EP.290 The Blessed Nation, The Cursed Humans - Conclusion
No matter how obvious an answer is, the time it takes to reach it varies from person to person. People call those with an extremely short interval rational, and those with a long one emotional. However, if the weight of the problem is as heavy as a nation, anyone would become emotional.
It took a long time. Yuel spoke, full of resentment.
"...Was this nation that wrong? To the extent you had to destroy it yourself?"
"Where is there right or wrong in this world? It just ended up this way."
"I just... wanted to build a nation led by the masses... to fulfill his dream... There is nothing wrong with that..."
"I told you, there is no right or wrong. Ah, and."
She kept going on about a nation led by everyone, and since she seemed to genuinely believe it, I spoke up.
Where in Gun-guk is it a nation of the masses?
"Gun-guk is not a nation led by everyone. It is a nation led by no one. No one I saw was leading this nation. They are simply trampled underfoot."
"...That's..."
"Don't speak as if that was the only way. You just couldn't trust anyone. Not the soldiers, not the people, not even yourself."
For the masses to lead, the masses must be the masters. However, the masses are not ideal. Rather, the more they form a group, the more easily they make cruel choices that an individual could hardly even imagine.
Unable to trust humans, Yuel created an imaginary existence: Gun-guk. Gun-guk watched them, monitored them, and judged them.
Just like a god.
Is it because she's a saintess? Even her plagiarism is full of devout faith. The only difference is that Gun-guk judges in the present world, not the afterlife.
"I don't know what kind of person this 'he' you speak of was, but one thing is certain. He wouldn't have wanted a nation like this. Unlike you, 'he' must have trusted humans more. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dreamed such a foolish dream."
What he tried to build was a beautiful sandcastle, not a cruel eternal fortress made of steel.
Stuffed with only the harsh truth, Yuel screamed.
"How could I trust! I 'saw' everything! With their smiling faces they approached, and behind my back, what they were doing! I watched it all...!"
Even as the kingdom fell and Gun-guk was rebuilt, selfish human figures existed. Those who only cared for their own interests, those who coveted the power of the past, those who sought to become the new privileged class in place of the fallen.
Well, to the Saintess of Farsight who had only seen the most beautiful things in the world, the wickedness of the human world must have seemed alien. Did she want to strip them of their freedom, responsibility, and sin like excising a tumor?
"What can you do. That is what humans are."
But what can you do. Including all that, they are entirely human.
The sobbing voice broke off. Yuel clenched her fists and hung her head. Her voice, muttered downward, reflected off the stone floor and reached my ears.
"...Aby. You will destroy Gun-guk. Or you will be destroyed."
"I have no intention of doing so."
"How nice would it be if everything went as you thought. But it won't. If you are incompetent, you will be crushed by external pressure; if you are competent, it will gnaw at your insides. Every sin that occurs in this nation will become yours. Tragedies that have nothing to do with you will become your responsibility, and the resentment you utter mindlessly will become a dagger piercing your heart. You won't be able to endure it. Even less so if you can see more."
In most cases, advice from the experienced tends to look like stale territoriality to the inexperienced, but this time it was miraculously conveyed. Probably thanks to Captain Aby's empathy. An empathy pure and unrelated to sympathy magic.
Captain Aby steeled her resolve and spoke.
"I am prepared to be resented. I will only do what must be done."
"What must be done. Aby, what are you planning to do first? Are you thinking of stopping the war that has already started, as that kid demanded?"
The returnee's superficial goal was to stop the war between Gun-guk and Yeol-guk. I believed Gun-guk would never accept it from the start, but that was the claim nevertheless.
Captain Aby glanced at me and nodded.
"War is a tactical action with extreme attrition costs. Even more so if a powerful being launches an attack to stop it. If the situation can be resolved smoothly without fighting a war, there is no reason to continue it."
"There is a reason to continue. You probably couldn't hear it since communications were cut off at the time, but the reason is clear."
"What is it?"
Looking at Captain Aby asking back, Yuel spoke with a pitying face.
"The problem with war is that it happens even if only one of the two sides has the intention. Even if Gun-guk doesn't start it, if Yeol-guk just has the will, war will break out."
"So your intent is to strike first before they attack? That is truly irrational. For something that hasn't even happened..."
"No. I 'saw' it. Yeol-guk has already started the war. Without a declaration of war, they are gathering troops and heading for the wasteland where the Bottomless Abyss was."
"What?"
Thinking about it now, clairvoyance is definitely a cheat.
If Gun-guk had a weakness, it would be its short history and lack of mystique. Therefore, it had few means to resist when an asymmetric force with mystique, like the Returnee Tirna, swept through. This weakness manifested especially in intelligence warfare, as intelligence activities were virtually impossible without the ability to strike at the enemy's blind spots.
