NOVEL NEXT Chapter 289: The Blessed Country and the Cursed Human (12)
Those who arrive at an answer quickly are often considered rational, while those who take longer are deemed emotional.
But if the matter at hand was as grave as a nation, anyone would become emotional.
After a long pause, Yuel spoke with a voice full of resentment.
“…Is this country so wrong that you feel the need to destroy it yourself?”
“There’s no right or wrong in the world. It just turned out this way.”
“I just wanted to create a country led by the people… to fulfill his dream… There’s nothing wrong with that….”
“That’s why I said there’s no such thing as right or wrong. Oh, and…”
She kept talking about a country led by the people, so I should point this out since she seems to genuinely believe it.
Where in the Military State is it a country led by the people?
“The Military State isn’t a country led by the people. It’s a country led by no one. No one I’ve seen has been leading this country. If anything, they’ve been trampled on by it.”“That’s…”
“Don’t talk as if it was the only way. You just didn’t trust anyone—not the soldiers, not the people, not even yourself.”
For the people to lead, they must be the leader.
But a group of people was not the ideal leader.
The more they grouped up, the more likely they were to make harsh decisions that would be unthinkable for a single individual.
Yuel, who couldn’t trust humanity, created an imaginary entity to lead the Military State.
The Military State watched over them, monitored them, and judged them.
Like a god.
Perhaps it was because she was a Saintess, but she filled her beliefs with divine inspiration.
The only difference is that the Military State judges in this life, not the afterlife.
“I don’t know much about this ‘him’ you keep mentioning, but one thing is certain. He wouldn’t have wanted a country like this. Unlike you, ‘he’ probably had more faith in humanity. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dreamt such a foolish dream.”
What he wanted to create was a beautiful sandcastle, not a cruel, eternal iron fortress.
The weight of these blunt truths made Yuel scream in despair.
“How could I believe in humanity?! I ‘saw’ it all! How they approached with smiling faces, only to plot treachery behind my back! I saw it all…!”
Even as the Kingdom fell and the Military State rose, selfish humans existed—those who only cared for their own gain, those who longed for the power of the past, and those who sought to become the new elite in place of those who had fallen.
For the Saintess of Foresight who had only seen the most beautiful things, the harshness of the human world must have seemed… alien.
Perhaps she wanted to extract their freedom, responsibility, and sin from them as if uprooting a tumor.
“What can we do? That’s just what it means to be human.”
But what can we do? That’s what it means to be human, with all of its flaws included.
Her sobbing voice suddenly stopped.
Yuel clenched her fists tightly and lowered her head.
Her muttered words echoed off the stone floor.
“…Abbey, you will either destroy the Military State or destroy yourself.”
“I have no intention of doing either.”
“It would be nice if things always went according to plan, but they won’t. If you’re incompetent, you’ll be crushed by outside forces, and if you’re competent, it’ll eat away at you from the inside. All the sins that arise in this country will become yours. Tragedies that have nothing to do with you will be your responsibility, and your careless comments will become daggers that stab your heart. You won’t be able to endure it. Especially if you can ‘see’ more than others.”
In most cases, the advice of the experienced was seen as mere arrogance by the inexperienced, but this time it miraculously got through.
It was probably due to Captain Abbey’s empathy—a pure form of empathy, unrelated to any Synchronous Magic.
Captain Abbey steeled her resolve and spoke firmly.
“I am prepared to bear the resentment. I will simply do what must be done.”
“What must be done… Abbey, what do you plan to do first? Are you going to try and stop the war that’s already begun, as that child requested?”
The Regressor stated that her goal was to prevent the war between the Military State and the Fallen Dominion.
I never believed the Military State would accept it.
Captain Abbey glanced at me, then nodded.
“War is an extremely costly tactical action. And if a powerful force were to attack to prevent it, even more so. If the situation can be resolved peacefully without war, there’s no reason to continue it.”
“There is a reason. You might not have heard it because you were cut off from communication, but the reason is clear.”
“What is it?”
Yuel, watching Captain Abbey with a pitying look, spoke softly.
“The problem with war is that it happens even if only one side has the intention. Even if the Military State doesn’t initiate it, if the Fallen Dominion are determined to do it, war will still occur.”
“So the intention is to strike first before they attack? That’s irrational. You can’t act on something that hasn’t even happened–”
“No. I ‘saw’ it. The Fallen Dominion has already started the war. They’re gathering their forces as we speak and heading to the Wasteland where the Abyss used to be, without even a declaration of war.”
“What?”
Now that I think about it, Clairvoyance really is a cheat ability.
The Military State’s weakness lay in its short history and lack of Arcanes.
