Escape Attempt

The Intelligence Agency was one of the government agencies that consumed the most money in the South.

That was because the scope of its activities was extremely broad.

First was surveillance of the North, which could be considered our current primary enemy. The North's affairs were intertwined with the monster waves, making them quite important to our Empire as well.

Next, the Intelligence Agency concentrated its information-gathering efforts domestically. It was pouring enormous resources into locating the Empire's nobles and uncovering corruption among Imperial bureaucrats.

Finally, there was the area where we projected our intelligence capabilities: overseas.

Although the Treaty of Bressen recognized each side's respective sphere of influence, I did not expect us to maintain good relations with the International League forever.

The total population of our Empire was 150 million.

There are few modern nations with populations exceeding 150 million, so the figure might not feel particularly impressive... but one had to remember that this world was still around the beginning of Earth's twentieth century.

That was more than the population of the United States in 1910. The United States possessed the world's highest GDP with that many people, while our Empire had an even larger population.

If we left things as they were, it was obvious that our Empire would smoothly claim the position of the world's strongest power...