6.6
After the party ended, I went into the waiting room and leaned back in my chair, not bothering to hide my tiredness.
“I'm sorry to be looking like this. I was so shaken that I lost my nerve.”
“Don't worry about it. I'm sure you haven't had a good night's sleep in the last few days.”
“Seems like you’ve seen through me.”
“You aren’t afraid of pushing yourself to the very limits, am I right, Ayanokouji-sensei? Besides, this is a time of great crisis for the White Room. I expected that you’d remain calm until the end, no matter what the situation. I’m truly amazed at your mental strength.”
I faintly waved Sakayanagi off and told him to stop with the pleasantries.
“Tell me why you came here. I'm sure you didn't just come here to say goodbye.”
“I've spoken with my father and he's agreed to let me be the president of the Advanced Nurturing High School in the near future.”
“Oh? You're finally taking the stage. You've seen it all, and your final choice is to follow in your father's footsteps. It's not a very interesting ending, but it's just like you, Sakayanagi.”
“Thank you very much. I’m grateful to have been able to study under you for so many years, Ayanokouji-sensei.”
He didn’t look happy, but I guess that was because of what I was going to tell him next.
Now that he turned out to be the successor, it wasn’t necessary to speculate on the reasons for this.
“It would be very problematic for the president of a high school if it became known that he was cooperating with a man like me. It's a good time to break off the relationship.”
“Although we have different views, I hold you in the highest regard, Ayanokouji-sensei… I was really surprised when you defied Naoe-sensei, but it made me realize how genuine your passion for the White Room is. That's why... It's a shame that we have to keep our distance.”
It was a bit of a cliché line, but it's the kind of thing Sakayanagi would say.
“I'm not obsessed with the White Room. I'm a have-not. I just know that if I didn't resist Naoe, he would’ve taken it all away from me. Even if I survive as a politician, there would be no hope for my career. Japan is too tied to the seniority system. No matter how capable you are, if you’re young, you’ll be sifted out. Or if you try to force your way out, they’ll try to cut off your wings. But if you look around the world, you’ll see that it’s becoming increasingly common for people in their twenties to be in important positions and some in their thirties at the top of their countries.”
No matter how hard I try to restrain myself, my ambition is inexhaustible.
“How can we leave the world of politics any longer in the hands of a bunch of old fools who have only a short time left to live? They think it’s enough if they’re able to secure themselves for the time they have left to live out the rest of their lives. They’re willing to give up the flesh and blood of their country to protect themselves for the next 10 or 20 years. Then what will happen 30 years from now? And 40 years from now?”
Japan will be devoured by other nations, and there won’t be anything left to salvage.
If I judge people to be competent, I will hire and use them.
Of course, there will be a lot of ambitious people who will come to take advantage of me in my sleep or people who will do things in the dark under someone else's orders, but as long as they’re competent, I will use them.
Otherwise, the corrupted blood in the political world won’t be replaced and will remain stagnant forever.
Fighting for one's own position doesn’t do any good to the nation.
“Indeed, that's what I'm wondering, too… You’re only qualified to be the head of a country when you’re in your 60s or 70s. I can understand why you might be suspicious of that.”
“We will make the White Room firm and resolute, then send in enough people to rewrite this country’s organizational system. We're going to overhaul the system from the ground up.”
It may be mocked as a pipe dream, but I'm going to get there in the end.
“It's a grand plan. It may take more than 10 or 20 years to complete.”
“I know. It may take more than my generation to change everything. For this, we will need someone to take over the White Room. It’s also important to create ‘educators’ who can create more perfect human beings than we have now.”
Some of the children are already performing beyond the scope of Suzukake's curriculum.
“But I would still rather stand in front of the next generation, if at all possible. My ambition has never waned. Once a man steps up to great power, it is impossible for him to go back to where he first started. As long as Naoe-sensei is in the Civic Party, my seat will never be taken.”
“To my understanding, the opposition has approached you several times.”
“You're a well-informed person, aren't you? You certainly know a lot of things. I'm sure the opposition parties would love to have me. But if I join the party, I’ll only be used. Unless things change, I have to wait. That's where my fight starts. I have to build up the children’s strength to get the White Room students elected. By then, my obstacles—my superiors—will be dead or retired.”
“It's really a daunting story, isn't it?”
I have a firm belief in my own successes and failures through my experiences.
That is, I don't imitate successful people.
If you could succeed by imitating successful people, no one would have any trouble.
Then what do you do? That is, don't do what unsuccessful people do.
Most people in this world aren’t successful. Observe them and try not to make the same mistake.
This is not the same thing as imitating the successful. I think it's a very important point of view and I’ve been putting it into practice.
“Good luck, Sakayanagi… I'll see you again someday.”
I shook hands with Sakayanagi and said goodbye.
After seeing Sakayanagi off at the entrance, I gazed silently at the cityscape below.
In this world, there’s a phrase: “merits and demerits.”
It means “achievement and transgression.” It’s a useful word that encapsulates both good and bad.
The phrase “merits and demerits” is often used and appropriate for many famous politicians.
On the surface, they succeed in various reforms, but behind the scenes, they’re just fattening their pockets to an enormous extent.
The problem is that these achievements and transgressions aren’t equal.
In the eyes of others, five transgressions are more important than ten achievements.
In other words, if you save ten people but let five people die, you’re evil.
That’s what the masses would say.
Save ten people and allow no one to be unhappy.
Save a hundred people and allow no one to be unhappy.
If you save a thousand people but make one person unhappy, you’re evil.
This is the psychology of the masses.
Of course, a few will say, “You saved a thousand people, so you should be willing to sacrifice a little.”
But there’s another trick here.
It’s that those who criticize others are very loud.
When about 10% of the population voices complaints, the media picks up the voices of criticism with joy.
This creates the illusion that the whole country is criticizing you.
Such a feeling of wanting to criticize someone rather than praising them attracts people's attention.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login