Episode 326: A Tale of History
“Increasing food production is crucial. While we can provide supplies, it’s self-evident that free handouts will eventually lead to foolish decisions by those in power.”
“Your earlier assertion… well, never mind. True, a food shortage will devastate a nation. Relying on foreign aid for that is incredibly unhealthy.”
Acidanthea Ayame Zero forcefully steered the conversation, manipulating the projection display to change the presented materials.
“Therefore, we will provide enough food to tide them over for the time being. Simultaneously, we will introduce equipment for increasing food production through trade. Specifically, agricultural tools and fertilizer.”
“…Fertilizer, along with its raw materials, production methods, and effects, will be provided as well. I don’t think knowledge transfer will be very effective…”
“Ah, don’t worry about that. It’s enough if only those who can understand it do. We can’t be bothered with basic education. The goal is to disseminate information and render the monopoly of the privileged class meaningless.”
Amadio Silverhead answered Alban Breias’s question.
Naturally, these policies had already been shared between Ayame Zero and Amadio.
This meeting was to explain the situation to Grand Admiral Alban Breias, who would be responsible for transporting and escorting the supplies.
“For the time being, our country’s dispatched forces will maintain order, but ultimately, we need to create an organization locally. It would be disastrous if uneducated people or those with excessive ambition gained power. We will need to continue patrols for a long time.”
“That’s beyond our jurisdiction, of course… Ah. The Navy will be responsible for transporting personnel?”
“Indeed. You catch on quickly. These are overseas dispatch forces, so the term of service shouldn’t be too long, or dissatisfaction will grow. Six months should be the maximum. Ideally, we’d like to rotate them every three months.”
Incidentally, the detailed local work is primarily handled by ＜Paraiso＞. However, this is information they don’t intend to actively disclose.
In particular, manipulating hearts and minds is a specialty of the Communicators. Unless it’s a closed community, they’ll be far more beloved than any lord, even one who might not even exist. That also applies to the Repuitari Kingdom’s forces, who only visit occasionally.
The Repuitari Kingdom’s dispatched forces are supposed to go around asserting legitimacy.
For those in power, it would be a devilish act.
Their own reputation would continue to decline, while the evaluation of other countries would continue to rise.
“The food we can distribute will be limited to long-term storage items like wheat and dried meat. After much consideration, anything else is simply not feasible.”
Acidanthea continued, expressing reservations about the food they were providing. Due to political considerations, they couldn’t select too many types of preserved food.
If ＜The Tree＞ were to provide preserved food, there was a risk of distributing rations more luxurious than the meals in the Repuitari Kingdom’s mainland.
Acidanthea would be disappointed, but taste was secondary.
In the first place, distributing items of too high quality would easily lead to problems like embezzlement. Therefore, they selected items that could be procured from within the Repuitari Kingdom or other countries.
Incidentally, wheat and dried meat can be stored for a considerable amount of time if properly dried. In that sense, shipping food is not suitable. Humidity is the greatest enemy.
“I understand the policies for now. What I’m concerned about is the profitability of this project itself… I apologize, but I can’t imagine how it will generate any profit. Could you explain that?”
“Hmm… Well. I think we could generate direct profit if we wanted to.”
Amadio nodded thoughtfully, resting his right hand on his chin.
“We could simply treat the aid supplies as loans and collect them in the future. Of course, that assumes the country will eventually unite. Or, if the civil war continues indefinitely, we could advance our military and secure resources. But that would cause a huge backlash from neighboring countries, so it’s a delicate matter.”
“I… I considered that, but I don’t think it would be very profitable.”
As a nation, maximizing one’s own interests is paramount.
Based on that premise, it’s certainly difficult to understand the current approach.
“Well, the main objective is to create a bulwark against the monk-soldiers of the Prava Theocracy. It’s less costly for our country to have them deal with it locally than to send our own military. The other goal is to curry favor with neighboring countries. The northern countries are also rich in mines. We can send our companies to secure rights and develop them.”
And so on.
Amadio rattled off plausible reasons, but the real purpose was, of course, to conceal ＜The Tree＞’s complete domination of the Prava Theocracy.
No matter how close he was to the top of the Navy, he couldn’t possibly reveal such a goal.
“Well, I’m not entirely convinced, but I understand. It’s good enough if I know that our country isn’t unilaterally giving things away.”
“Ideally, I’d like you to handle these kinds of matters without involving me, you know?”
“Hah hah hah… I’m sorry, but we won’t have enough decent personnel for several years. The Traditional Senate and the Army are completely rotten.”
Alban shrugged, complaining. It was the price they paid for the Navy focusing on foreign expeditions and neglecting domestic control.
Within the Repuitari Kingdom, a major purge had depleted various personnel.
And Duke Amadio Silverhead was single-handedly filling those gaps.
By mastering the Augmented Brain structure, steering a country was a piece of cake. Moreover, a network of bots was deployed in major cities for intelligence gathering.
Most of the information was concentrated in the control chassis, and appropriate instructions were automatically generated.
“Ideally, I’d like to be free from this in five or ten years. You’ll be retired by then, right? If you want to spend your retirement in peace, you’d better work hard.”
“I understand. Like you, my humble dream is to retire to a rural territory and spend my remaining years there.”
“Is that humble…? Well, it’s a much better situation than it used to be… Even now, it was a bit of a tightrope walk.”
Perhaps recalling various past events, Amadio sighed.
Alban leaned forward with a surprised expression.
“From the way you say that, was there some problem I’m not aware of…?”
“…………”
When asked, Amadio stared into space as if pondering.
To an outsider, it seemed like he was hesitating, but in reality, he was exchanging a vast amount of data with ＜The Tree＞ via the AB structure.
He was discussing with the Transcendent Intelligence ＜Ringo＞ what to disclose and to what extent.
“Well, I suppose it’s alright to tell you. Our proud Navy could have been annihilated if we had made one wrong move.”
“…What did you say?”
Amadio shrugged, glancing at Acidanthea, who was silently eating sweets at the same seat.
“You guys were planning to dispatch a fleet to the Telek Port City, weren’t you? It seems Paraiso came and overturned everything right before the dispatch.”
“That’s… yes. That’s right…”
Was it alright to talk about that in front of ＜Paraiso＞? Alban’s expression seemed to say. Amadio nodded, dispelling his anxiety.
“If the Paraiso Fleet’s actions had been delayed by just one month, we could have encountered them in Telek Port City. Fortunately, that future was avoided. We can laugh about it now, right?”
“Wha…t. No, if you put it that way, the timing was certainly…”
“The situation where we would have clashed was avoided. That’s the end of this story, Lord Alban. It was a truly beneficial result for both sides. That’s undeniable, right?”
Dry=Ringo added, and Alban nodded silently.
Right now, he was probably running simulations in his head of what would have happened if the Paraiso Fleet and the Repuitari Navy had clashed.
Alban knew the technological capabilities of ＜Paraiso＞ well. The result of that simulation must have been disastrous.
“…It was truly a tightrope walk…”
“Indeed. Well, thanks to that, nothing happened. There’s no need to dwell on trivial past events.”
Now, there was a mention of a slightly different history.
What would have happened if the response to the Repuitari Kingdom had been delayed by just one month?
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