Ch.1183If You Take Everything Like This, What Are We Supposed to Live On?

The current Nagaraja, the forty-eighth Elashaz, had incomplete memories.

Forty-eight past lives spanning 4,800 years had severely degraded her memories, and her body and mind were too immature to fully accommodate even those degraded memories.

It wasn’t that she had no memories at all, but most of what she could recall was blurry and chaotic, closer to fragmented information than actual memories.

As I suspected, she knew many things, but her nature itself was no different from a child of that age.

Thanks to her hazy memories and the teachings of the priestesses, she could normally act like a proper Nagaraja, but that was her limit.

When she received a great mental shock like now, her childlike nature, easily swept up by emotions, would break through the mask of formality.

…How did I know that?

The priestess who came to deliver urgent news—about the enemy attack—saw the situation in the audience chamber and told me as if there was no point in hiding it anymore.

Apparently, it was a secret known only to a select few priestesses among the tower’s clergy who had the authority to meet with Nagaraja in private.

“Only we know about this. Revealing it would only cause anxiety and unrest.”

“Ah… well, I suppose that makes sense.”

Of course there would be unrest if this got out.

People would realize that the absolute ruler holding their fate wasn’t a 4,800-year-old sage, but merely a thirteen-year-old child.

How could anyone live with such anxiety?

“So I must ask you, our benefactor, not to reveal this to others. Especially, under no circumstances to War Chief Hyalbaer…”

Anyway, I was asked to keep this secret as well.

They particularly emphasized not to tell the War Chief.

War Chief Hyalbaer was a warrior among warriors who showed unwavering loyalty to the country and people, but even he couldn’t be completely trusted, they said.

“Hyalbaer is certainly a loyal warrior… but deep inside, though he doesn’t show it outwardly, there are clear seeds of discontent.”

“Seeds of discontent?”

“Dissatisfaction with Nastaria’s current class system… specifically, the position and treatment of the warrior class.”

The priestess before me explained that Hyalbaer harbored some dissatisfaction with the current Nastaria, where three classes were equal below the priestess class.

“The warriors bleed and fight at the forefront for this country, so they believe they should have the right to discuss and choose the country’s direction… in short, they want authority equal to us priestesses.”

We risk our lives working, so is this all the respect we get? Shouldn’t we at least have the right to participate in state affairs like the priestesses?

War Chief Hyalbaer never said it outright, but occasionally revealed such thoughts indirectly.

Whether this came from his sense of responsibility as the leader of warriors wanting to secure more benefits for his subordinates, or from his own ambition, was unclear.

And the priestesses, while aware of this, had consistently ignored it.

They understood that the warrior class shouldered an especially heavy burden and could sympathize with their desire for more, but they couldn’t allow it.

It wasn’t because of a desire for power or unwillingness to share their privileges—the priestesses had their reasons.

If the order and balance between classes collapsed, the entire social structure would be thrown into chaos.

If they raised the status of warriors, other classes would surely demand their own rights improvement with various justifications, and there would be no end to it if they granted all requests.

Ultimately, it would lead to great chaos with all classes participating in state affairs and shouting their own voices.

…Isn’t that democracy, not chaos?

Well, by modern standards it might be called democracy… but such a system couldn’t possibly function properly here.

How could those who’ve spent their lives learning only how to fight, those who know only farming and hunting, and those who’ve only dug earth and built houses have any political or administrative capacity?

Such capabilities can only be gained through education and experience, and even setting aside experience, education itself is no simple matter.

Educating all Naga to have political and administrative insight would require enormous time and manpower, and during that time, they would neglect their primary roles.

Military power, productivity, labor force—the overall national power would be significantly weakened.

And what would they gain in return? Only social and political chaos with voices clamoring in all directions according to their interests.

Hyalbaer understood this much, which is why he only harbored discontent internally without openly demanding changes.

After all, placing warriors below priestesses was Nagaraja’s decision.

He believed Nagaraja had her reasons for establishing the class system this way, and with that belief, he struggled to suppress his occasional discontent.

“…But if he were to learn of Nagaraja’s current state, things would be different.”

What would happen if Hyalbaer learned that this life’s Elashaz was merely a child?

First, he would distrust the priestesses for hiding such a crucial fact, and he would suspect that Nagaraja’s judgments came not from wisdom but from a child being manipulated by the priestesses.

Perhaps he wouldn’t stop at mere distrust, but might openly rebel and try to usurp the priestesses’ current position.

He might claim that since Nagaraja was still young, the warriors—meaning himself—should assist her until she matured, or something along those lines.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, this would clearly only increase chaos.

As the old saying goes, one may conquer the world on horseback, but cannot rule it from there—what would those who’ve spent their lives in battle know about governing?

