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~~((The 7th Anniversary Special -- page 2 of 24?!))~~
Thankfully, her father at least seemed to partially agree with her on that point. He made a habit of keeping up with the latest technological developments in a variety of fields, and the number of online tech blogs and journals that he followed was reaching a level bordering on absurdity.

Pauline, of course, much preferred to see the technology for herself. There were too many rumors and exaggerations on the internet for her taste, even from supposedly credible sources. Making outrageous claims about their works-in-progress was just one tactic that people used to procure investment--or goddess forbid, government funding.

Those ones were typically the most egregious, in her experience. Tech companies who wanted to make money off of the government always seemed to take delight in the extra bureaucratic bloat that allowed them to squeeze every last troa that they possibly could out of their governmental liaisons.

That was another reason why Pauline quite liked Queen Helen, actually.

Well, the new Queen Helen, at least--the Queen Helen that had returned from abroad and retaken the country from the Abolish halfwits who'd chased her out.

Before that whole ridiculous circus, Pauline hadn't thought very highly of the Queen at all. In fact, she'd kind of despised her. Pauline had thought her ill-suited to the task of ruling a nation, never taking care to foster a strong base of political support for herself. The woman would always just do things as she saw fit, and sure, some of those things were basically good decisions, but they also alienated people who could have probably been her allies with a bit of compromise and persuasion. Thankfully, she seemed to have matured over the last year.

Honestly, at the time of the late king's passing, Pauline would've most liked to see Prince David take the throne. That man had always been able to play the game.

When he felt like playing it, that was.