One was: “Let’s not allow borders to be changed by military force.”
One was: “Let’s let the people of each country make decisions for themselves.”
One was: “Let’s arrange cultural exchanges between the East and West and try to get along.”
“I heard it from Jeanne,” said Maria. “It really is similar to the Mankind Declaration, isn’t it? I want to know how this story of yours ends. What happened to the world after that?”
“There were problems, but it was reasonably successful for a time,” I said. “Eventually the God of the East broke up, and because the balance of power collapsed, the state of tension was relieved, avoiding total war between the two camps.”
“And… wasn’t that a good thing?” Maria asked.
“Yes, it was, at that point in time,” I said. “However, later, in one multi-ethnic country, a certain people started an armed uprising for independence. If their independence wasn’t recognized, it would go against the principle of self-determination. However, if their independence was recognized, it would mean accepting a change in borders brought about by military force. That contradiction immobilized the countries that had come up with these rules.”
“Like the Empire has been right now?” Maria asked.
I gave a firm nod to Maria’s question.
You may have already realized, but this story was about Earth’s history.
The God of the East that said “People should be equal” was socialism.
The God of the West that said “People should be free” was capitalism.
The worshipers of these two gods had stared each other down during the Cold War.
The countries that had engaged in talks to avoid a war from breaking out were the members of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1975, later the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The rules they had decided on were what was called the Helsinki Accords.
The reason I was able to immediately notice the contradiction in the Mankind Declaration was because I was familiar with the similar Helsinki Accords. I had studied modern history for my university entrance exams, after all.
That was why, while I knew the Helsinki Accords had been effective in preventing the outbreak of total war between the East and the West during the Cold War, they had made it impossible for anyone to move during the inter-ethnic conflict between the Serbs and the Croats in Yugoslavia.
“This is the pitfall you said was in the Mankind Declaration?” Maria said with disappointment.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s a fatal pitfall for a multi-racial state like ours. That’s why the kingdom can’t sign the Mankind Declaration.”
This might be cruel to say, but if we had been a country like Amidonia, with one subset of races more powerful than the others, it might not have been much of a problem. As long as a race was in a low position socially, or their population was low, they wouldn’t be able to get a movement for autonomy going inside the country. But in a country like ours where many races worked together, it was dangerous.
It wasn’t an issue when the country was being managed well, but if things went downhill, people would start thinking about partition and independence. Even if things were going well today, they might not be tomorrow. Like Machiavelli had said, one had to be prepared for the vicissitudes of fortune.
“It hurts to hear that,” said Maria. “Our Empire is a multi-racial state, too, after all.”
I’d figured it would be, yeah. The Empire had the wind at its back right now, though, so it would be fine.
In the current situation, with the Demon Lord’s Domain slowly encroaching from the north, there was no place safer than the strongest of all mankind’s nations. No race in the Empire was going to want to change the nation they belonged to.
However, if the country were mismanaged, or if the threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain were to go away, what would become of the Empire which had championed the Mankind Declaration?
“Madam Maria…” I began.
“I know what you want to say. However, I can’t lower the flag now.” Maria smiled with a strong will in her eyes. “Thorny though the path may be, I want the Empire to be a light of hope unto all people living today. It’s clear as day that mankind needs to unite to face the Demon Lord’s Domain. Even if it’s only for a time, the Empire will lift up the flag to unite the hearts of people.”
“…I feel like I can see why they call you a saint,” I said at last. I found her ideals naïve, but she spoke in a way that drew people to her.
Though she might have a head-on collision with reality someday, she still held up her ideals, fully accepting that. It was hard to watch her, but I wanted to, nonetheless. That was the sort of charm that she had.
I’m sure Jeanne has no end of worries… I thought, recalling the younger sister and general who took a more realistic view of things. If Hakuya could have read my mind at that moment, he might have said, “You’re one to talk,” with a vein pulsing on his temple.
Maria shook her head as if to clear her mind. “I understand what happened regarding your reoccupation of Van. I think, technically, it happened in a way that leaves you without fault. Even if you were moving around behind the scenes.”
It seemed that Maria was aware that the Black Cats had been involved in Van’s uprising. The reason she wasn’t pressing me on it here was likely because her own nation engaged in similar clandestine activities. I mean, Amidonia had been, too, after all.
Maria sighed. “However, Souma, I don’t understand.”
“Don’t understand what?” I asked.
“Why did the kingdom absorb all of Amidonia?” Maria looked straight at me with probing eyes.
…Well, obviously, I had expected she’d want to follow up on that point. Because, right now, Elfrieden had not just Van, but all of Amidonia under its rule. However, this was nothing I had ever wished for.
“I do, of course, intend to offer a full explanation, but let me say one thing first,” I said. “We were not the driving force behind this. If anything, we’re a reluctant participant.”
“…What in the world happened?” Maria asked.
I sighed. “At the very end, we were outwitted by one little girl.”
If you asked what had let her outwit us, I would have to admit that it was because we’d been looking at things too narrowly. The eyes of the Elfrieden Kingdom had been focused solely on Van.
With the call for assistance from the citizens of Van and the area around it to provide a just cause, we had planned to reoccupy Van in a way that didn’t infringe on the Mankind Declaration. That was the planned course of events.
For starters, though we were supposed to receive heavy reparations as a result of the earlier fighting, I couldn’t imagine that a Principality of Amidonia being ruled by Julius was going to have the financial power to pay them.
The bureaucrats who had managed Amidonia’s finances had apparently up and vanished before the outbreak of hostilities, and they hadn’t reappeared even after Julius’s return to power, after all. I didn’t think people who put the military first, like Julius and those he surrounded himself with, were going to be able to get Amidonia back on its feet.
Furthermore, with Gaius’s sudden death, the transfer of power hadn’t gone well. Even if we hadn’t meddled, it was clear that the country would have been heading for turbulent times.