Chapter 6: In Which I was Baiting Sea Bream with a Shrimp but Caught a Shark Instead B
Then, one month passed whenâŚ
In the Royal Voice Broadcast Orbâs installation room, I was currently in a meeting with a certain someone who was projected on the quasi-receiver set. It was a girl wearing a pure white dress that wrapped around her symmetrical body line; her beautiful golden hair was slack-fluffy waved in a way that looked just like the Yurufuwa Wave hairstyle[1]; and she was the same age as me. She had the same face contour just like her imouto[2] that I had met before, but her large girlish eyes, when blinking, left a completely different impression. An outstandingly beautiful girl. To be honest, I am surrounded by different beauty types - Liscia, Aisha, Juna-san â so I think I have a rather good eye for this. Even so, just a single glance towards girl could make me think that she is beautiful. Then, this beautiful girl began to speak. ăHow do you do, Souma-dono, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Maria.ă She was the Empireâs Holy Maiden, Grand Chaos Empireâs Empress,  Maria Euphoria. ăHello to you too[3], Maria-san? I am Souma Kazuya.ăă? Whatâs with that way of speech?ăăNothing, I just wanted to speak like this for some reason.ă Her head side-tilting appearance was cuteâŚâŚ it was a foul play. ăI am jubilant for this meeting, Maria-dono, since I had been looking forward to having a nice and long conversation with you one day.ăăMe too. Souma-donoâs skill had become renowned even in the Empire.ăăEven so, my skillsâŚâŚ are all because of the help of my excellent subordinates.ăăYou are so modest. Good retainers are something that are gathered under a wise ruler.ă This diplomatic formal conversation continued for a short while. Even without any probing words, I was probing for Mariaâs nature. Her friendly smiling appearance while talking was the very definition of a pure girl. She was so dazzling, that it made me, who was trying to probe her like this, feel guilty. However, at the same time, I also had a thought: if she is a girl who is âonly pureâ, then she wouldnât have been able to govern the huge Empire. ăBy the way, Souma-dono?ăăYes, what is it?ăăThe matter about Amidonia, what are you truly planning?ă Maria was slightly closing her eyes. This alone made her feel more threatening. Even though her lips were smiling, it could be seen that she was considerably angryâŚâŚ Even so, well, it might be inevitable. Since the matter this time, from the Empireâs point of view, was close to betrayal. ăWhen Jeanne reported the negotiationsâ result, I was delighted that we could acquire a reliable ally in the east. However, might this all just be my misunderstanding?ăăEven now, we are still Empireâs sworn ally. This might be heard as an excuse, but the result this time was a situation that was beyond our expectation.ăăSo to say, this is not the Kingdomâs plot?ăăI wouldnât deny that I had a little plan. However, I never expected that the result would be like this. In all honesty, this situation keeps causing me headaches.ă
I said this while scratching my head and Mariaâs anger was lessened. ăCan I receive a detailed explanation?ăăCertainly. Let me begin with stating the summary: the Kingdom, at the very end, had been outwitted by a single girl. Acting with a thorough prediction of the chain of strives, perhaps the person who obtained the most profit, will only be that girlâŚâŚă ăâăâăâ Two months ago, at the time of Vanâs return to Amidonia (to be precise, it was one month since the return, this was the report from Black Cat Squadâs surveillance about Amidoniaâs movements). The Capital Van and its surrounding regions had been returned by borrowing the Grand Chaos Empireâs authority, and the first thing that the present Amidonian Duke, Julius, did was to remove the influences that the Elfrieden Kingdom had left behind. The various changes that happened under the Kingdomâs reign were eradicated and Van returned to its previous state. Perhaps, Julius couldnât endure the lingering scent from the Kingdomâs reign in the Capital Van, which could only be returned by bowing his head to the Empire. For a stable administration, then the effects of the previous administration need to be cleansed. This policy itself isnât wrong. However, everything has a priority. Naturally, the first thing that needs to be done is to consolidate the foundation. The succession of authority needs to obtain a proper guardianship while the previous ruler was still alive.