CH 85

Chapter 85 – Dumping things on someone else!

side : Lutz

(Yuki)「No, calm down. I don’t intend to make a country.」1)

Onii-san said that and suppressed our excitement.

No, maybe I should say that we were woken up.

Right at the beginning, onii-san had said that he doesn’t intend to make a country.

Seraria, Lulu and Shera-sama were all very excited, probably because previously they were heavyweights in countries and the potential glory was too appealing to ignore.

However, I can’t imagine how onii-san could save the continent or what he was thinking.

Seraria and co were thinking that it would be best for onii-san to found a country and become King

(Ellis)「Yuki-san, by what means, if not by uniting the continent, can the continent be saved?」

Ellis who has been calmly listening to onii-san asked for an answer.

Everyone stared at onii-san, waiting for that answer.

(Yuki)「Then, let me present my thoughts. Ah, but first, as a part of this Dungeon’s Management, do you think there’s more to it than just being our home?」

That being said, everyone nodded.

…… Onii-san, looks like he wants to use the Dungeon to save the continent.

Naturally, there’s little to no reason, not to use something this convenient.

(Yuki)「There was a war just moments ago, there have been an uncountable number of wars in the past and there will continue to be many more wars in the future. The weakening of national strength, the throttled productivity, the declining manpower, the loss of know-how, the receding standards of living, the list goes on and on, simply put, there’s far too many disadvantages to war. Well, I guess there are also advantages which are extremely difficult to gain without it. But fact is wars reduce how wealthy a country is, which in turn, reduces the numbers of people who can be supported by it. This weakens everyone and ultimately reduces how lively and happy humanity is as a whole.2)」

Seraria’s face distorted heavily after understanding onii-san’s words.

As Rochelle’s “War Goddess”, she must have been told how honorable and glorious she is for playing into their hands.

I understand now though, greedy people use the claiming and conquering of land as a front, when they only want to strengthen their own positions and fatten their own wallets. In the end though, destruction and killing is just as it sounds.

Although my chest tightened hearing that dark truth, I understood it.

(Yuki)「There is no country which proactively starts a war and just charges in head first. Because even a single war costs a ridiculous amount of manpower and resources. Have you comprehended that?」

That’s reasonable.

In practice, countries that are engaged in warfare levy heavy taxes, conscript the worker forces and commit a lot of supplies.

(Yuki)「But, it is still necessary to wage war. How else do you secure lands? The root problem is that a nation cannot feed the civilians. Maybe they can this year, but maybe next year there will be a drought, what then? Even if you manage to stave off all of these problems, eventually the people will have multiplied so far that production simply can’t keep up. So using war, they have a way to claim land and food relatively simply with victories or defeats. Whilst that may be true, cheaper and thereby more complex solutions exist. For example if they can afford to, they could try the more complex method of negotiating with their neighboring countries to support them during a drought.」

Somehow, I would like to join the stage of negotiations, but there has never been a war where I was able to.

(Yuki)「Well, the four largest countries are constantly in a conflict of interest, that’s how it is since that’s how much profits are tied over, but the smaller countries first have to take away land from each other in order to raise their national strength.」

(Ellis)「Yes, that makes sense.」

(Yuki)「Then, I think that the best way to help the continent is to save the people by avoiding wars.」

That would be the best.

But eventually, war would break out for the image3) of each of the stronger countries.

The people living here are safer than any country huh.

(Yuki)「In order to prevent wars from breaking out, I will make a gate using Dungeons in each country and using them I will make it easier to exchange goods. I will try to make it easy to obtain each other’s resources using money or by bartering. If this can be done, if it becomes possible to exchange ordinary goods en masse between other countries, there would be little meaning behind taking away the lands from the others right?」

I thought that it was something reasonable for onii-san to say.

Indeed, by making Dungeons inside every country, and using them as tools for trading, to prevent the exhaustion of supplies, a major cause of conflict will die out.

