Chapter 285: The Blessed Country and the Cursed Human - 8
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 285: The Blessed Country and the Cursed Human - 8
“This is Yuel. She's also known as Eimeder, the Envoy, and was the first of the three of the Six Generals brought in by Warlord Valiorant. She's the great figure who continued to build this nation even after his death. To put it simply, she's the hidden king of the Military State!”
“…Don’t call me king.”
“You called me a barbarian! I’ll call you whatever I want! Anyway, if you have any questions, ask her! She can explain everything, from the Military State’s birth to its ideology! It’s finally time to grant your wishes!”
Yuel glared at me with hollow eyes. A moment ago, she seemed like she couldn’t even stand to look at me, but now, I was the only one she could look at.
If she turned her head, the Princess was on one side, and Shiati on the other. Both were children abandoned by the Military State. The very things the Saintess had cast aside to carry on the Warlord's will had clawed their way here to find her.
“…Did you bring those two here planning for this from the start?”
“Nope. I’m no prophet, how could I know the future? I didn’t even know who you were before I came here.”
Those so-called prophets have really messed people up. Whenever a situation turns in my favor, people ask if I predicted it all. As if.
“But it doesn’t matter whether I knew the future or not. Those two harbor a great desire. That desire drove them this far, and because they refused to wither away, they’ve finally come face-to-face with you. Of course, if I hadn’t been here, they might have run into some trouble along the way.”
“You shouldn’t have the ability to make people follow you anymore.”
“I keep telling you, it’s not an ability like that. Power or authority has nothing to do with it. How many times do I have to say it? They are the ones who guided themselves here.”
Even now, without me lifting a finger or playing any tricks, the two of them were walking this way. They crossed the hard stone floor with weary steps, but their gazes were fixed straight ahead.
“And you’re the one who made them who they are. It was inevitable that Shiati and the Princess would find their way here. They might have failed, or they might have succeeded. But that doesn’t matter either.”
Unfortunately, while I could ask questions and hear the answers for them, I couldn’t draw the conclusions. In that sense, bringing these two, the ones with real business here, was an excellent choice.
Shiati, with her longer stride, reached us first. I stepped aside, assuming the role of an observer.
Alright. Show me. What are you going to do with this Saintess?
I was watching with a bit of excitement when, for some reason, Shiati looked past Yuel and asked me a question.
“That corpse over there is the Warlord?”
“The man who was once the Warlord. Now he’s just a corpse.”
“Why does she have it?”
“Rather than ‘has it,’ it’s more accurate to say she was buried with it. This looks like the crypt of a shrine… But wait a minute. Why are you asking me? Ask her.”
I brought her here so she could ask the questions herself, so why is she pestering the wrong person? I can read Yuel’s thoughts, but I can’t answer for her. My mind-reading would be exposed.
Seeing my reluctance, Shiati shrugged.
“How can I trust the words of a woman who’s so obviously suspicious?”
That’s a good point.
I suppose for Shiati, who fled underground during the chaos, it would just be confusing to suddenly be told that this person was the mastermind.
Shiati was ordinary, just like everyone else. She could only see what was right in front of her. Whether it was true or not, the whole truth was too vast for her to take in at a glance.
“But you trust my words?”
“Relatively.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
A small smile touched Shiati’s lips as she muttered with a detached expression.
“And besides, it doesn’t really matter anymore. Who the true mastermind of this country was, what they were plotting… It’s so complicated it gives me a headache.”
“Huh?”
What? How anticlimactic. Where did all that rage that looked like it could burn down the entire Military State go? I know she was disheartened when she saw the Signaller who was younger than her, but did she give up on revenge over something like that?
“Are you sure about that? What about your revenge on the Military State?”
“Like you said, I didn’t know the Military State. And even as I learned, my thoughts just got more tangled, never reaching a clear conclusion. Who was evil, what I should take revenge on… I just started to feel lost.”
Shiati had grown as a person through all her trials. But personal growth means giving something up.
As the one who listened to their desires and guided them here, this was a disappointing ending.
“That woman isn’t younger than me, is she?”
“Come on. You may look old from all the crap you’ve been through, but she’s still older than you.”
“Hah. Still, I don’t feel much of anything. I didn’t know who she was, I’m seeing her for the first time today. Even if I beat her to death, who in the world would even know?”
It was a complete turnaround from the way she’d been charging forward like a madwoman. There was a sense of dissonance in the way Shiati muttered so candidly.
“Shiati…”
‘That’s right. The matter right in front of us is the most important thing! You understand…!’
The Princess looked on, moved, her eyes welling with tears, but I, for one, was not pleased to see Shiati’s enlightened state.
“What brought this on?”
Shiati answered with a bitter smile.
“I snuck into a room earlier and met a Signaller. I.N., I think her name was. She said she was my age. The same age the children who died in Hamelin would be if they had grown up. The same age, yet one of them drowned, and the other became the hidden power of the Command. But.”
“But?”
“…She didn’t seem any better off than me.”