[4] If they are unable to do so, then they might be scorned as an inexperienced novice by the retainers. Thus, in a country where the dictatorship is strong, this foundation consolidation is important. However, Gaius met a sudden death and Julius was unable to do this step. For this reason, he should have concentrated his entire attention on consolidating his foundation. And yet, Julius put the removal of Kingdomâs influence as his priority. First, Julius made a decree to prohibitt people from watching the Royal Voice Broadcast in all of Amidonia. This was the consequence of having the Royal Voice Broadcast Orbs in the Kingdomâs custody. Of course, the stalls, that exists because of the Royal Voice Broadcastâs viewers gathering, were forcibly demolished (since they knew Juliusâ character well, all the vendors had disappeared, as a result, Julius could only demolish empty stalls). I wonder how Vanâs citizens saw the demolition of the stalls in the plaza, considering it already functioned as a market for them. Moreover, just like what I had guessed, Julius destroyed the bridges on Vanâs outskirts that had been made by me and had been bestowed with my retainersâ names. Well, from a defensive point of view, they should have only stopped at destroying bridges that lied on the Kingdomâs attack route to Van, but he destroyed unrelated bridges just because they were ăThings made by the Kingdomă, which was a foolish move. The interruption of the transport network was a matter of life or death for the people. For the peddlers and merchants, roads are a property. Whether Julius knew about it or not, what Machiavelli had said not to do since it will incur hatred, ăDonât reach oneâs hands on the citizensâ women and propertiesă[5], he had already done it. In addition, he didnât give any aid to the citizens, like the emergency food distribution that was performed under the Kingdomâs reign, and increased control on public moral, he especially prohibited women from enjoying fashion and prohibited booming art culture that was widespread in VanâŚâŚand many others. I heard that the house that had the songstressLorelei drawn on its wall, was torched by the soldiers. With the freedom that had been given to them now robbed away, the citizens of Van began to clamor: ăHis Majesty Soumaâs time was better.ăăWhen we were the Kingdomâs territory, we didnât have to live under this suffering.ăăEven though the children finally got their meals...ăăWhy doesnât Julius-sama treasure his citizens more than a foreign king?ăăI wonder if His Majesty Souma can occupy Van again.ă Such opinions and grudging stares were aimed at Vanâs castle. Well, amongst their resentful complaints, there was something that was not Juliusâ own fault. In the first place, the Elfrieden Kingdom and the Amidonia Dukedom differed in population, territory size and economic conditions. For the Amidonia Dukedom to give out the various aids that the Kingdom had given out, could be said as unreasonable. However, the common citizens didnât understand this point. So in the end, the more Julius tried to erase Elfriedenâs color on Van, the more its citizens drifted away from him. ăâăâăâ Then, what about the regions outside Van and its surroundings? In this too, it didnât turn out well. Just like my statement before, since Gaiusâ sudden death prevented the succession of authority, Julius was disdained by Amidoniaâs lords. This âdisdainâ came in two forms. The first one was âWhatâs with the Ducal House, why I have to bow my head to that neophyteâ, the so-called âlooking down at the other partyâ type of disdain. The other one was, âThat inexperienced ruler is not reliable, I will need to fend for myself.â, the so-called âthe other party canât be counted onâ type of disdain. In practice, amongst the Nobles and Knights class in the Amidonian territory, the latter was the majority. To begin with, in a feudalistic system, they devoted their loyalty for the compensation of territories or properties from the ruler. If the ruler didnât have power to do so, then the retainers must protect their territory and properties with their own hands. Their actions will be not for the rulerâs sake, but for their own. I had presented Julius with the words from Machiavelli ăA country that is obtained with hardship is easy to govern, a country that is obtained without hardship is hard to governă[6]. Sure enough, Julius, who obtained Van easily by borrowing the Empireâs authority, suffered hardship.
