The Thalianum Depletion Crisis (3)
Before Arto could spill his coffee at the far-from-refreshing morning call, back when he was still lost in deep sleep—
“What in the blazes have you people been doing to let this mess explode like this?!”
“Gyaaaaah!”
“Th-this is a dream. It’s just a dream.”
The urgently convened Grand Council of the Seveli Empire had already descended into pure, unadulterated chaos.
A large-scale crisis of chaos has erupted in the Council.
📍 Details: Plug the leak. Fast.
Had Arto been present, the status window would have been flashing in real time right before his eyes.
“Who the hell leaked the information? Or rather—who got it leaked?!”
“According to the intelligence trace, it appears to have originated from outside the Empire, not within.”
“Goddamn it!”
And for good reason. Right up until the day before, not a single soul had imagined anything like this could happen.
“No more problems left to deal with, right? Let’s all take it easy for a while.”
“Agreed.”
Of course the perennial cautious types had thought about making some preparations of their own…
“Just in case, it would be wise to prepare for any issues that might arise.”
“Exactly. The Minister of the Executive Ministry himself made it clear these were only temporary measures.”
“Factoring in the surplus of our stockpiles, even at the absolute maximum we should be able to resolve this within a month—”
No one, however, had expected the problem to detonate not in a month, not even in a day, but in a mere half-day.
Fortunately, unlike the era of the Predecessor Emperor, the current imperial government—hard-carried by Empress Artraia and Executive Ministry Minister Arto—was rich in talent and moved to respond with impressive speed.
“The Ministry of Resources must take responsibility for this!”
“What nonsense is that?! By that logic you should be yelling at the Ministry of Territory for failing to properly handle the supply disruptions!”
“No, take it up with the Ministry of Commerce or the Foreign Ministry for failing to control the information!”
And so the opening act was, inevitably, a savage battle royale of blame-shifting as everyone fought for their own survival.
Even if the work still had to be done, the first order of business was always to hang a scapegoat and save one’s own neck. That was simply how the world worked.
It was an old, ugly habit that had long warped the Empire’s politics and power structure—and watching it unfold once more right before her eyes, Empress Artraia, seated upon the throne, felt a sharp throb begin behind her temples.
…Still this difficult, is it?
True, she and the Minister of the Executive Ministry had already cut away countless bad habits and useless dead weight. Yet barely ten years had passed since those reforms began. Expecting too much was unrealistic.
Even so, seeing the very talents they themselves had carefully selected still being dragged under by the ghosts of the past…
“Haa… This is truly a headache.”
“Do not trouble yourself overmuch, Your Majesty.”
As the Empress’s eyes grew dead watching the disgraceful spectacle, the Grand Chamberlain beside her spoke in his usual flat tone.
“As always, in a crisis such as this, he will present a solution.”
“…Will he, truly?”
Even the Chamberlain’s calm yet firm counsel could not lift the Empress’s mood. Watching the ugly side of the carefully chosen talents in real time was simply too much for the heart.
Filled with disappointment, she finally opened her mouth to put a stop to the idiots who seemed ready to host the Galaxy’s Ugliest Behavior Contest.
“Ever—”
—Creeeeak.
Or rather, she was about to.
“…!”
“Apologies for the delay. Arto Virtorius, Minister of the Executive Ministry, has just arrived.”
The heavy doors of the central council chamber swung open, and a bright, lively Arto strode in—ruining her timing completely.
“…!”
“Minister of the Executive Ministry! Where in the world have you been to show up only now?!”
The same stunned silence that had fallen over the Empress also seized the ministers and officials still deep in their blame game. Unfortunately for them, their eyes were already half-rolled back in desperation, and they immediately prepared to unleash a barrage of fire upon the late-arriving minister.
If I want to live, I have to dump this responsibility on someone—anyone!
Among them were people whose desperation was entirely genuine. To an outsider, the chamber looked less like a council hall and more like a death-row courtroom, thick with killing intent.
But then—
“Everyone, I’ve already cleaned this problem up completely, so please don’t worry yourselves over it.”
“?!?!!”
The moment he walked in and dropped that bombshell while simultaneously transmitting data to every terminal in the room, all further attacks were instantly sealed off.
“Wait—what is this?”
“As you can see, this is an official communiqué we received from our ally, Ztrak.”
Those who checked their terminals at Arto’s words could only doubt their own eyes at the figures displayed.
