The Wavering States

— Start of the 1549th year, Continental Calendar - Souma defeats the

giant sea monster, Ooyamizuchi —

The report of the Kingdom of Friedonia and the Archipelago Union's

conjoined effort to slay the monster which terrorized the Nine-Headed

Dragon Archipelago was greeted with great excitement in their respective

homelands.

One reason for such excitement in the Kingdom was that this was the

first time the summoned hero Souma had done something so heroic.

Souma's only victorious campaigns before this point had been in the war

against Amidonia, and the expedition to the Union of Eastern Nations.

The war with the Principality of Amidonia had hurt both sides, and any

gains had nearly been nullified. It was only thanks to the efforts of one

Roroa Amidonia that the Kingdom and Principality had been peacefully

brought into a union, and neither country was declared the victor or loser.

As for the expedition to the Union of Eastern Nations, he had made a big

show of that being done at the request of the Gran Chaos Empire. Although

Ichiha had joined them there, along with other personnel who would make

the country stronger, that was hard for the common people to see. Many of

them believed it had been a whole lot of effort for nothing. However, with a

growing awareness of how important Ichiha was, Souma's foresight was

being proven. Still, what he had done there wasn't seen as an especially

heroic act.

Nonetheless, this time Souma had sent the fleet to the Nine-Headed

Dragon Archipelago, slaying the kaiju Ooyamizuchi that had wreaked

havoc on the land. It was a clear show of military prowess. And to top it off,

he had brought the fleet of the Archipelago Union, up until now believed to

be a hostile nation, back with him. For the common people who were not

privy to what went on behind the scenes, it looked like "Souma defeated the

monster that was tormenting the Archipelago Union, and made them submit

to him out of admiration." Those rumors had the people ecstatic about

Souma's glorious victory.

Meanwhile, in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, they had

heightened regard for the Kingdom of Friedonia which had helped them to

slay Ooyamizuchi, and King Souma and Princess Shabon were lauded for

the key roles they played in that victory.

Souma was now being praised by the population of two nations, but

news of his exploits had not yet reached the people of other states

(excluding the rulers, and other people of importance). That was because of

another, greater accomplishment.

Fuuga of Malmkhitan has retaken a portion of the Demon Lord's

Domain!

Reclamation had been the goal of mankind for more than a decade, and

it had raised Fuuga and Malmkhitan's profiles both inside and outside the

Union of Eastern Nations. The fervor of the people inside was especially

intense. Voices calling for the reorganization of the Union to make Fuuga

their supreme leader—or a unified state with Fuuga as their king—were

growing by the day.

The Union of Eastern Nations had a history of its many small- to

medium-sized states annexing one another and breaking apart. The whole

area was a mess of familial alliances. It had been hard for any one state to

stand out in the middle of all that. Even though the Kingdom of Friedonia

on their southern border was gradually growing in power, this state

remained unchanged.

The people had waited many long years for someone to come and break

the deadlock. Now, Fuuga had arrived. The great man they had been

waiting for.

They saw the light of hope in the way Fuuga charged blindly towards his

ambitions.

◇ ◇ ◇

However...the stronger the light, the deeper the shadows it casts.

As his admirers increased in number, so did the number of people who

viewed Fuuga as a threat. Mathew Chima, father of Ichiha and Mutsumi,

and ruler of the Duchy of Chima, was one of them.

"This is bad... Very bad..." Mathew murmured to himself as he paced

around the office.

A sharp-eyed man in his late twenties watched him.

"Father. What has you so agitated?"

In response to the sharp-eyed man's question...

Slam!!!

"You know what, Hashim! Fuuga Haan!" Mathew shouted, slamming

his hands down on a nearby desk.

The man he called Hashim was his eldest son, Hashim Chima. He was

the one who had most strongly inherited Mathew's talent for scheming.

