Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint

The Princess doubted her ears for a moment.

She did acknowledge the potential of the Military State, but calling it a blessed country seemed exaggerated.

Yuel looked sorrowfully at the corpse lying pitifully behind the Princess.

“He dreamed of a country without a king. He sincerely believed that if everyone worked together for the future of the State, they could create an eternally happy nation, even without a king. That’s why he named this country the Military State, the Nation of the People.”

Although soldiers ran the country, leading to jokes about it being a nation of soldiers, its original name was the Nation of the People.

But these days, it was hard to tell which was the joke.

“He certainly wasn’t a genius. He was so weak that everyone was worried about him and whenever he was caught doing something stupid, he tried to cover up his thoughtless actions with humor. He lacked knowledge and perspective, so no matter how much I explained something, he couldn’t understand it which nearly drove me mad. I often wondered why I followed him here.”

｢She’s saying that, but she’s smiling!｣

Despite the harsh evaluation, her expression was as gentle as a lamb.

The Princess kept her mouth tightly shut to prevent her thoughts from slipping out.

It was a wise choice.

“Still, he had one strength. He had no hesitation in seizing opportunities, especially the Seven Major Inventions of the Military State. The existence of these unprecedented tools, created by humans for humans with good intentions, was all thanks to him.”

The Princess was amazed.

“Chimera Beans, Clothing Packets, the Meta Conveyor Belt…? He made all of those…?”

“…No. Most of them already existed somewhere in the world. What he did was to turn what I ‘saw’ into reality.”

Yuel, with her Clairvoyance, could see everything from her seat.

Some of what she saw were things the Sanctum considered taboo.

What was the Order of Gaia worried about as it declined?

What did humans create in the waterfall where lightning struck?

What kind of fruit grew on the Tree of Corruption hidden in the floodplains?

Yuel had confidence.

If she could gather all the beautiful and good things that existed in the world, it would surely result in something more beautiful than anything ever seen before.

When that time came, even the Saintess of Sky would reconsider.

She would see the hope that blossomed within Yuel and change her mind….

“He had complete trust in me. Even when I told him about things I couldn’t believe seeing with my own eyes, he listened without any doubt, eyes sparkling with interest. We talked late into the night. If we use this, how can we use it better? How much should we make and how should we distribute it to spread goodness more widely? Even as we waded through the ashes, we chased after the stars. The future was full of hope.”

The inventions made by the Military State were all revolutionary.

So that’s how they were made—by the Saintess spying everywhere and stealing them.

Could they even be called inventions then?

I couldn’t help but think that.

“We rebuilt everything. We were gradually moving forward. Today was better than yesterday, and we slept in anticipation of a better tomorrow. There were tiring days when it seemed like nothing would change no matter what we did. At such times, he would kneel by my side and say he was glad I was there. That it was a blessing that God hadn’t abandoned this country and had sent an angel. Thanks to me, today has ended successfully…”

“The Warlord’s intentions were truly noble. It would have been wonderful if he had lived until now.”

The Princess smoothly redirected the drifting conversation.

Yuel’s focus returned.

“Yes. You should be grateful to him. His will and efforts were genuine. He should never be despised or ignored by you.”

“But Lady Yuel, he is already dead. We, who live now, don’t know what efforts he made but whatever happened, the current Military State is not a kind nation.”

Yuel furrowed her brow.

“Kindness…. Is that what you’re after?”

“Kindness is necessary! Look at the Military State now. No one is happy, no one dreams or hopes. Where did his intentions go? Why are his inventions used as excuses to take away instead of adding to the lives of the people?”

Chimera Beans was indeed an excellent discovery.

With them, no one would suffer from malnutrition.

But they became the only meals available.

The Military State provided Chimera Beans, but they took away all other flavors.

Other foods became luxuries.

Similarly, the introduction of the Clothing Packet caused clothes with aesthetic value to disappear.

Cooking methods were limited by canned goods.

