Chapter 92: 21.5

Epilogue 1.1

「I am truly indebted to all of you regarding this matter.」

When the whole team came to the workshop with exhausted faces, the king unexpectedly showed up to apologize to them. The five Japanese people couldn’t decline other people’s apologies in a public place, so they only glanced at each other unconsciously while making a wry smile.

It wasn’t until the two-week yarn-making season had come to an end, the autumn season had started its transition to winter, and the castle’s personnel affairs and all the important court documents had been settled, that the king could finally show his face in the workshop. Hiroshi and his friends were salvaging the workshop in the middle of the previous week, and even though they were keeping contact with Aearis, they could only meet directly with the royal castle’s representatives after about ten days.

「So the castle already doin’ alright?」

「There are still piles of work to do, but I am told to go away and take a break. Not only from my sons, but the prime minister at the great chamberlain, and even the leader of the Imperial Guards are saying the same thing to me. All of them are really too much.」

「Ya have worked hard. How ’bout I prescribe ya with herb tea to help with sleepin’ and yer exhaustion?」

「Please. If possible, can you make something that won’t become unappetizing even when it has gotten cold?」

「’Kay.」

Hiroshi nods in understanding with a strained laugh after hearing the tired king’s request.

「Then, what happened in there afta’ that?」

While Haruna is distributing the spring tea to everyone, Hiroshi continues his talk. They have prepared a lot of things since they came back, but they can’t find any information regarding that matter. Hiroshi keeps making fried bean curd while he improves his skill in curry bread that Haruna says will sell well for around a month (or maybe because it is for a month), making the customer and the stalls nearby lose their composure. Mio is also helping both of them, and they are very busy to the extent that they start to feel dizzy.

Meanwhile, the bored Tatsuya and Makoto act together as adventurers, but the low-rank adventurers only have a little information at most. They had noticed that there had been a rapid decline in request for suppression groups these days.

Even so, the three people in charge of cooking agreed to take a break, and everyone decided to have a day off too. That’s why today the whole team is present at the workshop. Plus, the king’s arrival was not entirely unexpected. Aearin contacted them last night and asked when would everyone be available. But they didn’t think that the king would come today.

「For now, the situation is still a work in process, but I can assure you that cleaning the castle’s interior is almost finished.」

「Inside castle, eh…」

「The inspection related to the other side’s domain is still in process as expected. Anyway, it looks like it is common knowledge for the feudal lords on the other side to become weird when all of you are accepted in the castle. But for the current situation, charging the feudal lords now will only create disorder…」

The king makes a face full of bitterness while answering Haruna’s question, and munches the fried dough cake served with the tea to calm himself.

「To put it bluntly, we tried to investigate it, but we only got some worthless information. For it to become one of the pillars of the opposition since the previous generation, it is seriously no joke.」

「Since the previous generation? Then the plan has been going on for more than thirty years, huh…」

「There are some traces of people that have been affiliated with the other side since approximately forty years ago. It began at the time of my coronation and the large-scale opposition commenced about fifteen years ago, when I begin to build up the royal court’s strength.」

「That was really a long way to do something…」

「Seriously though.」

Tatsuya and the king felt a grudging respect for the very long term plan that was one step away from conclusion. Even so, even though the internal political situation is in turmoil, there will always be a moderate level of support for the political administration rather than for the monster’s invasion, especially for a big country with a stable military and economic strength. That’s why it should take a long time to break such a country.

This is a man of strong military prowess that reorganized the country that was entangled with complicated problems from the last generation, even though he was even younger than Layotte at the time he was crowned. The greatest problem in the forty years of his reign was the imbalance of the law as an overreaction to the abuses of the prior reign. Without it, the situation wouldn’t be this complicated in the first place, so it is only natural that they couldn’t obtain the popular support to overthrow the royalty in a coup.

Moreover, the other side have worn down resistance when they are in the process of seizing the majority of the top positions in the kingdom’s bureaucracy, and the next step is only to overthrow the royalty. They only have to cause a big action, but they waste their plans on these trivial chances, and that’s why it must be intolerable for them.