During the recent demon wave (an outbreak of monsters), Mathew had

come up with the unorthodox plan to secure allies and increase his own

influence. He offered his famously talented children, with the exception of

Hashim, the oldest, and Ichiha, the youngest, as rewards to those who came

to their aid.

Because Hashim was heir to the House of Chima, he had not been

included as one of the rewards. However, if you were to ask someone—at

least, someone who didn't have unique standards like Souma—who the

most talented of the siblings was, then even the siblings themselves would

tell you that it was Hashim.

Mathew told Hashim, "Lately, not a day goes by where I don't hear that

man's name."

"That's to be expected. He is reclaiming the Demon Lord's Domain,

even if it was only a part of it. Not even the Empire could do that. It's not

surprising that the people would support him fervently."

"I'm telling you that's a problem!" Mathew glared at his aloof son.

"Should this continue, his voice within the Union will grow too strong.

There are already those calling for him to be made king of the entire

Union."

"I see... But is that not inevitable? His charisma must be powerful

enough to draw all of those people to him," Hashim said coolly, to which

Mathew let out an angry snort.

"The ignorant masses know not the danger of the man! His eyes are

focused far in the distance, beyond the Demon Lord's Domain. Retaking

that wasteland will likely not be enough for him. I am sure he will swallow

every state in the Union."

"You believe he seeks to unify the Union of Eastern Nations?" Hashim

asked, but Mathew shook his head.

"It could be even worse. That sort of man is not satisfied if he is not first

in everything. He may even seek to compete with the Kingdom of Friedonia

in the south and the Gran Chaos Empire in the west."

That comment made Hashim stroke his chin thoughtfully.

"A Union of Eastern Nations that can compete with the Kingdom and

Empire for hegemony... I might like to see that."

"Don't be a fool. The entire organization and structure of the Union of

Eastern Nations will be gone by that point. All that will be left is a country

of Fuuga worshipers," Mathew spat, practically disgorging the words in

distaste. "He will destroy everything. The blood ties built between our

countries, and the diplomatic network our house has worked so hard to

create... If that man sees them as an obstacle, he will eradicate them

completely. If we don't stop him before he grows to his fullest...it will be

too late."

"Please, father... Don't tell me you mean to join the anti-Fuuga faction.

Sir Fuuga is married to Mutsumi, remember?"

The reproachful look Hashim was giving him made Mathew sigh.

"I welcomed their marriage because of what an extraordinary man he

was, but...that man was far too extraordinary. If only Mutsumi would keep

him in check...no, if it comes to it, kill him..."

"Father!"

"Mutsumi... She seems to adore Fuuga. I doubt she'll do anything to

stop him. That is why I need to take the initiative!" Mathew looked resolute

as he spoke. "Now is the time. Already a third of the countries in the Union

of Eastern Nations swear loyalty to Fuuga. The rest are either wary of him

or confused. He must be stopped before his faction grows and the antiFuuga faction sees further attrition."

"....."

As far as Mathew Chima was concerned, or rather, as far as small

nations like the Duchy of Chima were concerned, Fuuga was a threat to the

web of diplomatic ties they had worked so hard to build up. Maintaining

balance inside the Union through diplomacy was how the past dukes of

Chima had survived. That was why Mathew couldn't suffer Fuuga's

existence.

Mathew rose and walked towards the door.

"I must contact my children scattered throughout the nations. It would

be reassuring if we could receive support from the Kingdom of Friedonia

where Ichiha is, but I heard that Fuuga's younger sister is also with King

Souma. If Fuuga sent her with the intent of making her King Souma's bride,

it may be more dangerous to call in the Kingdom's forces..." He left the

room talking to himself like that.

As Hashim watched his father go...

"I'll have to caution him against rash and delusional actions," he said to

himself in a quiet voice.

◇ ◇ ◇

Around the time that Mathew Chima was making contact with the antiFuuga faction...

