Ch.194Why are you showing up there, bro?

# Chapter 194: Why Are You Showing Up There, Brother?

‘What the hell is this nonsense?’

[Event: Seeds of Rebellion]

[Surprisingly, planetary governors who have been challenging the central government’s actions at every turn.]

[One of them is now openly attempting to declare independence from the Empire, even refusing orders from the Imperial government!]

[The Avar planetary system within the Holy Sebelli Empire is attempting to declare independence.]

[If the independence attempt is not prevented, the planetary system will be incorporated as a protectorate of a random neighboring nation.]

Unfortunately, it seemed the system UI couldn’t bear to watch me running on hopeful thinking.

They sent an event message essentially telling me to wake up from my dream.

‘Have you ever seen such a shitty situation?’

Everything was going so well, and now what the hell is happening because of one crazy old geezer?

Of course, I wasn’t reacting this strongly just because of the rebellion event itself, as I’d experienced such things before.

Just a few years ago, when I was entering my tenth year, didn’t something similar happen?

‘Was it Janiradia…hmm.’

Of course, comparing then to now would be almost disrespectful.

‘Back then, I didn’t have proper power like I do now. At best, I only had my execution authority and the fear it generated.’

At that time, I wasn’t even a planetary governor; my level was just competing with some baron who thought he was a big shot.

…Thinking about it, I was probably a bit more than that, but anyway, it doesn’t matter.

But now…

“Confirmed blockade of all hyperspace jump routes to the Avar planetary system!”

“All logistics between civilians and corporations have been successfully cut off.”

“The Propaganda Ministry reports they’ve successfully prevented the Avar system’s declaration of independence from reaching the media.”

“Large-scale jamming of the system’s hyperspace communication network is currently in progress.”

Unlike those days when I had to go personally to suppress rebellions.

Now I could just lift a finger, and despite an entire planetary system rebelling, not a single news article would appear in the media.

This was truly a moment that could be described as deeply moving.

Of course, this kind of control wasn’t infinitely sustainable.

“Minister Arto, media control is only possible for about half a year at most.”

“Even with an embargo, given the large population, there’s a high probability that additional idiots obsessed with their ideologies will emerge.”

I suppose that’s how it is with interstellar civilizations.

When problems arise, the scale is so massive that no matter how tightly we control things, gaps inevitably appear somewhere.

“You said you’ve blocked the hyperspace jump routes, so why was corporate cargo heading toward the Avar system?”

“How are we supposed to stop small truck-sized spacecraft with 300-meter patrol ships?”

“That’s a fair point.”

While I wasn’t particularly concerned about things like the time limit on media control…

[Emergency Quest: Vaccine Removal Operation]

[Remove the Prosnack Cobard Type-C 19 vaccine and ‘Verichip’ from citizens who received the injection.]

[Time Limit: 89 days]

[Available Operation Time: 180 days]

[Progress: 95.9%]

[Failure to complete the quest within the time limit will result in -90% stability throughout the Holy Sebelli Empire and the creation of large-scale rebel forces]

‘At least for now, I don’t need to worry about the time limit on media control.’

The quest time limit was even shorter than that.

So after reassuring the other ministers about information control including media management,

I returned to my sweet home, the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry, to investigate the root cause of how the situation had deteriorated to this state.

And there, the urgent reports and communications sent by the negotiation team,

Along with what I learned through the enforcers within the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry, revealed quite shocking results:

[Governor Goliathe of the Avar planetary system declares himself a loyalist of the former emperor.]

Problem 1.

The Emperor, the supreme ruler, and the head of the secret police deliberately conducted a massive purge against loyalists of the previous supreme ruler for 10 years.

And even afterward, they continued to eliminate or convert loyalists whenever they felt like it.

Calculate the probability of a major loyalist surviving this process.

‘Wow.’

As a situation that seemed like the above problem come to life unfolded, a stream of curses kept erupting in my mind.

‘How could a loyalist of the former emperor hold the position of planetary governor of all things?’

I would have been truly glad if the urgent report from the negotiation team had been a lie, but…

If that were a lie, then the Avar system’s independence attempt itself would be a lie.

And that would mean the event message sent by the system was also a lie, which would be nonsensical.

Anyway, while I had succeeded in realizing one truth…

‘But I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t cooperate with the vaccine removal operation?’

I found the situation completely incomprehensible.

Being a loyalist of the former emperor doesn’t give them a reason to refuse the vaccine removal operation I was conducting.

If they had simply remained neutral or declined to provide additional support, I could have just thought, ‘I guess that person doesn’t like me,’ and moved on.

Why resist to such an extent and ultimately even start a rebellion?

‘Seriously, why?’

Therefore, while urging for a solution to the Avar system situation,

I also ordered a detailed background investigation on Governor Goliathe to learn more about this incident.

Of course, since a previous investigation had already shown there was nothing to leverage against him,

I didn’t have much expectation when issuing the order…

—————————————–

About two days after issuing that order.

“Minister, the investigation results on Governor Goliathe that you requested are in.”

“That was quick.”

As Riel entered pulling a cart loaded with mountains of investigation reports, I nodded in bewilderment.

“By the way, we didn’t get this many results last time, did we?”

Even during the joint investigation with the Internal Affairs Ministry’s Inspection Department, we couldn’t find any useful weaknesses, which is why we sent an additional negotiation team.

In response to my question, Riel shrugged,

Then pulled out one document from the cart, placed it on my table, and said:

“Until now, because of his position as planetary governor and his thorough self-management, we couldn’t find much.”

“Hmm.”

“But for some reason, he lost his mind and started a rebellion.”

“That’s right.”

“As a result, all hyperspace jump routes and communication systems to the Avar planetary system have been cut off.”

Hearing that, a thought flashed through my mind, and I let out an exclamation.

“Oh.”

“Because of that, Governor Goliathe and his subordinates can’t manage their overseas proxy accounts or command external organizations, so we’ve successfully found various materials that the governor had been hiding all this time.”

In other words, the rebellion had backfired on him. I felt inexplicably pleased at this.

But I couldn’t keep grinning forever.

So I started flipping through the documents Riel had placed on the table, scanning through the secret stories of our damned former Governor Goliathe.

And naturally, whenever I did something like this, an event message would appear:

-Ding♬

[Pause]

[Event: 20 Years of Revenge (1)]

[Governor Goliathe, or more precisely, Gorite Armus, was once a loyalist of the former emperor who ruled the Holy Sebelli Empire.]

[But when the former emperor passed away and was succeeded by Emperor Artraia,]

[And when you, functioning as the emperor’s blade, conducted a massive bloody purge that slaughtered the former emperor’s loyalists,]

[Gorite Armus abandoned his family name, position as a marquis, and even his name, liquidating all his remaining assets.]

[Changing his name to Goliathe, he succeeded in rising to the position of governor of the remote Avar planetary system in just 10 years through relentless effort.]

[But behind those endless efforts was his desire for revenge against the current emperor and government, and you, who had insulted the loyalists and the former emperor he had served.]

[Event chain in progress.]

Looking at the event message, I realized this was a “story” type event that I hadn’t seen in quite a while.

It was probably providing me with background information under the pretense of being a report found by the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry’s agents.

The problem was that this game I had been transported into didn’t create any skip function for such event cutscenes(?) or story playbacks.

‘Damn, I can’t believe I fell into this trap.’

I lamented falling into the trap of an unskippable event playback,

But fortunately, unlike reality, time didn’t flow in the paused world, so I decided to stop making a fuss and quickly read through the story.