Two hours later, in the Château de Chantilly, Ciela watched Francis and Aveline playing in the courtyard. Her gaze never left them as she was concerned that they might hurt themselves.
For her, this was a respite from the exhausting and demanding work of their business, which was growing rapidly thanks to France's adapting to industrialization. Over the last few months, she had worked tirelessly, securing mining rights overseas such as in the Viceroyalty of New Granada where the modern country of Venezuela is found.
France, despite being blessed with favorable geography and abundant natural resources, faced a critical deficiency: the scarcity of its most essential resource, oil. Although France did possess some oil reserves, they proved insufficient to meet the demands of industrialization. Even in the original timeline, France had to rely on oil imports from Africa, specifically Algeria, Nigeria, and Libya.