True to his nature as War Chief, concerned only with defense issues and warrior treatment, he would surely continue to govern by warriors, for warriors, and of warriors until he ruined the country completely.

Therefore, the fact that Nagaraja was in this state had to be kept strictly confidential, at least until she matured.

‘So Hyalbaer, who I thought had quite an exemplary—knightly—character on the surface… is actually viewed this way in his own country.’

It seemed somewhat pitiful, but after hearing the reasons, it was fairly understandable.

[Now I understand why you lost your holy land to mere fish-men and couldn’t reclaim it. When sorcerers look down on warriors, national fortune declines.]

Hersella harshly criticized the class system itself as the root cause of weakened national power, but that lacked persuasiveness since she was a warrior who disliked sorcerers.

—-

Anyway, that’s how I learned why Elashaz suddenly regressed to childlike behavior, and why the priestesses who came to report the attack were busy calming and comforting her instead of providing detailed explanations.

I was able to get information about the attackers only dozens of seconds later, after Elashaz finally calmed down and ordered the situation report in a dignified tone.

She was pretending to be fine, but she couldn’t meet my eyes and kept flicking her tongue incessantly while speaking, which was oddly amusing.

She seemed extremely embarrassed about showing her unseemly behavior to me.

If she had been human instead of a Naga, her face would have turned so red she might have become the embodiment of human prosperity.

So, who exactly was attacking?

“An army of rock monkeys, more than ten thousand strong, surrounding our walls…”

The attackers of Nastaria were one of Naraka’s heteromorphic races, the rock monkeys.

What kind of race is that, you ask? I don’t know either. I’d heard about them from fish-men prisoners, who just described them as gray monkeys that throw stones.

Anyway, their forces numbered at least ten thousand, and it was possible that their king himself was leading the campaign.

“Did you make enemies with those things too? For a king to personally lead ten thousand troops, he must harbor quite a grudge.”

“No. We haven’t had any particular contact with them…”

“Then why are they attacking?”

What could it be? If not a grudge, perhaps one of those conquest wars currently in fashion?

…But they seemed too weak for that.

According to Elashaz, the conquest wars in central Naraka were a hellscape where demigods and ancient dragons were rampaging.

Yet the aura felt outside the walls was at best below Demian’s level. To be blunt, it wasn’t much different from Hyalbaer whom I’d seen earlier.

A force of ten thousand troops led by someone at the War Chief’s level might be threatening to the Naga, but on a battlefield where demigods roamed, they would melt away in the blink of an eye.

To embark on a conquest war with only such meager forces would indicate either complete insanity or a death wish.

“Why such a sudden invasion…?”

An invasion without apparent reason. Elashaz was just as puzzled as I was.

No, she was even more perplexed. According to her, the rock monkeys she knew weren’t a warlike race that would invade without reason.

“If I may be so bold, I know why they’ve invaded.”

At that moment, the last priestess to enter carefully spoke up.

“Their king stated it clearly. He claims we raided their food storage and stole decades’ worth of food.”

Seriously?

Stealing not just a month or two’s worth, but decades of food supplies—that level of plundering would make even the Ka’har dismount and bow in respect, calling us “big brother.”

These Naga were apparently crazier plunderers than I’d imagined.

“Decades of food…? I don’t understand. Did I ever issue such an order?”

Oh, is that not the case…?

Elashaz herself couldn’t hide her confusion upon hearing this report.

She said she had never given such an order, nor had she received any report about securing that much food.

“About that… didn’t we recently reinforce our walls in preparation for fish-men attacks?”

“Yes, we did. I remember now. I was reported that we had the good fortune of discovering a quarry full of quality stone, allowing us to complete the construction faster than originally planned.”

“…That quarry seems to have been the problem.”

The reporting priestess continued her explanation with a voice full of bewilderment, as if she herself found it ridiculous.

“Their king began raging as soon as he saw our walls. He claimed that not only did we steal their food, but we were brazenly displaying it.”

The reason why the rock monkeys had invaded Nastaria, claiming to reclaim food that was never stolen.

As I listened from the side, I was simply dumbfounded.

“Are you saying that what they call their food is…”

“…Yes. They must be referring to the stones used in our walls.”

“…So those creatures eat rocks.”

What are they, stone-breaking performers? What a crazy race.

They’re called rock monkeys because they’re monkeys that eat rocks?

Even though this was another world, even a separate dimension within that other world, the existence of such a race was beyond belief, to the point of being ridiculous.

Even Elashaz and the priestesses were flabbergasted.

They said they had judged them to be a peaceful race because they had quietly lived in rocky mountains for hundreds of years, but had no further contact with them and were only now learning that they ate stones.