Last Chapter - On to a New Era
Why fight?
Why steal?
Why refuse to share?
Lindworm had been born into royalty, and the world seemed deeply broken to him. Royals and nobles had more wealth than they could ever possibly spend, yet they sought even more and took it from commoners who hardly had enough to get by. People treated that as normal, and Lindworm couldn’t understand why. Why did the royals and nobles do it, and why did the commoners resign themselves to their lot?
It was so incomprehensible to him that he’d disguised himself as a commoner at one point during his childhood and went around the empire asking about it. During those travels, he learned that commoners weren’t happy about how they were exploited. Many of them resented the status quo, yet practically none of them took active steps toward changing it, and even when someone did, only a tiny portion of the aggrieved actually sided with them, so the uprisings were always minor and quickly contained.
Why in the world couldn’t the rulers or the ruled do better? Lindworm pondered on the matter a great deal. His conclusion was exceedingly simple. All of them, from the mightiest lord to the lowliest peasant, were imbeciles through and through. They were a flock of sheep too stupid to return home without a shepherd.
In other words, it was his responsibility to control and reform them.
“Allow us to help you awaken the power slumbering within you.”
After all, he was the prodigy king, born with the power to complete that mission. In a sense, it was a duty destiny had forced upon him. And to see it done, he needed to start a war. One that would put an end to the old world…
“………Hnn.”
Lindworm opened his eyes. He’d nodded off atop his throne.
…He’d dreamed of his childhood, a time before he’d realized he needed to become the prodigy king. Lindworm hadn’t felt much need to sleep after absorbing the evil dragon, but evidently, getting none still wasn’t an option for him.
Keine and Aoi entered the audience chamber as he finished analyzing his situation. “The preparations are complete, Your Grace,” said the former.
“Very well,” Lindworm replied, rising from his throne.
Approximately a full year had passed since he made the agreement with Tsukasa. It was time to see the results of their wager.
That same day, some two hundred thousand citizens were gathered just outside the imperial capital of Drachen.
It made for a peculiar sight. The scale of the crowd was something to behold, of course, but the way the imperials looked was stranger still. The great throng included people of all ages, all of whom had their hair shaved and wore the same outfit. Outbursts of greed had been manifesting since the summer, and Lindworm and Keine had done everything they could to strip the citizens of their individuality to combat the phenomenon.
“What could His Grace be gathering every person in the empire for?”
“I dunno. All I’ve heard is that he’s going to make a big announcement.”
“We’re not going to war again, are we?”
“No way. His Grace has purged the world of fighting. That can’t possibly be it.”
Right as expressions of worry were crossing the imperials’ faces at the abrupt summons…
“And lo, Emperor Lindworm arriveth!”
…the sound of a bugle cut through the fall air, and the person who’d summoned the two hundred thousand citizens appeared atop the wall and peered down upon the gathered masses. It was Lindworm von Freyjagard. Keine Kanzaki and Aoi Ichijou followed along behind him.
“Subjects of the empire, we have an important topic to discuss today,” Lindworm began, surveying the congregation. “As you are all aware, I’ve undertaken many measures to bring about true peace and equality. I have removed all disparity and banned the money and education that bring it about, I have mended your definitions of happiness by curing that which ailed your hearts, and I have forged a world where all can spend their days content and satisfied.”
The people below nodded. Everything he said was true.
“However, there are those who take umbrage with my efforts. They say what I’m doing amounts to brainwashing and that it leaves no room for human happiness.”
“That’s not true!” someone in the crowd yelled.
“You freed us from the ravages of greed, Your Grace!”
“We can never thank you enough!”
Some of the people had suffered relapses, but the vast majority of them had no objections to Lindworm’s methods. Most of them used to be commoners, after all. Compared to how they used to live, knowing they had enough to get through the day was the greatest happiness they’d ever known.
“I know the truth, of course,” Lindworm continued. “I know that you all are content with my world. But the fools in Elm, Yamato, Lakan, and Azure refuse to see that. So I intend to show them the fruits of my magnificent world to demonstrate its perfection to those uncivilized brutes.”
“But how?” came a voice in the crowd.
“By taking you all to the world fair that Elm, Yamato, Lakan, and Azure are hosting.”
The imperial citizens tilted their heads at the unfamiliar term. “What’s a…world fair?”
“An exhibit that rejects my rule by displaying arrogant, greedy visions of the future. Your task will be to decide what future you would rather live in—theirs or the peaceful one of my perfect world.”
The people whispered at Lindworm’s explanation. Primarily, they sounded confused about why they needed to do this at all.
“Today, you all will decide of your own free will if you wish to remain in my flawless society or if you wish to return to a world of greed muddled with hatred and conflict. If you end up choosing their world, I will abdicate my throne and return Freyjagard to its original greedy state.”
“You can’t!”
“Don’t abandon us, Your Grace!”
“Emperor Lindworm, please!”
Immediately, the crowd’s confusion turned to worry and grief. For people who’d had their definitions of happiness adjusted, the thought of losing their current tranquility was utterly terrifying.
The prodigy king swept his gaze across the distressed masses. “Then all you must do is take that same answer and deliver it to the opposition. If you do, then as your emperor, I promise you eternal peace, equality…and happiness!”
With that, he pulled his massive golden greatsword from thin air and raised it into the sky. The moment he did, a colossal magic circle appeared under the gathered assembly’s feet. The array released a golden light…
“Now, let us be off.”
