The Trusted One (4)
The Trusted One (4)
No matter how much imperial authority she wielded as the emperor's proxy, she was still a fourteen-year-old child in the end.
The king of Belbur and the pope of the Holy State would surely find her laughable.
But they could not bear to let that amusement show on their faces.
Belbur's military power was a mere handful compared to the Empire's. Both Belbur and the Empire were volunteer-force nations, yet the Empire had more soldiers relative to its population, and when compared against the Empire's vastly larger population, the kingdom's military was desperately precarious.
Moreover, while the Empire was aggressively expanding a modern air force and navy, the kingdom's military remained decidedly medieval. That did not mean they fought with swords, spears, and bows, of course, but they still suffered an absolute shortage of tanks and aircraft. Set against the Empire's military, which had already moved past the patchwork tanks of the Great War era and was advancing into main battle tanks with rotating turrets and powerful main guns, the kingdom's forces could be called pathetically feeble.
Furthermore, even the aerial battleship, which at a glance looked like the pinnacle of inefficiency, was sheer terror in a world that had not yet developed advanced surface-to-air missiles.
No anti-aircraft gun yet matched the range of a battleship's main guns. And among all the anti-aircraft guns that had ever existed, none possessed the penetrating power to punch through the armor of the dreadnought-class aerial battleship.
Theoretically, you would have to fire a battleship's naval gun to hit it, but the difference in range between a naval gun firing upward from the sea and a battleship's gun driving down from the air was overwhelming, even at a rough guess.
An aerial battleship could travel at a top speed of 120 kilometers per hour. That was faster than any warship in this world, and since it never traveled alone to begin with, flying a massive bomber in to drop bombs on it was no simple task either.
And once again, the Empire's air power was the strongest in the world. If a bomber, slower than an interceptor, came flying from far away, it was obvious it would be shot down with extremely high probability. And in all likelihood, that bomber would also be Imperial-made.
In summary, a colossal gunship was firing shells more powerful than a modern self-propelled gun at self-propelled-gun-range, from the air, with relatively precise aim, while its armor was effectively on par with a battleship's and dozens of interceptors flew escort around it. To nations just entering the early stages of modernization, it was pure terror.
Indeed, in Imperial doctrine, the role of the aerial battleship was a carbon copy of a modern U.S. military gunship. The problem was the lack of any practical means to shoot one down.
At any rate, that was why the king of Belbur and the papal delegate of the Holy State who received me displayed exceedingly courteous attitudes, whatever their true feelings might have been.
"We understand the Holy State's position. That said, we cannot abandon our religious freedom. Belbur has been a nation formed by the gathering of many races since antiquity. If we were to establish the Church of the Goddess as the state religion there, it would produce severe social chaos. Regrettably, we must decline on this occasion as well."
"As we always say, you have our condolences."
Courteous attitudes, however, did not mean they were earnestly including me in the talks.
I had no intention of actively participating either, and these two nations were the ones who did most of the talking at this Trilateral Summit anyway. The Empire, which in practice wielded absolute hegemony, had no need to meddle with them. Unless they encroached on Imperial interests, that was.
Thanks to that, I spent most of the summit's proceedings drinking fragrant, high-quality tea. Milk tea with plenty of milk and sugar was delicious as always. Was it a Belbur specialty?
"The Holy State is a small country, but it does possess powerful military strength. We had thought that if we could join hands with the kingdom, we too might reap great benefit......"
"Hm......."
The king shot me a glance.
I looked at these people.
The Holy State was a very small country. Small enough to be nearly a single city, if you wanted to split hairs. It had become independent through some treaty centuries ago.
Call it religious symbolism, but the Holy State was a nation that leaned heavily into sheer fantasy. Well, the Empire, where combat-effective aerial battleships flew through the sky, was fantasy too, but the Holy State leaned further into fantasy than even the Empire.
The Cathedral Knights who wielded holy magic were threatening in a different sense from soldiers carrying firearms. Their numbers were few, but if they mixed into a battlefield, they could likely perform at the level of tactical weapons.
In other words, the Holy State was proposing an alliance to the kingdom.
"......."
I watched the two of them keenly but stayed silent.
I had known about this to some degree. The kingdom ultimately opposed religious unification, but the Holy State was depicted as quietly assisting the kingdom's characters.
