Volume 3 Chapter 3 Part5 (1/2)
“W, why do you think so?” asked Jeanne as she recomposed her expression.
“… I’m going to be saying this off-the-rec… I mean, no mention of this to anyone please”
“… Understood”
Jeanne gave the Imperial bureaucrats a look, they stopped their busywork for a moment and quietly left the office. I as well shooed the Royal bureaucrats out and had Aisha stand in front of the door watching for any surveillance. Only Jeanne, Liscia, Hakuya, Aisha, and I remained in the room. I looked at Liscia next to me who was recording the meeting minutes.
“Liscia, you stop writing too”
“… all right”
Liscia put her pen down, so what goes on now won’t be recorded in the minutes. The room fell quiet as if the hustle and bustle earlier were only a lie. Jeanne shrugged.
“Good grief … I wonder what kind of bomb you’re going to bring out”
“Sorry. What I’m going to say is likely going to be protested against as discrimination. If it leaked outside, it may even cause a rebellion”
“… Let’s hear it then”
“The way I see it … I can’t tell the difference between this world’s animals and demonic creatures,” I said, choosing my words.
“Furthermore, I can’t really tell the difference between races like beastmen and dragonewts with the demon race, either”
“What!? But that’s …”
“I know, I know. They’re going to yell at me saying Don’t put us in the same category!”
Previously, when I couldn’t tell the difference between Mystic Wolves like Tomoe and Mystic Foxes like Kaede, I said “Well, why not call them all Mystic hounds and be done with it?” Then Liscia scolded me saying, “Mystic hounds refer to Kobolds so make sure you never ever say that in front of those people, okay!” At that time, I consented, thinking well, I suppose that’s how it goes, but then what is the difference between Mystic Wolves and Foxes and Kobolds.
“Do you know what the difference between Mystic Wolves and Foxes and Kobolds, Jeanne?”
“Well of course. Mystic Wolves and Foxes have tails but their faces and bodies are in no way inferior to humans. On the other hand, Kobolds have the faces of dogs”
“But there are beastmen with animal faces, right?”
Like, for instance, Georg Carmine. If that Lion guy appeared in j.a.pan he would first of all be probably considered a demonic creature. When I pointed that out, Jeanne crossed her arms and nodded.
“Well, now that you mention it … h~m … ah, right. Kobolds have furry bodies. Which means where beastmen are humans with animal parts, then Kobolds are dogs that stand on two legs like humans, I suppose”
“… then how do you tell apart demon races with short or no fur? If that’s how your reasoning goes, then Orcs and Minotaurs with human bodies should be beastmen, right?”
“Mmmmm…”
Being retorted to, Jeanne pondered, then finally raised both hands, “I give up”
“I’ve never really thought about what makes humanity different from demons. Now that you’ve pointed it out, I noticed that we’ve been distinguis.h.i.+ng demons and humans by feeling”
“You’re right … now that you mention it, I can’t find any telltale differences”
“I wonder why we never noticed …”
Liscia and Hakuya also nodded. Everyone in this world probably was the same.
“Conversely speaking, you can say that the people of this world differentiate humanity and demons by feeling, right”
Speaking of j.a.panese sensibilities, even if we love sh.e.l.lfish miso soup, we don’t even want to look at slugs, which were the terrestrial equivalent of sh.e.l.lfish, most of us do. Also, people would watch in shock at Australian Aboriginals eat grub they found inside of trees as they calmly eat peeled shrimp (raw ones at that). It’s likely that the sensibilites of the people of this world were along those lines.
“Well there were only humans in the world I was in. Since I lived in a world without Elves or Beastmen or Dragonewts or Demons, I don’t have those sensibilities. Which is why that in my eyes, the demon races are just the same as any other race on the human side”
“Y, Your Highness! … d, do you hate Dark Elves?” asked Aisha, who was standing in front of the door, with eyes like an abandoned puppy.
“Not at all,” I answered and flashed her a grin.
“Dark skinned Elves are cute, right. Of course, cla.s.sic human beauties, too”
The former was for Aisha, and the latter Liscia. “Really!?” said Aisha with a brightened face as I said that while Liscia brusquely went “Yeah yeah, sure, thanks”, but not at all dissatisfied, judging from the grin on her face. Seeing the two, Jeanne wryly smiled.
“You’re loved, aren’t you”
“I have it too good …”
As I said that, Jeanne leaned against the back of her chair.