…and consumed all two hundred thousand people.
It was so blinding that the crowd had to squeeze their eyes shut. Then, when they slowly opened them a few seconds later…
…they found that the scenery had changed.
“Where are we?”
“A field? But there’s nothing here.”
Drachen ramparts had been swapped for empty grasslands. The emperor had used his magic to send everyone here, and when they discovered that they’d been dumped somewhere unfamiliar, they glanced around in apprehension.
However, a new voice quickly addressed them.
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha! You did well to make it here, my good imperials!!”
Grandiose laughter echoed from nowhere…
…and a moment later, explosions of colorful smoke burst from all around.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Wh-what’s going on?!”
“What’s that smoke?! Were those bombs?! I can’t see!”
Confused screams erupted from the crowd as the vibrant vapor enveloped them. The breeze carried the smoke away quickly, however.
The revealed sight only bewildered the Freyjagardians more. The once empty field had become a massive town featuring structures from many different cultures.
“““WH-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!”””
“Welcome to our inaugural festival celebrating humanity’s culture and progress!”
“Hey, look! There’s someone flying up there!”
“Is it a mage?”
“No, that’s the Seven Luminaries’ God Akatsuki!”
Upon hearing his name, the top hat–clad figure who’d floated up over the town let out a booming laugh. “Verily! The fool king Lindworm has warped your individual values in an attempt to limit what the world can be, and as the Seven Luminaries’ god, I have come to rescue you from his clutches by organizing this world fair!”
“You say you want to save us?”
“Well, we don’t need your help!”
“Yeah! Thanks to Emperor Lindworm, we’ve been freed from our lives of being bound by greed, so we don’t need any help!”
Hearing Akatsuki speak poorly of Lindworm didn’t earn him any favors with the crowd. However, their jeering was the result of warped values, so Akatsuki felt no need to pay it any mind. Instead, he did as planned, ignored them…
“Lindworm has likely already told you the broad strokes, but I’ve prepared a place where you all can determine the world’s future! Now, behold!”
…and snapped his fingers.
The moment he did, an image appeared in the air behind him for all two hundred thousand onlookers to see, courtesy of Bearabbit’s sky projection technology.
“What’s going on? There are pictures in the sky!”
“Is this part of his magic, too?!”
The prodigies had shot a promotional video for the world fair in advance. Its first scene featured a castle made of light that gleamed like ice in the sunshine.
“This first pavilion is brought to you by the Azure Kingdom,” Akatsuki said.
“Whoa! Is that castle…transparent?!”
“I’ve never seen anything like it!”
The inscrutable sight got the imperials buzzing.
“Is that made of glass? Did they seriously build a building out of glass?!”
Of the two hundred thousand people, some used to work in technical professions. Upon seeing the way light reflected through the castle, they speculated that it might have been constructed out of glass.
Akatsuki was more than happy to confirm their suspicions.
“Indeed they did! Everything in the Crystal Palace, from its walls to its ceilings to its floors, is made from the finest Azure glasswork!
“This is a festival to celebrate the future, and Azure decided to express that through beauty! The nation is proud of its industrial engineering, and with it, they plan to construct a radiant tomorrow!
“To further demonstrate their spirit, the Crystal Palace has myriad pieces of prized Azure glasswork and jewelry on display within. It’s sure to give you mortals plenty to feast your eyes on!”
Akatsuki snapped again. That was Bearabbit’s signal to swap out the projection. The ornate building was replaced with the chaotic spectacle of a field covered in hordes of people sitting atop mats or pulling food carts.
“Wait, the image just changed!”
“What is it this time?”
“It looks like they’ve got food and clothes and stuff piled up on those mats… Is it some kind of market?”
“Next up, I present to you the Lakan Archipelago Alliance’s pavilion! Lakan made the bold choice of offering up its space free of charge to merchants from Lakan and abroad to put together a massive street market!
“This here is Lakan’s vision of the future. They dream of creating a world with no tariffs or cross-national red tape, where foreign commerce moves freely—a diverse world where nations absorb one another’s culture, merge, and grow not through war, as they’ve done historically, but through exchange!
“Do note that all visitors to their pavilion will receive a stipend at the market’s entrance, so be sure to spend it wisely!”
The image changed once more, becoming a townscape of structures with tiled roofs that would’ve looked right at home in modern-day Japan. A colossal residence designed for samurai stood in the center. It was a residence intended for nobility, the kind that would’ve been described as an example of Heian era shinden-zukuri architecture on Earth.
“Behold, the Yamato Empire’s display! This huge estate has a variety of tearooms, dojos, and other rooms designed to let you experience Yamato culture firsthand. Through this exhibit, Yamato hopes to give people the finest education in the ways of scholarship, martial arts, and performing arts to enrich them so they might find a way to better the future. They’re holding a dueling tournament out in the courtyard, so any bold imperials who wish to test their mettle should make sure to participate!”
The final image showed a townscape not too different from that of the Freyjagard Empire. This section belonged to the Republic of Elm, the nation that had seceded from Freyjagard.
“Last up, we have the Republic of Elm! All the technology used and developed during the People’s Revolution is available for perusal—everything from aluminum to machine tools to communications technology!
“On top of that, there’s also experimental data from a test run during the preparations for the world fair. I think you’ll find it quite intriguing!”