Far from the Duchy of Chima, in the governmental affairs office in the

Kingdom of Friedonia's Parnam Castle, Souma was reading a report from

the Black Cats, as well as a routine update from Julius. Both of them

essentially said: "The anti-Fuuga faction inside the Union of Eastern

Nations is growing more active than ever before. In the not too distant

future, the anti-Fuuga faction will take some sort of action against the proFuuga faction."

"Whew..."

When Souma finished reading the reports he laid them down on his

desk, leaning back in his chair with a sigh as he looked around the room.

The only ones in the office aside from him were Liscia, the first primary

queen; Hakuya, the prime minister; and Kagetora, who had brought him the

Black Cats' report.

Souma told them, "The Black Cats and Julius are in agreement that the

anti-Fuuga faction will act soon. Julius notes the anti-Fuuga faction has

been maintaining contact with one another across a wide area inside the

Union of Eastern Nations. Despite this, it's been done in a way that keeps

the ringleader hidden. We can assume someone rather sharp is on the

move."

"Yes, sire," Kagetora agreed. "My men have also failed to find whoever

is directing the anti-Fuuga faction."

Souma nodded. "I can't blame them. That whole country is a mess of

marital alliances, after all. Their ability to coordinate their actions internally

is incredible, but they're closed off to the outside. Even for the Black Cats,

that has to make gathering intel hard."

"Indeed..."

"So just how many people are in this anti-Fuuga faction?" Liscia asked,

and Souma checked Julius's report for the answer.

"At least twice as many as the pro-Fuuga faction, apparently."

"That's surprisingly large. Hasn't he made a name for himself retaking

part of the Demon Lord's Domain?"

"Among the people of the Union he has, yes. But the ones that command

the troops are the rulers who stand above those people. As far as they're

concerned, the way Fuuga has focused the expectations of the public upon

himself is intolerable. If their own people want to be ruled by Fuuga, that

makes their own positions pretty tenuous, after all."

"I see... So even if the people back Sir Fuuga, there are a lot of states

that are against him," Liscia said, clapping her hands together as she figured

it out. Souma nodded.

"And the larger the country, the stronger that tendency is. Malmkhitan is

a steppe region that was first unified as a nation under Fuuga's predecessor,

Raiga. Being forced to play second fiddle to an upstart nation like that is

going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. The longer their traditions and

the more pride they have in their position as a powerful country within the

Union, the more they're going to push back against it. In fact, the most

powerful nation inside the Union of Eastern Nations, the Kingdom of

Sharn, has already declared themselves part of the anti-Fuuga faction."

The Kingdom of Sharn was a medium-sized state with the largest

territory and the greatest power inside the Union of Eastern Nations. They

also provided the largest number of troops to the Union Army, a military

composed of forces provided by all the member states, giving them the

greatest clout in that organization.

They had also provided reinforcements to the Duchy of Chima during

the demon wave, and (due to Souma's withdrawal) been recognized as

having made the second largest contribution after Fuuga and Malmkhitan.

For this they were awarded the brawny second son of the House of Chima,

Nata.

The current King of Sharn was Shamour Sharn. If you were to compare

him to someone in the Kingdom of Friedonia, he was a muscular old

warrior like Owen or Herman. The country valued strength in a way similar

to Mercenary State Zem, so Shamour had welcomed Nata, who could swing

around a big ax, as his own son.

Liscia cocked her head to the side and asked, "Then is King Shamour

the head of the anti-Fuuga faction?"

"No... 'Looking at the secrecy in the way the anti-Fuuga faction

communicates, I can't imagine King Shamour is directing them,' was

Julius's reading of the situation."

In the same way that the Western Army at the Battle of Sekigahara had

Mouri Terumoto as their supreme commander and Ishida Mitsunari as

operational planner, there might be another man pulling the strings behind

the most powerful member of the faction. The Western Army at

Sekigahara... When that thought crossed his mind, the face of a man who

probably excelled at this kind of scheming did too. Don't tell me it's him... It

was none other than Mathew, who he had thought of as being similar to

Sanada Masayuki, a supposed two-faced man. But Souma didn't say

anything.

