Chapter 176
Culture Shock.
Culture shock.
According to Ellie, it was a Demon Realm Tradition for a Faction that tactlessly stood in the wrong line to be wiped out. There was no big problem with an Execution of All.
Gasp, why was the culture here like this?
Somehow, she felt like she knew the reason why all the Moderate Faction Demonkind had started by praising the Demon King at the Secret Meeting on the Sky Island last time. It was probably because standing in line with the safe bet, the Demon King, was the best policy.
Furthermore, she also felt she knew the reason why a Council could suddenly be established in the United Kingdom where a Royal Family clearly existed. The Demon King's vacant throne meant the Royal Family's authority and justification were weak, which was one reason, but it was also because Council Members could be newly elected even if their heads were cut off en masse.
A weak monarchy where they fought each other but ultimately compromised appropriately behind the scenes and shared the spoils among themselves generation after generation of Families did not fit the Demon Realm Tradition.
It was a good result, but the reason wasn't good at all.
Ugh.
Nathaniel introducing himself every time as Nathaniel of the noble House Friesli had honestly been a bit Woah~, but coming to this point, she felt she could acknowledge it to the extent of Woah-Woah~.
In the Demon Realm where annihilation was a tradition, wasn't keeping a Family perfectly intact an incredible achievement in itself?
Haa.
But this was just a Demon Realm Tradition.
Pastel, who was scheduled to not just have a restless sleep but faint outright if the list of people Mr. Penguin had falsely accused was wiped out, freaked out and stepped up in desperate opposition.
"In the first place, annihilation isn't beautiful in terms of Political Engineering!"
If things could be solved that easily, they could just go stab-stab! with a knife, so why would everyone do politics?
Moral concepts aside, annihilation was a huge loss in terms of the Calculation of Gains and Losses.
Actually, strictly speaking, the practical loss wasn't as great as the mental shock of having a restless sleep and fainting. Just as immorality didn't guarantee practical benefits, morality didn't guarantee practical benefits either.
Rather, the bigger problem was that they had to take a risk they didn't necessarily need to take.
To be blunt, if someone who developed a grudge over the annihilation risked their life to terrorize the good Kraft Merchant Guild's Railroad, who would compensate for that?
If that someone were extremely competent and didn't stop at a one-time terror attack but carried out organized and planned terrorism, the scale of the damage would be unimaginable.
"Hwaa! Just imagining it makes my heart…!"
Fortunately, Ellie was smart, so she quickly withdrew her statement.
Since it was merely a statement made without much thought in a private space in the first place, she probably hadn't been serious.
"To what extent do you want it?"
It seemed Ellie intended to hand down a punishment to the extent that the Victim, Pastel, wanted.
Eh?
Was that the execution of all of the suspects?
What did she usually think of me?
Pastel became extremely curious but didn't bother to ask.
"Rather than that, we need to establish the justification first!"
Ellie, who was in a state of 'the Confidant Older Brother I've been close with since childhood being actually a Spy', didn't know, but the Governor-General Assassination Plan was strictly a false accusation, so it had to be approached delicately.
Pastel stuck out her small tongue and waved her fountain pen.
"Let's separate the Confidential Justification and the Public Justification."
The Confidential Justification was a powerful justification to secretly contact and pressure the Hawks without the public knowing. It referred to the Governor-General Assassination Plan.
The Public Justification was a plausible justification to announce to the public something like a corruption investigation or Church Subjugation.
If they honestly announced the Governor-General Assassination Plan, the Empire would react and the public would rebel. If this happened, what would be left for the Hawks wouldn't be a moderate agreement where they would be branded as Losers and politically die, but only more radical remarks and actions.
If they were going to reach an agreement, they had to first create an escape route for the opponent.
"Have a Secret Meeting with the Hawks and honestly convey the situation. You're meeting not as one between competing factions, but under the justification that you're meeting as people in the same Council who are thinking of the national interest. Because if this is announced, the Hawks falling into a crisis is secondary, and the United Kingdom will be shaken."
It looked like goodwill, but of course, that wasn't all there was to it; it was closer to grabbing them by the leash using an overwhelming justification.
If the Hawks' leadership rebelled, it was possible to contact personnel inside the Hawks who sympathized with this overwhelming justification and encourage a coup within the party.
Whether the coup succeeded or failed, dealing with a divided opponent was an easy task.
"After that, form a Joint Investigation Team at the Council level to investigate the personnel who plotted the Governor-General Assassination Plan and punish them according to the law."
The point here was that the justification for the Joint Investigation Team, which the public would also know about, was not the attempted assassination of the Governor-General.
The investigation team would be formed for reasons like a corruption investigation or a Church Subjugation, and the culprits who plotted the Assassination Plot would also be punished under such charges.
Since Pastel was being punished for real crimes and not false accusations, Pastel wouldn't have a restless sleep and would be comfy-comfy!
Woah.
Ellie pressed her lips with her fountain pen.
"Since it's true that the Hawks did wrong, should we reach an agreement with the leadership in advance and toss in a few people who usually get on our nerves while we're at it?"
"Right, right!"
If they just picked a few Hawks who were sitting there being good and did a real corruption investigation, there would be plenty of charges to send them to prison!
There was no one in the world who wouldn't show a single speck of dust if you dusted them off!
If they did this, even if it wasn't as powerful as an annihilation, the Hawks would shrink back enough that they wouldn't be able to obstruct the path of the great Governor-General Pastel.
She thought that if the Dovish Faction couldn't even do this, it should do a Forced Dissolution of the Council and a change to Princess Ellie's regime.
Ellie twirled her side hair.
