The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

along the valleys, then climbed the switchbacks up the face of the mountains, stayed a night there, climbed further to the summit of a small peak. At the summit, a city hugged the slopes. A high barrier wall divided the very center of the long, narrow city. In the wall was a huge gate. This side of the gate was Ryuu. On the other was En.
    The differences in the appearance of the streets and the cities themselves facing the barrier wall were highly curious. Upon reaching the gates, the worn, pothole-filled roads turned into trim, even, stone-paved avenues. The typical panorama of small shops lining the rutted streets along the main boulevard, people, carriages and carts all tangled up together. Crossing into En on the other side of the gate, the shops stood smartly in tiers and waves of people flowed down the sidewalks between the shops and the right-of-way alongside the road.
    "Amazing."
    The building lining the streets themselves were tall. Many were built from stone, four or five stories, windows glazed with glass. Ryuu also had tall building with glass windows, but Ryuu left you with a gloomy, decrepit impression. Perhaps because the buildings in Ryuu were so much older. Perhaps because of the frozen water puddling on the worn stone roadways. Perhaps because the glass windows were clouded and cracked. In any case, it looked as if Ryuu had tried mightily to mimic En, but had tired of the effort and quit halfway through.
    I'd heard En was wealthy, but . . . .
    The wealthiest of the northern kingdoms. Yet the sight of this city, more than anything she had imagined, left her speechless.
    "En is a cold country, so how can it be so different?"
    When it came to the seasons, Hou and En were not that different. En was situated further south than Hou, but as it was located in the northeast corner of the continent, during the winter, it was swept by freezing seasonal winds. In fact, the sense she got as they walked along was that it got no warmer as they drew closer to En.
    "Are there large mines here?"
    Rakushun glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "No. Unlike Hou or Ryuu, En doesn't have much in the way of natural resources. Growing wheat and raising cattle, that's about it."
    The cities were big and business flourished, explained Rakushun, but the larger portion of the kingdom's wealth came from the annual harvest.
    "But a difference this big!"
    "That has to do with the difference in the qualities of the kings."
    "The kings? That accounts for this?"
    "En has not faltered in five hundred years. That accounts for the biggest difference."
    "But--"
    "When the throne is occupied, natural disasters occur less frequently. With fewer wars and natural disasters, the population grows. The people work hard and cultivate land and agricultural stocks grow as well. By maintaining the fields well, harvests flourish. The kingdom carefully controls surpluses of grain to ensure against overproduction and price deflation. The kingdom manages the land, and stockpiles against a rainy day, and thus keeps every nook and corner in good condition."
    "For example," Rakushun continued, "dig drainage canals to prepare for the rainy season. Build bridges over the canals, and secure them with stone foundation so they don't collapse. Cover the canals where they cut through roads. By preparing and following a well thought-out plan, the cities can be protected. Over ten or twenty years, carry these programs throughout the kingdom. With a kingdom being guided over a long period of time by a single policy, it will come to be adopted in the kingdom's furthest precincts."
    Shoukei's father had sat on the throne for thirty years. The previous king had ruled for not half a century. In contrast to that, this was the result of a single king governing for half a millennium.
    "The kingdoms of short-lived kings are quite unfortunate. You finally create a business and build it into something big, and it's swept away by a flood and you have to start all over again."
    "True."
    "The Royal Hou was infamous for his cruelty. Maybe not to you, but such a king was not a blessing to his subjects."
    Shoukei glanced briefly at Rakushun's profile. "Probably not."
    "The king is there to help the people. Oppressive kings do not stay in their positions for long. But what is difficult now will become worse when a king falls. And when the Saiho dies as well, it will take five to ten years for the king to be chosen. Twenty years might not be unusual. When natural disasters have gone