Japan Space-Time Strange Chronicles

End of War, Looking to the Future

This will be the second chapter this month.

We will return to the main story from this chapter, but some of the Gaiden characters will appear again, so please look forward to it.

Summoning Japan is becoming a rage and I'm already looking forward to it...

From October, the Yashahime the Half-Demon Princess and Danmachi will also start... man, I love it...

- Kazuhiro Kasami

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August 27, 2027

Japan, Tokyo, Prime Minister's Office

It has been about two months since the war with the Neutrine Empire ended, and the internal turmoil in the empire has finally calmed down. Although most of the naval vessels belonging to the Navy had been destroyed and the senators, who were the main cause of the outbreak of war against Japan, had been secured, there were still not a few hardline extremists in part of the Army. The Self-Defense Forces and Reve managed to suppress them together.

The Japanese government had convened a cabinet meeting of ministers and officials to further elaborate on the thrust of the meeting with Reve in order to hold a formal conference with the Neutrine Empire's government.

"Then, you are going to basically say 'no' to claims for reparations and the like against Neutrine?"

The Minister of Foreign Affairs continued, unperturbed by the disapproving look on the METI Minister's face.

"That country has already lost many of its weapons and soldiers, and many of its buildings, including the capital, have collapsed. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they are in a worse state than the Spernino-Italicia coalition, with which we fought last time. If we were to impose even greater reparations on them, it would surely result in the destruction of the entire national system itself."

The Neutrine Empire had been doing business with the Yi Empire and the Divine Kingdom of Anubisius through the Sindhvan Community in the east, but this was a disaster, and immediately after it was reported that Neutrine had declared war against Japan, the value of their currency, the parso, began to plummet in no time at all. The Neutrines were optimistic and paid little attention to it, thinking, "We don't know why the value of the parso is declining, but it will return if we win."

Unfortunately, however, before the Neutrine government and the various parties involved could take any action, the matter was settled earlier than imagined. As a result, the value of the Neutrine parso currency has fallen to the level where a thousand parso is barely worth 10 yen when converted to Japanese value. There was no benefit to be gained by receiving them. Cabinet ministers are well aware of the fact that Germany was in a state of hyperinflation after World War I due to the large number of reparations it paid to other countries.

"If that is the case, why not have them pay directly in gold? There seem to be a few gold mines and such in the Eastern European equivalent of Neutrine, don't you think?"

The Minister of Justice, an ally of the METI Minister, was insistent, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had received the report from the site, was unmoved.

"There were indeed some gold mines inside the Neutrine Empire, but unfortunately, most of them have been dug up by now. Yes, the situation is much the same as it was in our country at the end of the Edo period."

There was a time when Japan produced so much gold and silver that Marco Polo called it "Zipangu, the Land of Gold," but by the end of the Edo period, most of it had been mined out.