The Janiradiad Rebellion (4)
...Yeah, this is a total wash.
The commander's sudden outing turned the party hall into a frozen wasteland in the blink of an eye.
"I-I'm truly sorry, Your Grace!!"
"That my son would commit such an offense!"
"It's fine."
To be precise, it was the desperate full-body prostration of a noble house that had just committed a grave breach of Sevellian aristocratic etiquette.
Of course, I still carried the lingering influence of my previous life. Rank and hierarchy weren't things I particularly fretted over... but for the people involved, it was an entirely different story.
"Please, forgive us! I will personally make amends for this discourtesy...!"
"No, seriously, it's fine..."
"Eek!!"
The ranks of the nobles in this planetary government were absurdly low compared to those in the capital. How low? Counts who were a dime a dozen back home numbered maybe two or three here at most. The noble currently performing dogeza right in front of me was a mere viscount.
Worse still, the one who had actually committed the "offense" didn't even hold a formal title yet—noble in blood, but not quite a noble in standing. Even if the viscount himself had slipped up, the political risk would have been heavy. For a child without a title to do it? If word reached other houses... or the capital's social circles... the fallout would be brutal.
Well, that's why they're begging like this...
Moments like these reminded me how the Empire's aristocracy could be thoroughly unpleasant.
"It's fine. Don't concern yourselves with it."
"...!"
"No—wait, that wasn't the right way to put it."
Layer on their signature roundabout euphemisms, and this was the mess you got. Not that the euphemisms were the only problem.
"That my child failed to even recognize Minister Arto... I have no words!"
"..."
My fame and authority had clearly poured fuel on the poor viscount's panic. So when I said "it's fine" and "don't worry about it," he heard "get lost" and "I'm going to destroy you anyway"—hence the frantic clinging.
"Pfft... pff—"
"Riel."
"Yes, Minister."
Watching Riel struggle to smother her laughter, I decided the only way anything would move forward was if I shut this down myself.
"Ahem... Viscount? We'll discuss this matter separately at a later date."
"Pardon? Th-then that means—!"
"I believe you've grasped my meaning. If this drags on any longer..."
I packed every ounce of "cut it out already" into the words. Only then did we finally get to stop watching the viscount's desperate ass-kissing performance.
After the brief farce ended—
"I would like to apologize once more."
"Let's drop that subject for real this time."
He tried to sneak the noble culture routine back in, so only after a final ultimatum did we get down to actual business.
"First, allow me to brief Your Grace on the current situation."
"Mm."
I nodded, and a neatly dressed government official began flipping through a meticulously prepared presentation.
"At present, the Janus planetary government is responding to the simultaneous acts of terrorism and unauthorized demonstrations that have erupted across the planet..."
After enduring an interminably long briefing that was roughly seventy-five percent empty rhetoric, I spoke without much thought.
"So in short, you've restored most of the infrastructure—except for the interplanetary communications facilities, the spaceports, and the stations?"
"Precisely as Your Grace says."
"And public order is being maintained to a certain degree..."
"Yes. Excluding the rebels, the government has successfully brought the situation under control."
The official answered with absolute confidence.
"Even now, this hotel and the surrounding urban district remain under the complete control of our government forces."
Between that towering self-assurance and the scenes I'd witnessed on the way in, I almost felt a flicker of trust in this planetary government.
Almost.
—KWAANG!
—KRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...!!!!
A massive explosion thundered from somewhere nearby, followed immediately by the roar of collapsing structures.
"W-what is happening?!"
As the official paled, real-time holographic reports began flooding in.
"Wow."
Seconds earlier I'd been listening to the government crow about how tightly they were holding public order and popular sentiment. I hadn't expected the triple combo of riot, terrorism, and strike the moment they finished talking.
"Damn it—deploy the security forces and crush those traitors immediately!"
—Beep!
"Ah, um... th-this is only an occasional occurrence, by no means a daily situation..."
Look at the poor official. Iron-willed leader when barking orders, sniveling sycophant the second he turned to me.
Event: Assessing the Janiradiad Situation
The capital world of the Janiradiad sector, Janus, appears far more orderly than expected.
The planetary government is even boasting that they have the situation under perfect control.
In reality, however, the situation is far more precarious than their claims suggest.
And then the status window dropped a finishing blow on the official for good measure.
"..."
"..."
"Well, I've only just arrived and I'm rather tired. Let's continue the rest of this discussion tomorrow."
"Y-yes, of course!"
I simply pretended not to notice the official uncle teetering on the edge of a stress-induced collapse.
The next day.
Operating under the ironclad logic that anything outside the bed was dangerous, I spent the daylight hours rolling around under the covers. Not that I was completely idle.
I was watching the planetary news on one of those needlessly translucent, ultra-slim SF television screens when—
—Beep-beep-beep.
"...Mm."
The agents we had stationed on every Imperial world—and the ones I'd seeded after arriving here—had just pushed new intelligence reports to my terminal. I sat up and reached for it.
—Ding.
"Oh, for—"
The moment I tried to read the terminal, a status window popped up and blocked the entire screen.
Event: The Strange Situation on Janus
Your agents' investigation has confirmed that conditions on Janus are distinctly abnormal.
No clear direction or concrete objective for the riots has been identified.
Investigation into the planetary government's riot-response posture is ongoing.
Further investigation is required regarding the internal strife among the garrison forces.
And interesting results are expected concerning the mines.
...If it hadn't neatly summarized the mountain of messy reports into a clean abstract, I would have murdered it on the spot.
I'll let you off just this once!
With that petty thought, I read through the status window and the reports together. Something about it felt... off.
...This is getting complicated in all the wrong ways.
No matter how I looked at it, these weren't simple riots. And the status window and the reports both made it clear that the riots weren't even the only problem.
"What the hell is this? We still don't know the garrison situation, and now there's something about the mines?"
Completely unexpected issues kept surfacing, and my head was starting to throb.
In the original game this would have been a couple lines of text and a few button clicks!
Why did getting forcibly isekai'd into this game mean I had to sweat blood over something that simple? The sudden self-pity even stirred up the depression I'd carefully buried.
Where the hell am I even supposed to start looking...?
Then it hit me: I was being an absolute idiot.
What am I even doing?
I'd been so deep in the weeds that I'd completely forgotten about one extremely useful feature for exactly this kind of complicated, time-consuming mess.
And that feature was—
"Pause!"
—Tick.
Game paused.
The pause function that had existed even in the original game.