「In any case, although it is good that they only dealt a recoverable blow to the military strength, a good many civil officials have been removed due to their involvement, making my head hurt. I can reinstate them slowly within half a year, but I will lose some of the decent people. The people on our side are obedient, and they are more inclined to cooperate positively.」

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As for this case, although there are no options to be lenient in this case, to do such a rapid cleanup is very problematic. The ideal solution is to get rid of the infection at a speed faster than the corruption can spread, but with limited human resources, they have to adjust the number of people that can’t be used within an acceptable range. Even so, the cases where this has gone well historically are practically nil.

The history of humanity is filled with the accumulation of grand-scale changes due to shock and doctrine, both the good and bad.

「It will be troubling if they complain about us…」

「That’s right. We don’t know what to say about the territory or diplomacy, and to be honest, this is already outside our area of expertise…」

Haruna agrees with a bitter smile towards Mio’s retort mixed with bafflement since the gossip and complaints about them will be a better subject rather than letting the information continue afterwards. In fact, this is the kind of story that the adventurers want.

「Yeah, sorry.」

Although the other side had a completely different intent that undermined the Royal House, there would be complaints about the similarity of methods by the ordinary people. The king nods his head honestly after hearing those two retorts.

「For now, the disposal of the people who have been manipulated is over. We also succeeded in lowering the hurdle required for legal reform in this case. This time, we revised some systems that could only be made possible by the members of the rebellion being caught red-handed. After that, we only have to hold onto our reins and wait for it to settle down.」

The biggest gain in this case would have been the change of the system, which is almost impossible to do, since any minor changes cannot be done without agreement from all of the military officers, civilians and nobles. Even a single vote in opposition would prevent it, but with a few exceptions, if there are two-thirds of the head division in Urs territory and its directly control areas, and another two-thirds of the feudal lords of the Farlane residing in the Farlane area who agree with the revision, then it is possible to do so. By all rights, they want to take control of the majority degree, but to go that far immediately will be difficult. In the first place, it is impossible to do so without these circumstances.

The system evaded the political stagnation properly, but even though there were major flaws for the noble and royal criminals, they just make some sufficient action towards it, and the civil and military parts are using the customary procedures without any change. The previous generation devoted most of its reign to improvements to the economy and civilians’ life, while trying to limit the influence of influential people for better and worse.

Even with diplomacy, they can’t just establish a new law without negotiation which will take a long time. The adjusting of the laws will focus on legal interpretation, so they will not anger the other countries as well. Even though the king is weak inside the kingdom, in foreign relations he is valued as a capable person.

「How will you deal with the manipulated people?」

「Considering the degree of the incitement, they are discharged, or demoted. Since their actions were manipulated by Oria, I won’t make execution their punishment. I think secluding them in the northern monastery for training is sufficient.」

Hiroshi and his friends doesn’t say anything to that, whether because of kindness or delicacy of the punishment. Nonetheless, when they think of the things they are guilty for, it becomes hard to cover up for someone.

「How about the assassin?」

「Sorry, I’m not aware of that detail. Layotte is the one in charge of it, so you can ask him about that.」

For the king with many responsibilities, surely the disposal of a mere assassin is something he won’t specifically ask about.

「But then if you think about it, the effort of the other side is unexpectedly orthodox, you know.」

「You can say it like that.」

「But they should have used that will-power for something else, though.」

「If they can think of doing’ that, then they won’t worship an evil god in the first place.」

Everyone can’t help but agree while making a wry smile at the king’s words. After all, the people on the other side are drunk with ambition. That’s why, unless one is in a good environment, they can only blame it to their bad luck and trick other people to feel the same bad luck like them.

「The problem is the identification of those involved. Even for Barold, everyone thought he was an ordinary person that just looked pretty suspicious before this incident. Plus, aside from the landless nobles, the feudal lords on that side manage their own territory with their best effort, making identifying them very difficult. 」

「That’s right. I did think that he looked very shady, but I couldn’t feel any miasma from him at first.」

Even for Barold who is a leading member of the Evil God’s religious organization, when they are first influenced by it, they will start to stack up miasma in their body, and start to feel changes, like doing weird things, and having a change in temper.

They could have Haruna sing a song directly towards the suspected people, but other people will start to perceive that method as suspicious. There’s also that trouble for that method.

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