Chapter 174: Sleeping Lions (4)
Chapter 174: Sleeping Lions (4)
“For the time being, I’ll have to return to France. Mr. Florian, please manage the Nation of Isaac branch. Mr. Mayer, please oversee the Price Accounting Firm subsidiary during my absence.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Let’s postpone the toy business for now. We’ll finish the urgent matters first and restart afterward. There’s a chance information might leak, so all the prototypes we made should be brought to France.”
“A wise decision.”
“Why?! Why?! Weren’t those supposed to be gifts?! I even made plans with my comrades for tonight!”
“I’ll give them back later. Please hand them over.”
“Waaah! How could you do this to me!”
Hmm… taking the game back from Captain Hardy felt a bit unpleasant, but when enemy mutalisks were attacking the main base, no one would calmly decorate their front yard.
It had been about three hours since I boarded the ship bound for Calais.
In the distance, the silhouette of French soil—Calais—slowly crept into my view, and cargo ships flying the tricolor occasionally passed the vessel I was riding.
“So… President Mirabeau has collapsed.”
I muttered to myself, pulling a long white stick from my inner pocket and placing it in my mouth.
It felt like eating dry roasted sweet potatoes without anything to drink—thick and suffocating.
If I didn’t clear my clogged mind somehow, it felt like I would suffocate right then and there.
When I had left France for England, I had departed feeling fresh and liberated, like Dobby finally gaining his freedom.
But now, as I returned to France, two enormous burdens rested on my shoulders.
—Use British warships, change the flag to the French tricolor, and smash the Russians.
—Mirabeau, who mediated between the Plain faction and the Mountain faction in the National Assembly, has collapsed.
That esteemed absolutist fangirl Tsar had apparently sailed his fleet straight into the Mediterranean.
If we crushed him thoroughly this time, he wouldn’t dare shove his nasty face in front of me for at least ten years—maybe twenty.
Napoleon, my friend… and Admiral Nel—whatever his name was. I’m counting on you. Sob.
But the internal situation was the real problem.
Hadn’t I twisted history… quite a lot?
Louis-Auguste—who in the original timeline would have received a new house in the heavens by now—was still living in the Tuileries Palace.
And Robespierre, the terror who would have cut off countless heads at the guillotine, had yet to do so.
Of course, Sieyès and Robespierre had no way of knowing my thoughts. Things like the National Convention or the Reign of Terror weren’t reality to them.
That made it even more frightening.
Without me, what if things returned to their original course—people slaughtering each other?
Even friends of ten years could fall apart over trivial disagreements.
These people were like highly flammable material that could ignite instantly if given the slightest spark.
If there was anything that could become a spark, it had to be removed in advance.
But President Mirabeau had collapsed.
Mirabeau—the man who mediated between the Plain faction and the Mountain faction inside the Assembly.
Until he recovered, I would probably have to take on the role of mediator again.
I just hoped nothing had happened before I arrived.
“Damn. Life really is ridiculous.”
Thinking again about the quests I had to clear made curses slip out.
“The harbor! The harbor! Everyone disembark!”
As the sailors shouted and the ship docked with a heavy thud, I tossed the nearly finished cigarette into the sea and stepped down from the deck onto the pier.
“Now where was the Calais carriage station…”
But there was no need to search for it myself.
Someone had come to greet me.
A face both welcome—and somewhat unpleasant.
“Your Excellency! I, Lavoisier, have come personally to escort you!”
“Ah… yes.”
“You must have suffered greatly in that rural backwater of England. After all, it’s nothing but graduates from mediocre schools like Oxford and Cambridge.”
“…Stop the nonsense and please show me to the carriage.”
“Oh dear, you must be exhausted from the voyage. My apologies!”
…
Talking with you really is exhausting.
Lavoisier forcibly took my luggage and led me toward the carriage he had prepared.
When we arrived, he spoke excitedly.
“Your Excellency, do not be surprised! Do you know how long I have waited for you?”
“Why were you waiting for me?”
“To show you this incredible invention!”
I slowly looked him up and down.
“Where is the invention?”
“Not me—look at the carriage!”
“Why the carriage—”
Seeing the carriage he proudly pointed to, I could not continue speaking.
“…What exactly did you ride here in?”
“This is the latest transportation device invented by myself and Monsieur Cugnot—the L&C Automatic Steam Carriage No. 1! Please, get in!”
A carriage with a giant steam boiler mounted where the horse should have been.
Actually—without a horse, was it even a carriage anymore?
Lavoisier sat in the driver’s seat, urging me to hurry and sit.
But instead of reins, he was holding a steering handle.
Versailles.
Former Director of the Mint and current Controller-General of Finance Nicolas de Condorcet stared blankly into the air with hollow eyes.