After introducing all the participating nations’ pavilions, Akatsuki cast his gaze back over the gathered crowd…
“As you can see, we don’t care for Lindworm’s despotism or the stagnation it brings. We strive to move forward on our own two feet, even if that means getting hurt at times. All our visions for the future are gathered here.
“If you deem them unwanted, then that is your right…but if any among you find your hearts stoked by the exhibits, then by all means, stop by the immigration counters located at the entrance to each section! Any nation here would be happy to have you!
“Now, without further ado, let the first-ever world fair commence!!”
Akatsuki raised his hands overhead and gave the signal to set off the fireworks waiting beside the venue entrance.
While the crowd was dazzled by the flashing lights, girls dressed in the same bunny outfits the Seven Luminaries had used to proselytize with emerged from the entryway.
“““Hello, everyone! Welcome!”””
With Lyrule and Shinobu at the vanguard, the beautiful women cheerily greeted the imperial crowd. The imperials had spent the past year without entertainment under Lindworm’s administration, so the brilliance and splendor completely blew them away.
“Th-this… This is incredible!”
“Y-yeah. It’s been so long since I’ve seen anything so lively. I’d almost forgotten it was possible. A traveling circus used to visit the capital and throw these stunning parades…”
“Mommy, that man’s flying! Like a bird!”
The imperials hadn’t known any proper recreation in a long while, and the world fair was about as extravagant as it got. The imperials were overcome with excitement. However…
“None of that changes how these guys are traitors who’ve rejected Emperor Lindworm.”
“That’s right! We can’t give in to their temptation!”
…Keine’s surgery had modified their happiness and left them reluctant. Many of them had such strong reservations about entering that they simply stood motionless by the entrance. For all their hemming and hawing, though…
“Still, I do kind of want to go look at the Crystal Palace…”
“Agreed… I wanna check out all those tasty smells…”
“The emperor brought us here himself. It’d be rude not to take a peek, right?”
“That makes sense. We should at least get a lay of the land.”
“Yeah, maybe I’ll go have a gander.”
“I wanna go in! I wanna go in, Mommy!”
“All right, let’s do it. It’s the emperor’s orders, after all.”
…the fires of curiosity weren’t so easily extinguished. After hesitating for a bit, they made their rationalizations and surged for the gate. Once through, the people dispersed, hurrying to whichever pavilion captivated their interest.
However, there were three people who refused to get swept away quite so easily. Perhaps it went without saying, but they were Keine Kanzaki, Aoi Ichijou, and Emperor Lindworm.
As the three stood before the venue, Tsukasa strolled over to them. “Not planning on participating?”
The rest of the Prodigies followed behind him.
“Tsukasa, m’lord…,” Aoi greeted him. “And everyone else, too.”
“It’s pretty impressive, you know,” Tsukasa said. “There’s a lot that four countries can do when they put their heads together. I promise it won’t disappoint.”
“What a vulgar display,” Keine remarked in as dismissive a tone as she could. Her hostility was wildly out of character, and it sent a shiver through the group’s more timid members, Ringo and Akatsuki. “I can see you’ve gathered up the most distilled greed the world has to offer in an attempt to sway our people. But it won’t work.”
“Indeed,” Lindworm agreed. “The people have said it time and again. They despise war. They despise violence. They wish to live in peace. All we’ve done is grant those wishes. Now that we’ve done so, who would seek to return to the old ways? Soon enough, they’ll be right back here begging for my salvation.”
“If you’re right, then we’ll happily yield to you,” Tsukasa said. He had no intention of breaking his word. “However, that’s ultimately for your people to decide.”
The two sides had nothing more to say to each other. Instead, they just watched the proceedings from a distance and waited for the verdict.
For Keine, the downtime felt terribly long. She thought of the imperial citizens who’d relapsed. Why had their greed returned to them? She’d never managed to figure out the reason or develop any countermeasures. That’s why her expression and behavior were so restless—she was anxious. What if the same thing happened here?
The silence stretched on for an hour, then two, then longer still, and the look on Keine’s face grew more fretful with each passing minute. The imperials had gone into the fair intending to “get a lay of the land.” Of those two hundred thousand people, not a single one had come back yet. The cries of merriment and delight from within were growing louder and louder.
A few minutes after the bell rang for noon, Tsukasa got a call on his cell phone. “What’s up, Nio? Got it. Thanks for letting me know.” After a brief conversation, he hung up and addressed Lindworm. “Emperor Lindworm, how many people did you bring here today?”
“Roughly two hundred thousand. What of it?”
“I see.” Tsukasa nodded. “I just got word from the joint immigration bureau. The four nations’ immigration counters just passed one hundred and twenty thousand collective immigration request filings. In short, the majority of imperial citizens wish to relocate. In light of that, it should come as no surprise that none of them have left the fair premises.”
“ !!”
Keine couldn’t take it any longer. She dashed into the fair at full speed.
When people entered the Azure Kingdom’s pavilion, the Crystal Palace, they invariably let out cries of wonder at how it seemed everyone was floating.
“It’s so beautiful! The floor, the ceilings… Everything’s really made of glass!”
“I had no idea you could make glass this sturdy! I was a glazier in the empire until last year, and I never would’ve dreamed of making something like this! It’s incredible how advanced Azure technology is!”
It wasn’t just the building that dazzled them. The Azure Kingdom was a nation that prided itself on its jewelry and glasswork, and the Crystal Palace proudly offered a selection of works the Azure Kingdom’s people produced over the past three hundred years.
