Intermission 2: What the Black-Robed Prime Minister was Doing Then

That day, when Souma the provisional King of Elfrieden welcomed new

candidates to be his queen, there were two people in other places holding

talks over the Jewel Voice Broadcast.

Elfrieden's Prime Minister Hakuya Kwonmin was speaking to the image

of the younger sister of Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire, Jeanne

Euphoria, projected by the simple receiver on a desk.

"Your signal is clear," said Hakuya. "It looks like the simple receiver

you sent us is in good working order. Thank you very much, Madam

Jeanne, for going out of your way to have it delivered by griffon."

"My sister understood how important the hotline Sir Souma was talking

about establishing will be," Jeanne said. "With this, the Kingdom and

Empire can coordinate as need be. It's only natural we would hurry to get

things in place."

The Jeanne on the screen smiled broadly.

After the conference with Amidonia, Jeanne had reported back to her

sister, Empress Maria, about Souma's proposals: A secret alliance with the

Elfrieden Kingdom, establishing a hotline between the two countries, and

the exchange of plenipotentiary ambassadors from each country, as well as

the establishment of embassies for them to be stationed at.

Hakuya had assumed that Maria wouldn't refuse these ideas, and, as

he'd expected, Maria had gladly approved all of them. In fact, she had even

rolled around in bed laughing as she did.

"I've never seen my sister like that," Jeanne said. "She must have been

very pleased."

"Pleased...?" Hakuya asked.

"To find someone who shares her values... a person who understands

her, if you will," said Jeanne. "There aren't many of them inside the

Empire. People who are able to understand my sister, that is."

"I see."

Geographically they were west and east, ideologically they were an

idealist and a realist, and yet Maria and Souma, who appeared to be polar

opposites, understood one another.

That might be interesting, thought Hakuya.

"With a response like that, I want to arrange for my sister and Sir Souma

to be able to talk over the broadcast as soon as possible," said Jeanne.

"They're both very busy people at the moment, and it's hard to make

their schedules agree," Hakuya said. "When things eventually settle down,

let's arrange a time for them to talk."

"Yes, absolutely."

After that, they made small talk (Including venting their frustrations

about their respective leaders) for a little while, then Jeanne said, "By the

way, there's been something bothering me for a while now. I see many

books behind you there, Sir Hakuya. Where are you now?"

"...Oh, these are books we have on loan from Amidonia as collateral

against the war reparations," he replied. "There are a good number of them

that I want to have copies made of before they have to be returned. I was

working on categorizing them until just a little while ago."

"The Prime Minister himself is sorting them?" Jeanne asked in surprise.

"Of course, I have people to help, but it's something of a hobby of

mine," said Hakuya. "I actually like to sort books. I divide them into

categories, line them up in order, sometimes flipping through one that

catches my attention, then derive pleasure from looking at the well-ordered

bookshelf when my work is complete. Books are human wisdom. The

progress of a country. When I think of them arranged before me on a shelf,

available for me to read whenever I please..."

When she saw Hakuya wax eloquent about books, Jeanne's eyes opened

wide.

If you mentioned the name Hakuya, the pride of the kingdom, the Blackrobed Prime Minister, he was famous as one of the geniuses discovered by

Souma, the man who had used his trickery to make sport of Gaius VIII of

the Principality of Amidonia.

Having met him herself, Jeanne had had an impression of him as a

clever individual. However, when Hakuya spoke about books, his eyes were

those of a young boy. That gap made Jeanne's heart skip a beat.

"...I take it you like books?" Jeanne asked.

Hakuya came back to his senses. He quickly regained his usual clever

expression, but the tips of his ears were a little red. "...Pardon me. I can get

carried away when it comes to books, you see..."

"Hee hee. I feel like I've seen an unexpected side of you..."

"Is it that unexpected?" Hakuya asked. "I think I would make a better

librarian than a Prime Minister, personally."

The reason Hakuya had received an audience with Souma to begin with

was that his uncle had said, "At your age, you need to stop sitting around

doing nothing but read books. Go do something useful to society!" and

entered him into the If You Have a Gift event's Gift of Wisdom section

without asking for permission.

He had won that competition, and when he'd had his audience with

Souma, he had been charmed by the young king. Thinking that, just maybe,

Souma could get this country that was on the verge of failing back on its

feet, Hakuya had given up being a bookworm and volunteered his services,

only to find that at some point he had become the Prime Minister.