Clank. Shiati dropped something dented. It was an empty can of beans. It was tasteless, but rich in nutrients and highly compressed, making it the most efficient meal for the sole purpose of ‘survival.’
That also made it the most unpopular meal.
“The one pulling the strings eats canned beans. Lives locked up in a dark room. What kind of ‘power behind the throne’ is that?”
The details about the Signallers were classified, but some secrets had been declassified for those who had already entered the Module. For example, information about the Signallers’ working conditions. That was something one could find out just by observing.
As a result, Shiati also realized how…
“She’s so pathetic I don’t even feel like cursing her out.”
…cowardly their existence was.
Because they suffer more than anyone, they are free from the blame and responsibility of others.
I pointed at Yuel and said, “This person right here. She’s the one who created the Signallers.”
“…I guess so. It’s a little annoying, but… she doesn’t look much different herself.”
There were no common cooking utensils or ingredients. Even the bed was just a stone coffin with some cloth layered on top. The only thing that looked remotely warm was a single corpse.
Shiati didn’t know what the Saintess ate, but she knew that she, too, was suffering.
Shiati looked down at Yuel. The meeting between the monster who created the Military State and the monster the Military State created was surprisingly peaceful.
“It’s just… I’m not even angry anymore.”
It was an unexpected reaction. Not just for us, but for Yuel as well. Yuel, who had expected Shiati to lunge at her at any moment, was caught completely off guard by her entirely different response.
“…Are you pitying me?”
“Maybe.”
The Signallers know everything. They receive information from dozens of golems and have it relayed by hundreds of other Signallers.
At the same time, they know nothing. Because they are trapped in a windowless room.
The Signallers have no life, so they have no responsibility. Therefore, they have no sin. Who could possibly blame them? They could only be pitied.
This was all Yuel’s design. The Signallers were created for this very purpose from the beginning.
But now that Yuel herself had become the object of pity, she felt a strange sense of displeasure.
“Thank you, Resistance. If you’ve understood enough, why don’t you give up and go back? If you stay by the Princess’s side, your life will be spared. Just as it has been until now.”
“I’ve never been one to cling to life. Not then, not now.”
Shiati reached out her prosthetic arm. A mere steel prosthetic couldn’t possibly interfere with the Saintess’s prayer. Believing this, the Saintess simply watched.
But Shiati’s prosthetic arm wasn’t reaching for Yuel.
The corpse in Yuel’s arms was suddenly pulled away. Shiati had grabbed it by the collar and yanked it out in one motion.
A corpse is not a praying Saintess. Shiati had the strength to pull it away. Yuel, who had been in the middle of a proper prayer, had her precious trace of him stolen right before her eyes.
“Ah, ah?”
“Well, at least I got something good out of this. Huey, this is the Warlord? The father of this nation?”
“So they say.”
Ah, right. That was a corpse.
To me, who can read thoughts, a corpse is just an object that was once human. Since I couldn’t feel any thoughts from it, I hadn’t even registered its presence.
It seemed Shiati had found a use for it. She examined the body from all angles and asked me, “He looks to be in good condition for a corpse. Are you sure he’s dead? There’s not a single wound.”
“He was probably poisoned. That’s why there are no wounds. The reason he’s in good condition for a corpse… is because she’s been cherishing and taking care of him.”
“Anyway. The people in the Military State who made a name for themselves would recognize this face, right?”
“I don’t know about other places, but this is Inner Circle Command, so there are probably a lot of old-timers who are high-ranking but too frail for the front lines. Those old soldiers would probably recognize him.”
“Perfect. If I use this, at least a few people will pay attention.”
‘Maybe there’s one last thing I have to do.’
Shiati started to drag the corpse away like a piece of luggage. At that moment, Yuel stopped her seemingly eternal prayer. She quickly reached out and grabbed the hem of the corpse’s clothes.
“What… what are you going to do with him?”
“None of your business.”
“He is already at rest! What do you intend to do by taking his body?!”
Shiati said flatly, “Even if it’s just a corpse, if I cut off the Warlord’s head, it should cause quite a shock, don’t you think?”
That’s Shiati for you. She does things I’d never even imagine without a second thought.
Well, taking the corpse of a Warlord who was said to have died twenty years ago probably wouldn’t cause a massive uproar. But for one person, Yuel, it would be a desecration so horrific it was beyond imagination.
The Sky God faith encourages cremation, but not everyone is burned. A Saintess or a renowned cleric might be enshrined in a temple just as they were in death, with a Saintess regularly blessing and maintaining them.
What Yuel had been doing was a part of that. It was filled with personal sentiment, but regardless, Yuel had been doing it for over twenty years.
“Until now, I’ve been trying to vent my anger on something I couldn’t even see. But what’s this? Some secret mastermind nobody knows about? Don’t make me laugh. Hmph, I’d rather curse the god who made this world.”
“S-So… you’re going to take your anger out on his corpse?”
“A corpse feels nothing. But, if I carry this… at the very least, those who know the Warlord’s face will listen to what I have to say.”