Although I had mentioned that Julius had decreed the prohibition of watching the Royal Voice Broadcast, only Van and the nearby regions abided to it. The other regions were like, ăA decree from the Duchy Capital has nothing to do with me!ă, and so they kept on watching the Broadcast (by the way, since I had predicted this, I kept broadcasting entertainment programs to Amidonia). Since they couldnât rely on the central government, each city had been gathering soldiers or mercenaries. Considering that at this time, the Kingdom was disbanding the Three Dukesâ Army and the Nobles Army and reorganized them into the United Army, what had happened in Amidonia was the exact opposite of the Kingdomâs situation.[7] The actions of the regional feudal lords gathering their own soldiers wasnât something that Julius could ignore, but if he rebuked them, there was a risk that the lords would begin to rebel one after another. However, if someone was just looking at the results, this was a chance to clean out all the pus. Machiavelli had pointed out that this was the time to useăcrueltyă. Even if they do rebel, then one should destroy every hostile force and then exercise his authority over the others who were still undecided in their position. However, Julius didnât use this move. Perhaps he was letting the sleeping dogs lie, or perhaps he feared that his depleted numbers of soldier from the last defeat would be reduced even more? I couldnât possibly know his reason for this. However, this lack of policy was the first move towards the quagmire that he wouldnât be able to escape from. One month ago, or one month after Vanâs restoration, the rebellion of the citizens of the Amidonia Northwestern Region happened. ăâăâăâ The impetus for the citizensâ rebellion originated from the food shortage. It also happened in the Kingdom, but the food shortage in this region was more severe. Vanâs northwestern region had been the most severely afflicted region, the number of deaths from starvation had reached the unheard level of several hundreds. The citizens had requested the feudal lord for assistance, but the feudal lord rejected this request. Since to protect the region, they needed to gather soldiers, so the few food that was stored was for the soldiersâ maintenance. This feudal lordâs reaction was the cause of why the citizensâ anger exploded and attacked his mansion. The soldiers gathered to protect the feudal lord and the territory fell into a situation where they must oppose the angry citizens. Nevertheless, most of the gathered soldiers had been scraping for a living, so when they clashed with the fellow angry citizens, they ended up fleeing in all directions. The scuttling feudal lords managed to reach the Dukedom Capital Van and appealed to Julius for the suppression of the rebellion. If the rebellion dragged on, then the dissatisfaction smoldering in each territory might flare into a flame. If he showed his authority and force at this time, then the nobles would abide to him. With this judgment, Julius led the regular army and personally embarked to suppress the rebellion. The angry citizens had no means to oppose the regular army, and thus the rebellion was gradually suppressed. The gruesome spectacle where corpses of citizens scattered throughout the rebelling village was widespread in the Northwestern region. Although Julius finally suppressed the Northwestern Regionâs Rebellion and put it to an end, he received a yet another astonishing report. During his absence, the citizens of the Dukedom Capital Van revolted and occupied the city.  Furthermore, they sent messengers to pledge allegiance to the Elfrieden Kingdom and appealed for reinforcement, which the Kingdom immediately accepted and had sent out their army. Van and its surrounding regions were once again reoccupied. ăâăâăâ ăAnd then, youâŚâŚ reoccupied Van as the result.ăăThat is correct. Since it was an appeal from the Vanâs citizens.ă Maria send a gaze demanding an explanation, so I calmly nodded. Of course, this Vanâs citizensâ uprising happened due to the incitement from the Black Cat Squad led by Kagetora. They concealed themselves in Vanâs vicinity, and while observing the progression of events, they made connections with influential people of the city, and chose the timing to cause Vanâs citizensâ to riot at their own discretion.[8] The time between the messengerâs arrival for allegiance and the reoccupation was so short because I had deployed my army beforehand along the border at the former Carmine Duchy. ăThe ăHumanity Declarationă stated that it is prohibited to change the national border by force. Vanâs citizens had revolted and taken the city by force. With this, if Amidoniaâs border change, then there will be a violation of the Humanity Declaration. If this happens, the Empire, as the leader nation, will need to intervene between the countries once again. The Kingdom that moved its army into Van, too, would be dealt with in a severe manner.ăăCan you?ă Just with this short remark, Maria suddenly kept her silence. ăThe ăHumanity Declarationă also recognizes the peopleâs right to self-determination. If the citizens of Van and its surrounding regions wished to change their allegiance from Amidonia to Elfrieden, then shouldnât the Empire as the leader of the ăHumanity Declarationă recognize them and give them their needed support?ăăâŚâŚă Maria might also understand this. Thatâs why she didnât say anything else. Seeing Maria behave like this, I let out a small sigh and then informed her in a direct manner.