To say they were challenging the Empire's hegemony would be accurate. They appeared to be normal, rational religious people at a glance, but in truth they nursed an ambition to subsume every religion in the world under the Church of the Goddess alone.
The Empire was a melting pot of races, cultures, and religions even more than the kingdom. Colonials who had crossed from countless colonies, the cultures of once-independent nations that had been annexed, and indigenous faiths all mingled together chaotically. Naturally, the Holy State would find that offensive.
Of course, strictly speaking, that was something like a final objective. Just as the constitutional final objective of the South Korean government was to retake the North Korean territory and achieve unification, but they refrained from actually invading for all sorts of practical reasons, the Holy State knew perfectly well that if they genuinely tried to carry out that plan they would be erased from the map.
So they were thoroughly, methodically changing things starting from the most realistic parts.
The kingdom was a nation directly exposed to the Empire's threat. The Empire still appeared satisfied with its present situation, but discontent inside the country was steadily accumulating. And the best way to manage the direction of that discontent was to create an outlet outside.
It was no surprise that the kingdom and the Holy State, both small countries bordering the Empire, viewed the Empire with the same eyes.
Thus, the words exchanged at the Trilateral Summit were highly likely to be nothing but theater, and the real conversations would happen separately between those two. Even if things broke down regrettably here, a secret alliance was probably being forged behind the scenes.
Of course, even if it was theater, they would have to perform to the absolute best of their ability so that the Empire would genuinely believe the situation.
Maybe the king's slightly furrowed expression was partly sincere after all?
"......."
I looked at the two of them and deliberated.
Whether that alliance was concluded or not, the emperor would move in the end. Which meant...... in truth, whatever I said or did not say here hardly mattered.
"...... We do not mean to deny the Goddess. Our royal house has venerated the Church of the Goddess for generations. But if we were to recognize that faith as the sole religion, discontent would certainly erupt inside the kingdom. At which point an alliance with the Holy State would become meaningless, would it not?"
"Any breach that arises, the Cathedral Knights, the pride of the Holy State, shall undertake to plug."
"That sounds remarkably like saying you would station an army in our kingdom."
They were trying so hard.
But they were already stationed there in reality.
Of course, their numbers were so small that they would not be a money pit like U.S. Forces Korea, and they were not exactly present in unit strength either.
They had entered the kingdom disguised as clergy in the Church of the Goddess there. I knew this well because it was a setting detail that appeared in the main story.
Well, even so, since it was a secret alliance, they must have concluded that staying out of my sight was the best course.
"If."
To be honest, I did not much like the Holy State as a faction. Their insidious scheming was one reason, and every character from there was drenched in chuunibyou. I mean, if they were fanatic-type characters from a manga like ●, I might have been happy to stan them instead, but it was more like.......
They were the kind of faction populated by characters who claimed to love killing while pretending to believe in a religion they did not truly follow, or who declared that only the Goddess's name was justice while casually massacring civilians, yet inexplicably became popular because they were beautiful. And washing it all away later was a JRPG hallmark too.
Sure, there were good people among them, and some became the protagonist's friends or heroines, but a handful of characters rubbed me so extremely the wrong way that I had often tried to slaughter the entire faction.
Sometimes I had even taken excerpts from the setting guide and fabricated things...... though I got caught eventually.
Anyway, since it was that sort of country, I felt like making them a little uncomfortable too.
For instance.
"If the Empire were to establish the Church of the Goddess as the state religion, would the Holy State be willing to ally with the Empire?"
I delivered that line to the two people who froze at my single remark.
Of course, the emperor was a man who utterly loathed the existence of the Goddess, so it was a suggestion he would never grant. That was precisely why I could say it without worry.
I did not know whether the Goddess truly existed according to the setting, but I disliked the Holy State. Naturally, I had no intention of forming an alliance with them either.
The Empire had no need for one in the first place.
"...... Are you saying the Empire has the will to adopt the Church of the Goddess as its principal religion?"
"That depends on the benefit we would obtain. The Empire is a modernized nation and so has no present intention of establishing an empirically unproven faith as the state religion, but if the profit gained exceeds the harm caused, there is no reason we could not consider it."
At my words, the Holy State's delegate narrowed his eyes. He was trying to discern whether this was merely a probing remark.