(Seraria)「Dear. That’s a sweet idea. But if war could be stopped with trade, then it would have already been done long ago. The 4 largest countries are for the most part self-sufficient, but the smaller countries aren’t and some of them lack the funds to buy what they are lacking and so nothing can be done about it with money, so they still need to capture land and plunder to increase their income. Even though it is said to be a country’s decision, in the end it is impossible for the people to stay silent about others4) getting wealthy easily.」

I also understand Seraria.

If one person lived better than another, he would likely react. And if your entire country is starving, you would like to resolve it by any means necessary.

Even if there’s trade, it won’t stop war.

(Yuki)「Fufufu….. What Seraria said is reasonable. But you have overlooked something important.」

(Seraria)「Something important?」

(Yuki)「Yes, if there is trade, war won’t vanish. This is natural. But I said that I will make trade with every country by means of the dungeon gates……. Which means I could use the gates and freely move from one country to another. Do you know what this mean?」

(Shera)「Don’t tell me…!?」

Oh, Shera might have noticed something.

(Shera)「Do you intend to make the countries monitor each other with the gates……」

(Yuki)「Hit」

Onii-san was laughing maniacally.

Yes, he looks very wicked.

(Riel)「Sorry, Yuki-san. I don’t get it.」

Riel was about to cry, she must feel very sorry.

Well, it’s unavoidable since her strengths are in other areas5).

(Yuki)「Well, Riel. Tori has something you long for and that object is always besides Tori. Tori has it but she will not hand it over. But what would you do if Tori asked for an outrageous amount of money?」

(Riel)「Well, I’d give up.」

(Yuki)「Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention, in this situation you can’t give up. You long for this item so much, you might say you live for it.」

(Riel)「Then I would go out and steal it from Tori. Oh, but I would never do such a thing to Tori!?」

(Tori)「I know. I believe in Riel and I would never be mean to you as well.」

(Yuki)「That’s right. You would steal. I wonder if that’s close to the truth behind the countries wars. Well I suppose in that case it would be closer to Riel hitting Tori before snatching it though.」

(Riel)「Ueee… I hate wars.」

(Yuki)「However, since there is only two parties here, the others don’t know which one is correct, you would both say that you are righteous. Now let’s change the premise. Riel, Do you think you would steal the thing you desire from Tori, if there was other people besides her?」

(Riel)「I won’t. It’d be bad if I’m discovered……. Oh, it’s something like that. Every country can look at the other countries and are connected, if you make a low-blow or start a war while being monitored, all the foreign countries would become enemies all at once.」

I see, this was the cause of his wicked smile.

Even if we don’t do anything, all countries would monitor and prevent each other from doing anything bad. Even if there’s an item with an extraordinary value in one country, we can buy it somewhere else and make the country lose face because of the outrageous price.

On the contrary, even if they wage war using the pretext of resenting another, the reputation among the other countries would drop significantly, maybe to the point of starting another war for exactly that reason.

Depending on the object, though the price may fluctuate, it wouldn’t be possible for a single country to unilaterally raise a price.

(Yuki)「As Riel-san said, if you take actions that are judged as setting up for war, many countries would form an alliance just to stop and counter you, the freshly conquered land would then be divided amongst the alliance. Unless an outrageous idiot rules a country6), all the merits behind waging war disappear. Rather, the risk of countries disappearing will gradually be reduced. Nobody would proactively wage war.」

(Seraria)「….. As expected of my husband. Although it should be said that war might still occur due to differences in opinions, if that’s the case it probably can’t be helped. What would you do?」

Right, I guess there are many conflicts that can’t be avoided in society.

Well, the scope would still be reduced.

