That day, when Souma the provisional King of Elfrieden welcomed new
candidates to be his queen, there were two people in other places holding talks over
the Jewel Voice Broadcast.
Elfrieden's Prime Minister Hakuya Kwonmin was speaking to the image of the
younger sister of Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire, Jeanne Euphoria,
projected by the simple receiver on a desk.
"Your signal is clear," said Hakuya. "It looks like the simple receiver you sent us is
in good working order. Thank you very much, Madam Jeanne, for going out of your
way to have it delivered by griffon."
"My sister understood how important the hotline Sir Souma was talking about
establishing will be," Jeanne said. "With this, the Kingdom and Empire can
coordinate as need be. It's only natural we would hurry to get things in place."
The Jeanne on the screen smiled broadly.
After the conference with Amidonia, Jeanne had reported back to her sister,
Empress Maria, about Souma's proposals: A secret alliance with the Elfrieden
Kingdom, establishing a hotline between the two countries, and the exchange of
plenipotentiary ambassadors from each country, as well as the establishment of
embassies for them to be stationed at.
Hakuya had assumed that Maria wouldn't refuse these ideas, and, as he'd
expected, Maria had gladly approved all of them. In fact, she had even rolled around
in bed laughing as she did.
"I've never seen my sister like that," Jeanne said. "She must have been very
pleased."
"Pleased...?" Hakuya asked.
"To find someone who shares her values... a person who understands her, if you
will," said Jeanne. "There aren't many of them inside the Empire. People who are
able to understand my sister, that is."
"I see."
Geographically they were west and east, ideologically they were an idealist and a
realist, and yet Maria and Souma, who appeared to be polar opposites, understood
one another.
That might be interesting, thought Hakuya.
"With a response like that, I want to arrange for my sister and Sir Souma to be
able to talk over the broadcast as soon as possible," said Jeanne.
"They're both very busy people at the moment, and it's hard to make their
schedules agree," Hakuya said. "When things eventually settle down, let's arrange a
time for them to talk."
"Yes, absolutely."
After that, they made small talk (Including venting their frustrations about their
respective leaders) for a little while, then Jeanne said, "By the way, there's been
something bothering me for a while now. I see many books behind you there, Sir
Hakuya. Where are you now?"
"...Oh, these are books we have on loan from Amidonia as collateral against the
war reparations," he replied. "There are a good number of them that I want to have
copies made of before they have to be returned. I was working on categorizing them
until just a little while ago."
"The Prime Minister himself is sorting them?" Jeanne asked in surprise.
"Of course, I have people to help, but it's something of a hobby of mine," said
Hakuya. "I actually like to sort books. I divide them into categories, line them up in
order, sometimes flipping through one that catches my attention, then derive
pleasure from looking at the well-ordered bookshelf when my work is complete.
Books are human wisdom. The progress of a country. When I think of them arranged
before me on a shelf, available for me to read whenever I please..."
When she saw Hakuya wax eloquent about books, Jeanne's eyes opened wide.
If you mentioned the name Hakuya, the pride of the kingdom, the Black-robed
Prime Minister, he was famous as one of the geniuses discovered by Souma, the man
who had used his trickery to make sport of Gaius VIII of the Principality of Amidonia.
Having met him herself, Jeanne had had an impression of him as a clever
individual. However, when Hakuya spoke about books, his eyes were those of a
young boy. That gap made Jeanne's heart skip a beat.
"...I take it you like books?" Jeanne asked.
Hakuya came back to his senses. He quickly regained his usual clever expression,
but the tips of his ears were a little red. "...Pardon me. I can get carried away when it
comes to books, you see..."
"Hee hee. I feel like I've seen an unexpected side of you..."
"Is it that unexpected?" Hakuya asked. "I think I would make a better librarian
than a Prime Minister, personally."
The reason Hakuya had received an audience with Souma to begin with was that
his uncle had said, "At your age, you need to stop sitting around doing nothing but
read books. Go do something useful to society!" and entered him into the If You Have
a Gift event's Gift of Wisdom section without asking for permission.
He had won that competition, and when he'd had his audience with Souma, he
had been charmed by the young king. Thinking that, just maybe, Souma could get
this country that was on the verge of failing back on its feet, Hakuya had given up
being a bookworm and volunteered his services, only to find that at some point he
had become the Prime Minister.
The truth of the matter was, while Hakuya did want to support Souma's reign, he
had meant to do it as an advisor to Souma and the then-Prime Minister Marx.
