[V7 Interlude] Learn Politics with Mr. Hütter
Translated by Jodas 7: To the NorthWhen it came time for afternoon individual lessons, Wren had lately been heading to the Management or Library Offices, but on this day he decided not to head to another Spire. Instead, he hung back in the classroom and asked Hütter a question.
“Hey, Mr. Hütter, what do you think makes someone a great leader… I mean, a good emperor or king?”
To Wren’s question, Hütter made a somewhat surprised face.
“What’s the matter all of a sudden? Have you decided to give up on being a pretty boy and try becoming an emperor?”
“No way, I’m not Sevil, you know?”
“If you’re interested in the study of monarchies or an academic perspective on kings and emperors, head to the Library Office. They’ve got a few books on that sort of thing.”
It seemed like the Wedge Tower’s libraries were much more complete than Wren had realized.
Nevertheless, Wren shook his head to Hütter’s suggestion.
“That’s not it. In your lessons, you often say a lot of things that make me go ‘Wow, are citizens of the Empire even allowed to say that?’ you know?”
“That’s just how the universities are these days. During debates, you hear folks badmouthing their country all the time. It’s nothing like it was fifty years ago.”
“Hmm…” Wren nodded along.
Wren had never experienced any educational institutions other than the Wedge Tower. But, since the Wedge Tower was an older, more conservative organization, for better or for worse, they tended to stick to older ways of thinking.
That was especially the case for Director Hegelich of the Guidance Office. He always frowned on disparaging comments towards their country.
“I was thinking that you’d have a different perspective than the other adults at the Wedge Tower since you came from the Mage Association, Mr. Hütter.”
“There are plenty of others in the Wedge Tower who graduated from other mage training institutions, For instance, Director Hegelich or … Mr. Sombart.”
Hütter’s words came as a bit of a surprise to Wren.
Director Hegelich, especially. He always thought that guy was the epitome of the kind of hard-headed person that you would get from an isolated environment like the Wedge Tower.
Sombart, on the other hand, seemed like the kind of guy who’d graduated from an outside institution. Sombart didn’t act much like a mage of the Wedge Tower.
“Hm… Then, what about Ms. Röhm or Mr. Armster?”
“Ms. Röhm enrolled in the Wedge Tower when she was about your age. As for Armster, I really don’t know. That guy always looks like he’s about to pass out from shock any time I talk to him.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that! Anyway, we’ve gotten off-topic. We were talking about what makes a good king or emperor, right? I want to know what you think, Mr. Hütter.”
Hütter folded his arms and looked inquisitively at Wren.
That said, Hütter was a man with a somewhat worn-out air about him to begin with, so it wasn’t very intimidating when he made a difficult expression.
That un-intimidating nature was one of Hütter’s strong points. Thanks to that, Wren felt like he could talk freely around him.
“Don’t tell me, did something happen with Sevil?”
“Whenever I talk with Sevil, she just starts saying all of these political things like they’re the most obvious thing in the world. So I thought maybe I should study up a little more.”
Hütter leaned on the podium and furrowed his brows in thought.
“A good king, huh… You know, there aren’t many out there who went out of their way trying to be tyrants from the start? Just about anyone who becomes king wants to be remembered as a great king or a wise king. They all want to make their country better.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“By the way, no matter how good and honest a king is, it won’t mean anything if the nobles around them are all corrupted. You have to take stock of what all of your domestic nobles are up to at all times while also keeping tabs on the balance of power outside of your country. That kind of worrying is gonna make all your hair fall out.”
Hütter lifted up his glasses and made the most stoic face he’d made all day.
“According to my research, many emperors throughout history have ended up bald. I look forward to the Black Lion Emperor’s future.”
“Mr. Hütter, do you dislike the Black Lion Emperor?”
“I would like to keep this as a political discussion. Let’s not delve into my own personal tastes, okay?”
Very clever, if he established at the beginning that it was all for the sake of argument, then it was fine for him to say anything he wanted about the Emperor. Wren made sure to remember that for later.
“Anyway, we got off topic again. So we were talking about great leaders… Wren, do you think the previous Emperor was a great leader?”
“I don’t. After all, everyone hates him, right?”
“Then, how much do you know about the previous Emperor?”
The previous Emperor, in other words, Sevil’s father.
If the Emperor two generations ago loved war, the previous Emperor abhorred war.
He was a man who often catches criticism for going so far to avoid war so as to sell off his own country’s territory.
It was also often said he had no taste in art and would pour money into anything that caught his eye.
“Um… That he hated war, he loved women, and he used up all his money buying art…”
“Yes. That is about the level the average citizen knows about him. That said, he actually did all sorts of things. He reformed the minute details of the tax code, instituted a system of preserving historically valuable buildings and artworks, and implemented a law allowing nobles to pass on their titles while they were still alive. Also, he established new educational institutions, invested into research on preventing potato blights…”
Hütter continued to write down a list of the previous Emperor’s policies and actions on the blackboard.
