Chapter 311
Rimuru’s Elegant Escape Play – 22
The fight between the poison tiger and Berna continued .
It was the same with Irina and the four combat teachers .
Mondo was being beaten into a pulp by Rozari, but thanks to the capable healers, he was able to continue .
“I-I feel quite good now…”
He was starting to say, which had me worried .
Mondo, don’t push yourself too hard .
Don’t go there . It was annoying that I couldn’t warn him .
In any case, out of these three groups, it was Magnus who was the problem .
I had hopes that Julius would be able to persuade him, but it looked like I was just naive .
The four groups were in a sort of deadlock now, that is, until Magnus made a move .
“Why are you doing this?!”
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“I didn’t just think of you as a classmate, I thought of you as a friend that I could share everything with!”
Julius asked . Karma shouted .
Magnus’s reply was filled with self-deprecation .
“Julius . I thought so too . But still, surely you can understand why I feel the way I do?”
“What?”
“Just like me, you had the burden of a country on your shoulders . I knew that you actually wished you could be closer with everyone . That soup, wasn’t it good? Everything tastes better when eaten with friends . But compared to that…cold food, it is hardly edible . It doesn’t matter how fancy or how great the ingredients are . Or how talented the cook is . The food that you eat alone has no taste…”
They must have been words from the heart . Because Magnus’s voice was tinged with sadness .
“Magnus…what do you…”
Julius asked .
Magnus’s answer was most surprising .
“I am a relative of the late emperor Rudra . The empire is now fighting over choosing a new emperor . The late emperor had not been married . So of course, he had no heirs, which means that one must be chosen from his relatives . And I was the one singled out . During these last ten years, the House of Lords have been in charge of the government . A House of Lords made of those who are selected by the Demon Lord . This means that they are under his management, and in this situation, we cannot be considered to be truly independent . The empire’s safety is assured and the subjects are moderately happy . However, there are those who are not satisfied with that . As I was a noble who had left the capital to live in a countryside town, I was deemed as having not been under the Demon Lord’s influence . ”
Julius remained quiet .
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They stared at each other, swords raised . But there was no strength in their grip .
“Magnus…you…”
Even Karma did not know what to say .
It was no surprise . This was a much heavier story than what you’d expect from his usually cheerful and friendly personality .
Even I found myself deep in thought .
Yes, the House of Lords really did govern the empire .
But they had only been under my management for the first year after the war . I had left things entirely to them after that .
However, they were under the impression that I was ruling them this whole time…
I could conquer the world if I wanted, but that didn’t interest me .
And so it was rather shocking to find out that the people of the empire saw me in that way .
The fact that there was no one who could replace the emperor, and that the seat had remained empty for so long was also a problem… But that was their problem .
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Maybe it was irresponsible of me, but I never had any intention of looking after them to that degree .
Besides, peace that is bestowed on others can be lost just as quickly .
Whether they continue as they are now or do their best to achieve total democracy, that was not a problem that I would interfere with .
If someone who could do the right thing became their leader, then an imperial government would not be so bad .
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Maybe it was, but democracy wasn’t much good if the people were all fools . There would probably be those who would keep the people ignorant and far away from politics . So they could do as they liked… A democracy was not always the right thing .
There wasn’t really a true answer when it came to politics .
And so I always thought that it would be more interesting to have some diversity in the way people thought and have multiple types of political styles .
In Tempest, what I think is correct becomes the law .
However, I could always be wrong . And so I do not tell other countries how they should be run .
That was what I thought…
But if I was going to be misunderstood like this, it might be a good idea to have an official discussion with everyone .
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That’s true .
In the end, everyone is selfish .
What they want to believe become justice, and everything else is evil .
There was no choice but to have people talk, compromise to different degrees and learn to work together .
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I did not like that .
A world full of ‘yes men’ would be boring and have no future .
Even though I could tolerate wars, I would not tolerate the binding of human will .
But, leaving that aside for now, if unhappy people like Magnus really were created due to my negligence, then I wished there was something I could do about it…