<Forbes> had apparently said that practicing Eastern meditation could calm the mind, so he had tried to empty his thoughts.
But the more he emptied his mind, the more a single young man’s face appeared.
Guillaume de Toulon.
That insolent brat.
How much had Condorcet supported Guillaume for the sake of his bright and promising future?
He had helped him become a representative in the Estates-General, supported him during his tenure as Controller-General, and even introduced him to his friend Jefferson!
And what had Guillaume given Condorcet in return?
This cursed, suffocating office of the Controller-General in Versailles.
And these maddening administrative meetings.
“Robespierre, even at this moment when we are debating policy, there are still children and adults in rural Brittany and the Northern Pyrenees who cannot even spell, let alone read. Should we not urgently implement compulsory education and distribute schools nationwide?”
“Compulsory education—excellent! Nothing would destroy the feudal order more effectively than ensuring every French citizen becomes literate. However…”
Robespierre turned toward another man.
“I would like to ask Leader Sieyès where exactly the funds to support this policy will come from.”
“Even if finances are tight, it is something that must be done. How many laws have vanished without seeing the light of day because people kept postponing them? One of the Chamber of Commerce proposals mentioned issuing bonds—what were they called… assignats, perhaps—”
“This is ridiculous, Sieyès! The problem is the economy! The economy! The war ended only two years ago and you want to issue bonds? Are you trying to make the workers unemployed?”
After arguing for some time, Robespierre shouted toward another person.
“What do you think, Controller-General Condorcet?”
“Ah—yes? Well… I suppose…”
Condorcet dragged out his words.
Damn it, Mirabeau. Couldn’t you have taken better care of your health? I’ve spent my whole life dealing with numbers—how am I supposed to mediate between these two?!
Mirabeau… yes.
Mirabeau could have kept these two in balance.
But Condorcet?
Expecting a man who had spent twenty years locked inside the Mint handling coins to perform skillful political maneuvering was rather unreasonable.
“…Controller-General Condorcet. Please answer.”
Damn it. They looked ready to kill him if he stayed silent.
Condorcet rubbed his neck—which had grown cold under Robespierre’s stare—then slowly spoke.
“I think issuing bonds… may be somewhat excessive.”
“See, Emmanuel! Even the Treasury says it’s impossible!”
“Damn it, Maximilien! But we cannot allow ninety percent of twenty-seven million French citizens to remain illiterate! We are the French Revolutionary Kingdom, not the Paris Revolutionary Kingdom!”
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
To outsiders, both arguments had merit.
Normally, at moments like this, Guillaume or Mirabeau would step in to break the fragile tension.
“I said it’s impossible!”
“Are you saying we shouldn’t reform anything?!”
But all Condorcet could do was stare intently at the patterns carved into the floor of Versailles Palace.
While Condorcet was reaching philosophical enlightenment about Baroque aesthetics, strange noises suddenly echoed from outside.
—Aaaah! A carriage without horses! A wizard!
—A monster! Guards! Guards!
—Where is the State Council chamber?!
—In the War Room!
“Ah. So everyone is here. That saves me the trouble of searching.”
He had returned to Versailles.
“Guillaume, thank goodness you came! Thank you!”
“Why are you clinging to me? Also… haven’t you gained some weight?”
“Because I’m stuck in this attic office all day eating nothing but paperwork and French fries! It’s your fault!”
Hmm. I was sure I had told Director Condorcet not to overeat.
“More importantly… issuing five-year bonds, then not destroying them after redemption but reselling them? Are you serious, Father Sieyès?”
“Is there a problem? One of our party’s financial advisers said it could solve the budget issue…”
“I don’t know who it was, but fire that bastard immediately. I’ve never heard such insanity.”
“…Is it really that serious?”
“Let’s see… if we wait about three years, the livre’s face value will probably drop to one-tenth. Hyperinflation will arrive. You wouldn’t want people carrying 100-livre notes to the toilet, would you?”
“I have absolutely no desire for that.”
“Father, there is no such thing as an inexhaustible treasure chest in this world. It only appears that way. In reality, it’s fraud.”
“…I will remember that.”
“Ahem. What did I say, Leader Sieyès?”
I turned toward Robespierre.
“Father Sieyès is not entirely wrong. Education is a matter of a hundred-year plan. It must begin quickly.”
“Of course I understand that, Director. But…”
“Yes. Reality is difficult. Still, aren’t we all comrades of the Revolution? There is no need to raise our voices when compromise is possible.”
“…You’re right. I was too hot-tempered.”
People who once shouted ‘We can’t live like this—let’s cut off the king’s head!’ really have no brakes.
At this rate, I might not live to my natural lifespan.
Honestly.
Maybe it was fortunate that Russia was advancing.
At times like this, nothing united people faster than a common enemy.
Of course…
After hearing my words, the State Council exploded into chaos.