This was just baseless speculation. Besides, considering that Mathew

had sent his daughter Mutsumi to marry Fuuga, Souma couldn't be

confident he was in the anti-Fuuga faction. Obviously, that wasn't out of

concern for his daughter. If Fuuga rose to the top, Mathew already had a

marital tie to him, so Souma had assumed it was unlikely he would join the

anti-Fuuga faction. However, Souma's reading of the situation could be

incorrect. Due to his refusal to use his family as political tools, Souma had

put out of his mind the fact that there were people who could. If he had

realized Mathew's scheming at this point, Souma would definitely have

tried to stop him—whether he was able to or not. Because all this was doing

was feeding the tiger they called a great man.

"There are more in the anti-Fuuga faction than we expected. Enough

that it's possible the pro-Fuuga faction could lose."

"But you don't actually believe that, do you, sire?" Hakuya asked,

sounding certain, and Souma nodded.

"If Fuuga was an opponent they could beat with mere numbers, I

wouldn't see him as a threat. Even if Fuuga took over all of the Union of

Eastern Nations, he would still have less land and power than we do. The

thing that makes Fuuga dangerous isn't numerical superiority or the power

of his nation—it's that he's riding the flow of things."

"The flow, you say?"

"Yeah. Of the times... The atmosphere of the era we live in, you could

say. Those who join a great man like Fuuga are considered just, and those

who oppose him are evil. It's an atmosphere that naturally assigns roles like

that."

In the final stage of the Warring States period, the actions of great men

like Oda Nobunaga, be they good or evil, were largely approved of, or at

least tolerated. It's like how people defend Machiavelli's The Prince by

saying "You can't see its true value without first understanding the

scheming nature of the Italian Peninsula during his time." The houses of

Asakura, Azai, and Takeda which stood in the way of Oda Nobunaga's

conquest were destroyed as they tended to be seen as stubborn fools who

couldn't adapt to the new era. This was especially true for the kind of

people who only see them as winners and losers written about in the

textbook.

Unless you're a real history buff, you don't go around thinking about the

situations of those sorts of destroyed houses. Souma sensed that Fuuga was

the same sort of great man.

"There are people who are praising Fuuga as some kind of savior. Those

who stand in his way will be deemed fools, and if they try to harm him,

they'll be derided as enemies of mankind. No matter how powerful the

country, that would be difficult to overturn."

"Similar to the way people in the Empire venerate Madam Maria as a

saint?" Hakuya asked, and Souma nodded deeply.

"Yes, that's right. The anti-Fuuga faction must not understand that."

"He's that much of a problem, huh..." Liscia said with a sigh.

Kagetora quietly stepped forward. "If he disturbs your heart so, my

liege, then perhaps we should—"

"Absolutely not!" Souma shouted, cutting off Kagetora's suggestion of

assassination.

"Fuuga is dangerous because he's riding on the flow of the times. We

could call his intentions the will of the times itself. And...this is said

frequently, but you can't change the times with assassinations and

terrorism," Souma said, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed. "Great men

are monsters that give birth to eras. This era of confusion longs for the great

leaps of a man like Fuuga. So even if someone did manage to assassinate

him, the next Fuuga would simply appear to follow in his tracks. No, if

anything, after seeing what happened to Fuuga, whoever came next would

be even more extreme."

Even after Oda Nobunaga died in the betrayal at Honnouji, Hashiba

Hideyoshi immediately took up leadership of the attempt to unify the

country. It didn't lead to a return to an era of rivalry between warlords. And

when Hideyoshi fell, Tokugawa Ieyasu took his place. If you look at it as a

transition from an era of rival warlords to that of a single great power, you

could say that while the rulers changed, the flow of the era remained

unchanged. Great men create eras. To look at that another way, you could

also say that eras choose and give birth to great men. That was the sense

Souma had gotten from studying history in the world he came from.