Besides, if the Holy State actually attached itself to the Empire, there was also the possibility that the Holy State would be absorbed outright. The Empire was that overwhelmingly powerful a nation. Given the emperor's attitude, he would doubtless be eager to do so.
And even if they did make the Church of the Goddess the Imperial state religion, stamping out every other religion would be impossible. Unless they intended to rip the Empire to shreds, even if this proposal were actually implemented, it would most likely go no further than genuine establishment as a state religion.
Yet at the same time, this proposal touched the Holy State's entire reason for being. It would become the first step toward abolishing all the world's religions and unifying them under one faith, the sole true belief. Of course, that would only be possible on the assumption that the Holy State was not absorbed by the Empire.
"Does that reflect His Imperial Majesty's personal will?"
the Holy State's ambassador asked me.
"That is what I would like to ask. His Holiness did not attend in person. Do all of your words right now, Ambassador, carry the same weight as the Pope's own?"
"I attend this occasion as the proxy of His Holiness. Naturally, everything I say is identical to the will of the Holy State."
"Is that so? Then my words are likewise equal to those of His Imperial Majesty. After all, I am attending as His Imperial Majesty's proxy."
I looked back and forth between the king and the Holy State's delegate, whose expressions had gone rigid, then fixed my gaze on the delegate once more as I spoke.
"If the words you are now speaking are truly spoken as the representative of the Holy State and according to the Holy State's will, do you mean to take responsibility for everything you have said here?"
"Of course. That is why I came to this place. Are you not the same, Your Imperial Highness?"
"I could hardly speak falsely in an audience with His Highness, the King of Belbur."
At the words "His Highness," the king's eyebrow twitched, but I paid it little mind and continued.
"In that case, I have something I wish to ask here, invoking the august authority of His Imperial Majesty."
I addressed the two people who were staring fixedly at me.
"Do you by chance have additional matters you have discussed elsewhere, outside this Trilateral Summit? I am curious whether the dialogue I have witnessed with my own eyes here represents the entirety of it, or whether you are forging a separate alliance beyond these walls."
"......."
I felt a little sorry for intimidating the king like this, since I held no particular feelings toward him, but watching the Holy State ambassador's expression go stiff was fairly entertaining.
Well, they would not answer me honestly just because I said that anyway, and they would proceed with their alliance all the same.
"Do you have grounds for that question? If you are speaking backed by His Majesty's authority, then it ought to be a question asked with resolve commensurate with the weight of those words."
This time it was the king who spoke, his expression grave.
"Is this a question that requires grounds? We are discussing mutual military alliances. Is it an unjustified remark to verify once more whether the words exchanged here are truly for the benefit of all three parties, or meant to exclude a single nation?"
"......."
Neither of them had an answer to my question.
Truthfully it was a statement riddled with holes...... but I had made it unequivocally clear that I came bearing the emperor's power, so these people would find it difficult to boldly say no. The moment they did, it would constitute an official denial, and they would have no excuse if it came to light later.
Still, that did not mean they would break the alliance. Even their immediate words proved as much. They would never deny it, but neither would they affirm it. No doubt so that even if they were caught later, they could say they simply had not spoken of it.
"I would like to ask once more."
Breaking the silence, the Holy State's ambassador opened his mouth.
"Does the Empire genuinely intend to establish the Church of the Goddess as the state religion?"
"I apologize, but that is only my personal thought, and a matter requiring the consent of the Imperial Diet. I cannot give a definite answer."
It was a two-faced reply.
At a glance it seemed I had answered that way because the matter lay beyond the emperor's authority, given the distinct powers of the emperor as head of the executive and the Imperial Diet as the legislature. But the Imperial Diet was already a rubber stamp that merely raised its hands at the emperor's word. And observing the emperor's actions made that fact easy to infer.
Someone who had spoken just moments ago as though she could do anything backed by the emperor's authority was now retracting her words using the Diet as an excuse.
For the listeners, it was enough to raise one's blood pressure.
But what could they do?
The power of the Imperial Emperor was behind me.
Besides, I genuinely did not care what happened to the Empire's image here. If I had cared, the emperor would not have sent me in the first place.
I disengaged from the conversation and lifted my teacup again. The two of them stared at me for a long moment.
What. Well. What.
We had nothing more to discuss here anyway.
The two of them could sort out the rest on their own.
The evil empire was evil for a reason, wasn't it?