When the Emperor proposed using the treasury to deal with the current crisis, the first to object wasn’t the Prime Minister or the Finance Minister—it was the Minister of Defense.

The Emperor didn’t argue right away. Instead, he looked around the room, trying to gauge each minister’s stance and whether any of them had shifted their positions.

When his gaze fell on the Minister of the Army, the man hesitated before meeting his eyes. “Your Majesty, I share the Defense Minister’s concerns. The end of the year is approaching.”

“The end of the year?” The Emperor’s lip curled. “And what of it?”

He knew it was just an excuse. Still, he felt a creeping sense of urgency. Only an emperor who firmly holds power is a true emperor.

Those who don’t—are mere puppets. He might not be a puppet manipulated at will, but watching these ministers repeatedly oppose him ignited a deep anger.

None of it showed on his face. His tone and expression remained cold, detached.

The Army Minister looked uneasy. In a low voice, he said, “We need to issue the death benefits for fallen soldiers in the second half of the year. The stationed troops must rotate with homeland units. Our weapons need maintenance, and some equipment needs replacing…”

That one sentence made the Emperor fall silent. He had been ready to retort, but now he closed his mouth. Silence settled over the throne hall, even breathing was too soft to hear.

Of course—the death benefits.

The number of soldiers killed in the Amellia region had nearly reached the toll from the world war. The Emperor considered them useless; to him, their deaths were a relief—less mouths to feed.

They were equipped with the Empire’s most advanced weapons, backed by impeccable logistics, and still lost to a bunch of armed civilians!

Yet no matter how much he despised them, the issue couldn’t be ignored.

Even useless, they had died for the country.

Under Gephra’s current policy, the family of each fallen soldier was entitled to a one-time payment of 3,500 crowns, plus a quarterly pension.

The pension amounted to 80% of the active-duty salary, paid over a period of three to six years—to help these families through the hardest early years.

It wasn’t a small sum. And that wasn’t even counting all the other military expenditures. It was enough to give anyone a headache.

The Emperor’s head began to throb again. He forced himself to bear it and looked at the others. “Anyone else have something to say?”

He scanned the room for more dissent.

Disappointingly—but not unexpectedly—someone else did speak up.

The Minister of Finance stood. He gave a slight bow in respect, but standing at all was already a form of disrespect.

The Emperor stared at him coldly. The minister, however, voiced his disagreement without hesitation.

“Your Majesty, reconstruction in Amellia is underway. After spring, we’ll urgently need funds for sowing.”

“Besides that, rebuilding cities, key public infrastructure, and military facilities will also require significant funding.” 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“If we drain what’s left in the treasury now, it may severely slow Amellia’s development—or even cause setbacks in policy execution.”

“The locals are desperate for improvement. If we can’t deliver rapid results, a second wave of resistance might erupt.”

The Finance Minister wasn’t just speaking nonsense. The focus on developing Amellia had become a core source of tension between the Emperor, the nobility, the elite, and the lower classes.

After taking such a bold step to push development, halting funding now could send the already-improving situation spiraling back into chaos.

Poverty and backwardness are the greatest motivations for rebellion. If development lags and people lose hope, hunger and hardship will push some into joining or forming resistance groups.

Moreover, the Empire had poured massive investment into Amellia in recent years. This was not the time to lose momentum. What the Finance Minister said truly mattered.

Even though the Emperor knew he wasn’t wrong, it still displeased him.

He muttered, half-serious, half-mocking, “So there’s no money here, no money there… If it comes to it, we can just print more.”

No sooner had he spoken than the Prime Minister voiced his opposition. Whether or not it was a test, the Prime Minister had to respond now.

He had already taken the initiative. If he stayed silent or passive, behaving like a mere figurehead, the nobles backing him would start to worry.

They’d fear the Prime Minister’s true ambitions didn’t match the ones they’d imagined—an unsettling thought that could bring dire consequences.

So the Prime Minister knew it was time to speak.

“Your Majesty, now is not the time to issue more currency…”

The Emperor turned his gaze to him, his expression blank. “Let’s hear your view.”

The Prime Minister bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment. “The bank run has already caused economic disruption. The root of this is a shortage of circulating currency.”

“In fact, the problem was planted four years ago.”

“When we fully took control of Amellia, we should have issued new currency to support market liquidity.”

“One province, over a dozen cities, eight million people—we ignored how their demand for goods and services would strain the domestic economy.”

“If we now print money just so everyone can get their deposits, rapid inflation will worsen the chaos, destabilize the market, and undermine public trust in us.”

“In principle, I support the idea of printing money to respond to changing domestic and global conditions. But we must be cautious. Given the current economic damage outside, now is not the time.”

Indeed, much of Gephra’s raw materials are imported. With currency devaluation, it would take far more money to import the same quantity of goods.

Industries reliant on those imports could go from profit to loss overnight.

And for ordinary people, inflation would bite hard. To print enough money to cover the run on banks would cause prices to skyrocket. Those who could once eat their fill might only manage two-thirds of a meal.

And those who were merely scraping by—would go hungry.

Factory wages wouldn’t sustain households. If owners raised pay, they’d suffer losses. So of course the Prime Minister would reject the Emperor’s plan.

If he wanted to keep power, he couldn’t afford to be incompetent. Gephra’s system simply wouldn’t allow a foolish Prime Minister to remain in office.

This is different from the Federation. In the Federation, it doesn’t matter even if the President is an idiot—they have a complete system that ensures the government keeps running as before. But Gephra isn’t like that.

He had to oppose the Emperor to prove his integrity, to gain public support.

Challenging imperial authority is no easy task—it requires both the support of the nobility and public opinion.

“If this won’t work, and that won’t work, then you tell me—what will work? And how do we put an end to this chaos?” The Emperor threw the question back at his ministers.

The ministers fell silent. At this point, solving the problem in one stroke wasn’t easy.

But it wasn’t exactly complicated either. It could all be fixed—with money.

There had been bank runs in the past, more than once, but they had always been small-scale—targeting the banks of declining nobles or a few commercial banks.

What was happening now—this scale—was unprecedented.

And yet it was precisely this matter of money that had stumped everyone.

No one spoke. A mocking, sarcastic smile appeared on the Emperor’s face. He looked at the Finance Minister. “Do you have any bright ideas?”

The Finance Minister stayed silent for a while. Just as the Emperor was about to pass him over, he suddenly spoke.

“Your Majesty, we can borrow money.”

The Emperor looked at him in surprise—they were thinking the same thing.

The Finance Minister had already completely lost. He had been defeated in this political struggle. No one could have predicted that the Prime Minister would rather throw the empire’s economy into turmoil just to bring him down. Facing a Prime Minister who had gone mad, the Finance Minister had no way to fight back.

Just like those merchants who had no choice but to back down when facing a suicidal Finance Minister who was ready to drag everyone down with him, he could only retreat step by step.

Since the outcome was already decided, the Finance Minister was no longer trying to save himself—but to preserve the faintest chance for his family’s future.

“Let’s hear your idea,” the Emperor said after a moment of thought.

The Finance Minister stood and gave a respectful nod toward the Emperor. “The situation we’re facing now involves many coincidences. If we can’t solve this problem internally, then we can try to solve it externally.”

“There’s a lot of speculative capital internationally. The bankers active in various countries—even foreign governments—could offer us some support.”

“As long as we can reach some agreements with outside parties and secure a sum of money, we can stabilize the situation quickly.”

The Emperor gave a noncommittal nod. Then he glanced sideways at the Prime Minister, who was frowning deeply, and asked, “What do you think we should do?”