Of those works, though, one display case in particular commanded the most attention. Sergei had asked his king to borrow Azure’s greatest treasure—the wedding ring passed through the royal family for generations.
The imperials let out coos of amazement as they stared at the platinum ring adorned with a gigantic diamond sitting in a glass case.
“It’s so pretty…”
“I can barely believe the size of that gemstone. I wonder how many tens of thousands of gold coins something like that would run you?”
“You know, it’s weird. It’s just a lump of rock and silver. Why is it so captivating to look at?”
“Heh-heh-heh. Impressive, isn’t it?” Sergei said contentedly, stroking his beard as he beheld the spellbound crowd. As the person in charge of the pavilion, he dovetailed into a speech on the ring’s history. “Two hundred years ago, Azure’s third king, Georgol, made it by buying the largest diamond in the world from Freyjagard and combining it with platinum from Azure’s gold mines. It cost three times the contents of the national treasury at the time to produce, and it took us a hundred years to fully repay the debt.”
The spectators grimaced.
“Three times the national treasury?!”
“That’s absurd… I feel bad for the people who lived under a king who’d do something like that.”
“You can say that again. All that just for a piece of jewelry?”
To them, it seemed like a ludicrous amount of money to waste. However…
“But it’s still beautiful.”
…Sergei knew they couldn’t take their eyes off the national treasure.
“A massive diamond for King Georgol’s massive love, platinum that would never rust to symbolize his unwavering affection. King Georgol wanted to express his love for his queen in the biggest way he knew how.
“Don’t you see? Feelings like gratitude, faith, and love are sometimes too big for words to express. Yet we seek to show them anyhow, and art is the language of love that humans alone possess.
“Trying to take that from us is nothing more than an act of base violence. To any who would call that a perfect world of equality and peace, I say bah!”
“……!”
When she heard Sergei’s speech, one of the women in the crowd glanced down at her left ring finger. There was supposed to be a ring there, the proof of her husband’s love for her. But it had been taken from her and discarded when Lindworm announced his ban on jewelry.
Until today, she hadn’t spared it much thought. She and her husband got to live in peace, exactly as Lindworm had promised, and she’d felt that that was enough for her. Now that she was faced with a symbol of love that had been passed down for over two centuries, though…
“……What…is this feeling…?”
…looking at her naked ring finger filled her heart with a piercing sorrow and caused the corners of her eyes to grow so warm they felt like they were burning.
A question surfaced inside.
What was so wrong about putting one’s love in physical form?
Things over at the Lakan Archipelago Alliance’s pavilion, the Free Market, were even livelier than at Azure’s.
“This outfit is adorable! Is the dress from Lakan?”
“This chest of drawers is jet-black, yet it has the most mysterious sheen. I’ve never seen a material like this.”
“You’ve got a keen eye, sir. That there is coated in lacquer. You probably don’t see it much down in Freyjagard, huh?”
“Fresh dim sum! Get your fresh dim sum here!”
It had been a year since rationing was instituted, and the sound of the imperials excited to shop for the first time in ages blended with that of merchants bidding them come to their shops and stalls.
It was loud and lively everywhere, but the most bustling spot of all was the open area smack-dab in the market’s center. There, imperial citizens dug holes, filled them in, lifted large boulders, and sang and danced.
“““Whooooooooa!!!!”””
“No way! Check out the size of the boulder that byuma just lifted!”
“That’s gotta weigh four or five hundred pounds!”
Once the middle-aged byuma finished his weight-lifting work, a Lakan official handed him some money. “Good job. Here’s your pay.”
The man thanked him, took it, and rushed back to his family. “There, all done. Now, let’s get some whole roasted pig!”
“You’re the best, Daddy!”
“That was so cool, Daddy!”
“Do be careful, dear. You’re not as young as you once were,” his wife said as she mopped the sweat from his brow.
“Ha-ha,” the man laughed, putting on a show of bravado. “What, that little thing? I could lift that all day.”
A market wasn’t very good without any money. Lindworm had taken all the imperials’ funds and left them dead broke. The center section of the Lakan exhibit allowed people to work in exchange for compensation.
However, some of the cleverer members of the crowd found the specifics of the labor odd, and they went to question Shenmei Li, the one in charge.
“Hey, ma’am, you’re the boss here, right? I gotta ask, what purpose does all this boulder lifting and hole digging actually serve?”
“Hmm? None whatsoever,” Shenmei replied.
“Then why are you asking us to do it?”
The conversation drew in a few other spectators who’d been watching the labor for a while.
“Yeah! If there’s no point to it, then you should just give everyone money.”
“This is discrimination! We demand equality!”
Shenmei had none of that. “Giving the same treatment to those who work hard and those who don’t is the most unequal thing you can do.”
That very fact was the vision of the future the Lakan pavilion was meant to express.
“Those who put in the effort are compensated accordingly. Believing that is what gets people motivated. Working hard for the things and people you like brings joy. I have no desire to see that stripped from the world. And so…I have no choice but to stand against Lindworm.”
With that, Shenmei took a deep breath, then addressed the entire imperial crowd.
“Anyone who wants to move to Lakan and stand with me will get massive discounts! Anyone who submits an immigration request will get free housing and a grant of thirty ira! Act fast as supplies may be limited!”
The words had scarcely left her mouth before a massive line formed at the immigration window.
