The Tearmoon Princess in the Kingdom of Remno (with some illustrations)

Chapter 4 "Visiting Ludwig"

  Mia bent down and picked up a giant stack of papers. It was so tall that Mia could just barely see over them.
"Oh my goodness! Mia, let me help you with that."
  "Oh no, you don't have to worry about me. I've got this. But, if you want to help, could you grab that stack over there?"
  Mia kicked up her left foot and pointed to an even larger stack of papers with her toes. Mia didn't feel bad about passing the larger stack over to Anne—she was over a head taller than Mia—so she figured that Anne should be able to carry the larger stack and still see—well, probably (it was a really big stack of papers).
So, the pair shuffled off to the office of yet another man in her life that Mia probably could have been a little nicer to, Ludwig Hewitt.

  Ludwig thought the world of Mia—that was true even in the discarded timeline. Well, mostly true—at first he had dismissed her as a brainless selfish princess, and it's not as if he ever grew to believe that she was bright in that timeline—but there was something so fundamentally good in her that he knew that he was a richer person for having known her. In Mia, he saw a soul that could not find her own happiness while others around her were in pain—and she would fight for the lives of the oppressed as if it was her own life at stake—no, she did more than that—he watched this woefully overmatched girl struggle tirelessly to save her people, even as her people called for her head. No one else had seen what was in Mia's heart—not her classmates, not the people of Tearmoon, not even Mia herself—she would die believing herself to be the selfish, wicked princess that the world around her claimed her to be—Mia could not understand how else could things have turned out so badly otherwise. It was a cruel ending to such a good soul. Ludwig had prayed that somewhere in the universe such goodness be rewarded with some small bit of happiness.
  And, his prayers were answered—though he had no memory of them, or pretty much anything that had occurred in the previous timeline.  And, while the tragedy of the Tearmoon Princess no longer existed in Ludwig's memory, his love for her pure heart somehow seemed to be imprinted on his soul. So, he stood by her once again, and he saw the good and the wise in her, even before it even unfolded in this world.
  But Mia's goodness and wisdom still had not completely unfolded in this world—they probably existed more as crumpled ball than anything worthy of receiving Ludwig's levels of dedication. She was still perfectly capable of being the selfish, stupid princess that he once believed her to be—but sadly (or perhaps not), Ludwig was completely incapable of seeing that side of the princess.
  Mia and Anne arrived at Ludwig's office and found him working at his desk. Mia knocked on Ludwig's open door with her foot.
  "Her Majesty! Miss Anne!" Ludwig stood at his desk and bowed.
  For the second time in a day, Mia did not return a polite bow with a curtsy of her own.
  "Uhm, Ludwig, I apologize for not curtsying, but could you..."
"But of course!
  Ludwig immediately relieved the Mia of her stack of papers. "So, what are these?"
  "Oh,  I've fallen a little bit behind in my paperwork, and since I am about to leave for Remno, I was hoping..."
  "I would be happy to help Your Highness." Ludwig smiled. He knew that paperwork was not Mia's forte. 
  Mia put both of her hands on her hips and stretched backward, "Goodness! Who knew that paper could be so heavy!"
  Ludwig placed the stack of papers on his desk, while Anne placed the larger stack next to it.  "So, is there anything else that I could assist you with?"
  "I am sure that you have everything under control, but perhaps an update?"
  "Things are going well, Your Highness. Our grain stores are proving to be more than sufficient, and the supply chains that the Forkroads Company has established are scaling up nicely."
  "And what of the Kingdoms of Deminos and Viafra?"
  "Food caravans are on the way. We hope to have the food situation stabilized in those countries within the month. Viafra  is actually able to pay for their grain at almost half our cost, although Deminos was having financial trouble before the famine, so it might not be reasonable to expect much from them at all."
"We have to support each other during difficult times. The caravans will be well protected?"
"Yes, the Princess Guard will provide an escort to Viafra, and the Redmoons have volunteered a platoon as escort to Deminos. Of course, the Princess guard could have easily provided escorts to both caravans, but the Redmoonss wanted to demonstrate their loyalty to the Princess, and a display of unity should help discourage actors that do not share our ideals."
  "Actors? You mean Serpents."
  "Not just Chaos Serpents, while Your Highness is adored by many inside and outside Kingdom, there will always be those that choose to cling to the old ways, who see your ascension as an opportunity to grab power."
"An opportunity?"
  "Well, there are still those who see focusing resources on the people as a sign of weakness, or just see a female ruler as inherently weak."
  "Inherently weak?" Mia gulped.
  The words actually took Mia a bit by surprise. Despite being hailed as The Great Sage of the Empire, Mia knew darn well that she had a lot of weaknesses—she just never thought that one of them was that she was a woman. She began to think about it for a moment, but then stopped—she really had too much work to do to waste time figuring out if being a woman would get in the way of her doing her work. After all, one of Mia's best traits was that she did not dwell on useless things. She tossed the thought away and got back to work.
"And, the cold-resistant wheat?"
  "The plants seem to be a success, but this year we only have enough plants to grow seeds for next year."
  "So, we will have to survive off of our grain stores and imports for another season?"
"Well, yes, and although our own grain yields are down, we actually have increased the amount of land we are farming, so it is not quite as bad as it could be."
