EP.286 The Blessed Nation, The Cursed Humans - 9
"This person's name is Yuel. She is the same person as Cheontong Aemedel, and the leader of the Six Generals brought by Warlord Valiorante. And she is also the great figure who created this nation even after his death. In a word, the hidden king of the Military Nation!"
"...Don't call me a king."
"You call me a barbarian! I'll call you whatever I want! Anyway, if you have any questions, ask her! She'll explain everything from the birth of the Military Nation to its ideology! It's finally time to fulfill your wishes!"
Yuel glared at me with sunken eyes. Until just a moment ago, it seemed she didn't even want to face me, but now I am the only place she can look.
If she turns her head, the Princess is on one side, and Siati is on the other. Both are children abandoned by the Military Nation. Those whom the Saintess pushed aside to carry on the Warlord's will have desperately come to find her.
"...Did you bring those two with this in mind from the start?"
"No? I'm not a prophet, how would I know the future? Originally, I didn't even know who you were until we came here."
Those real prophets really abandoned people. Whenever a situation favorable to me arose, they asked if I had predicted all of this. Make some sense, will you.
"But knowing the future or not doesn't matter. Those two hold a massive wind within them. That wind drove them all the way here, and without fading away, they eventually came face to face with you. Of course, without me, they might have met with an accident on the way here."
"You probably don't have the ability to make humans follow you anymore."
"I told you it's not about that ability. Power or divine authority doesn't matter. How many times do I have to say it? The ones who guided them here are themselves."
Even if I don't intervene or deceive right now, those two are walking towards this place. They walk with exhausted steps on the hard stone floor, but their gaze is unwavering.
"And you are the one who made them. It is inevitable that Siati and the Princess come looking for this place. They might fail, or they might succeed. But that, too, is not important."
Unfortunately, I can ask and hear the answers on their behalf, but I cannot draw the conclusion for them. In that sense, bringing these two who had real business was a very good choice.
Siati, with her long strides, approached first. I stepped aside diagonally, volunteering for the role of an observer.
Now. Show me. What are you going to do with this Saintess?
I watched with a slightly pounding heart, but for some reason, Siati looked at me instead of Yuel and asked.
"Is the corpse over there the Warlord?"
"He was once the Warlord. Now he's just a corpse."
"Why does that woman have it?"
"Rather than having it, wouldn't it be more accurate to say she was buried with him? This looks like the basement of a temple... But wait. Why are you asking me? Ask her."
I brought you here so you could ask her directly, so why are you grabbing the wrong person and making a fuss? I can read Yuel's thoughts, but I can't give the answers she would give on her behalf. My mind-reading will be discovered.
As I showed reluctance, Siati shrugged and said.
"How can I trust the words of a woman who's so blatantly suspicious?"
That's true, too.
After all, if I suddenly told Siati, who had fled underground in chaos, that this person was the mastermind, she would only be bewildered.
Siati is ordinary, just like everyone else. She can only see what is right in front of her. Whether it's the truth or not, it's a truth too massive to catch Siati's eye at a glance.
"And you trust my words?"
"Relatively."
"Thanks for that."
Siati chuckled and muttered with a detached face.
"And, it doesn't really matter anymore. Who the true mastermind of this nation was, or what they plotted. It's so complicated it makes my head ache."
"Huh?"
What? What a buzzkill. Where did the anger that seemed ready to burn the entire Military Nation go? I know she was frustrated when she saw the young communicator earlier, but did she give up on revenge just because of that?
"Is that okay? What about your revenge against the Military Nation?"
"Like you said, I didn't know the Military Nation. Even as I got to know it, my thoughts only grew more complicated, without reaching a clear conclusion. Who is evil, and what should I take revenge on. I ended up wandering."
Having gone through all sorts of things, Siati grew as a human being. But human growth means giving up on something.
As the one who listened to the wind and guided her here, it's a disappointing ending.
"That woman isn't younger than me, is she?"
"Come on. You've been through a lot so you look older, but she's still older than you."
"Hah. I still don't feel much. I didn't even know who that woman was, and I'm seeing her for the first time today. Even if I beat her to death, who in the world would acknowledge it?"
It's completely different from her previous appearance of rushing forward like crazy. There is a sense of alienation from Siati's appearance as she mutters with an empty heart.
"Siati..."
'That's right. What's right in front of your eyes is more important than anything else! You understand...!'
The Princess looked with moved, tearful eyes, but I wasn't very happy to see Siati's enlightened state.
"What brought this on?"
Siati smiled bitterly and answered.
"I sneaked into the room earlier and met the communicator. Aien, I think. They said we're the same age. It's exactly the age the children who died in Hamelin would have been if they had grown up. We're the same age as someone, but one side drowned to death. The other became the hidden power of the headquarters. But."
"But?"
"...She didn't look particularly better off than me."
