“So, you’re saying… this ‘Priestess Maiden’ was meddling in national strategies with her Prophecy Magic…?!”
“That’s the gist of it.”
Whoa!
This is bad news, Medieval times.
Apparently, they haven’t quite separated church and state… The Empire was relying on the ‘Priestess Maiden’s’ prophecies to attack our country.
That’s insane, seriously.
Letting a religious figure’s “instructions” dictate national strategy is just plain crazy.
Even if they’re getting fairly accurate prophecies through magic, shouldn’t the country’s leaders be the ones making the decisions?
Even with Prophecy Magic, shouldn’t the people of the country be the ones making the country’s decisions?
What’s the point of having a country if you don’t? Are they stupid?
Count Missgancia, apparently sensing my thoughts from my expression, held up a hand to stop me.
“Well, don’t say it. I understand, I understand what you want to say… But right now, we need to focus on the ‘Priestess Maiden’s’ magic…”
Hmm… even so…
“It’s about accuracy, right? Okay, let me use another analogy… For example, the weather. Does Count Missgancia know how the weather is determined?”
“Well…? Isn’t it the will of God?”
Well, yeah, makes sense.
There’s no way he’d know about such things.
Sea breezes, cumulonimbus clouds, the tilt of the Earth’s axis, the distance from the sun… People in this world don’t know any of that.
“Well, to put it simply, the weather is determined by the movement of clouds and wind. Let’s make a series of assumptions… Say there’s a massive amount of clouds to the north! And a strong wind is blowing from the north! What do you think will happen?”
“…I see. The wind will carry the clouds, and it will rain soon?”
“Something like that. It’s like assembling ‘what you can know’ in a way that makes sense… Combining information to reach an answer, that kind of thing.”
“I understand. But what about low accuracy?”
“Well… continuing with the same example, let’s say I use some amazing magic to blow away the clouds!”
“Mm.”
“…That can’t be predicted. It’s partly because there’s a limit to processing power, but it’s also weak against sudden, mysterious elements… ‘variables’.”
“I understand well. In other words, Prophecy Magic can tell you ‘if this happens, then this will happen,’ but it can be nullified depending on the opponent’s response.”
“Something like that.”
“…Haa, ah, I see, I see. I understand now.”
Count Missgancia slumped back into the proud, fluffy sofa in my reception room.
He’s pretty… angry? No, is he just dumbfounded?
“…Is something wrong?”
“…I haven’t mentioned it, but since the war began, Missgancia has been receiving an incredible number of… attempts at subversion from the ‘Empire’.”
Oh, really?
Come to think of it, Count Missgancia didn’t say much about the time Kaede and I defeated the Empire’s special forces that had infiltrated Missgancia.
So, he’s been under attack from other Imperial soldiers and such?
“I’ve been using all the power at my disposal to deal with them, but every single one of them has been inexplicably ‘too good’… There have been several attempts at subversion that seemed impossible without seeing the future…”
Count Missgancia’s eyes glazed over.
But you and your subordinates solved all those super dangerous mystery strategies, right?
This old man is still scary…
“Ah, so, Roxanne came back recently because…?”
“Yes, Roxanne had been dispatched to various parts of Missgancia to crush the Empire’s schemes. She’s greedy for money and loose with men, a Heretic as a Mage, but… that’s why she’s easy to handle.”
“Well, Count Missgancia is the richest person in this country, after all.”
The Royal Capital has money too, but that’s in the market, not in assets.
Recently, Count Missgancia has been using his faction of subordinates, like Lord Guilmert, to create a ‘bond trading’ system and is making crazy amounts of money.
Someone like Roxanne, a so-called “bad Mage,” would gladly lend a hand to Count Missgancia.
And then there’s the big connection with the mafia, the dark organizations, and all that.
Count Missgancia was deeply impressed by the “importance of information networks” that I once blurted out, and he’s been using carrier pigeons (my idea) and semaphore (my idea) like crazy, so his moves are ridiculously strong.
Honestly, even if they try to subvert us, we already have a system in place to crush them immediately…
“But I couldn’t prevent the last attempt at subversion.”
“You mean…? Ah, I see, the ‘Dragon’ incident!”
“Yes, that’s it. That must have been a plot by the ‘Empire’ as well.”
Ah… I see?
So that’s what it was.
I thought it was just an unusually unlucky chain of events, but…
That was a “mysterious action that would deal a major blow to the enemy, though the process was completely unknown,” thanks to Prophecy Magic.
Probably, the accuracy of the ‘Empire’s’? ‘Priestess Maiden’s’? Prophecy Magic was only good enough to say, “If you have the Nanto mercenary group in a town near Missgancia steal a Fire Drake egg, the kingdom will be in chaos!”
Believing in that rough prophecy, they came up with this mysterious subversion.
So that’s what it was.
“So… what I want to know is, does the ‘Empire,’ does the ‘Priestess Maiden’… know about the Dragon?”
“No, they probably don’t. If they did, they would have used a better method. Even I can think of two or three better ways…”
“Is that so…”
Count Missgancia pondered.
He also asked for another serving of gateau chocolate.
Okay, okay, I get it, I’ll get it for you… Tris, bring him some gateau chocolate!
“…Hmm, then, good. There shouldn’t be any problems.”
And that was the conclusion.
Well, if Count Missgancia says it’s okay, then it’s probably okay.
I don’t know anything about politics, so I wouldn’t know…