I-Have-Al-ways-Been-Brave

Duke Nastasha had a lot of business in the Demon Realm.

Otherwise, as the Leader of the Republican Faction, there would have been no reason for him to go out of his way to visit the distant Demon Realm.

To build friendly relations with the United Kingdom and observe legislative activities to see advanced Republican politics with his own eyes.

Or to visit an Academic Society to proudly present the Empire's latest theories, only to smack his lips after receiving an Armchair Theory evaluation that the Council had already applied them and found them lacking.

He calmly committed acts that the Royalist Faction would criticize, claiming that the vicious Duke was off learning Subversive Ideology.

As someone dreaming of System Subversion, he found seeing the field with his own eyes truly important.

If one were to grab and ask the clever Imperial Subjects who diligently read the newspapers, they would likely evaluate that Duke Nastasha truly had great zeal for learning and a strong lust for power.

If people were asked a bit more, deeper opinions might emerge suggesting he wanted to introduce a Constitutional Monarchy to play above the Emperor's head. If there were people highly interested in tax evasion, there would also be opinions that it was for tax evasion.

And naturally, for Duke Nastasha, these Showy Actions were not exactly his main business. It was free to ponder over the actions reported in the newspapers, but the essence was not always contained there.

Just as Governor-General Pastel, who was even more clever than the clever subjects, had suspected, he had not visited with particularly innocent intentions...