The Yamato Empire’s pavilion, the National Academy, was the spitting image of a Yamato town with a huge estate at its center. There was a dueling tournament being held in the estate’s courtyard. There, Samurai General Shura and the burly former–Platinum Knight Gascorge faced off in combat.
The people of Freyjagard detested fighting and considered it barbaric, but these two were masters. Not even the skeptics in the crowd could tear their eyes away from the raw depth of talent on display in Shura and Gascorge’s clash. As the duel grew more heated, so too did the cheers from the onlookers.
Over on one side, a group of former Freyjagard scholars enjoyed an open-air tea ceremony held by Kaguya herself…
“Compulsory…education?”
“You really plan on using public funds to put every single one of your citizens through school, Princess Kaguya?”
…and when they heard Yamato’s vision of the future, they practically dropped their teacups.
“Indeed I do. Between the Yamato campaign and the two wars we fought last year, Yamato hath lost much of its national strength. Our people are the sole resource we have left.”
“So in other words, you’re saying that this exhibit, with all its dojos and schools, is an educational institution in and of itself?”
“Indeed.”
“Well, I used to work for the Freyjagard government, and I should warn you…making your people smarter when you don’t need to is a surefire way to invite rebellion.”
The scholars had some doubts about Kaguya’s dream.
To that, though, Kaguya just replied, “So be it.” Her expression was that of a woman who’d recently been freed of a great burden. “As a member of the imperial family, I once thought I had a duty to maintain Yamato as it was for the sake of those who adored my country and could not survive anywhere else. Yet…seeing Lindworm do the same thing hath opened my eyes. I understand how foolish it was to maintain peace by keeping a populace ill-informed.”
Wisdom could indeed lead to conflict. That’s why Yamato had spent so long pursuing isolationist policies and manipulating its people’s values. However…was peace so precious it was worth limiting the people’s potential to safeguard it? When Kaguya asked herself that question, this was her answer:
“Rather than protect the government by keeping my people as simpletons, I would sooner protect my nation by guiding them to wisdom. It doth be my wish that they begin questioning anything and everything. Then even if some clever fox with no honor should bring me to ruin, someone with honor will surely rise up to strike them down.
“I shall build the foundation. The Yamato imperial family was entrusted with the nation’s administration one thousand years ago…and this shall be our final duty.”
After Kaguya finished outlining her thoughts, she bowed her head to the imperial intellectuals.
“When that time cometh, I hope to borrow the aid of academics like yourself. Freyjagard may have outlawed education and martial arts, but what vice is there in the strong protecting the weak and the wise mentoring the inexperienced?”
“““………”””
There was none.
When Kaguya put it like that, the scholars wondered why they’d wasted the last year forgoing the pursuit of knowledge.
As Keine rushed around the fair, she saw one instance after another of people regaining the greed that she’d surgically removed from them.
Why?!
First, she was bewildered.
“Wooow! I can really have as much as I want?!”
“This is so good!”
“Hey, Mom, I wanna try the bread next!”
“I’m amazed they’re able to offer bottomless stew.”
And when she reached the all-you-can-eat buffet offered in the Elm exhibit, the sight of imperials gorging themselves changed that confusion to nauseating displeasure.
“Does Elm really have enough of a food surplus to justify all this?” one of the visitors asked.
Juno was the person in charge of Elm’s pavilion, so she took point on the question.
“We owe it all to the Haber-Bosch process the Seven Luminaries taught us. It’s a miraculous technology that allowed us to power our revolution by producing gunpowder out of thin air. And it also creates fertilizer to hasten the growth of plants.
“Here in the Republic of Elm, we spent the year leading up to the world fair experimenting to see how much a combination of chemical fertilizer and agrichemicals would increase our crop yields. By using them together, we were able to get nearly ten times the yield out of the same acreage of land.”
“D-did you just say ten times?!” exclaimed a Freyjagard citizen.
“With numbers like that, Elm’ll never see famine again…,” another added.
“So this is the power of chemical fertilizer, huh?” offered a third.
“Elm has no intention of hoarding this miracle, of course. God Akatsuki intended it as a gift for all humanity, and we’ve agreed to teach it to all the world’s nations, free of charge,” Juno explained.
“With this, the world will enter an era of plenty the likes of which none have ever seen. Once everyone can eat their fill, moral institutions will proliferate. Emperor Lindworm claims that peace can only exist under his reign, but if we cultivate universal morals, we’ll be able to put an end to war all on our own!”
“……!”
Keine bit down on her lip at Elm’s vision of the future.
It was beyond idealistic. Such a dream wasn’t possible.
The Haber-Bosch process had massively increased humanity’s production on Earth, but that wasn’t enough to end famine or wars fought over hunger. And why was that? Because no matter how much was produced, people were so poisoned by greed that they hoarded more than necessary, fought to monopolize it, and refused to share.
It had happened before and would again. It would continue until humanity’s fundamental defect—its sickness—was cured.
“Don’t let them sway you with honeyed words! Return home to the empire!” Keine shouted at the top of her lungs.
Unfortunately…
“But Dr. Keine, this technology would give us so much more food than we have now!”
“And with greater variety, too. Won’t you consider bringing it to the empire?”
…nobody budged. They’d learned what a delight overeating was, and now, their greed was taking over.
Seeing them wallow in avarice—the thing they should have been liberated of—was hard for Keine to stomach. “Why? Why do you keep craving, even when you already have more than enough?!”
“…Dr. Keine?”