Thus luxury and joy gradually vanished from the Military State.

The Princess was raised in the Military State but was pampered as a Princess.

She knew how precious occasional joys were, so she couldn’t fully agree with the Military State.

“There was no need to take everything away! You could have kept everything as it was and added only the good! If his intentions were noble, you should have acted with more kindness!”

“Kindness given out of goodwill becomes a burden to deal with someday.”

“What?”

“To rebuild the nation, we had to accept the Order of Gaia.”

“Yes, I’ve heard. It was the best choice for the Military State….”

“What do you think was the first thing we had to do? Can you imagine?”

The Princess felt goosebumps.

Yuel, who seemed to be reminiscing joyfully, suddenly looked like she was dwelling in the past.

The Princess had slightly arrogantly reprimanded Yuel, thinking that if those memories were so precious, they should have been better preserved.

｢No, she’s not a person living in the past…. She has abandoned the past and moved on…!｣

“We demolished the shrines.”

Yuel muttered with lifeless eyes.

“All the shrines that lived off the kindness of the Kingdom rose up at once. Devout believers united to resist the Military State. Whenever an accident occurred during construction, they blamed the Order of Gaia. Some shrines even helped the rebels. I ‘saw’ all of it.”

She saw everything with her Clairvoyance.

Wow, I wondered how they managed to quell the chaos after destroying the Kingdom.

With the cheat-like power of Clairvoyance, they could handle all of it before it happened.

“I didn’t want to do it either, but there was only one way. It was the most reasonable and the quickest, so I did it even though it meant betraying my faith.”

“You expelled the shrines because they didn’t pay taxes….”

“We couldn’t just expel them, so we attached all sorts of reasons. ‘The nation needs to revive. Pay taxes. If you don’t want to, at least make donations. Show goodwill to this country.’ Naturally, the shrines refused. Humans must not demand compensation from gods.”

“That can’t be….”

“Then we pushed them. The public sentiment was on our side. We just needed to find an excuse. We brought in Camarilla for that. There was also plenty of resentment towards the gods. A little instigation was enough. I drove them out with my own hands… Haha. How about that? Isn’t it amazing?”

After such persecution, the Celestial Order disappeared from the Military State, and those who remained barely survived in cooperation with the Resistance.

It’s ironic.

The Saintess, the proof of the gods’ existence and the idol of all believers drove them out herself.

“The gods have probably left me, but that’s fine. At least I have him by my side.”

“Oh….”

“To introduce the Clothing Packet, we destroyed textile shops. To teach Standard Magic, we demolished the Magic Tower. We gave real weapons to merchants who believed that scarce food would become their weapon. We embedded it in their bodies.”

Yuel continued to recount her actions calmly.

To introduce something, you must get rid of what already exists.

That’s how it begins.

But the Kingdom that had ruled for over a thousand years still had deeply rooted ways of life, even as the country was turned upside down.

The death of the king didn’t change the people.

Normally, the Military State wouldn’t have come to be.

Corruption and bribery.

Non-cooperation and rebellion.

The country would have collapsed under the confusing political landscape where it was impossible to tell who the enemy and the ally were.

A group of people could never solve the problems that come with being a group.

But the Saintess did it.

“…While hiding in the deepest parts of the Military State, I saw everything. I filled my eyes with all the world’s filth and stained my hands with indelible blood. He no longer asked why someone had to be killed or what crime warranted imprisonment. Wherever I pointed my blood-stained finger, soldiers with guns and swords would rush there….”

“Yuel….”

“But it was fine. The Military State was still improving, and he was still by my side. Even if it was different from what I had imagined, seeing him kept me going. But… he died. Now I’m alone. There’s no one to correct my decisions. If I become the king of this country… it will just follow the same path as the Kingdom. It will never become the Military State….”

Muttering words that sounded like a mantra, Yuel suddenly posed a question to the Princess.

