The Emperor's Wisdom
—The Emperor of Korea
To reign over Earth as a true emperor, I wrung every last drop of knowledge I had gained from the game.
The three great ideologies that rule the world.
Democracy.
Communism.
Fascism.
Each of these three ideologies carries its own peculiar power. Ordinarily, a nation holds one ideology and one power — but the original Korea 2, before any mods were applied, had been a rather unusual country.
A hybrid state possessing both the power of democracy and the power of Confucianism. China had been the same: a bizarre nation of communism plus Confucianism.
Korea 2 could make full use of both powers. China, however, could not. Confucianism and communism simply did not mix.
Even so, it was something that demanded caution. In the game, the power of Confucianism was practically a finishing move. Once it properly activated, it could reverse the course of a war that had already looked hopeless.
For the record, the modded Korea 3 could no longer use that power — but it was stronger than ever without it.
"So that's what we need to watch out for."
I explained Confucianism to the Head Maid with a serious face, never once setting down the handheld console in my grip.
"How should we respond, then?"
The Head Maid answered with a look that said she was struggling to understand. She seemed to have no knowledge of Confucianism whatsoever.
It had been common sense in Korea 2.
"Simply put, keep about fifty superhumans on standby at all times. That should be more than enough to beat China, right?"
"It would take a little longer, but it wouldn't be difficult."
Fortunately, a five-star Head Maid with stats of 9/9/9/9 didn't seem to consider defeating China much of a challenge. I'd been just a tiny bit worried that the real-world patch might have nerfed us somehow.
"Hmm... no chance of anyone eavesdropping here, is there?"
There shouldn't have been, but I asked anyway out of concern.
"Yes. The Imperial Palace is perfectly secure. The personnel currently on guard duty can hear us, of course — shall I remove their eyes and ears?"
Apparently there were bodyguards I didn't even know about.
"No, it's fine. Just so we're clear up front — this is classified. After you hear it, only tell people you personally decide need to know. I'll trust the bodyguards to keep their mouths shut."
"Have no fear. Their lips are sealed."
After listening to the Head Maid's confident assurance, I laid out the direction Korea's future would take.
"We're going to conquer the world. So we need to conserve our strength."
At my words, the Head Maid's pupils dilated. She blinked a few times and came back to herself, but she was clearly stunned.
"Not just China and Japan — the entire world?"
"That's right. We have to conquer Earth."
The surprising truth was that if Earth wasn't unified, a fractured planet would fall to alien invasion. Sometimes even conquering the whole world still wasn't enough — if the wars of conquest drained too much strength, you'd lose to the aliens and go down anyway.
Therefore, Earth absolutely had to be united under a single nation. A divided Earth could never defeat the aliens. Fighting among yourselves while also fighting aliens? Pure fantasy.
And as the Emperor of Korea, I could not allow any other country to dominate the planet. They would eliminate me or brainwash me. In other words, Korea had to conquer Earth. Honestly, even Korea 3 would struggle in a straight fight.
Which is why I had absolutely no intention of fighting fair!
"If that is Your Majesty's will, then so it shall be."
Even faced with such an outrageous demand, the Head Maid gave that answer. Loyalty maxed out, as expected.
"To that end, we first need to bulk up. That's why we're attacking China."
"So there was a deeper purpose behind it."
The Head Maid nodded solemnly, though she seemed to be under a slight misunderstanding — something along the lines of me having planned world conquest from the very beginning.
Surprisingly enough, I actually had. I had never once wasted my time just fooling around with the maid girls!
I had been seriously contemplating Korea's future!
What a magnificent emperor I am!
...
In truth, it was simply the natural thing to do when playing a strategy game. If you're a player, you conquer the world!
I'd played so much that it had become second nature — and now that it was reality, it was proving enormously useful.
"Ahem. Anyway, the point is we need to swallow every nation we can absorb without drawing interference from other powers."
"And those are China and Japan?"
"Yeah. Korea has casus belli against both China and Japan — ones the entire world can get behind."
In the game, other countries had done absolutely nothing until the moment those two nations were wiped off the map. But on this Earth 2, I had discovered reasonably logical reasons for that.
After digging around online, I was astonished to find that Korea 3 was a diplomatic and cultural powerhouse. Global public opinion even condemned China for its "illegal occupation" of Manchuria — Korea's ancestral homeland.
If we declared war on China to reclaim Manchuria, the whole world would basically react with, Oh, finally?
Next, Japan.
Those guys were simply a globally despised nation.
The Soviet Union and the United States, both defeated by Germany in World War II, had needed a reliable punching bag to prove their strength. The plan had been to completely smash Japan, split it down the middle, and rule it directly — but Germany had thrown a wrench into the works, calling the whole thing absurd.
They'd even mobilized troops to force the issue, citing their wartime alliance with Japan. Never mind that Germany had gone off and won the war on its own and then bailed — what mattered was that the Greater German Empire had said so.
Whether the argument was right or wrong was irrelevant. What mattered was that the one with power had spoken.