“You want better! You want more! You want finer! Even though it always leads to conflict! You should be happy sharing what you already haaaaave!!”
Her surgery should have been the end of this, yet their sickness had returned again and again. This was a nightmare the likes of which her craft was insufficient to handle.
Then, right as her voice reached an outright shriek…
“It’s simple, really.”
…Tsukasa Mikogami finally caught up to her.
“It’s because love itself is a kind of greed.”
“Keine, you posited that love drives humanity. But what is love if not greed?” Tsukasa asserted.
People wanted their loved ones to be happy.
They wanted to be the ones to make their loved ones happy.
They wanted to protect their loved ones.
And that’s why they strove to better themselves.
People knew greed because they knew love. The two concepts were inseparable sides of the same coin.
“You said you wanted to remove people’s greed and free them from its influence to build a world full of love, but you were doomed before you ever began.”
As long as people had love, their greed would continue to flow. That’s why Tsukasa had told Keine that her methods wouldn’t work. His father had given him a profound insight into the nature of human avarice.
“The truth is, you knew that all along. You knew how contradictory your dream was.”
“……!”
Keine was a doctor, so she knew how human hearts operated better than most. There was no way she truly believed she could separate love and greed.
Tsukasa’s callout struck right at the core of Keine’s mistake.
He was right. Deep in her soul, she’d always known about the contradiction of her goal.
“That’s not true!”
Keine’s face paled, yet she refused to accept the truth. She recognized it but couldn’t permit it.
“My technique was flawed! That’s the only reason their greed returned! I can heal greed! I know I can! Because if I can’t…”
If love brought about greed, which led to war, and that atrocity she’d witnessed was bound to repeat itself…
“…then there truly is no saving us!!”
Keine had no choice but to cling to the delusion that she could fix everyone. If she didn’t keep that hope alive, then the knowledge that the world was a futile place where the time she spent saving a single person was enough for ten others to be killed would break her.
That was how much she loved humanity.
However…
“That’s just not true. If nothing else, I’m confident that the day will come when humanity can control their greed in the truest sense.”
…Tsukasa rejected her despair.
“How can you believe that?!” Keine cried. “You have no proof that—”
“I do.”
“?!”
“Consider our conversation about the nature of greed and love. Could our ancestors who walked on all fours have conceived of such a thing? When they saw people afflicted by disease, did they know that medicine would one day cure them by slicing open their abdomens? Would they have believed it if you told them we’d set foot on the moon they saw hanging distant in the sky?”
Tsukasa argued that ancient peoples never would’ve dreamed of such outlandish things. But they weren’t fantasies. They were real, built on the accumulation of thousands of years of human progress.
“Love and avarice make the impossible possible. That power can lead people astray sometimes, but we’ve accumulated so many forms of greed that drive us to be just and kind despite that.
“We created human rights, morals, and ethics. We’ve developed frameworks that prevent nations with the power to kill millions at the push of a button from exercising that ability lightly.
“The creation of those concepts paved the way for me, a person trying to introduce universal basic income to limit people’s ability to hoard more wealth than they need. And you’re another example of noble greed, too. Prodigy physician Keine Kanzaki hones her craft and strides through war zones to save people.”
“ !”
“That’s what makes me believe. The path might be a slow one, but even if the idea of lasting peace seems impossible now, I believe we’ll achieve it someday. That’s why the path is so important, why that possibility is so critical! I refuse to let our potential be quashed just because one person decided to give up!” With that confident declaration, Tsukasa shot Keine a piercing look. “I want you to think back, Keine. What kind of world did you wish to create? What was it about people that made you want to protect them?”
“I… I still…!”
Keine shrank back and avoided Tsukasa’s gaze as he pressed in on her. She desired a perfect world where people could live in perpetual happiness. People could lose their homes, be driven from their countries, and have their very ways of life stolen. Keine only ever wanted to spare people those cruelties. She’d only sought to cure them.
Yet she’d taken her corrected Freyjagardians and cut their hair, stolen their riches, forced them to wear the same clothes, and treated them as little more than prisoners.
“~~~~~~~~!”
When she looked and saw the sorry states they were in, Keine didn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she crumpled to her knees.
Tsukasa saw Aoi rush to the doctor’s side…
“Emperor Lindworm, I think the results speak for themselves.”
…so he directed his gaze to Lindworm, who’d come following after Keine.
“………”
“Love drives people to try to seek betterment, and that force is powerful enough to change the world. It’s not something you can pin down in one place. You’ve failed. The victory is ours.”
Lindworm gave him a small nod.
“So it is. It would appear I failed to give greed its sufficient due. My eyes are open now. Truly, this world will only acknowledge force.”
“…!”
It all happened in a flash.
Lindworm drew his greatsword from thin air too fast for anyone to possibly react, then ran Tsukasa through.
“Tsu…kasa?” Lyrule whispered. “No, no… NOOOOO!!!!”
“I see now that I should have done this from the start.”
Lindworm shook his weapon, causing Tsukasa’s body to slide down its length and slip off the blade. Vast amounts of blood gushed from his body as it was dashed against the ground. The abrupt tragedy caused a wave of screams from all around.
“Tsukasa! Noooo!” Lyrule cried.
“Ahhh!” Ringo yelped. “There’s…there’s so much blood!”
The two of them were the first to go to Tsukasa, clinging to him with pale faces and terrified expressions. Masato and Shinobu stepped forward to shield them, ready to fight.
