Let Us Just Love! (2)
The doctrine of non-human racial purity.
“The words sound nice. Just words.”
Aiden’s brow furrowed deeply as he reviewed the legal text.
“So, the reason they forbid marriage between non-humans and humans is to ‘preserve the bloodline of the non-human race’?”
“Yes, well.”
The adjutants answering him also stiffened, their expressions sour as if they’d just bitten into something bitter.
Ordinary imperial citizens might ask, ‘What’s wrong with that? Isn’t that a good thing?’ but the laws of this world were, fundamentally, not very kind to the weak.
Just laws?
Fair and impartial laws?
Of course, since they are tools to maintain society, there aren’t many laws that are blatantly evil on the surface. However, because they are tools for maintaining society, it is quite common for laws to be enacted that cater to the tastes of the powerful.
The Non-Human Bloodline Preservation Act was no different.
“The intention to preserve the bloodline is impure from the very start!”
“They blocked it because mixed-bloods with humans are objectively less capable than pure-blooded non-humans. ‘Preservation’ is just a load of crap.”
“In the end, it’s just a documented way of saying they want to own high-quality slaves.”
The adjutants, who were well-educated enough to see through the facade, were piercing right through the hearts of the powerful behind the law.
Non-humans possessed traits superior to humans. If one were to meet them in the wild one-on-one, it would be nearly impossible for a human to overwhelm a non-human. However, humans had established superiority over all non-human races through sheer, overwhelming numbers.
Once they equipped themselves with the safety devices of society and institutions, non-humans were no longer formidable beings that could overwhelm humans. They became excellent labor forces capable of replacing dozens of humans on their own, and the powerful did not want their blood to be diluted.
After all, if they were beings that could be owned and put to work, it was only natural to prefer a slave with better stats.
“But it is also a dead law.”
While Jamie, who was deeply immersed in other people’s love lives, and Kalisa, who was always cynical, were chewing over this absurd legal text, Roland was the one to quickly face reality.
“In practice, it’s a law no one follows. Even if the population of non-humans has plummeted, why would there be no one among the non-humans scattered throughout the Empire who has married a human? Yet, I have never heard of such people being punished.”
The reason the bill became a dead letter was that non-humans had hidden their own abilities. Like a dwarf discarding their hammer, they had abandoned their pride to win their freedom.
Since the slaves lost their value, the powerful lost interest and didn’t bother holding onto the leash, which is why no one was punished even if they broke the law. However, because the powerful weren’t generous enough to go out of their way to find and unchain the slaves who had run off on their own, the legal text remained as it was.
“They might not be punished, but they can’t register their marriage either, can they?”
“That is, well…”
At Aiden’s point, Roland trailed off. He couldn’t bring himself to offer the answer, ‘Can’t they just maintain a common-law relationship without registering the marriage?’ in this situation.
“You know what household registration means in the North, don’t you?”
“……Yes.”
The North—a land where, regardless of origin, one could choose their own surname and have it officially recognized. Official recognition by the government might seem like nothing at first glance, but for some people, it is sometimes their life’s goal and their everything.
Especially when it comes to marriage with a beloved partner.
Because there is nothing that evaporates and changes as quickly as emotions, lovers seek to pledge their hearts to something more solid. Putting a padlock on Namsan Tower, carving names into a rock that will last a thousand years, and trying to guarantee their relationship through official documents—perhaps they all mean the same thing.
“Since it’s a dead law, it can be changed.”
“Even if it is a dead law, it is still Imperial Law. It cannot be changed that easily.”
“Roland.”
“Yes, Administrative Officer.”
“This isn’t a request.”
“…………”
“It has to be changed. Let’s find a way.”
“……Yes.”
Roland looked at his superior. The tightly pressed lips were stubborn beyond measure.
‘Find a way to change the law?’
It was absurd. How could a mere frontier lord—or rather, an acting lord who wasn’t even a formal one—possibly change Imperial Law? Without a single decent connection in the center!
‘Is he planning to use bribes?’
Let’s see, how much spare capital do we have in our coffers? …Hmm. As expected, that doesn’t seem possible.
He had answered, but his mind was blank. It had been two seasons since he started working in the North. Yet, Roland still felt the work was difficult. Sometimes, he felt as if the knowledge he had spent years learning at the academy was of no help at all.
Feeling stifled, he stepped outside to stretch. As he let out a long sigh, a shadow fell over his feet.
“?”
“Ah, it’s me.”
It was Jamie.
“Is it tough?”
“……Well, everyone is.”
As befitting someone holding the position of First Adjutant, Jamie stood by Roland’s side with a face that looked quite accustomed to it.
“The Administrative Officer is certainly not an easy person to deal with.”
“……Still, he seems to treat you comfortably.”
“Well, we’ve rolled in the mud together for a while, so.”
Even so, it had only been a full year, yet he spoke as if they had a long-standing connection. Seeing that he wasn’t hateful, Roland thought that this, too, must be one of Jamie’s abilities.
“At first, I was like that too.”
“Like what?”
“Thinking that I wasn’t of any help.”
“…………”
“The Administrative Officer is competent. That’s a fact no one can deny.”
“……Yeah.”
“Sometimes, I can’t even tell what he’s thinking. I’d be frantically trying to finish the work he assigned, and before I knew it, the world would have changed.”
