So it is done

Worth of a friend

From the perspective of the ordinary man, the relationship between Glenn and Menagerie could not be described as anything other than an alliance. With a deployed military contingent, an economic partnership, numerous cultural, scientific, and technical exchange programs, what else could it be?

Glenn and Menagerie existed in an alliance so close that it was easier to consider them a single state entity in two forms than two separate Kingdoms.

Menagerie's youths went to Glenn's technical institutes, and Glenn workers regularly spent their holidays in Menagerie, and Menagerie was booming with a service industry that didn't rely on the natural supply of anything. While Glenn was happy to take advantage of the near bottomless supply of frustrated Faunus willing to work for somewhat less, restoring Glenn's sagging workforce to the economy. It had even led to other Kingdoms lessening their 'unofficial' policies against Faunus just to have a chance to compete!

Needless to say, even Glenn's army had not long ago allowed the recruitment of Menagerie citizens into its ranks. With the condition that they be repatriated to Glenn and change their citizenship, of course, but the very fact that such a thing was possible already spoke of the deep alliance ties between the two states.

And relocation and change of citizenship? What difference did it make to the average Menagerie denizens? After all, it did not mean anything when the journey from one state to another took less than an hour, the average salary in Glenn exceeded the one in Menagerie, and social conditions were better there. Did the change from one document to the other mean anything at all to the common man of Menagerie?

Moreover, the influx of labor force from Menagerie, superimposed on the emergence of a large pool of possible labor force from Mantle and Atlas, led to Glenn first launching the next step of their becoming a 'real' Kingdom. At least in the view of the international community.

The establishment of a satellite settlement.

This was Glenn's first, tentative step, not so much for any unambiguous economic purpose, but as their first action as a state. It was nothing spectacular, in fact when considering Glenn's, perhaps earned, reputation for ground-breaking achievements, it was positively mundane. It would be a farming settlement, with logging and manufacturing as a far second priority.

But, should this endeavor prove that it could at least break even, it would herald an era of fairly expansive growth and colonization of Glenn's territory.

And all this was happening with the help of Menagerie, so how could one call their relationship with each other in such a case anything other than as close allies?

But this was, as one would expect, only the picture that the two state wanted to show their citizens, with one state more insistent in that view,

While not exactly an empty facade, that most of the common people and even the lesser officials were convinced of the veracity of such statements, after all, there were some facts underneath these beliefs to confirm their veracity. But the higher up in the power chain the residents of the two states climbed, the more evident of the underlying tensions between the two states became.

It was natural really, part and parcel of diplomacy, after all, there's no such thing as infinite resources.

Any action aimed at obtaining a maximum share of any limited resources was in one way or another a competition. A Hunter who missed his prey might be glad of his fellow Hunter's success, after all, they are defenders of Humanity first. But, that joy would not make the other Hunter's earnings appear before his eyes unless the more fortunate fellow shared it out of his own altruism.