ăThis is the reason why the Kingdom didnât participate in the ăHumanity Declarationăă. ăâăâăâ ăHumanity Anti-Demon Race United Front Declaration. Three Main Clausesă First, the non-recognition of border change by force due to conflicts between fellow humanity. Second, to respect the rights to equality and self-determination of all peoples within every nation. Third, for countries far from the Demon Lordâs Territory to support the countries near the Territory which serve as a bulwark against the Demon Lord Army. Ideally, these were a really praiseworthy clauses. However, there existed a contradiction amongst these three clauses that even the Empire didnât notice. Certainly, if they abided rigidly to these three clauses, then these could prevent a cross-border âexternalâ conflict. However, if it was a problem that happened âinternallyâ, then this treaty would make any movement impossible. By applying this treaty to Vanâs situation, if the citizensâ right to self-determination is to be recognized, the member nation of the Humanity Declaration must recognize the current Van citizensâ right to self-determination. However, then this would mean that there was a border change in Amidonia, so they mustnât recognize it. Then, there was also the question of whether or not the independent Van would be considered a member of the Humanity Declaration, so this reasoning wouldnât apply to them. But if Amidonia suppressed the independence that Van wished for, then Amidonia as signatory member nation could be attacked for not recognizing the citizensâ right to self-determination. In other words, the member nations of the Humanity Declaration would be cornered into a situation where it is impossible to take any movements. There might be people who were thinking why the Empire didnât notice this. However, this was something that actually happened and went unnoticed. After all, it was something that âeven the 20th century earthlings didnât noticeâ. ăHave you heard about the fairy tale in Jeanne-donoâs report?ăăâŚâŚ Yes. Certainly, it was a story about people who were afraid of being dragged into the conflict between two gods and decided on the rules to avoid the war, right?ă The fairy tale was like this: Once, there was the God of the East who saidăThe world ought to be equală and the God of the West who said ăThe world ought to be freeă; it was an age where each country who believed in these two chief gods were glaring at each other. The country that lived close to the boundary of the two godsâ conflict, created rules together with numerous eastern and western countries so that they wouldnât be dragged into that conflict. Those rules were, as follows. First, letâs stop changing borders by using force.Second, letâs give the right to the people of each country, so they could decide by themselves.Third, letâs be friends and have a cultural exchange between eastern and western countries. ăI had heard this from Jeanne. It truly resembles the ă Humanity Declarationă. I am curious about the end of that fairytale. How did the world fare after that?ăăFor a whileâŚâŚ this rule functioned neatly. Before long, the God of the East divided, and so, with the balance of power broken, the state of tension was lifted, and both factions had evaded a total war.ăăThen itâŚâŚ ended up happily, right?ăăYes, for a time. However, after that, in a certain multiethnic country, there was a certain ethnic group that raised an armed rebellion for their independence. If the ethnic groupâs independence was not recognized, then it would have violated the self-determination of peopleâs rule. However, if they recognized the independence, then they would have approved the border change by force. This contradiction, forced the countries, who made the rule, unable to take any action.ăăJust like the Empire, correct?ă I gave a firm nod to Mariaâs question. You might already noticed it, but this fairy tale was from Earthâs history. The God of the East who said ăMankind ought to be equală was ăSocialismă. The God of the West who saidăMankind ought to be freeă was ăLiberal Capitalismă. The countries who believed in these gods and glared at each other was the ăCold War-era West and Eastă. Then, the countries that convened to discuss how to evade the war were the participant nations of the 1974 ăEuropean Security Conferenceă(which become the ăConference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE)ă), and the rule that they decided on was the accord called theăHelsinki Final Actă. The reason why I immediately recognized the contradiction of the ăHumanity Declarationă was because I knew about the ăHelsinki Final Actă which it resembled. Since, to take a college exam, I also needed to study modern history. Thatâs why I knew that this ăHelsinki Final Actă, which had given constant results during the Cold War era, had afterward prevented any actions to be taken for the ethnic conflict between the Serbians and the Croatians in the former country of Yugoslavia.