  That good news was largely the result of Mia leveraging her popularity to remove some of the anti-agricultural stigma that had been so ingrained in the Empire, more land was being used for farming. Additionally, because relations with the small agricultural giant of Perujin had drastically improved, technological exchanges were now part of the two countries' relationship—so Tearmoon was not just farming more, but farming smarter.
  "That's encouraging. How many more nations on the continent are at risk?"
  "Save for Tearmoon, Sunkland, and Perujin, all are having some trouble. But, Viafra, Deminos, and the Equestrian Kingdom are the only ones that are in immediate danger—well, that we are aware of. Some nations do not want to advertise their troubles—and we really don't know much about the situation in the East. Have you heard anything from Prince Abel?"
  "It seems that Prince Abel doesn't talk to his father that much. It was hard enough to convince him to make this trip."
  "Speaking of your trip, I wish you would consider taking at least a few members of the Princess Guard as escort."
  "Ludwig, really... you are almost as bad as father. Abel will provide escort—Remno is a friendly nation."
  "Your Highness, with all due respect, Prince Abel is not Remno. While I have no doubt that the Prince shares your ideals, the Kingdom of Remno does not."
  "Well then, we must help Remno improve, and in order to do that we must establish trust. I think having an escort from Remno will help in establishing that trust—besides, Abel will be with me, and I trust him completely."
  "You are planning on offering the Kingdom wheat during a famine, that should be more than enough to establish trust."
  "The people of Remno are very proud—its King even more so. I do not want to be perceived as using food as some sort of bargaining chip to instill Tearmoon values on the Kingdom. It should be sufficient for Tearmoon to be an example to other nations. We will keep the offer of food aid very low key, secondary to establishing goodwill between our nations."
  "I understand, but I do not agree."
Of course, Mia had other reasons to want to gain the trust of Remno—she was very fond of its second prince and wanted his parents to accept her.
   Mia had read of a future in  The Saint Princess Mia Chronicles in which Abel was never allowed to return to Remno. The book never mentioned the cause of the falling out, but Mia was going to do everything in her power to make sure that Abel would have a happier future with his family.
  "I appreciate your concern Ludwig, and I know that you will manage things splendidly as I proceed on this important mission to Remno."
  Of course, the "importance" of this mission was debatable. Really this mission was looking a lot like Mia dumping off all of her unfinished work in Ludwig's lap, so she could play around with her boyfriend for a few weeks—it is not as if a princess was required to give away food. A person might think that a new and improved Mia might feel just a tiny bit guilty about dumping off her unfinished work onto one of her most loyal subjects—but, that person would not be Mia.  Why not?
  "There are some jobs that only a princess can do—so, get out of my way and do them!"
Mia had heard Ludwig mutter variations of that phrase thousands of times—well, it felt like thousands of times—it was probably closer to three or four times, but the words had made an impression. And, contrary to what one might think, Mia was not taking petty revenge upon Ludwig by running off to neighboring countries while he was at home doing drudge work. "A job only I can do..." the words echoed in her mind, almost as if they were spoken by a ghost—which was apt, since they were spoken in a world —or a time—that, outside of Mia's memories, didn't exist anymore. But, it was real to Mia.
She remembered it all, the withered fields, starving children reduced skin stretched over skeletons, angry mobs raiding empty grain stores, burning everything in their path. She remembered her appeals for food to any foreign head of state that would see her, and much more often, she was left begging minor officials or merchants to sell enough food to sustain her people for just a little while. But, as meager as the returns on efforts were, at least a princess could get someone to listen—that was her job—because if no one would even listen to the pleas of Tearmoon, then there was no hope at all.
  In the end, Mia knew that it was her failure to bring food to the Empire that led to the deaths of thousands from starvation— and then even thousands more in the revolution. When she finally met her own fate at the cold steel blade of the guillotine, hers was just one more life lost— because she failed to do her job—the job only a princess could do.
  But that world didn't exist anymore—in this world, the Empire was not starving. Thanks to years of preparation, Tearmoon was now in position to give food to other nations. Mia was no longer fighting for the survival of her people. So, why was Mia still worried about food?
  While the goal of helping other nations was noble, it surely didn't make any difference to those receiving food if it was Mia or a minor bureaucrat that made the arrangements.
  Except that it did make a difference. When Mia met with a head of state and said, "Together, we will make sure that no one starves." It was not just a promise from the Princess, it was a declaration of shared responsibility and empowerment. It was the difference between being treated as a beggar and being treated as a partner to the Great Saint of the Empire. A partner to the Great Saint did not succumb to fear and hoard food for themselves while their people starved—they were part of something far too important. And so, the leaders of the countries that Mia offered assistance cast aside their instincts to protect themselves first—and did their job. As partners to the Great Saint they made sure their people were fed.
Of course, Mia didn't know any of this—well that's not quite right—she knew that food was her job—but being the slightly lazy princess that she was, she just wanted a little help with her job—so she snuck in the word "together" when she negotiated the delivery of aid to foreign leaders. Passing off her work to others and making them grateful for receiving said work was one of Mia's secret skills.
Skills literally on display in the form of two mountain-high stacks of paperwork on the desk of one smiling Ludwig Hewitt!