“You piece of shit!” Masato shouted. “The hell happened to honoring that agreement?!”
“I am Prodigy King Lindworm, and my decisions are law. Not a single being in this world is qualified to challenge them,” Lindworm replied without the slightest shred of shame. “Keine’s suggested it might be possible to bring stability while still allowing the people a sense of happiness. I indulged that notion…but you can see how it ended. As I suspected, control can only be attained with overwhelming force. I’ve reached my verdict.”
The emperor held his blood-stained greatsword aloft.
“If greed’s foundation lies in love, then I need only remove that as well.
“If the people cannot control an emotion, then they are unworthy of it. I will bind each of you in chains and regulate your lives the way one would livestock. I will grant you only what feed you need to survive. Never again will you know greed.
“The people have asked me, their ruler, for eternal peace, and this is the sole means by which to achieve it. This planet has no need of you otherworldly visitors and your extraneous value systems. Your right to exist in my domain…is hereby revoked.”
Lindworm’s entire body radiated hostility, sending a chill through the Prodigies.
“ ”
The man’s raw violence had completely turned the situation on its head. Worse yet, he was right. If he stripped people of their love, he’d likely excise their greed at its source. War would end if he used his might to lock them in little boxes and reduce them to piles of meat that did nothing but eat daily rations and excrete them back out.
And yet…
“What kind of world did you wish to create? What was it about people that made you want to protect them?”
“……!”
Keine recognized how contradictory she’d been. She knew that greed would never disappear if love endured. She’d pretended not to notice so she wouldn’t have to remove the root source.
Because she had a wish.
The people she loved and sought to protect.
Mothers shielding their babies from debris with their bodies. Dying husbands begging for their wives to be rescued first. Children protecting younger siblings in their dead parents’ places. Keine wanted to protect the people who refused to give up on love no matter what life hurled at them. She had only ever sought to safeguard their love.
And the moment she understood that…
“~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!”
…she raced into action.
She charged straight for Tsukasa’s body.
“Keine?!”
“Out of the way! Every second matters!!” After shouting at Ringo and Lyrule and forcing them back…
“Hrrrrrrrr!!”
…Keine inhaled deeply and tossed all the medical instruments required for treating physical trauma into the air.
Prodigy physician Keine Kanzaki performed the procedure with such unbelievable speed that no one could keep up. This special style she’d developed allowed her to complete operations on her own. While juggling her tools, she constantly swapped them in and out, delivering treatment faster than the human eye.
“Disinfection of affected area, complete.”
At the end of the day, she didn’t much care for believing in the future as Tsukasa did. Even if humanity did master its greed one day, how many centuries and millennia would it take?
She couldn’t even begin to imagine it, but whatever the case, that was far too long a wait. People suffered under the yoke of oppression every minute.
“Mending of viscera, complete.”
Tsukasa hadn’t written them off as hopeless cases, though.
Keine knew that.
She and Aoi were Japanese, but they didn’t exactly restrict themselves to activities sanctioned by Japanese law when carrying out missions abroad. Although the people they visited in other countries admired them, the politicians who took advantage of ongoing conflicts for political capital were typically less than pleased.
Furthermore, the Japanese government itself often came under fire for Keine’s and Aoi’s actions. Once, Aoi had caused a major scandal when she preemptively destroyed all the planes on an allied military base after learning a populated urban area was to be indiscriminately bombed.
Public sentiment was normally on Keine and Aoi’s side, but back then, their flagrant disregard for the intricacies of international diplomacy had earned them heavy backlash from the general public. People wanted them to show more concern for their homeland and less about some random refugees. However, since coming to this other world, Tsukasa had never urged the two to exercise restraint.
“Suturing of external wounds, complete.”
He understood. He understood that there were some whose lives and dignity could only be saved by people with boots on the ground.
That’s why he fought.
He faced the criticism head-on and pushed forward anyway. His was an unenviable position, yet he did all he could. He was probably the only politician capable of such a thing. Keine understood that, and now that her dream lay shattered…
I can’t let him die. Not here! Not now!
“Administering cardiotonic medication and beginning pulmonary resuscitation.”
Thanks to Keine’s surgical technique, Tsukasa’s wounds were sutured with the swiftness of watching a video sped up.
Upon seeing what Keine had done…
“I see you’ve made your choice. What a pity.”
…Lindworm made no effort to hide his disappointment. His greatsword was still drenched in Tsukasa’s blood, and now it came down for Keine.
However, his blow never reached her.
Aoi cut in and blocked it right in the nick of time.
“Rrrrgh!!”
The road under her feet had been paved to support horse-drawn wagons, yet it cracked and shattered under the force of the impact. Lindworm had surpassed humanity the moment he’d absorbed the evil dragon’s power. Even for Aoi, who’d pried open the Yamato castle gate with her bare hands, merely withstanding his raw physical strength took everything.
“Move.”
“HURGH?!”
Thus, she could do nothing to stop Lindworm from sending her flying with a kick to the side.
No power could stop that man. Reducing humanity to livestock would be a trivial matter for him.
But only a moment later, the man with the strength to enforce his will upon all stopped dead in his tracks.
He was forced to stop…
“What is the meaning of this?”
“““~~~~~~~!!”””
…by the imperial citizens who’d gathered in droves to block him.
“Stand aside.”