...But if a saintess with clairvoyance was passing information to the Signal Soldiers, the story was different. She was hiding here, peeking at all corners of the world. That was Gun-guk's mighty power.
"Acquired nomads. The mobility of Yeol-guk, abandoned by the land, is one of its few advantages. Our superiority over them lies only in our system. Thanks to the Signal Soldiers hastily assembling the troops, a skirmish should be taking place in the Abyss Wasteland right now."
Yuel recalled what she had 'seen' with her clairvoyance.
While we headed to the headquarters, the corps assembled via the meta-conveyor belt marched north. As the heavily armed main force moved, the advance party built a position in the wasteland before we even arrived at the headquarters.
Then Yeol-guk's cavalry arrived. Over the land once abandoned by the Earth Mother Goddess and shunned by everyone, the armies of the two nations faced each other. A touch-and-go situation.
Even while the raid on the headquarters was underway, Yuel couldn't take her eyes off that place. Sure, a small number of people rummaging through Gun-guk was nothing more than a guerrilla attack, but on the battlefield, an all-out war risking the fate of the nation was about to break out. She was so busy observing Yeol-guk's movements that she couldn't pay much attention to our side.
Perhaps the reason we could easily enter Gun-guk's headquarters was because most of Gun-guk's forces were headed that way.
"This isn't a war started unilaterally by one side. It's an all-out war entangled with each other's interests. Yeol-guk desperately needs land to settle. It was useless land when the Bottomless Abyss was there, but now that the Earth Mother Goddess's curse is lifted, it's a scrumptious prey. While you were bewitched by him, I 'saw' all of that and relayed it to the Signal Soldiers. All the Signal Soldiers who verified it through cross-validation judged that war was inevitable. Then, an unidentified armed force suddenly appears and tells us to stop the war—should we stop?"
With the belated information, Captain Aby felt the need to review all the judgments she had made so far.
When Captain Aby made contact with the returnee, she heard the returnee's demand to stop the war. Isolated from the other Signal Soldiers, Captain Aby accepted the returnee's proposal as it was. In Captain Aby's mind, a ceasefire must have emerged as the only way to stop this raid.
But the war had already begun. The returnee's demand was unacceptable from the start. If so, she would have to repel or persuade them.
"If you had explained that fact, wouldn't the other side have accepted it?"
"How do you prove something that hasn't even happened at that point? Should I reveal myself? Should I explain every single detail in front of the Progenitor? That I was once a saintess, and that I have seen a future we have yet to reach!"
She reveals she's a saintess here. I already knew it well, so I was nonchalant, but the princess looked quite surprised. A saintess isn't someone you commonly see, like a neighborhood pastor.
Now there are no secrets or anything. Yuel shot back sharply.
"Hah! I assure you, that would be several times more dangerous! Where is the guarantee that the Progenitor wouldn't summon the Principality?! Can you handle the situation where the total forces of the Mist Principality march in bringing darkness?! If we were to repel them anyway, now when the Progenitor is alone was the first and last chance! Although it's already too late!"
It was truly a difficult situation. Captain Aby admitted it.
'Yuel's words are reasonable. At this point, stopping the war is impossible. Shae's demand is not only irrational but impossible, so the only means Gun-guk can take is to repel them...'
However, that wasn't the only difference between Captain Aby and Yuel.
Captain Aby was the administrator of the Bottomless Abyss, and had quite frequent contact with the returnee. In particular, she exchanged various words through me.
Yuel, having seen the returnee's immense authority, seemed to define the returnee as a sort of phenomenon. Like a typhoon or lightning, or the Progenitor Tirkanjaka. From the perspective of one who 'sees,' perhaps it was the most rational judgment.
But Captain Aby didn't know the future, but she knew the human named 'Shae'. She knew that while sharp and blunt, Shae was surprisingly rational and had a peculiar vulnerability.
A human is small compared to a phenomenon. It is hard to believe.
However, it is humans, not phenomena, who answer wishes.
"It is not too late. I judge there is still room for compromise. Rather, compromising could yield a better result."
"Compromise? With what method?"
"If there is sincerity in his demand, and if he is truly willing to make some efforts for that goal. There is a way to project this power facing Gun-guk diplomatically."
Captain Aby brought up a proposal that the previous Gun-guk would have never made.
"It is to appoint him as a special envoy and dispatch him to Yeol-guk. If he truly wants to stop the war, and if he is willing to project force for that goal just as he did in Gun-guk. He would be the most efficient means to break Yeol-guk's will to fight."