The Man of the Low Stone Heap: Chapter 5
In this state, how could we possibly afford the luxury of turning our gaze to others without first driving out the occupiers? And even after expelling them, we would need time to heal the aftereffects of the last Great War, so we still couldn't confront the Jews right away.
Even if all conditions were met, there would be no justification for attacking the Jews. The Cates Empire is the only great power that has defended our nation and sent volunteers. They even boycotted the vote on the barbaric proposal to partition the Atlantis Empire, which had been brought before the UN Security Council. Why stab our benefactors in the back?
"So, what are you trying to say? That we should just sit back and watch the crimes of the Judeo-Bolsheviks?"
Beomhyeok— at least before meeting Kaldir— had always been the smartest in any room he entered, and that genius had fueled his dogmatism and arrogance, narrowing his perspective. This was the first time he'd debated someone so well-versed in international affairs, and her words carried a surface plausibility. His tone softened a bit from before as he countered.
"Our empire's greatest enemy is obviously the Lucid Empire. The second are the shadowy forces behind them. The third are the old imperialists who allied with Lucid to carve up our nation. At least the Jews you speak of aren't an immediate threat."
Kaldir's unflinching response left Beomhyeok momentarily speechless. As a devout National Socialist, he couldn't bear to hear her defending the Jews any longer, but it was undeniable that the Atlantis Empire had suffered no particular harm from them. If anything, they'd received help.
"...I know it too. I don't know what tricks those Jewish bastards are up to, but I've seen the news articles about them sending volunteers to our country and the Cates Empire's UN ambassador storming out of the Security Council chamber."
"Then why do you antagonize the Jews so fiercely?"
"Does hating filth require a special reason? And their volunteers or backing us at the UN— it's all a ploy! Why can't you see the knives they're hiding behind their smiling backs?"
Beomhyeok's voice rose sharply before dropping again. Proof that his anti-Semitism stemmed more from instinct than reason. It couldn't have felt good to have the Führer's proclaimed anti-Semitism dissected point by point by someone he admired so much.
If things went south here, recruiting Beomhyeok could fail. That would be... troublesome. She'd resolved not to kill anyone directly with her own hands, so losing this sharp blade named Kim Beomhyeok would derail all her plans.
Kaldir calmly, yet firmly, explained why they must cooperate with the Jews. She'd already covered the justifications, so now she delved into the numbers. To sum up the Cates Empire's national power simply: number one in economy, number one in military might! Need I say more? A defeated nation that lost everything in a single war couldn't dream of challenging them.
From the tiniest bullet to massive Death Stars, they had more of everything than we did. As Kaldir rattled off figures on the Cates Empire's power, she simultaneously presented supporting evidence. Beomhyeok, sharp-minded but not at the level of Akashic Records access, was stunned by information he'd never known.
As a superpowered individual himself, pilfering low-level classified docs wouldn't be hard for him, but Kaldir was citing the great powers' most critical secrets as backing for her claims. He didn't know where she got them— but with ultra-sensitive data files dangled right in front of him, he couldn't help but believe.
"I'm not telling you to abandon your grudge against the Jews right now. But if you want to punish their crimes so badly... does it have to be today? Can't we make them pay after we've 'used' them first?"
"Ho... 'Use' the Jews, you say? Tell me more."
Beomhyeok, who'd been listening silently, perked up noticeably at the idea of using the Jews. Kaldir continued, accepting all his points: if the empire must join the 'anti-Judeo-Bolshevik bulwark,' it could wait until the Jews' usefulness was fully exhausted. Beomhyeok showed interest.
Kaldir spoke of the immense economic and technological power the Jews possessed, and the vast benefits from trading with them. But Beomhyeok seemed to imagine enslaving them like National Socialists in the extermination camps, squeezing every last drop before killing them.
He'd long lamented the Führer's sole mistake: failing to exterminate the Jews and mixed races completely. Obsessed with inheriting that unfinished task and finding ways to kill them faster and more efficiently, Kaldir's words sounding like 'use them up and discard' were somewhat tempting.
The Jews had helped rather than harmed our nation. They still wanted to help, and their power was formidable. In our current state, odds of defeating them were slim, and even victory would bring catastrophic losses.
Allying with them instead offered boundless gains: their accumulated wealth and technology, international influence and diplomacy. To our urgent nation, even one ally was invaluable.
Beomhyeok was ultimately convinced by Kaldir's words. He'd adopted anti-Semitism from reading My Struggle, but had no real personal beef with Jews, so her logic dismantled him easily.
Whether he'd fully bought in— interpreting 'much to gain from alliance' as 'use them to the end then kill them' was ambiguous— regardless, Beomhyeok agreed to cooperate with Kaldir's plans.