The truth of the matter was, while Hakuya did want to support Souma's

reign, he had meant to do it as an advisor to Souma and the then-Prime

Minister Marx. However, that Marx had gone and recommended him as a

better Prime Minister than himself. Thanks to that, Hakuya couldn't read

the books he wanted to, and his days had become very busy.

"Hmm... Then if we were to arrange a post for you as Chief Librarian of

the Imperial Archives, would you come to our country?" Jeanne asked. "I

imagine our archives have a more extensive collection of books than the

kingdom's."

"Ahh. That is an alluring proposal, yes."

"But you can't do it?" Jeanne asked.

"Had you asked me before I volunteered my services, I'm sure I would

have jumped at the offer without a moment's hesitation," he said.

Nowadays, Hakuya thought these busy days weren't so bad. There had

been a time when, for Hakuya, history was a thing to be found in books.

However, now he felt it was a thing that they themselves would make.

When he was serving under Souma, the one trying to push this country

forward, he felt like he himself was one of the characters in history. It

wasn't a bad feeling.

"But now, I wish to move forward into a new era alongside His Majesty

and the others," he continued. "Then, once I raise my successor, I hope to

become a historian and record what happened in these times."

"A comfortable retirement, huh..." Jeanne said. "That may be a luxury in

the times we live in."

She was most likely right. The times were too hard to allow for an easy

retirement.

The threat of the Demon Lord's Domain was slowly encroaching from

the north, and various countries were forging alliances to advance their own

goals, or opposing one another. For Hakuya to have his quiet retirement, all

of that would have to be resolved. As for whether that was possible, even

with all of Hakuya's wisdom, he couldn't see the answer to that.

"Well then, I will be looking forward to our next talk, Sir Hakuya," she

said.

"Yes. Let's speak again sometime, Madam Jeanne."

The transmission cut out on Jeanne's side.

Whew... Hakuya exhaled, then rose to his feet. He reached out to the pile

of Amidonian books.

These precious books had been paid no attention while they were in

Amidonia, and were now sorely in need of repair. If Hakuya hadn't taken

custody of them, some of these books might have been lost forever.

With a sigh, Hakuya reached out and picked up one book. As soon as he

did...

"Prime Minister."

There was a man in black clothes kneeling in one corner of the room.

There was a black cloth wrapped around his face as well, and he looked like

he was melting into the darkness of the closed off, dimly lit room.

Hakuya asked the man, "How are the preparations?"

"They proceed apace. However..." The man seemed to hesitate.

Hakuya furrowed his brow. "Did something happen?"

"The thing is... I feel as though things are going entirely too well," said

the man. "Almost as if there was the will of another actor in play here..."

"I see..."

Hakuya dismissed the man, then flipped through the book he had picked

up.

When he had taken the books in Amidonia's archives as collateral

against the war reparations, Hakuya had had a certain expectation. He had

expected there would be family registers and materials regarding rights and

ownership. Those sorts of writings tended to be in the archives in a nation's

capital, after all. To have those books in hand was to grasp the heart of the

nation itself.

When he'd advised Souma to take the books as collateral, it had been

because the Amidonian royal family was more inclined towards military

matters, and he'd hoped they wouldn't realize the importance of them.

However, contrary to Hakuya's expectations, there was only one book of

that variety in the collection he'd seized.

That book, the one Hakuya held now, was on the recent genealogy of the

royal family of Amidonia. When he flipped through it, there was a folded

piece of paper stuck between the last page and the cover.

When Hakuya unfolded the piece of paper, he saw there was a drawing

of a small animal with black circles around its eyes holding down one of its

eyelids as it stuck its tongue out at him.

When he saw that, Hakuya blinked a few times, then chuckled to

himself. "I see. There would have to be someone like this in Amidonia,

yes."

"What is it, teacher?" a sudden voice asked.

Hakuya turned and saw Tomoe there, looking at him blankly. He was

embarrassed to have been caught with his guard down, and he cleared his

throat loudly to mask it.

"Why, little sister, I'm sorry I didn't notice you there."

"No, I just got here," Tomoe said. "I came in because it seemed like you

were done talking. You looked like you were having fun, right? What were

you looking at?"

"Oh, this?" Hakuya showed Tomoe a picture with a little animal drawn

on it.

Tomoe held the piece of paper up to her face, then held it at a distance,

then held it up to the ceiling to look at it, before finally tilting her head to

the side. "Was this animal what you found so funny? I'll admit it's cute."

"It's a drawing of an animal called a bronze raccoon." Taking the piece

of paper back, Hakuya patted Tomoe on the head and said, "They are

commonly said to play tricks on people."