As a result, when asymmetric forces like Tyr or the Regressor who wielded Arcanes attacked the Military State, they had little to no way to counter them.
This weakness was especially apparent in intelligence warfare; without the ability to outmaneuver the opponent, espionage activities were practically impossible.
But if a Saintess with Clairvoyance had been feeding information to the Signallers, that changed things.
She’s been hiding here, watching the world unfold.
That was the Military State’s real power.
“They’re like nomads. One of the few advantages of the Fallen Dominion is its mobility. Our only superiority over them is the Signaller system. Thanks to the Signallers hastily gathering troops, there’s probably a skirmish going on in the Wasteland where the Abyss used to be.”
Yuel recalled what she had ‘seen’ with her clairvoyance.
While we were heading to Command, the troops gathered by the Meta Conveyor Belt advanced northward.
As the heavily armed main force moved, the vanguard established a base in the Wasteland before we even arrived at the command center.
Then, the cavalry units of the Fallen Dominion arrived.
Once desolate and cursed by Mother Earth, that land had become a coveted prize now that the curse was lifted.
Two armies stood face to face, poised on the brink of battle.
Even as the raid on Command was underway, Yuel couldn’t take her eyes off the situation there.
A small group might cause some trouble inside the Military State, but in the grand scheme of things, it was still guerrilla warfare.
On the battlefield, however, a full-scale war that would determine the fate of the nation was itching to break out.
Perhaps the reason we were able to infiltrate this place so easily was that most of the Military State’s forces were focused elsewhere.
“This wasn’t a one-sided war. It’s a full-scale conflict entangled in mutual interests. The Fallen Dominion desperately needs land where they can settle. It was a useless land while the Abyss was there, but now that Mother Earth’s curse is lifted, it’s the perfect target for them. While you were obsessed with him, I ‘saw’ everything and reported it to the Signallers. After cross-verifying the information, all the Signallers concluded that war was inevitable. So now, when an unidentified armed force suddenly appears and tells us to stop the war, should we really stop?”
With this new information, Captain Abbey realized that all her previous judgments needed to be reassessed.
When Captain Abbey had been in contact with the Regressor, she was asked to stop the war.
Being cut off from other Signallers, Captain Abbey accepted the Regressor’s proposal.
In her mind, halting the invasion might have seemed like the only way to stop the war.
But the war had already begun.
The regressor’s request was never something that could be completed.
Therefore, the only options were to repel or negotiate.
“Wouldn’t explaining that to them have made them understand?”
“How do you prove something that hasn’t happened yet? Should I have revealed myself? Should I have stood before the Progenitor and explained everything in detail? That I was once a Saintess, and that I saw a future that hadn’t yet come to pass?”
She’s finally revealing that she was the Saintess.
I wasn’t surprised since I already knew, but the Princess seemed quite shocked.
After all, being a Saintess wasn’t as common as being a village pastor.
Now, there were no more secrets.
Yuel’s voice grew sharper.
“Hah! I guarantee that would be far more dangerous! What assurance is there that the Progenitor wouldn’t summon the entire Duchy? Could you handle it if the full might of the Duchy of Mist descended upon you?! The whole Military State would be enshrouded in darkness! If we were going to repel them, this was the first and last chance we had while the Progenitor was alone without her kin, but it’s probably already too late!”
It was indeed a difficult situation. Captain Abbey acknowledged this.
｢Yuel’s argument is valid. At this point, stopping the war is impossible. Shei’s demand is irrational and impossible, leaving the Military State with no option but to repel them…｣
However, that wasn’t the only difference between Captain Abbey and Yuel. Captain Abbey had been the overseer of the Abyss and had frequent contact with the Regressor.
She had even conversed with her through me on several occasions.
Yuel seemed to have classified the Regressor as a sort of natural disaster, judging by the sheer power she had witnessed.
She regarded the Regressor akin to a typhoon, lightning, or the Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka.
From her perspective, that might be the most rational conclusion.
But Captain Abbey knew Shei, even if she didn’t know the future.
She knew that despite being sharp and blunt, Shei was surprisingly logical and had unexpected flaws.
Humans were small compared to a disaster.
A disaster can’t respond to desires, but humans can.
“It’s not too late. I still believe there’s room for negotiation. In fact, negotiating may lead to a better outcome.”
“Negotiate? How?”
“If his demands are sincere, and if he is truly willing to take some steps towards that goal… then there is a way to project this force diplomatically against the Fallen Dominion.”
Captain Abbey proposed something that the previous Military State would never have considered.
“Appoint him as a special envoy and dispatch him to the Fallen Dominion. If he truly wants to stop the war, just as he did with the Military State, and is willing to project force to achieve that goal, he would be the most effective means to break the Fallen Dominion’s will to fight.”