“Do you know what is needed for a country to last forever?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, the Princess gave a conventional answer.

“…P-people? Without people, there’s no country.”

“Wrong. It’s the opposite.”

“Opposite? Then animals?”

“It’s still better than humans, but still wrong. For a country to last forever… it must be ruled by something that isn’t human.”

So Yuel created beings that resembled herself.

To replace the role of the Saintess with Clairvoyance, she gave golems to Signallers with the power of synchronization and sent them throughout the Military State.

The first Signallers were not highly refined.

Those who started their training relatively late were incomplete, and Yuel had to be deeply involved for the system to function.

But as younger Signallers who had been trained from a very young age were commissioned, the Military State gradually reached completion.

“Humans in groups make the most ruthless decisions without hesitation. Signallers are like that. Even while alone in a dark room, they share thoughts with numerous Signallers scattered across the Military State. A single person in a group is the essence of the Military State. I entrusted the Military State to them, and though they were lacking in ability, they ran the Military State much more systematically. If it weren’t for today’s meeting, the Military State would have continued without me.”

The words of an experienced leader carry weight.

More persuasive than those of an inexperienced Princess, Yuel’s words left the Princess at a loss for words.

But if she lost her composure here, my efforts would be in vain.

I spoke in the Princess’s stead.

“That’s sophistry. Does taking away the lives of Signallers and treating them like machines make them non-human?”

Yuel glared at me with the last of her hostility.

“To create an eternal Military State, that’s a necessary sacrifice. You, destroyer of civilization, would never agree.”

“Stop framing me. You make something weird, call it civilization, and insist it’s more precious than anything else. Unfortunately, I don’t care whether it’s civilization or whatever. Such nonsense doesn’t even exist.”

Yuel, irritated, shouted.

“The Military State exists! Until now and forever!”

“Even when the core of the Military State is in checkmate?”

“It’s different from the Kingdom. Even if you kill me here, the Military State will continue. That’s what the Military State is! The system is complete. Signallers in other Modules observe, evaluate, and make new decisions. Those decisions will guide the Military State to its eternal future!”

Everyone believes the Military State exists, so it continues to exist.

Hmm. Certainly, if you ask whether the Military State exists, all humans would say it does.

“…If the Military State is something that exists.”

But if you ask the Military State to take responsibility?

How will it respond?

“Can it also take responsibility?”

“Res…ponsibility?”

Azzy sought out the king to demand the promised compensation from the Military State.

For Azzy, a king meant an individual with significant influence over many people.

When she found such a person unable to fulfill the promise, Azzy gave up and left.

Why?

It was a promise made with the Military State, but the Military State didn’t actually exist.

So no one in the Military State took responsibility for the promise.

They were not the Military State.

“Shiati’s resentment hit a wall. She hated the Military State, but the Military State didn’t actually exist. So she decided to make a fuss with that corpse. It’s the only way to ease her lingering grudge, even a little.”

The people who designed the Military State were human.

The parts used were human.

Signallers, who are human, give orders to soldiers, who are human, and those soldiers govern citizens, who are human.

Humans imprison, make them work, and execute each other.

Humans kill humans.

It’s as natural as humans giving birth to humans.

Before dressing it up in words, it undeniably exists and is natural.

It can happen.

I have no complaints about that fact.

“But you still claim the Military State exists. You said the Military State gives orders to rule humans. It exists when ruling but disappears when taking responsibility.  Isn’t that strange? Isn’t it unfair? That’s no different from a bounced check. Wow, what do we do about this?”

“Wait….”

“That’s why we need an agency to represent the people. When people don’t get paid, they choose a representative to handle it. As the representative of ‘Humans,’ I’ve come to collect the debt from the ones responsible.”

But if something non-human kills humans very well, isn’t that an enemy of humans?

Ah… Then I have to work.

Oh my, I still have to work even after being forced to retire.

What a terrible job.

“But since there’s no king in this country, then I’ll just destroy the country.”