“I’m glad you said to keep a lid on it. If we continued as we were, I might’ve had to kill off our country’s esteemed buraucrats”
“… that’s dangerous. Was it that bad?”
“It’s that bad. If what we’re talking here leaked out, it’s not only King Soma’s reputation that’ll go down. The continent might go up in a riot. Am I right, Lord Hakuya”
“It is as you say. I wish he mentioned it to me sooner”
Hakuya nodded and sent me a reproachful glare. Eh? That bad?
“Please listen Your Highness. If what you said about ‘demons and beastmen being hard to differentiate’, countries like the Human supremacist Amidonia and High Elven elitist Holy Kingdom of Gerlean will use it as material to discrimnate against other races. They’ll cast doubt on whether or not beastmen and dragonewts were demons after all or colluding with the enemy, and might clamp down on them with injustice”
The Holy Kingdom of Gerlean, the island country to the northwest of the continent, huh. It had a big and small island but it seems that the small island and part of the large one had been occupied. All rumors, because this country is particularly insular and not much information could get in. High Elves, who had a high tendency of having beautiful women and men even among Elves look down on other people, believing that they’re G.o.d’s chosen people and despise mixed blood. This never changed even now after the demon race invasion.
Well, countries like the Princ.i.p.ality of Amidonia and the Holy Kingdom of Gerlean would take this information as proof of their race’s superiority. In fact, Amidonia made their own country easier to govern by fanning hatred towards Elfrieden (and blaming any slip-ups on the actions of the Kingdom). This was only turning the hatred against the other races. Jeanne also concurred.
“It’s as Lord Hakuya said. Also, this is not an external matter for multiethnic countries like ours and yours. If that recognition was widespread within our countries, it would be cause for antagonism between races domestically. If we had internal threats in addition to the ones from outside …”
“… sorry. I didn’t think this through”
I honestly bowed my head. These two were right. This is not just a matter of my own honor. I had to have a better sense of crisis. However, Jeanne shook her head.
“We wouldn’t have noticed had you not pointed it out. It’s quite a problem, but this is better than it suddenly erupting without us realizing it. We can make preparations for it, too”
“Thank you … but that said, I can’t think of any countermeasures right away”
“I know. The Humanity Declaration prohibits exile and persecution against other races but only among countries. We could still intervene with discriminative national policies (say, by making it an order from a superior), but for the common people, we could only help supervise those countries”
That’s not going to be effective, and you can’t just deal with each and every individual case, either. If it gets buried in the dark then it’s over. Anyway, since we couldn’t get any good ideas right now, the Empire and the Kingdom should continue to deliberate this later.
We called back the bureaucrats we sent outside and continued the conference well into the night. Naturally, it was then time to fill our stomachs. Since Jeanne was a VIP from another country, we ought to have had stopped the meeting for dinner but both Jeanne and I felt it would be a waste of time so we continued conversation over food; something that we could eat while working. Therefore, I decided to treat Jeanne and company to some bread that we were investigating whether we could popularize in the country or not. Jeanne’s impressions were:
“Well this is something! While it looked mismatched to put a staple food on top of another, the two different textures when you sink your teeth into it makes for a best match. The sourness of the tomato sauce works well, too. Also, being able to eat something that you normally had to eat with a plate and fork on bread and with one hand, this is a novel idea I’m taking my hat off to! Magnificent!”
She openly praised me. Huhuhu, you’re thinking it’s a sandwich? Too bad, it’s a “Napolitan bread” 1! … well, I actually wanted to make yakisoba bread but I couldn’t reproduce that rich sauce no matter what. Which is why I used the pasta and tomato sauce that already existed in this world and made napolitan bread.
“I doubted the sanity of it when I first saw it, but it was really good”
“Bread and pasta aren’t something new, and yet a new texture is made when you put the two together”
Seems Liscia and Hakuya also liked it. We’re all but done dealing with the food problems, so it might be good to introduce Earth cuisine alongside novel foods like zelring udon. We could also acquire foreign currency by having a unique food culture. Anyway, the one who took to these unique menus, Aisha, was:
“Whom nom nom, huff!”
She was standing behind me as guard, but while doing that, was intently tossing the napolitan bread into her mouth. In fact, Aisha, how many have you eaten already? The mountain that was on the plate had turned into a small hillock. The hungry Dark Elf was operating normally even now.
“Phew … now then, we should get started on the matter of the occupation of Vannes”
“……”
After having a breather after eating the bread, Jeanne broached the topic.