"And we give a post-notification to the Empire through a confidential communication network after the measures are taken? In a way that says 'We took care of it and even punished them, so don't nitpick.'"
"Yeah! That's it!"
If they went this far and the Empire still nitpicked externally, it would truly be Interference in Internal Affairs.
Of course, they might attempt fierce nitpicking and demand a price through a communication network the public didn't know about, but anyway, as long as the public didn't know, it was fine.
"Understood. It's the kind of work we usually do. We should be able to proceed without any trouble."
Ellie had Mr. Penguin write down a memo.
Oing.
This was the kind of work they usually did?
And yet she had suddenly mentioned an Execution of All right off the bat. Had Ellie's judgment been momentarily clouded by the fact that her friend had faced an Assassination Threat?
Hehe.
Pastel sent a pyoro-ppyong-ppyong~ gaze.
"Pyoro-ppyong-ppyong~."
Since she had also learned of Ellie's unspoken affection, today felt like a good day.
However, unbefitting of a good day, there was a part of this operation that bothered her.
The document containing the Governor-General Assassination Plan was a fake prepared by Mr. Penguin.
The Hawks weren't fools either, so they would have to do a verification investigation and find the culprit. But this was actually a fabricated document.
They pressured the Hawks and formed a Joint Investigation Team, but if it were revealed to be a false accusation, the situation would become weird.
It was a private place and a private time, so she could just retract it anyway, which was why she had said it for now. But just how far had this document been fabricated?
Was it really a document that was okay to form a Joint Investigation Team over? Was the scene also fabricated so that plausible fabricated evidence would come out if they investigated?
Pastel cast a glancing sideways look at Mr. Penguin. Mr. Penguin, who was diligently taking memos instead of Princess Ellishita, suddenly met her gaze.
Then he smiled brightly.
"Since it has come to this, it would be good if the chaotic Council were sorted out through this matter."
It seemed there was no problem.
Just how far had he fabricated things so that there was no problem even in forming an investigation team? It didn't seem as if he had simply fabricated the document to look plausible.
Since he also had an identity on the Hawks' side, he must have done something, right?
Ugh.
Mr. Penguin is scary.
She was able to find out just how far he had fabricated things a short while later.
The news that the Council had agreed on Bipartisan Anti-Corruption after what seemed like a rigged discussion was announced in the newspaper.
It was thanks to the Hawks cooperating obediently, perhaps trying to gain the public justification that they had made a noble sacrifice for the country since they were ruined anyway, and preparing for a future leap forward.
It was on the day when the entire Demon Realm was intoxicated with the sentiment of 'This is a true country capable of Self-purification that the Empire cannot do! You guys can't eradicate corruption, can you?!' and beer glasses were clinking.
Pastel, who was rolling around in bed, was able to receive the interim results that the investigation team had already been formed and had already investigated, unlike the newspaper announcement.
Pink Eyes read the document with a sleepy gaze.
Investigation results.
47 personnel who planned the Governor-General Assassination were arrested.
"Oing."
It was also written that the person whose Radical Faction identity Mr. Penguin had assumed had led the Governor-General Assassination in cooperation with some factions of the Church and had ultimately escaped.
"Oing?"
There was also content saying they had discovered the participation of Knight-level personnel, had interrogated the targets, and the targets had confessed.
"O-i-ing?"
It was definitely a fake document fabricated by Mr. Penguin, but when they actually investigated, things were coming out one after another.
"Woah!"
Like pulling up sweet potatoes!
Pastel clapped her hands.
"Mr. Penguin is totally elite! He managed to fabricate a document and even prepare an assassination plot in that short time to make his objective an established fact!"
A real Spy!
Super-Super Elite!
Clap, clap, clap!
Clap, clap, clap.
Clap, clap.
"I'd be an idiot to accept it like that…!"
Hwaa!
Pastel grabbed her head.
What is this?! What is this?!
Even if he tried to make the Assassination Plot an established fact, there's no way it could happen this immediately, right?
She had no choice but to think that the Governor-General Assassination Plan had actually existed.
It wasn't a false accusation…!
Uwaa!
"I didn't do anything wrong!"
Pastel trembled violently.
The Assassination Plot was one thing, but what was scarier than this was Mr. Penguin's excessively fast results.
He had prepared the Assassination Plot with his infiltrated Radical Faction identity, but there was no way this could be whipped up overnight. It meant he had been preparing the Assassination Plot even before Pastel's request for fabrication.
For what reason?
Ahaha.
What reason could it be other than that?
It meant he had been planning to kill her if push came to shove…!
"Hwaa!"
A conversation from just a short while ago flashed through her mind.
—I was just wondering what the reason was for the Governor-General meeting with Duke Redgrave and observing the Republican Faction.
So if push came to shove?!
Since Pastel had gained His Imperial Majesty the Emperor's trust by using the Imperial Republican Faction as a sacrifice, there was no longer a need to prepare for contingencies, so he utilized the Assassination Plot for the Sub-plan, the collapse of the Hawks!
No wonder he brought the Fabricated Document right away!
A true Liar does not lie.
Mr. Penguin hadn't fabricated anything. He had just slightly tweaked the multi-purpose plan he had already been preparing and had brought it over.
He could have adjusted it more delicately so that Pastel herself wouldn't be able to guess the background circumstances, but throwing it out so openly like this probably also contained a warning that he would continue to watch her.
Tears welled up in her pink eyes.
"Lord Demoooon!"
She grabbed a white pillow in her hand. Pastel jumped up and ran out of the bedroom.
"I'm scared to sleep alone…!"
Waaah!