ant that so of his articles, such as the freedom of the individual and guaranteeing food for all, weren't respected prematurely.
The whole population was happy with all these changes. Suddenly, all the suffering and hardships they had had to endure seed to resolve one after the other. Of course, there was no shortage of skeptics, but most people, of course, preferred to believe that the nation was heading towards a golden age.
It was in that climate of happiness that Pauline felt confident enough to make the final announcent: with a proclamation that shocked not only the entire population of the Kingdom of Niger, but also all neighboring nations, she publicly revealed that the changes the nation he was experiencing had only been achieved thanks to the support of the dinosaurs. Most importantly, she revealed to the whole world that the Prettania Kingdom was now at peace with the dinosaurs.
Such a statent could only raise a fuss.
******
"What the fuck is that stupid woman thinking!?" the emperor of Almagna roared.
Even though Pauline's statent had only been broadcast in her own country, it certainly didn't take long to get on everyone's lips. And of course her words infuriated the leaders of the four superpowers, who had not hesitated for a minute to conduct a remote ergency eting on a private channel.
"We had an agreent!" the emperor growled. "Queen Mackenzie not only violated that agreent, but she also made peace with the dinosaurs, an act that goes against the policy of the NMWA itself!"
"I agree! What do you think you are doing?" the president of the Gardarikian Federation grumbled, who despite having remained calm was still quite irritated. "We have pointed to the Great Republic of Beleriard as a traitor precisely to prevent other nations from siding with the dinosaurs! Won't Queen Mackenzie think she can stand up to all of humanity alone? Her kingdom may be a superpower, but it would be torn apart if we all unite against it "
The atmosphere was heating up more and more, but suddenly soone brought everyone to their senses with a simple sentence: "I would like to remind you that the Prettania Kingdom knows how to make nuclear weapons" the president of the Confederate States of Vinlanda said.
Those words were enough to calm the hot spirits. "Yeah... they have the atomic bombs too" the president of Gardarikian murmured. "If we try to move against the Prettania Kingdom, we will not get out unscathed"
"Gentlen, let us think clearly before making decisions" the president of the ilong Republic intervened. "To begin with, what do the embassies and representatives of the Prettania Kingdom say?"
"For now they keep silence. They claim that Queen Mackenzie will soon make an announcent in front of the entire NMWA" the president of Nairobi replied.
"Then let's wait. By moving blindly we will not solve anything. As far as we know, the Prettania Kingdom has probably already taken counterasures against us" the president of ilong said. "When Queen Mackenzie cos before the NMWA, we'll put her under pressure and consider what to do with her later. Until then we don't make rash moves"
Everyone agreed. After all, no one was eager to go to war with a nation that possessed nuclear weapons.
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