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 Black-robed

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."

[MISTERLP]: tomorrow you guys will have more chaps