"Fine. After driving out the Lucids, it's not too late to conquer the Judeo-Bolsheviks. Their decadent trash needs scrapping anyway— better to use it well before tossing it."
Beomhyeok looked thrilled at the thought of looting their vast wealth and feeding them all into the murder factories to fulfill the Führer's dream. If they handed over the money themselves, it'd be even easier!
Yes. Sometimes, for the greater good, one must join hands with the devil. If Jewish assets could fund the bulwark against Judeo-Bolshevism, what could be better?
Kaldir saw through the meaning in Beomhyeok's smile but pretended not to, shifting the topic. No denying Lucid was our greatest foe. Their collaborators would pay in time too. So, what justification existed for conquering the old imperialists of the Allied powers?
"Thank you for this patriotic decision for our empire... Truly, though the Cates Empire is one of the imperialist powers, their rule is remarkably mild compared to the others."
From the colonists' view, one bastard's much like another, but if Cecil Rhodes was a nasty imperialist, Leopold II was the devil incarnate. Not all imperialists were equal. At least Cates didn't chop off hands for missing quotas or commit genocide by race.
They'd even granted autonomy to some colonies— an adventure no other power had attempted! The Jews' colonial rule was, relatively speaking, mild.
If one must ally with the imperialist devil, the relatively mild Jews were the choice. Their sins weren't zero, but as repeated, settling them could wait until greater Atlantis was restored.
The others? No need to mention Lucid, fellow imperialists, partnering to partition us instead of condemning their war crimes. The so-called democracies had committed genocides too horrific to believe.
They smeared subject alien races' armed independence struggles as 'terrorism disrupting world peace,' killing ten residents per guard slain in bloody reprisals, even exterminating sapient species just because they didn't like them.
Subject aliens fighting for independence, versus old imperialists refusing it to endlessly exploit them for wealth. Who was the true 'great evil disrupting world peace'?
"Aliens dying doesn't concern us, does it?"
Beomhyeok believed humanity alone deserved to rule the universe, all other sapients inferior, so he looked bored when Kaldir mentioned subject aliens.
"Far from it! Look at the number of lives lost to their genocides! And the conscientious human civilians gunned down by government forces opposing such imperialism!"
Kaldir bombarded Beomhyeok with shocking figures: planets packed with aliens then hit with planet-killers for extinction; harmless viruses spread to 'manage' populations; conscientious human journalists and scholars brutally murdered. Victims numbered in the trillions.
"Not even death row inmates, but peace-loving democrats rounding up innocent civilians for on-site nuke tests? Spreading viruses deliberately, not treating but collecting data? Demons like that exist?"
"The old imperialists classify their genocides as top secret, tightly controlling media to prevent leaks. Their vaunted constitutional press freedom vanishes before it."
"Of course! If word got out, backlash would be enormous!"
Beomhyeok, proud human supremacist, trembled with rage at the concrete numbers. Inferior or not, could innocents be slaughtered en masse? How were these 'self-proclaimed democrats' different from the fascists and communists they endlessly condemned?
Beomhyeok pulled a holographic dictionary from his pocket and looked up 'democracy': a system where sovereignty resides in the people, politics for the people; or the ideology pursuing it.
But the ugly face of these 'self-proclaimed democrats' bared here matched nothing of the definition. By their body count, even the Judeo-Bolsheviks seemed merciful. Not just Lucid— all these damned imperialists had to go for true world peace!
The war to dismantle 'democracy' would liberate the oppressed masses of the universe, and prevent falling for vicious Judeo-Bolshevik whispers— a great war!
"As long as the old imperialists cling to their empires and armies, world peace remains distant. The coming war isn't just for our empire— it's for all the universe, a 'war for peace'!"
A 'war for peace'! Seemingly contradictory, but not truly. Crushing alien independence struggles with ever-greater violence, forging ever-larger blood cycles— overthrowing this regime would be a holy crusade for true world peace, etched in cosmic history!
If the old imperialists wouldn't abandon their empires and armies, we'd make them. The groaning subject aliens under their grip would welcome the soon-to-form Atlantis Empire New National Defense Forces as liberators, and with heartfelt support, we'd 'rule' them.
If not 'rule,' what's the point of 'conquest'? Unlike human supremacists scorning aliens, if we 'liberated' them from genocide and gave 'freedom' instead, they'd be our loyal slaves!
As Kaldir spoke to Beomhyeok, she truly, sincerely, had no intent to genocide them just for differing species. No reason to take the hard road with no gains.
With Beomhyeok raising no real objections this far, Kaldir grew more confident, expounding her theory further. Meanwhile, Atlantia Princess, her secret slave, watched this one-woman play from afar.