(Yuki)「It’s dependant on the level of skill of the country in question. If it wishes to wage war unconditionally then it’s because they aren’t able to support their people. This will always be a problem for a country, whether the land is fertile or not, there will always be someone stupid, who can’t manage such a situation. You only have to enlist the aid of another country. Proud people can’t live without meals. And such a place where war starts because of a simple disagreement, in such a country people will move away. They don’t like starving, they just want to live peacefully and so they will move through the gate and evacuate to a safer country.」

At onii-san’s explanation Seraria too was jaw dropped, dazed.

Oh, there is also that way of using the gate.

If merchandise could pass, of course people could pass too.

(Seraria)「…… As long as there is not too much of an attachment to the war-pioneering country, people won’t stay, unless they can’t travel to the gate……. There would really be next to no merits to waging war. The more war there is, the more people will, no everybody who seeks safety would move away. Mercenaries and others who aim for righteousness and justice would also gather to help against a country like that too …..」

(Shera)「There will be few like that though. More likely they will stare at the many countries in times of war and probably just do as mercenaries do and aim for the bigger wallet….. In that case, I would ask we reduce the country’s supplies and access to the gate. That way they wouldn’t even be able to start the war.」

Oh, Shera-sama too said some horrible things.

Without supplies there can’t be any war.

(Yuki)「Well what I’m saying is this. If I wanted to make a country like Seraria and Shera said, I don’t even know where to start or how long it would take, the losses would be tremendous too. I don’t even want to think about how long rebuilding everything would take……」

(Shera)「I think that Yuki-sama’s plan would bring the lesser damages.」

(Seraria)「…… Even if we manage to quickly remove Rochelle and the other countries leadership, it would then take a tremendous amount of time, effort and supplies to flatten the rebellions, gain the trust and support of the people and turn everything back into being stable. In light of that, let’s leave the management/control of the countries to others7), is that about right?」

(Yuki)「Management/control is a terrible way of putting it. I will only take steps so that war will be less likely to occur.」

(Seraria)「Well, you’ve said plenty. As for this dear, the countries that don’t accept your proposal will fall behind the others. Even if they have goods, people and information, they can be threatened this way. If the gate isn’t made, the country shall slowly perish. Dear if I’m not mistaken, you will be administering a country that is moving to your will as well right?」

What onii-san said is a less time-consuming and also a less damaging method than unifying the continent.

How could I say, well this was what I thought.

(Lutz)「Seraria-sama, do you dislike it?」

(Seraria)「No, that’s as one would expect of my husband. I am glad. However, it seems necessary to have this Dungeon become independent quickly.」

(Lutz)「Oh you’re right~」

(Shera)「That’s right. As Seraria-sama said, if this Dungeon looks like it’s under the jurisdiction of one single country, it will be hard to put Yuki-sama’s plan into action. Because many would think that Rochelle is the one pulling the strings.」

(Yuki)「Well, being recognized as independent is good because we can expect a significant increase in profits, but even then we would still look a part of Rochelle even if we are independent…」

(Shera)「This is probably the best chance to hone our skills for the future. Isn’t that right, Yuki-sama?」

(Yuki)「……yeah, sorry for bringing trouble to you.」

Onii-san said that and lowered his head to us.

Didn’t it just feel like when we first met you?

(Yuki)「Uh? Why is everyone laughing?」

Onii-san who had raised his head was now looking in our direction, tilting his head.

(Lutz)「No no. Onii-san is still onii-san that’s all.」

Now, after this we would become busy in regards to negotiations with the other countries.

We have connections with the three countries Rochelle, Ritea and Galtz… Rather we have connections that don’t hold much power anymore.

If the 4 larger countries took the lead, the smaller countries should just follow suit… Oya, was this a strategic arrangement?

And after this we’ve got a break that would last for 2 weeks starting now. 8)

Onii-san would have to make kids.9)

To be honest, this was the most important for me.

==========

Afterword of the author

Fuhahaha!!

There’s no troublesome politics, and no repulsive things to answer!!

If you have Questions, throw things to someone else!! 10)

The gate in each country, soon!! 11)