For instance, in the world Souma came from, there was a dictator whose

name was synonymous with evil. The dictator faced many assassination

plots and attempted coups d'état throughout his life, but had any of them

succeeded, would the history that followed have changed somehow? This

has been said many times, but it was the people of that era who created the

dictator. So long as the will of the people and the situation they find

themselves in do not change, another similar dictator—or perhaps political

party—will simply rise to the top. And won't the new dictator seek to do

what he feels the dead one should have? In a more extreme fashion.

Sima Qian lamented in Records of the Grand Historian that sometimes

excellent men die unfairly due to the flow of the era by saying, "The power

of Heaven is small." But if the "Heaven" he was talking about is the flow of

the era, then I'd have to say what's truly small is the power of man, thought

Souma.

Machiavelli spoke of the concept of Fortuna, the goddess of chance, in

opposition to virtù, or individual initiative, as the fate that could not be

changed. Or that could, perhaps, have its flow made more gentle, if only

slightly, through virtù.

Right now, Fuuga had to be the man best loved by Fortuna.

Anyone who confronted him directly was in for a world of hurt. That's

why Souma said, "If the times have chosen Fuuga, what we need to change

is not him, but the times themselves. If the times have no need of Fuuga,

then men like him will cease to be born."

"Sorry... That was all a little too abstract for me to understand," Liscia

said apologetically. "What exactly are you thinking we should do?"

"I still don't know yet... But I have the key."

Souma rose and walked over to stand in front of the map of this

continent, slamming his hand on the north of it.

"It's the Demon Lord's Domain. The majority of people's unease now

comes from the existence of the Demon Lord's Domain in the north. If this

issue can just be resolved, great men like Fuuga will no longer be needed

the way they are now."

"Huh? But isn't Fuuga gathering support by doing something about the

Demon Lord's Domain? Isn't that a contradiction?" Liscia asked.

"Yeah," Souma nodded in response. "It does look like a contradiction.

But I think that's the essence of what a great man is. They are needed in

times of chaos, but not in times of peace. When the great man races to end

the times of chaos, he is heading towards the world where he will no longer

be needed."

The great man created by the era transforms the era by his own power

and then fades away. Or, because of the changing times, the era chooses a

new leader, and the great man is cast aside. That had to be one of the more

tragic aspects of the great man.

Then Hakuya said to Souma, "So, to sum up, what you are saying is that

we should avoid opposing Sir Fuuga for the time being, Sire?"

"Yeah. We have no choice but to avoid fighting Fuuga while figuring out

how to handle the Demon Lord's Domain, and also strengthening the

country in preparation for the conflict... I do see some small hope in regards

to the Demon Lord's Domain."

Back in the Star Dragon Mount Range, he had encountered a mysterious

cube. He'd heard it ask him to "go north."

If Souma could encounter the being called the Demon Lord with

sufficient preparation, he might be able to gain something that would let

him move the era. There existed a slight hope of that.

"And if Fuuga attacks us with the Union of Eastern Nations before

then?" Liscia asked.

"That is easy to deal with," Hakuya responded, rather than Souma. "The

Fuuga faction's new country will have no one who has experience running a

state of such a large size. He will lack bureaucrats too, so if we simply turn

it into a war of attrition, our opponents will be the ones to expend

themselves first... That said, Sir Fuuga must know that, so he will not make

a move against us until he has the overwhelming advantage, or he finds

himself in a desperate situation."

"What a troublesome opponent..."

"Yeah, you said it." Souma had to agree.

I'll have to tell Julius to stay out of the Anti-Fuuga faction, Souma

thought as he looked at the map of the Union of Eastern Nations. And also,

if it comes down to it, he should flee to the Kingdom with the Lastanian

royal family.