Seeing all of those things in one list, it almost looked like the work of a serious and competent emperor.
“…But he was still a perverted old man who laid his hand on every woman he could find, right?”
“His brothers all died from war and disease, after all. Maybe he was just desperate to ensure he left behind a successor?”
Only now did Wren realize.
He wanted to think of the previous Emperor — Sevil’s father — as a bad guy.
If that was the case, then Sevil could be a victim who was deceived by her evil father, making it easier for him to sympathize with Sevil.
…But reality wasn’t that simple. That was why Sevil herself was conflicted.
“In the end, I’m not in any position to say definitively whether the previous Emperor was a great leader or a disgrace. You never know, maybe a hundred or two hundred years from now they’ll be treating him as a wise emperor.”
“…Uh-huh… But still, if you compare him to past emperors, he still looks pretty bad, right?”
“That might be true, but…”
Hütter furrowed his brows again, making a difficult face.
“You know, Wren. You should try branching out from Imperial history some time. Try looking into the history of other countries a little bit. I think you’ll soon shake yourself of the illusion that the Schwargald Empire is the most powerful country in the world.”
“…Huh?”
Hütter’s words once again took Wren by surprise.
Wren had never once doubted his conviction that his own country — the Schwargald Empire — was the greatest country on the continent.
Of course, he knew that some of the surrounding nations were starting to build in strength. Regardless, however, nothing could shake his belief that his own country was number one.
The shock felt as if someone had punched him in the face.
As Wren gasped, Hütter wiped the words off of the blackboard and spoke.
“When the Empire won that war over fifty years ago, there was a constant feeling that ‘the age of the Empire is here!’ Even now, Imperial is still the most common language used in diplomacy.”
It was common for people of the middle and upper classes in surrounding countries such as the Kingdoms of Ridill and Darwock to learn Imperial in addition to their national languages. That was because Imperial was the language most often used in international business and diplomacy.
The Empire had tremendous influence over the rest of the continent. Wren had always believed that was an unshakable truth.
“In the past fifty years, our good neighbor, the Kingdom of Ridill, has caught up to us in all sorts of ways… More than that, I think they’ve surpassed us. Did you know? In the cities of Ridill, even commoners have running water in their homes.”
“Rose mentioned that as well, is it for real?”
“Yeah, it’s totally real. A long time back, I stayed over there for a bit and I was blown away.”
Wren’s father was a merchant. As a result, he often talked with the other adults about matters in foreign countries.
Through those conversations, Wren had picked up that their trade with the Kingdom of Ridill had increased. He’d also heard that their neighbors’ magical device technology was improving rapidly.
But apparently it was more than just the magical devices that were improving.
“Recently, the Empire has done a lot too, such as removing the ban on medical magecraft, so it’s not clear where things are going to go from here, but… This is all just my opinion. You should try asking other people to see how their answers differ.”
Since Wren had only talked about these kinds of things with Sevil and Hütter, their opinions dominated his mind.
But there were tons of different perspectives out there in the world. There were so many things Wren did not know.
(…And so many of those things I’ll never learn just staying in the Wedge Tower.)
That was a thought that had been nagging at him for a while.
The Wedge Tower was isolated and conservative. While there was tons of knowledge that could only be learned here, at the same time there was knowledge and experience that he couldn’t get at the Wedge Tower.\
“Mr. Hütter, you said you’ve been to the Kingdom of Ridill before?”
“Yes, well, just for a job, you see. I could tell that the King over there was doing a pretty decent job.”
“Then does that mean he’s a great leader?”
“No. The current King of the Kingdom of Ridill… His Majesty, King Ambrose, isn’t the kind of person who jumps out to me as ‘This guy’s a legend!’ He doesn’t really take center stage most of the time.”
King Ambrose took the throne some years after Ridill lost its war against the Empire.
At the time, the Kingdom of Ridill was considered a nation in decline, and its domestic politics had fallen into shambles to the point most people joked that it was the nobility, not the king who held the real power and wealth there.
“Although… I guess King Ambrose has done a pretty good job steadily networking, shaking the right hands, and showing the right faces in the right circumstances. Thanks to that, he’s been able to keep the balance in his Kingdom fairly well, and the country’s power has steadily risen over the years.”
“Oh? Sounds like King Ambrose is a little like you then, Mr. Hütter.”
Hütter looked like he was caught off-guard by Wren’s comment.
With a feeling of ‘Look, I’m on the money, right?’ Wren snickered.
There was one thing that Hütter had left out of his explanation to Wren.
“There aren’t many out there who went out of their way trying to be tyrants from the start.”
That was what he had told Wren, but there was one person whom Hütter suspected absolutely did intend to become a tyrant by choice.
The man who hired Hütter: the Black Lion Emperor.
By intentionally acting like a tyrant… Could that man be trying to break apart the Empire itself?
(I hope that’s just my imagination, but… I’ve got to be prepared for when the time comes.)
He wasn’t about to go down with a tyrant.