ăâŚâŚIs this the pitfall of the Humanity Declaration that Souma-dono had mentioned?ă Maria said it with a deploring tone. ăYes. This pitfall is lethal for a multiracial country like us. Thatâs why, the Kingdom couldnât participate in the Humanity Declaration.ă This might sound cruel, but for a country where a single race dominated, like Amidonia, this was not a particularly grave problem. If from the start, the other racesâ positions were low, or if their population was few, then they wouldnât have had an opportunity for independence domestically. On other hand, for a coexisting multiracial country, this was dangerous. If the national administration was strong, then there wouldnât any problem, but if that administration weakened, then they might consider separation or independence. Even though the present seems to be alright, no one knows about tomorrow. Just like what Machiavelli had said: âOne must be prepared for a change of fate.â[9] ăThis is a painfully true statement. Since our Empire is also a multiracial country.ă âŚâŚ True. Since the Empire is strong at the present, then it will be alright. At the present condition, where the Demon Lordâs Territory came encroaching from the North, there was no place as safe as the Empire, the strongest country of humanity. It was unthinkable that there would be races or nobles inside the Empire who wanted to change this. However, if the administration didnât go smoothly, or if the threat from the Demon Lordâs Territory disappeared, then what will happen to Empire who carried the Humanity Declaration on her sleeve? ăMaria-donoâŚâŚăăI know. However, this is not the time to drop the flag.ă When Maria said this, she smiled with eyes that held a strong determination. ăEven if this is a path towards ruin, I believe that the Empire is the light of hope for the people who live today. It is evident that to oppose the Demon Lordâs Territory, mankind must face it as one. Even if it is only for a moment, the Empire will raise its flag to unite the peopleâs hearts.ăăâŚâŚ I think I know the reason why you are called the Holy Maiden.ă I think that this is a naĂŻve and idealistic way of thinking, but these kind of words can attract people. In time, the day where the harsh reality hits might come, but even so this girl was determined to tout her ideals. It looked perilous, but I also wanted to see it. Such was the charm that this girl possessed. (Jeanne-dono also couldnât stop her worries, I seeâŚâŚ) I recalled the general imouto that was more realistic than her sister, but when I did so, I could heard Hakuyaâs voice inside my heart, telling me with a vein on his head, ăIs that something that you can say yourself?ă ăI understand the circumstances led to Vanâs reoccupation. I think that for now, it appears that there is no fault on your side. âEven if, for example, you are doing something in the back.âă Maria shook her head and said it with a composure. Fumu, it seems that she had suspected the Black Cat Squadâs moves in Vanâs revolt. Why she didnât demand an explanation for this might be because the Empire also had performed the same intelligence operations. The same with Amidonia. Maria then continued her words. ăBut, Souma-dono. There is something that I donât understand.ăăAbout what?ă ăWhy did the Kingdom annex the entire Amidonia Dukedom?ăăâŚâŚă