His words had an unfathomably regal weight to them, commanding the very souls of those who heard them to obey. The blood drained from the people’s faces, but they stood their ground.
Then…
“W-we refuse!!”
…there came unmistakable words of rebellion.
“We’ve made our choice! We want to go forge our own paths!”
“And to do that, we’ve gotta fight! No way are we gonna spend the rest of our lives locked away in your tiny cages!”
“You’re not in charge of us anymore!!”
After watching that exchange, they understood perfectly what was going on. They knew who was trying to lock away their futures. Their enemy had never been clearer, and they stood against him to protect their loved ones and tomorrow.
The world fair had given the Freyjagardians their greed back, and as it filled them, they felt a profound rush of love. Never again would they tolerate being robbed of it.
Lindworm had told them all before they came over that they would need to pick their desired future, and they had.
When Lindworm saw that…
“Hah.”
…he broke into quite possibly the first smile any of his subjects had ever seen on him.
“Kaff! Koff!”
As it happened, that was the precise moment that Tsukasa began breathing again.
“Tsukasa!” Lyrule cried. “Thank goodness!”
“Are you…okay?!” Ringo asked.
“Koff! Yeah, I’ll live.” After coughing up the blood that had gathered in his lungs, Tsukasa looked around. It didn’t take him long to realize what had happened, and a bemused smile spread across his face. “I have to say, Lindworm, you’re terrible at acting. I’m embarrassed to have even played a part in that.”
“Huh…?”
“A-acting?”
Tsukasa nodded. If Lindworm had really wanted to break the agreement, his initial attack would’ve been for more than Tsukasa alone. He likely would’ve flash frozen the entire world fair. Such a feat was well within his power.
Lindworm had even permitted Keine to save Tsukasa. That made it clear that he wasn’t going against the terms set a year ago.
Actually, his lie had been blatant even before that. There was no way a man who truly wanted to manage humans like livestock would’ve built his life around serving the people, fought on the front lines despite being royalty, or risked himself to gain the evil dragon’s power. Lindworm loved humanity just like Keine. Tsukasa had been confident of that, and his faith had been well-placed.
“Seen enough yet?” Tsukasa asked him.
“Without the will of the people behind me, I have no right to call myself a king,” Lindworm answered. He planted his sword in the ground and left it there.
“I failed. Go on and live in the future of your own choosing.”
At last, he acknowledged his defeat. There was no choice but to yield now.
That moment marked the death of the world Emperor Lindworm had sought.
When the imperial citizens realized that they would have their stolen lives back, they erupted into a cheer of joy and relief.
Amid almost deafening shouts, Tsukasa offered Keine his gratitude. “Thank you. I very nearly died there.”
“!”
Something like barely restrained pain flitted across Keine’s face. She stepped away from Tsukasa.
When she did…
“You did well, that you did.”
…Aoi, absolutely covered in dust from the emperor’s blow, called after her.
“Aoi…”
“I’m glad you changed your mind, m’lady.”
“You make it sound like you already knew my dream was an impossible fantasy.”
“………”
Aoi gave her a slight nod.
Keine couldn’t fault her for keeping silent. Had Aoi tried to point out Keine’s flaws, she wouldn’t have listened. She wasn’t the sort to stop. Back on that cruel battlefield when she hadn’t been able to protect anyone, believing she might cure greed was the only source of hope, the sole thing that allowed her to continue as a doctor.
But now that hope was gone.
“You might be right, Tsukasa,” Keine conceded. “Maybe humans will conquer their greed someday. But…it will take hundreds or thousands of years. I’m far too tired to depend on so patient a hope to keep me going.”
That was too far in the future for Keine. She…wasn’t strong like Tsukasa. She didn’t want to go back to the way things were, not anymore. She slid a scalpel from the hem of her gown into her hand, then plunged its tip into her throat without a moment’s hesitation.
Scalpels were tools for cutting straight through human flesh, and fresh blood flowed freely down the blade.
But…
…the blood wasn’t Keine’s.
Aoi had slid her arm around the prodigy doctor from behind to catch the scalpel.
“…I’m a doctor, yet I stole Lyrule’s life and toyed with everyone’s minds to appease my own sense of self-righteousness. Why would you stop me from atoning?” Keine said.
“Humanity would gain nothing and lose much by your death, that it would. One can only atone by repaying an amount equal to that they despoiled.” Aoi’s wounded arm pulled Keine into an embrace. “The two of us have been a bit rash. Let us start by taking things one step at a time again. I shall be with you every step of the way.”
“I, hic… I…!”
Keine trembled in Aoi’s arms.
As Masato watched, he shot Tsukasa a question. “You sure it’s okay to just leave ’em like that?”
Tsukasa stood with help from Lyrule and Ringo, then nodded. “I made sure Aoi knows to look after Keine. They’re going to be all right.”
Aoi was the only person who’d seen the same horrors Keine had. She was uniquely qualified to understand what the prodigy physician was going through.
As such, Tsukasa had a more pressing matter to worry about. “I’m going to need you to make good on that other promise you made,” he said to Lindworm.
The emperor nodded. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“What’re you talking about, Tsukes?” Shinobu asked.
Tsukasa explained that before returning to Elm, he’d gotten Lindworm to agree to abandon all plans for conquest if Tsukasa could shatter the emperor’s perfect world. However, he’d requested another term upon his victory, too.
Lindworm himself gave voice to that other condition. “As promised, I’m going to send all of you back to your original world.”
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