With a thud, Siati dropped something crumpled. It was an empty canned bean. It tastes bad but is rich in nutrients and highly compressed, so excluding everything else, it's the most efficient meal for 'survival' purposes.
By the same token, it was also the least popular meal.
"The hidden power eating canned beans. Locked up in a dark room. How is that a hidden power?"
The detailed information about the communicators was classified, but some secrets were unlocked for those who had already entered the module. For example, the working conditions of the communicators. That was information you could get just by observing.
As a result, Siati also realized how much...
"Pitiful enough that I don't even feel like cursing them."
She realized they were wretched existences.
Because they suffer more than anyone else, they are free from the criticism or responsibility of others.
I pointed at Yuel and said.
"This person here. She is the one who created the communicators, you know?"
"...Seems so. It's a bit annoying, but. This person doesn't look much different either."
There are no cooking utensils or food ingredients. Even the bed is just cloth layered over a stone coffin, and the only thing that looks remotely warm is a single corpse.
Siati doesn't know what the Saintess eats, but she knew she was suffering too.
Siati looked down at Yuel. The meeting between the monster who created the Military Nation and the monster created by the Military Nation was surprisingly peaceful.
"I just, don't even feel angry anymore."
An unexpected reaction. This was true not only for us but also for Yuel. Yuel, who expected Siati to jump at her at any moment, was caught off guard by the completely different reaction.
"...Are you sympathizing with me?"
"Maybe."
The communicators know everything. Because they obtain information through dozens of golems and receive information from hundreds of communicators.
At the same time, they know nothing. Because they are locked in a room without windows.
The communicators have no life, so they have no responsibility. Therefore, they have no sin. Who can blame them? They would only sympathize.
All of this is Yuel's arrangement. The communicators were originally created for that purpose.
But when Yuel herself became the object of sympathy, she felt a strange sense of discomfort.
"Thank you, Resistance. If you've understood enough, how about giving up and going back? If you stay by the Princess's side, you'll keep your life. Just as you have until now."
"I've never cherished my life. Even until now."
Siati reached out her prosthetic arm. A steel prosthetic arm couldn't hinder the Saintess's prayer. Believing that, the Saintess watched quietly, but.
The place Siati's prosthetic arm headed for was not Yuel.
The corpse in Yuel's arms slipped out. Siati grabbed the corpse by the collar and pulled it out in one breath.
The corpse is not the praying Saintess. Even with Siati's strength, she could pull it out. Unfortunately, Yuel, who happened to be praying in the proper posture, could only watch with her eyes open as her precious trace of him was snatched away.
"Ah, ah?"
"Still, I got one good thing out of it. Phew, this is the Warlord? This nation's wealth?"
"That's right."
Ah, right. That was a corpse.
To me, who reads minds, a corpse is merely an object that was once human. Since I can't feel any thoughts from it, I couldn't even put it in my consciousness.
Siati seemed to have found usefulness in that corpse. Siati examined the corpse this way and that, then asked me.
"It looks in good condition for a corpse. Is it really a corpse? There's not a single wound."
"She must have been poisoned. That's why there are no wounds. The condition being good for a corpse is... probably because that person took such precious care of it."
"Anyway. People who made a name for themselves in the Military Nation would recognize this person's face, right?"
"I don't know about other places, but since this is the Inner Circle headquarters, there'll be quite a few old-timers with high ranks who have a hard time standing on the front lines. Those old-timer soldiers would probably recognize him?"
"That works out well. If I use this, at least a few people will pay attention."
'Maybe there's one last thing to do.'
Siati tried to drag the corpse away like a piece of luggage. At that moment, Yuel stopped her prayer, which had seemed like it would last forever. She hastily reached out and grabbed the hem of the clothes the corpse was wearing.
"What, what are you going to do with him?"
"None of your business."
"He has already entered his rest! What are you going to do by taking his corpse!"
Siati spoke calmly.
"Even if it's a corpse, if I cut off the Warlord's head, it would be quite a shock, wouldn't it?"
As expected of Siati. She does things I couldn't even imagine without any hesitation.
Well, taking out the corpse of the Warlord, who was said to have died 20 years ago, wouldn't cause a huge uproar. However, to at least one person, Yuel, it would be a terrible desecration beyond imagination.
The Church of the Heavenly God encourages cremation, but they don't burn everyone. If it's a Saintess or a highly named priest, they sometimes enshrine them in the temple exactly as they looked in death, and the Saintess regularly blesses and manages them.
What Yuel did was part of that. It was full of personal feelings, but anyway, Yuel had done so for over 20 years.
"I've been trying to vent my anger on things that aren't even visible. But, what? A secret mastermind that no one knows about? That's not even funny. Hmph, I'd rather pour curses at the god who made this world."
"S-So... you're going to take your anger out on his corpse?"