And with that, Shiati grabbed the corpse by its trouser leg and began to drag it away. The body was pulled along like a sack of potatoes, away from Yuel.
Yuel shot to her feet and clung to the corpse. Shiati paused, feeling the weight on the body.
“Let him go! He is not someone who deserves to be treated like that by the likes of you!”
“When I was alive, I was treated like a mere ingredient. Why should a corpse be any different?”
Hah. That guy’s getting into a tug-of-war between two women even in death. I wonder if he’d be pleased watching this from heaven…
No, wait, the reason he died in the first place was because the rope snapped in a tug-of-war, right? Then he probably wouldn’t be too happy. He might even be in agony.
Sigh, I’d better make sure that doesn’t happen to me.
The sight of Yuel struggling to get the corpse back was, more than anything, pathetic. In contrast to Shiati, who was pulling on the trouser leg, Yuel couldn’t even bring herself to grab his neck, managing only to hold his body with both arms. It was painfully obvious she was terrified of damaging him in any way.
How did someone who was once a Saintess fall to such a state? Shiati muttered.
“I just found another reason to use this corpse.”
“Ah!”
The seemingly tense standoff ended anticlimactically. The moment Shiati put her strength into it, Yuel’s body was thrown to the ground in an unsightly heap. A Saintess who had been cooped up for over twenty years was no match for the physical strength of a Resistance field commander.
Shiati looked down at the fallen Yuel and sneered.
“If you hate it that much, then I have even less reason to stop. Just watch from over there. Watch and see how I make use of this body.”
“You—!”
Realizing she couldn’t win with brute force, the Saintess cowardly clasped her hands and prayed. A Saintess possesses immense power, but she lacks the simple, straightforward strength to strike down the person right in front of her.
Instead, Yuel prepared to summon an angel, spitting out lines worthy of a third-rate villain.
“You insolent brat…! Just because you got lucky and made it this far, you act like you’re somebody?!”
The offering would be herself. A rather steep price to pay just to protect a single corpse.
But to Yuel, that corpse was her entire, narrow world. She had already prepared for death anyway. Without hesitation, Yuel readied herself to become the sacrifice.
“Shiati! Wait a moment!”
Fortunately, the Princess intervened before an angel could descend. Shiati obeyed the Princess’s words, and even Yuel, who had looked ready to kill, momentarily suppressed her rage in the Princess’s presence.
The Princess, having stopped the fight, appealed to Shiati.
“Shiati. I still have questions. His body could be the key to getting the answers I need. So, could you please wait just a moment?”
“Just a moment.”
Shiati obediently let go of the corpse. The leg she had been holding dropped lifelessly to the ground with a thud, and Yuel flinched as if her own leg had been struck.
The Princess stood before the pale-faced Yuel, blocking her way. Yuel spoke to the new interloper.
“…You said you had something to ask me, Princess Grandiomor.”
“Yes. You’re… Yuel, right? There was something I absolutely had to ask the Military State… no, you.”
Yuel gestured with her chin as if to say, ‘ask quickly.’ The Princess cleared her throat a few times, then finally voiced the question she had held onto for so long.
“I have watched the Military State for a long time. So I know. I know how strong and wealthy it is. The Resistance has stolen or seized a considerable amount of supplies over the years, but it never seemed to have much of an impact on the State.”
“You say ‘stolen and seized’ so brazenly.”
“Ah… M-My apologies for that. We were also struggling, living in hiding… A-Anyway! The Military State was a truly incredible nation! Its system, its scale! It was so immense it couldn’t even be compared to the kingdom!”
The Princess began her speech with her own brand of aristocratic rhetoric, but Yuel remained cold and indifferent.
“I never thought I’d receive praise from a member of the Resistance who tracked me all the way here. I’ve heard your esteemed opinion. In that case, why don’t you surrender?”
“Th-That’s not what I meant! I’m just… I’m just curious as to what it’s all for!”
The Military State is rational and efficient. They exploit humans to extract the maximum value under any given conditions.
It was a natural course of action for them, but the Princess posed the question of ‘why.’
“A nation should look after its people and know how to be generous. The kingdom failed to do so, but the Military State, born from its ashes, has the ability, doesn’t it? If you just reduced the workload a little, cared for the people a little more, were just a little less harsh. This country, the Military State, could have become something close to a paradise on earth.”
“…”
“But… the Military State seems to be intentionally avoiding that. Why? They’re all citizens of the State. Why are you so reluctant to provide for your own people?”
Yuel didn’t answer. The Princess, assuming her question had been too vague, tried to formulate it more specifically.
“It’s not for the sake of luxury, either! If it were, you yourself would be enjoying a much grander lifestyle! You wouldn’t be in a cramped room with a corpse; you’d be cared for in a magnificent palace! But you’re not. For what purpose are you pushing people into this hellish cycle?”
“…cause.”
“Pardon?”
Yuel opened her mouth with difficulty.
“Because this blessed country that he and I created… must last for all eternity.”