Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken

Rimuru's Elegant Escape Play - 22

The fight between the poison tiger and Berna continued.

It was the same with Irina and the four combat teachers.

Mondo was being beaten into a pulp by Rozari, but thanks to the capable healers, he was able to continue.

"I-I feel quite good now…"

He was starting to say, which had me worried.

Mondo, don't push yourself too hard.

Don't go there. It was annoying that I couldn't warn him.

In any case, out of these three groups, it was Magnus who was the problem.

I had hopes that Julius would be able to persuade him, but it looked like I was just naive.

The four groups were in a sort of deadlock now, that is, until Magnus made a move.

"Why are you doing this?!"

"I didn't just think of you as a classmate, I thought of you as a friend that I could share everything with!"

Julius asked. Karma shouted.

Magnus's reply was filled with self-deprecation.

"Julius. I thought so too. But still, surely you can understand why I feel the way I do?"

"What?"

"Just like me, you had the burden of a country on your shoulders. I knew that you actually wished you could be closer with everyone. That soup, wasn't it good? Everything tastes better when eaten with friends. But compared to that…cold food, it is hardly edible. It doesn't matter how fancy or how great the ingredients are. Or how talented the cook is. The food that you eat alone has no taste…"

They must have been words from the heart. Because Magnus's voice was tinged with sadness.

"Magnus…what do you…"

Julius asked.

Magnus's answer was most surprising.

"I am a relative of the late emperor Rudra. The empire is now fighting over choosing a new emperor. The late emperor had not been married. So of course, he had no heirs, which means that one must be chosen from his relatives. And I was the one singled out. During these last ten years, the House of Lords have been in charge of the government. A House of Lords made of those who are selected by the Demon Lord. This means that they are under his management, and in this situation, we cannot be considered to be truly independent. The empire's safety is assured and the subjects are moderately happy. However, there are those who are not satisfied with that. As I was a noble who had left the capital to live in a countryside town, I was deemed as having not been under the Demon Lord's influence."

Julius remained quiet.

They stared at each other, swords raised. But there was no strength in their grip.

"Magnus…you…"

Even Karma did not know what to say.

It was no surprise. This was a much heavier story than what you'd expect from his usually cheerful and friendly personality.

Even I found myself deep in thought.

Yes, the House of Lords really did govern the empire.

But they had only been under my management for the first year after the war. I had left things entirely to them after that.

However, they were under the impression that I was ruling them this whole time…

I could conquer the world if I wanted, but that didn't interest me.

And so it was rather shocking to find out that the people of the empire saw me in that way.

The fact that there was no one who could replace the emperor, and that the seat had remained empty for so long was also a problem… But that was their problem.

Maybe it was irresponsible of me, but I never had any intention of looking after them to that degree.

Besides, peace that is bestowed on others can be lost just as quickly.

Whether they continue as they are now or do their best to achieve total democracy, that was not a problem that I would interfere with.

If someone who could do the right thing became their leader, then an imperial government would not be so bad.

<<That is a pipe dream.>>

Maybe it was, but democracy wasn't much good if the people were all fools. There would probably be those who would keep the people ignorant and far away from politics. So they could do as they liked… A democracy was not always the right thing.

There wasn't really a true answer when it came to politics.

And so I always thought that it would be more interesting to have some diversity in the way people thought and have multiple types of political styles.

In Tempest, what I think is correct becomes the law.

However, I could always be wrong. And so I do not tell other countries how they should be run.

That was what I thought…

But if I was going to be misunderstood like this, it might be a good idea to have an official discussion with everyone.

<<I don't think it will be of any use. There are too many people with too many ideas. And it is not as if all of them could attend such talks.>>

That's true.

In the end, everyone is selfish.

What they want to believe become justice, and everything else is evil.

There was no choice but to have people talk, compromise to different degrees and learn to work together.

<<Master, if you would only use 'Thought Manipulation', you could make them all united with a single will.>>

I did not like that.

A world full of 'yes men' would be boring and have no future.

Even though I could tolerate wars, I would not tolerate the binding of human will.

But, leaving that aside for now, if unhappy people like Magnus really were created due to my negligence, then I wished there was something I could do about it…