However, that Marx had gone and recommended him as a better Prime Minister
than himself. Thanks to that, Hakuya couldn't read the books he wanted to, and his
days had become very busy.
"Hmm... Then if we were to arrange a post for you as Chief Librarian of the
Imperial Archives, would you come to our country?" Jeanne asked. "I imagine our
archives have a more extensive collection of books than the kingdom's."
"Ahh. That is an alluring proposal, yes."
"But you can't do it?" Jeanne asked.
"Had you asked me before I volunteered my services, I'm sure I would have
jumped at the offer without a moment's hesitation," he said.
Nowadays, Hakuya thought these busy days weren't so bad. There had been a
time when, for Hakuya, history was a thing to be found in books. However, now he
felt it was a thing that they themselves would make. When he was serving under
Souma, the one trying to push this country forward, he felt like he himself was one of
the characters in history. It wasn't a bad feeling.
"But now, I wish to move forward into a new era alongside His Majesty and the
others," he continued. "Then, once I raise my successor, I hope to become a historian
and record what happened in these times."
"A comfortable retirement, huh..." Jeanne said. "That may be a luxury in the times
we live in."
She was most likely right. The times were too hard to allow for an easy
retirement.
The threat of the Demon Lord's Domain was slowly encroaching from the north,
and various countries were forging alliances to advance their own goals, or opposing
one another. For Hakuya to have his quiet retirement, all of that would have to be
resolved. As for whether that was possible, even with all of Hakuya's wisdom, he
couldn't see the answer to that.
"Well then, I will be looking forward to our next talk, Sir Hakuya," she said.
"Yes. Let's speak again sometime, Madam Jeanne."
The transmission cut out on Jeanne's side.
Whew... Hakuya exhaled, then rose to his feet. He reached out to the pile of
Amidonian books.
These precious books had been paid no attention while they were in Amidonia,
and were now sorely in need of repair. If Hakuya hadn't taken custody of them, some
of these books might have been lost forever.
With a sigh, Hakuya reached out and picked up one book. As soon as he did...
"Prime Minister."
There was a man in black clothes kneeling in one corner of the room. There was a
black cloth wrapped around his face as well, and he looked like he was melting into
the darkness of the closed off, dimly lit room.
Hakuya asked the man, "How are the preparations?"
"They proceed apace. However..." The man seemed to hesitate.
Hakuya furrowed his brow. "Did something happen?"
"The thing is... I feel as though things are going entirely too well," said the man.
"Almost as if there was the will of another actor in play here..."
"I see..."
Hakuya dismissed the man, then flipped through the book he had picked up.
When he had taken the books in Amidonia's archives as collateral against the war
reparations, Hakuya had had a certain expectation. He had expected there would be
family registers and materials regarding rights and ownership. Those sorts of
writings tended to be in the archives in a nation's capital, after all. To have those
books in hand was to grasp the heart of the nation itself.
When he'd advised Souma to take the books as collateral, it had been because the
Amidonian royal family was more inclined towards military matters, and he'd hoped
they wouldn't realize the importance of them. However, contrary to Hakuya's
expectations, there was only one book of that variety in the collection he'd seized.
That book, the one Hakuya held now, was on the recent genealogy of the royal
family of Amidonia. When he flipped through it, there was a folded piece of paper
stuck between the last page and the cover.
When Hakuya unfolded the piece of paper, he saw there was a drawing of a small
animal with black circles around its eyes holding down one of its eyelids as it stuck
its tongue out at him.
When he saw that, Hakuya blinked a few times, then chuckled to himself. "I see.
There would have to be someone like this in Amidonia, yes."
"What is it, teacher?" a sudden voice asked.
Hakuya turned and saw Tomoe there, looking at him blankly. He was
embarrassed to have been caught with his guard down, and he cleared his throat
loudly to mask it.
"Why, little sister, I'm sorry I didn't notice you there."
"No, I just got here," Tomoe said. "I came in because it seemed like you were done
talking. You looked like you were having fun, right? What were you looking at?"
"Oh, this?" Hakuya showed Tomoe a picture with a little animal drawn on it.
Tomoe held the piece of paper up to her face, then held it at a distance, then held
it up to the ceiling to look at it, before finally tilting her head to the side. "Was this
animal what you found so funny? I'll admit it's cute."
"It's a drawing of an animal called a bronze raccoon." Taking the piece of paper
back, Hakuya patted Tomoe on the head and said, "They are commonly said to play
tricks on people."