“I-is this even a realistic number, Minister?”
“Hoo… This is a full year’s worth of our Empire’s entire consumption, isn’t it?”
Of course they were skeptical. Only yesterday people had been scraping by on a single month’s supply; now the man casually produced a year’s worth. Who would believe it?
Faced with those suspicious stares, the Minister of the Executive Ministry merely shrugged and pressed on with bold confidence.
“It’s nothing special.”
As if the whole affair had been trivial, he paused with leisurely poise and began walking forward. The beautiful humanoid trailing quietly behind him was almost completely overshadowed by the way every gaze in the chamber locked onto the minister alone.
When his steps finally halted, the tightly sealed lips of the minister opened, and the solution to the present crisis poured out smoothly.
“Crystal powder—something we have no immediate need for, yet which has continued to be produced and mined without pause.”
“…Ah!”
“We have decided, through negotiations with Ztrak’s working-level staff, to swap those stockpiles—which we had been hoarding solely because they were classified as strategic resources—for their Thalianum.”
“Ooooh!”
“Minister of the Executive Ministry! Minister!”
While they had been wasting time arguing over who was to blame, the minister had already finished handling the matter?
“Wait… what about Kar-Du in the middle?”
“That’s right—there isn’t a single Warp Gate or hyperspace lane directly connecting us to Ztrak, is there?”
Of course a few cautious or practical voices still raised realistic objections.
“That issue has also been fully resolved.”
“Meaning…?”
“Since Kar-Du is already a protectorate subordinate to Ztrak, we successfully opened a route through Kar-Du via a special envoy from the Ztrak side.”
“Ooooooh!”
At this point the only remaining choices were shame or respect—and very few people chose the former.
“Arto! Arto! Arto!”
“Arto Punch!”
“Mommy, I’m going to be Minister of the Executive Ministry when I grow up!”
…A few individuals did indulge in some rather unhinged outbursts, but the atmosphere had flipped so completely that it felt as though a favorable wind had suddenly filled the sails of everyone gathered in the chamber.
And the one who had created this situation could hardly expect the Empress watching from the throne to remain silent.
“Excellent work, Minister Arto of the Executive Ministry.”
“You flatter me.”
For now she spoke with calm composure—but later, when they met in private, she would no doubt be beaming like a delighted young girl.
Resolve the Thalianum Default Crisis
— RESOLVED —
Your dazzling rhetoric, the personal trust you have accumulated, and your lightning-fast actions played a major role in resolving the crisis!
Although the Empire’s overall credibility has fallen due to the default already occurring, the trust each empire places in you will rise in turn!
Furthermore, because the damage from the default was resolved in the shortest possible time, the duration of the Empire’s credibility debuff will be drastically reduced.
Fuck.
I thought I was going to die.
Wake up, immediately board a superluminal shuttle, fly straight to Ztrak’s capital world, hammer out the negotiations at top speed, and race back.
It sounded simple enough when put into words, but the extreme time-attack I had pulled off just to minimize the damage window had left my entire body feeling like melted scrap.
Still, I couldn’t exactly let that state show…
Good thing I got Riel to inject me with a stimulant before I walked in.
Thanks to the miraculous science of future-era stimulants, I managed to keep my mind together and successfully advertise the results I had achieved in front of the Grand Council that had been five minutes away from total collapse. Medetashi, medetashi.
There was just one problem Riel hadn’t managed to mention—and that I myself hadn’t known about.
“How about that? Pretty impressive, right?!”
“Amazing! Incredible!!”
…Unlike the nearly side-effect-free medicines of the modern age, whatever black-market concoction Riel had whipped up seemed to have left me feeling strangely High! As a result I was chatting with people in a far more extroverted manner than usual.
If it had stopped there, it might have caused some talk later but wouldn’t have been a real disaster.
The real problem was that my High! and thoroughly frayed mental state happened to spot the Foreign Minister sitting nearby…
“Foreeeign Ministeeeer~~!”
“T-truly remarkable work, Minister of the Executive Ministry… but what on earth is going on…?”
As if greeting a best friend, I casually slung an arm around his shoulders and, in a completely unhinged state, leaned in close to the Foreign Minister—
No.
To that goddamn traitor bastard—and whispered a catastrophe into his ear.
“You cosmic-scale backstabbing son of a bitch. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice your little double-cross?”
Ahaha… I’m so fucked.