"A corpse doesn't have any feelings. But, at least if I take this... at least, those who know the Warlord's face will listen to my words."
And Siati grabbed the pant legs of the corpse and dragged it away just like that. The corpse was dragged along like luggage. In the direction away from Yuel.
Yuel jumped up and clung to the corpse. Siati paused at the weight pulling on the corpse.
"Let go! He is not someone who deserves to be treated like that by the likes of you!"
"Even when I was alive, I was treated like material. What does a mere corpse matter."
Wow. Even in death, this guy is being caught in a tug-of-war between two women. If he saw this sight from heaven, would he be pleased...?
No, wasn't the reason he died in the first place because the rope snapped while being pulled? Then he wouldn't be too happy to see it. It might even be agonizing.
Phew, I must not end up like that.
Yuel's struggle to reclaim the corpse was more pitiful than anything else. In contrast to Siati pulling the pant legs, Yuel couldn't even bring herself to grab the neck and only held the body with both arms. It was blatantly obvious that she didn't know what to do for fear of it being damaged.
How did someone who was once a Saintess end up like that. Siati muttered.
"The reason to use this corpse just increased by one."
"Ah!"
The taut standoff ended anticlimactically. As soon as Siati applied force, Yuel's body tumbled awkwardly. There was no way a Saintess who had been holed up for over 20 years could win against the brute strength of the Resistance's action leader.
Siati looked down at the fallen Yuel and sneered.
"If you hate it, that's even more reason not to stop. Watch clearly from there. How I use this corpse."
"You-!"
Realizing she couldn't win with physical strength, the Saintess cowardly put her hands together and prayed. The Saintess had immense divine authority, but she didn't have an easy-to-understand power to immediately knock down the person in front of her.
Instead, Yuel spat out a line like a third-rate villain and tried to call an angel.
"You insolent thing...! You think you can act like you're something just because you luckily made it here?!"
The sacrifice was herself. It was a rather large price to pay just to protect a single corpse.
But to Yuel, the corpse was everything in this narrow world. She was prepared for death anyway. Yuel finished preparing to become the sacrifice without any hesitation.
"Siati! Wait a moment!"
Fortunately, the Princess intervened before the angel descended. Siati obeyed the Princess's words, and Yuel, who had been acting like she would kill her right away, also briefly softened her anger in front of the Princess.
The Princess, who stopped the fight, looked at Siati and appealed.
"Siati. I still have things I want to ask. His corpse can be the answer to my question. So could you wait a moment?"
"Just for a moment."
Siati readily let go of the corpse. The leg she had been holding hit the ground lifelessly with a thud, and Yuel flinched as if her own leg had been struck.
The Princess stood in front of the pale-faced Yuel. Yuel spoke to the other obstacle.
"...You said you had something to ask me, Princess Grandiomor."
"Yes. You are Yuel, right? I had something I definitely wanted to ask the Military Nation... no, you."
Yuel motioned with her chin as if telling her to ask quickly. The Princess cleared her throat a few times, then laid out the question she had been harboring all along.
"I have watched the Military Nation for a long time. So I know. How strong and wealthy the Military Nation is. Even though the Resistance stole or took a significant amount of supplies for a long time, the Military Nation didn't suffer much damage."
"You say you've been stealing and taking things quite proudly."
"Ah... I, I apologize for that. We were also tight on resources living in hiding... A-anyway! The Military Nation was truly an amazing country! The system, the scale! It was incredible to the point where it couldn't even be compared to the Kingdom!"
The Princess opened with her somewhat aristocratic way of speaking, but Yuel maintained a cold attitude throughout.
"I didn't expect to hear praise from a Resistance member who came all the way here. I heard your high opinion well. So why don't you surrender?"
"T-That's not what I meant! I'm just, curious as to what it's all for!"
The Military Nation is rational and efficient. They exploit humans to extract the maximum value under given conditions.
It was naturally something they had to do, but the Princess threw the question of 'why' at it.
"A nation must know how to look after and provide for its people. The Kingdom failed to do so, but the Military Nation, which was born after overthrowing the Kingdom, could do it, right? If they reduced the labor just a little, cared for the people just a little, were just a little less harsh. This country called the Military Nation would have been close to a paradise on earth."
"..."
"But... it seems the Military Nation is intentionally avoiding that. Why? When everyone is a citizen of the Military Nation anyway. Why are they reluctant to give to its citizens?"
Yuel didn't answer. Assuming it was because the question was a bit vague, the Princess brought out the question inside her more concretely.
"It's not to indulge in luxury! If that were the case, you would have been enjoying greater luxuries first! Not staying in a cramped room with a corpse, but being cared for in a grand palace! But you're not. What are you pushing humans into a hellish yoke for?"
"...cause."
"What?"
Yuel opened her mouth with difficulty.
"Because this blessed nation he and I created must continue forever."