“…………”
Jamie’s confession, which wasn’t quite a confession. Roland felt his heart loosen up for some reason. Just knowing that someone who had the same worries was by his side was enough to lighten the burden.
“That’s what I think.”
Jamie pulled a water bottle from his chest, gulped it down, and continued.
“I might never be able to perfectly grasp the intentions behind what the Administrative Officer does in the future, either.”
“……Are you okay with that?”
“I’ve thought about it. Whether I’d be okay like this, or not.”
“Yeah.”
Grin.
The bear-like man curled up the corners of his mouth. For some reason, Roland thought his colleague’s face looked just like a boy’s.
“It seemed like I would be.”
“Really?”
“Perfectly understanding a genius might be impossible for me until the day I die. No, I won’t be able to. But if I struggle to follow even the tips of his toes, perhaps,”
Gulp-!
He stopped talking for a moment and poured all the liquid in the bottle into his mouth. As if he couldn’t bear the thirst.
“Wouldn’t I at least earn the qualification to step into the world that genius is going to create?”
“…………”
“That’s enough for me.”
I don’t have to be the protagonist. I don’t need anyone to remember my name. If only everyone on this land where I was born and raised could be better off, I would gladly follow behind him—the one I can neither understand nor catch. Happily and joyfully, dancing and laughing.
It was less of a conversation and more of a vow he was making to himself.
“And you?”
Then, he asked suddenly. What will you do? Can you endure this?
“I-.”
Why did I want to become an official again? Roland had been told he was outstanding since he was young. Everyone said he was smart and that, even though he was born a commoner, he would do great things.
But as he grew older, he realized. He realized that he wouldn’t be able to become something that could change the world. Even so, he knew he had a better brain than others, and that was why he wanted to become an official.
Since he was a mere commoner not born into a particularly great family, being an official was the perfect fit for living a relatively stable and moderately successful life. That was how he graduated from the academy, became an adjutant in a frontier territory, and ended up working as an official in the North after getting caught up in an incident. His life, which had been walking a solid path but was boring as could be, had suddenly turned into an adventure epic at some point.
‘If I had to go back to before.’
……Can I go back?
To a life that is stable, boring, and has a predetermined ending?
The knot inside him that had seemed too complex to ever untie. ‘How would the Administrative Officer have untied this knot?’ The question led him to the image of the Administrative Officer.
If it were Aiden, he would have surely said:
- Why untie it? Just cut it off.
Yes, he would have definitely said that. He felt as if the thing that had been suffocating his chest had suddenly vanished. A knot that is too tangled to untie can just be cut and retied.
“I-.”
Roland, who had sighed once, looked straight into Jamie’s eyes and said,
“Working with the Administrative Officer is fun.”
It’s too much fun. Even if it’s hard, I love it. Work was always something I had to do out of necessity, but here, I keep delaying leaving work because I want to do more.
“I think I’ve gone crazy too.”
“Haha. You’ve been possessed by the ghost of overtime.”
“You too?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Shall we ask the Administrative Officer to take responsibility if we can’t get married later?”
“If two men go at him like that, he’ll freak out about insubordination.”
“Ahahahaha!”
It was a touching scene where two colleagues were breaking down the walls between them with laughter, but,
“I was wondering where you two were slacking off. Aren’t you coming in?!”
Looking down from the window, the face of their superior, grumbling, ‘These guys, skipping out during work hours!’, could be seen.
***
“We’re sorry!”
“We’re late!”
When they hurried back to the office, it seemed preparations for the meeting had already begun. It wasn’t anything grand, but since they had to prepare the necessary materials in advance, it took some effort.
“I don’t know what it was, but is it resolved?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then let’s start talking right away.”
Aiden, as always, had no interest in the personal lives of his subordinates. Since it was the first time they had left the office during work hours, he just thought they must have had something complex on their minds; he wasn’t the type to dig in and comfort them.
Still, Jamie and Roland, who had just shared their true feelings and decided to work hard together, didn’t feel hurt by the Administrative Officer’s attitude. Instead, they mistakenly assumed that even such a personality was a form of consideration for them, and they voluntarily equipped themselves with filters of infatuation.
“It’s a dead law, but to resolve it definitively, we need help from the center.”
Regardless, the meeting began.
“But I don’t think they’ll listen to us in the center.”
“The proposal probably won’t even reach the higher-ups. It’s highly likely to be filtered out in the middle.”
“Then a normal official document won’t work.”
“Yes.”
“An abnormal route.”
Tap, tap-.
Aiden, who had been tapping his desk with his fingers, spat out a single word.
“Don’t we have something like that?”
“Us?”
“We have those freeloaders.”
“?”
“The masked ones.”
“Ah-!”
The spies sent by the First Prince. The four masked ones who were left behind, unable to do anything, because their masked leader, who only cared about himself, jumped out the window alone.
“We can just call it even for their meals with this.”
This is why people should live kindly. Didn’t they become carrier pigeons because he fed them well and let them sleep well?
“Then the method is solved. The important thing remains, right?”
Aiden wrote in large letters on the meeting blackboard.
“A justification for the First Prince to step in. Or a price.”
They had to put up a stake that would tempt his appetite.