The Allies had deliberated. With Hitler dead, they could have resolved to go to war again — but the Soviet Union had suffered too much damage, and the United States had a strong current of opinion that preferred to avoid fighting the Germany that had already handed them a defeat.
Both nations had withdrawn with tears in their eyes. Of course, they hadn't simply walked away.
They had carefully selected an incompetent puppet, installed him as Japan's leader, and locked the nation's future into permanent defeat. Why? Because Japan, having been saved from annihilation by Germany, was all too likely to become a pro-German state.
Even after withdrawing, they had continued to hammer Japan diplomatically at every opportunity and flooded the world with anti-Japanese propaganda day after day. Naturally, the generation raised on that propaganda grew up hating Japan — and they came to empathize with the culturally famous Korea's daily cries for vengeance.
In short, Japan and China were diplomatically isolated. If we attacked them, people would accept that we had legitimate reasons.
Of course, accepting that a war was justified and wanting to check another nation's growth were entirely different matters.
The most important fact was that the United States and the Soviet Union were preparing for war against Germany. As long as we didn't pick fights in every direction, America and the Soviets would not intervene. More precisely, they simply wouldn't have the capacity to intervene.
As for Germany, it was too far away — and neither the Soviets nor the Americans would sit still if Germany tried to meddle in Asia. Not that Germany seemed particularly interested anyway.
As long as the three powers contending for world hegemony stayed out of it, Korea could ignore every other nation's protests and complaints without consequence. Because we were that strong. Diplomacy, at its core, proceeds more easily the more power you have.
When a man with a gun spouts nonsense, the man with a knife has no choice but to laugh along and listen.
Anyway, the bottom line: swallowing China and Japan would not be a problem.
"That's the current situation. Do you understand why we need to attack China right now?"
As I laid out everything I had been thinking for the Head Maid, the mouth that always wore a small smile parted just slightly — a rare sight.
"Your Majesty, that is magnificent!"
"Woooow..."
"As expected of Your Majesty!"
Clap clap clap clap!!!
The three maid sisters who had been keeping me company also gasped in admiration and began applauding wildly.
"I—I am astonished. Your Majesty had it all planned out."
The Head Maid had apparently assumed I wasn't thinking about anything at all.
Reflect on that!
The fact that I had casually justified a war against China the moment I booted up the game was completely irrelevant!
"Still, I think some diplomatic measures would make things even safer. For example, promising the Soviet Union and the United States that we'll join their war against Germany, in exchange for them staying out of our business while we swallow China and Japan."
In the game they simply hadn't intervened, and on Earth 3 the situation made intervention difficult — but certainty was better, wasn't it?
"But how did Your Majesty know that the Soviet Union and the United States intend to go to war with Germany?"
The Head Maid struck right at the heart of it. It was information Korea itself didn't know, so there was no way I should have known it either.
Because that's how it was in the game! Those guys always go to war with Germany no matter what.
I couldn't exactly say that, so I decided to offer a reason that sounded plausible given the circumstances.
"There's not a single country that doesn't know we're showing signs of going to war with China."
I'd seen it online — Koreans had set fire to the Chinese embassy. The only surprising thing was that war hadn't broken out yet. There was no way other nations were unaware, so every country on Earth knew a Korea-China war was imminent.
"That is true, but..."
"And yet neither America nor the Soviet Union has said a word or made any diplomatic approach, have they?"
It might have been pure speculation on my part, but the reason was simple. No need to provoke a potential ally like Korea, plus they were too busy preparing for war with Germany. Or they wanted their rear secured and were hoping we'd beat each other senseless.
"...I see. Even so, a complete lack of contact is strange. There must be some reason."
The Head Maid seemed to have arrived at a similar conclusion.
"Two nations falling silent at the same time. One would be one thing — but two is a little odd, don't you think?"
If it were just one, you could shrug it off. Maybe they had some internal problem. Maybe they just weren't interested. But for both nations to go silent simultaneously over a major event like a Korea-China war? That was highly suspicious. It could have been pure coincidence, of course — but I could tack on additional reasoning.
"Let me put it this way. Germany is the strongest nation in the world. No one would disagree with that."
"Yes. Frustrating as it is, they are indeed powerful."
"Germany is still developing. The gap between them and every other country is widening. Right now is the last moment America and the Soviet Union can still fight Germany."
In the game, if you used every available means to delay the American and Soviet declaration of war, Germany won ninety-nine percent of the time. Earth 3 didn't look much different. The growing gap between them was a major topic of discussion even online.
"In other words, America and the Soviet Union have no choice but to go to war with Germany — and I believe that time is now."
The three maid sisters' eyes sparkled as they gazed up at me. They always looked up at me, of course, but this time there was something different — open admiration for my intellect!
Praise me!
"This suspicious silence from both nations is proof that they're preparing for war."
It was perfectly, utterly plausible!
"...Your Majesty's schemes run truly deep."
The Head Maid was completely convinced. Her red eyes were wide open, making her look almost like a rabbit!
Ahem! Behold the wisdom of the Emperor!